In 1875 Lieutenant Weyprecht of the Austrian navy called the attention of scientific men to the desirability of having an organized and continual system of hourly meteorological and magnetic observations around the poles. In 1879 the first conference of what was termed the International Polar Congress was held at Hamburg. Delegates from eight nations were present--Germany, Austria, Denmark, France, Holland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden.

The congress then settled upon a programme whose features were: 1. To establish general principles and fixed laws in regard to the pressure of the atmosphere, the distribution and variation of temperature, atmospheric currents, climatic characteristics. 2. To assist the prediction of the course and occurrence of storms. 3. To assist the study of the disturbances of the magnetic elements and their relations to the auroral light and sun spots. 4. To study the distribution of the magnetic force and its secular and other changes. 5. To study the distribution of heat and submarine currents in the polar regions. 6. To obtain certain dimensions in accord with recent methods. Finally, to collect observations and specimens in the domain of zoology, botany, geology, etc.

The representatives of the various nations had several conferences later, and by the 1st of May, 1881, there were sufficient subscribers to justify the establishment of eight Arctic stations.

France entered actively in this work later, and its first expedition was to Orange Bay and Cape Horn, under the surveillance and direction of the Academy of Sciences, Paris, and responsible to the Secretary of the Navy. On the 6th of September, 1882, this scientific corps established itself in Orange Bay, near Cape Horn, and energetically began its serious labors, and by October 22 the greater part of their preliminary preparations was completed, comprising the erection of a magnetic observatory, an astronomic observatory, a room for the determination of the carbonic anhydride of the air, another for the sea register, and a bridge 92 feet long, photographic laboratory, barometer room, and buildings for the men, food, and appurtenances, together with a laboratory of natural history.

In short, in spite of persistent rains and the difficulties of the situation, from September 8 to October 22 they erected an establishment of which the different parts, fastened, as it were, to the flank of a steep hill, covered 450 square meters (4,823 square feet), and rested upon 200 wooden piles.

From September 26, 1882, to September 1, 1883, night and day uninterruptedly, a watch was kept, in which the officers took part, so that the observations might be regularly made and recorded. Every four hours a series of direct magnetic and meteorological observations was made, from hour to hour meteorological notes were taken, the rise and fall of the sea recorded, and these were frequently multiplied by observations every quarter of an hour; the longitude and latitude were exactly determined, a number of additions to the catalogue of the fixed stars for the southern heavens made, and numerous specimens in natural history collected.

The apparatus employed by the expedition for the registration of the magnetic elements was devised by M. Mascart, by which the variations of the three elements are inscribed upon a sheet of paper covered with gelatine bromide, inclination, vertical and horizontal components, with a certainty which is shown by the 330 diurnal curves brought back from the Cape.

The register proper is composed of a clock and a photographic frame which descends its entire length in twenty-four hours, thus causing the sensitized paper to pass behind a horizontal window upon which falls the light reflected by the mirrors of the magnetic instruments. One of those mirrors is fixed, and gives a line of reference; the other is attached to the magnetic bar, whose slightest movements it reproduces upon the sensitized paper. The moments when direct observations were taken were carefully recorded. The magnetic pavilion was made of wood and copper, placed at about fifty-three feet from the dwellings or camp, near the sea, against a wooded hill which shaded it completely; the interior was covered with felt upon all its sides, in order to avoid as much as possible the varying temperatures.

The diurnal amplitude of the declination increased uniformly from the time of their arrival in September up to December, when it obtained its maximum of 7'40", then diminished to June, when it is no more than 2'20"; from this it increased up to the day of departure. The maximum declination takes place toward 1 P.M., the minimum at 8:50 A.M. The night maxima and minima are not clearly shown except in the southern winter.

The mean diurnal curve brings into prominence the constant diminution of the declination and the much greater importance of the perturbations during the summer months. These means, combined with the 300 absolute determinations, give 4' as the annual change of the declination.

M. Mascart's apparatus proved to be wonderfully useful in recording the rapid and slight perturbations of the magnet. Comparisons between the magnetic and atmospheric perturbations gave no result. There was, however, little stormy weather and no auroral displays. This latter phenomenon, according to the English missionaries, is rarely observed in Tierra del Fuego.

The electrometer used at the Cape was founded upon the principle developed by Sir William Thomson. The atmospheric electricity is gathered up by means of a thin thread of water, which flows from a large brass reservoir furnished with a metallic tube 6.5 feet long. The reservoir is placed upon glass supports isolated by sulphuric acid, and is connected to the electrometer by a thread of metal which enters a glass vessel containing sulphuric acid; into the same vessel enters a platinum wire coming from the aluminum needle. Only 3,000 observations were given by the photographic register, due to the fact that the instruments were not fully protected against constant wet and cold.

Besides these observations direct observations of the magnetometer were made, and the absolute determination of the elements of terrestrial magnetism attempted.

On the 17th of November, 1882, a severe magnetic disturbance occurred, lasting from 12 M. until 3 P.M., which in three hours changed the declination 42'. The same perturbation was felt in Europe, and the comparison of the observations in the two hemispheres will prove instructive.