pass on shore, under the charge of an intelligent officer, Compass window

( Arch. ) A bay-window, or are carefully noted and registered. The results thus obtained form what is called a correcting card for the ve el in question. The Chinese a ert that the mariner's compa was invented by the Emperor Houang-ti, about 2634 B. c., and that it was then used to enable them to direct their course to any distant point on land. The sailors who navigated the Indian Ocean and Eastern seas were well acquainted with its use in the third century after the Christian æra, when it was quite unknown in Europe, where it is said to have been introduced by Marco Polo on his return from his travels in the East, about 1260. Flavio Gioja, a Neapolitan sailor, effected considerable improvements in it, and brought it into the form in which we now have it, about 1300. Columbus is said to have discovered the variation of the compa in 1492; but this is considered to be doubtful. The inclination or dip of the needle (see NEEDLE, DIPPING) was found out by Robert Norman, of London, in 1576. The azimuth compa , being intended to show the bearing of objects in respect of the magnetic meridian, has its circle divided merely into degrees, instead of the rhumbs used in navigation; and is provided with sights to allow the angles to be taken mor -The variation compa is designed to exhibit the diurnal changes in the deviation of the magnetic from the true meridian; and the needle is generally made of much greater length than in the mariner's compa , in order to render minute variations more sensible. more accurately.