6,
4.

Gilbert's complaint of the evil practice of setting the needles obliquely
beneath the card, with the intention of allowing for the variation, is an
echo of a similar complaint in Norman's _Newe Attractiue_. In chapter x. of
this work Norman thus enumerates the different kinds of compasses:

"Of these common Sayling Compasses, I find heere (in _Europa_) five
sundry sortes or sets. The first is of _Levant_, made in _Scicile_,
_Genouea_, and _Venice_: And these are all (for the most parte) made
Meridionally, with the Wyers directlye sette under the South, and North
of the Compasse: And therefore, duely shewing the poynt _Respective_,
in all places, as the bare Needle. And by this Compasse are the Plats
made, for the most part of all the _Levants_ Seas.

"Secondly, there are made in _Danske_, in the Sound of _Denmarke_, and
in _Flanders_, that have the Wyers set at 3 quarters of a point to the
Eastwards of the North of the compasse, and also some at a whole point:
and by these Compasses they make both the Plats and Rutters for the
Sound.

"Thirdly, there hath beene made in this Countrey particulary, for Saint
_Nicholas_ and _Ruscia_, Compasses set at 3 seconds of a point, and the
first Plats of that Discoverie were made by this Compasse.

"Fourthly the Compasse made at _Sevill_, _Lisbone_, _Rochell_,
_Bourdeaux_, _Roan_, and heere in _England_, are moste commonly set at
halfe a point: And by this Compasse are the Plats of the East and West
_Indies_ made for their Pylotes, and also for our Coastes neere hereby,
as _France_, _Spayne_, _Portugall_, and _England_: and therefore best
of these Nations to bee used, because it is the most common sorte that
is generally used in these Coastes."

Bessard (_op. citat._, pages 22 and 48) gives cuts of compasses showing the
needle displaced one rumbe to the East.

Gallucci, in his _Ratio fabricandi horaria mobilia et permanentia cum
magnetica acu_ (Venet., 1596), describes the needle as inclined 10 degrees
from the south toward the south-west.

The frontispiece of the work of Pedro Nunez, _Instrumenta Artis Navigandi_,
Basil., 1592, depicts a compass with the lily set one point to the east.

Reibelt, _De Physicis et Pragmaticis Magnetis Mysteriis_ (Herbipolis,
1731), depicts the compass with the needle set about 12 degrees to the East
of North. See also Fournier, _Hydrographie_ (Paris