HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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posing that they are made by both ; but a subject of much greater importance,and, till lately, of some perplexity, presents itself in a very peculiar excellencehitherto supposed to reside in the needles themselves.

1 he rude compass of the self-named first inventors of that instrument'excitesthe smile of the European seaman ; the claim to that honour has been the subjectof no small degree of sarcasm ; but it appears, that whether in reality the Chinesewere the people to whom the compass was earliest known, or otherwise, theyhave long carried it to a pitch of excellence with which some nations are stillunacquainted. The Chinese arc not tormented with the variation of the needle ;but the cause from whence this essential advantage is derived, was never discoveredby travellers till the period of tire British embassy. It has been related, on theauthority of some Chinese books, that these needles do not receive their virtuefrom the loadstone, though the Chinese possess that mineral in abundance, butfrom a curious mixture of orpiment, cinnabar, sandrak, and filings of steel, whichbeing reduced into a fine powder, are made into a kind of paste by a sufficientquantity of blood drawn from the comb of a white cock. In this paste the needleswere said to be put, being previously rolled in paper, and there kept seven daysand seven nights, over a clear charcoal fire. After this operation, being takenout, and worn three days longer next to the skin of a man, they are found fit foruse, pointing directly to the north, and unliable to the frequent variationswhich affect those that are touched by the loadstone.

Though a considerable part of this recipe is obviously superstitious, it does notseem justifiable to reject, as wholly impracticable, the idea that some compositionmay, or might be made, by which the virtues of the loadstone would be, atleast, supplied. If the loadstone itself be not magical, its properties must dependupon its physical composition, and some latent powers, it must be allowed, maybe brought into action among the stated ingredients. It by no means follows, how-ever, that from any artificial mode of communicating the magnetic properties,the great object of superior fidelity to the pole should be attained ; a virtue W'hichthe needles have been always acknowledged to possess; and by those too, whow'ere even more willing to doubt the skill of the Chinese, than the efficacy oftheir nostrum.

A satisfactory explanation of this question has been, at length, obtained. Themerit it appears, does not belong to the needle, but to the construction of thecompass itself, and the following circumstantial description is extracted from SirGeorge Staunton’s recent account of the embassy already mentioned.

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