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In the account just quoted, as given by Mr. Barrow, it is observable, that thereduced size of the needle, which is by him supposed to be the principal cause ofperfection in the instrument, and upon which, as an indispensable requisite, themost particular stress is laid, is not even mentioned in the description before givenof it, in almost the precise terms used by the missionaries who communicated theinformation. The farther observations and remarks of Sir George Staunton, whocertainly writes under the advantage of actual inspection, cannot fail to prove mostinterestingly, and, perhaps, completely illustrative of the subject:

‘ Upon the upper surface of the box are drawn,’ as appears in the engraving givenin the account of the Embassy, ‘ several concentric lines, or circles, according tothe various sizes of the compass-box. This is seldom less than four inches in diameter.The circles are distinguished by different Chinese characters. Eight are marked onthe first or innermost circle; four of which denote the cardinal points. The sameeight characters also signify eight equal divisions of the natural day, or spaceduring which the earth revolves upon its own axis in pursuing its course roundthe sun ; every such division being of three hours. The characters denoting thosedivisions, are such as to point out nearly the position of the sun at those differentportions of the day, beginning at sun-rise, of which the character means also theeastern position of the heavens. With this first circle of eight divisions, agrees thefirst compass which is said to have appeared in Europe in the beginning of thefourteenth century; and which, by subsequent subdivisions, was improved intothirty-two points, as seamen became more expert and accurate in their obser-vations.

‘ In another circle of the Chinese compass are twenty-four divisions, in each ofwhich a character is inserted, which marks a twenty-fourth portion of the heavens,and, consequently, a twenty-fourth part of the natural day. According to thisdivision, each point, or twenty-fourth portion of the compass, comprehends anintegral number of fifteen degrees out of three hundred and sixty, into which allcircles of the celestial sphere have been agreed to be divided, probably since thatearly period when the number of days in which the sun performed his apparentcourse was supposed to be three hundred and sixty.

* The remaining circles round the Chinese compass contain the characters ofthe cycle of sixty years, by which this nation expresses its chronology, and othercharacters expressive of their philosophical and mythological doctrines, to whichthey arc so attached as to render this instrument as familiar to the people a-shoreas it is at sea.

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