456 FIRST REPORT UPON MAGNETIC WORK

westerly extreme posi-
tion has been reached.
At this time the west-
erly declination will
have reached its highest
value. And now the
needle turns once more
to the eastward, re-
crosses the mean posi-
tion about sunset and
gradually returns with
occasional interruptions
or reversals approxi-
mately to the position it
started out from in the
morning.

We can follow with
our eyes the sun in its
apparent motion around
the earth and can be-
hold many of the mani-
fold changes ever taking-
place in our starry firm-
ament, but here is a
something in the earth,
invisible to us, that we
call magnetism, which
day by day, year in, year
out, passes through -its
cycle of changes — a
force powerful enough to
bend every bit of mag-
netized steel out of the
regular course and to
compel the needle to
march in perfect obedi-
ence to its will!