n A.D. 121, where the lodestone is defined
as "a stone with which an attraction can be given to a needle," but this
knowledge is no more than that existing in Europe at least five hundred
years before. Nor is there any nautical significance in a passage which
occurs in the Chinese encyclopaedia, _Poei-wen-yun-fou_, in which it is
stated that under the Tsin dynasty, or between A.D. 265 and 419, "there
were ships indicating the south."

The Chinese, Sir J. F. Davis informs us, once navigated as far as India,
but their most distant voyages at present extend not farther than Java
and the Malay Islands to the south (_The Chinese_, vol. iii. p. 14,
London, 1844). According to an Arabic manuscript, a translation of which
was published by Eusebius Renaudot (Paris, 1718), they traded in ships
to the Persian Gulf and Red Sea in the 9th century. Sir G. L. Staunton,
in vol. i. of his _Embassy to China_ (London, 1797), after referring to
the early acquaintance of the Chinese with the property of the magnet to
point southwards, remarks (p. 445), "The nature and the cause of the
qualities of the magnet have at all times been subjects of contemplation
among the Chinese. The Chinese name for the compass is _ting-nan-ching_,
or needle pointing to the south; and a distinguishing mark is fixed on
the magnet's southern pole, as in European compasses upon the northern
one." "The sphere of Chinese navigation," he tells us (p. 447), "is too
limited to have afforded experience and observation for forming any
system of laws supposed to govern the variation of the needle.... The
Chinese had soon occasion to perceive how much more essential the
perfection of the compass was to the superior navigators of Europe than
to themselves, as the commanders of the 'Lion' and 'Hindostan,' trusting
to that instrument, stood out directly from the land into the sea." The
number of points of the compass, according to the Chinese, is
twenty-four, which are reckoned from the south pole; the form also of
the instrument they employ is different from that familiar to Europeans.
The needle is peculiarly poised, with its point of suspension a little
below its centre of gravity, and is exceedingly sensitive; it is seldom
more than an inch in length, and is less than a line in thickness. "It
may be urged," writes Mr T. S. Davies, "that the different manner of
constructing the needle amongst the Chinese and European navigators
shows the independence of the Chinese of us, a