ON THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. XI 



The other operations follow closely upon the trigonometry. Parties are 

 also employed on the Pacific coast. The last seven years have shown a 

 gain in economy of one and three quarters to one over the expenditure 

 before that time for tile same work. It is to be hoped that the proposition 

 to place the survey in charge of the officers of the navy solely, will not 

 succeed. 



The party connected with the Mexican Boundary Commission contains 

 among its members several scientific gentlemen, who will, it is believed, 

 find a rich harvest in the as yet comparatively unexplored portion of our 

 country to which they have gone. 



The Russian Geographical Society has decided upon exploring that 

 portion of the Northern Ural which lies between Mount Kwognar and the 

 pass of Ivoppol, an extent of 2,000 wersts. 



It is well known that numerous expeditions have been sent from Great 

 Britain in search of Sir John Franklin. Two vessels purchased and 

 equipped by Mr. Henry Grinnell, of New York, but furnished with crews 

 and officers from the U. S. Navy, have also joined in this praiseworthy 

 effort. At the last accounts they had made considerable progress, but 

 had discovered nothing. During the year, however, some of the English 

 vessels have discovered what are pronounced to be undoubted traces of 

 the lost navigator, but they only indicate his position in 1845, the first 

 year of his absence. 



The committee appointed by the American Association on the subject 

 of an American Prime Meridian have reported, that, of the twelve of their 

 number who have given opinions on the subject, five were in favor of the 

 old standard, five of the new, and two for using the former for nautical, 

 and the latter for geographical and astronomical purposes. These views 

 were communicated to a committee of Congress, who advised the retaining 

 the Greenwich zero of longitudes for navigators, and the adoption of the 

 meridian of the National Observatory "for defining accurately and per- 

 manently territorial limits, and for advancing the science of astronomy in 

 America." 



A movement has been made in Europe for the introduction of a new 

 and universal meridian, that of Cape Horn being the one suggested. 



In 1847 Dr. Gerling suggested the importance of a new determination 

 of the sun's parallax, by observations upon Venus, at and near her station- 

 ary periods, inasmuch as the received parallax rests entirely upon ob- 

 servations of the transit of Venus in 1769, the results derived from which 

 differ by an entire second, thus leaving the dimensions of the solar sys- 

 tem someAvhat doubtful. By. simultaneous observations on Mars in the 

 northern hemisphere, and on Venus in the southern, this error may be cor- 

 rected. The importance of this matter having been represented to Con- 

 gress, in August, 1848, they authorized the fitting out of an astronomical 

 expedition to Chili, for the purpose of making the necessary observations 



