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Humboldt, Alexander von, 1769-1859

"COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1"



[footnote] *Duperrey, 'De la Configuration de l'Equateur Magnetique', in
the 'Annales de Chimie', t. xlv., p. 371 and 379. (See also, Morlet, in the
'Memoires presentes par divers Savans a l'Acad. Roy. des Sciences', t. iii.,
p. 132.

In the beginning of the present century, at an elevation of 11,936 feet
above the level of the sea, I made an astronomical determination of the
point (7 degrees 1' south lat., 48 degrees 40' west long. from Paris),
where, in the interior of the New Continent, the chain of the Andes is
intersected by the magnetic equator between Quito and Lima. To the west of
this point, the magnetic equator continues to traverse the South Sea in the
southern hemisphere, at the same time slowly drawing near the terrestrial
equator. It first passes into the northern hemisphere a little before it
approaches the Indian Archipelago, just touches the southern points of Asia,
and enters the African continent to the west of Socotora, almost in the
Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, where it is most distant from the terrestrial
equator. After intersecting the unknown regions of the interior of Africa
in a southwest direction, the magnetic equator re-enters the south tropical
zone in the Gulf of Guinea, and retreats so far from the terrestrial equator
that it touches the Brazilian coast near Os Ilheos, north of Porto Seguro,
in 15 degrees south lat.


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