. 



-i>R * 



THE 



ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY, 



MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN NAVIGATION. 



DURING the past year, the British Government, acting under the sug- 

 gestions of the British Association and the Royal Society, have organized 

 a department for the collection of statistics, publication of charts, &c. &c., 

 substantially on the plan originated and carried out by Lieutenant Maury, 

 of the United States National Observatory. 



/ 



This department has been placed in charge of Captain Fitzroy, who at 

 the last meeting of the British Association, furnished the following com- 

 munication relative to this subject. 



The maritime commerce of nations having spread over the world to an 

 unprecedented extent, and competition having arrived at such a point that 

 the value of cargoes and the profits of enterprise depend more than ever 

 on the length and nature of voyages, it has become a question of the 

 greatest importance to determine the best tracks for ships to follow, in order 

 to make the quickest as well as the safest passages. The employment of 

 steamers in such numbers, the general endeavor to keep as near the direct 

 line between two places (the arc of a great circle) as the intervening land, ' 

 currents, and winds will allow, and the improvements in navigation, now 

 so prevalent, have caused a demand for more precise and readily available 

 information respecting all frequented parts of the oceans. Not only is 

 greater accuracy of detail required, but much more concentration and 

 arrangement of very valuable, though now scattered, information. Be- 

 sides which, instrumental errors have vitiated too many results, and have 

 prevented the greater portion of the meteorological observations hitherto 

 made at sea from being considered better than approximations. "It is 

 one of the chief points of a seaman's duty," said the well-known Basil 

 2 



