422 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS— EUROPE. [May 25, 1857. 



scientific inquiries, and particularly when employed for geological 

 lectures, in which it is required to bring as large a portion as pos- 

 sible of the land of the globe under the eye at once, and in which 

 such distorted projections as those of Mercator or Babinet cannot 

 be satisfactorily used. 



Metallic Boats. — Our associate Major Vincent Eyre having sug- 

 gested the use of metallic boats for Arctic as well as other expedi- 

 tions, our Vice-President Sir George Back has strongly recommended 

 the adoption of them for every purpose of inland navigation and 

 among ice. Their great superiority to boats of wood was, he re- 

 minded us, clearly indicated when Lieutenant Lynch in 1848 passed 

 down the river Jordan, i-unning through thirty or forty desperate 

 looking rapids and cascades, and, though frequently striking against 

 sunken rocks, they received no injury beyond a few indentations ; 

 whilst a wooden boat of the expedition was broken up and lost. 



Bells on the Goodwin Sands. — Mr. George Chowen has suggested a 

 plan of attaching bells to the buoys placed over sand-banks or 

 rocky reefs, so that in heavy mists and storms when the mariner 

 cannot discern the buoy, he may be warned off by the ringing of a 

 bell, which will sound as long as the buoy is agitated by the waves. 

 Leaving this matter for the consideration of our nautical members, 

 the suggestion seems to me to deserve serious consideration ; seeing 

 that such bell-buoys might be advantageously used, not only on 

 sandy shoals like the Goodwin Sands, but might, if found to work 

 well, be placed on lines at a certain distance from dangerous rocky 

 headlands on which so many wrecks occur, such as the Deadman 

 and the Land's End in Cornwall. 



France. — Among the many proofs of the prevalence of the good 

 feeling now happily subsisting between our nearest foreign neigh- 

 bours and ourselves, the proceedings of the Geographical Society of 

 France offer striking examples. Thus we have seen the accom- 

 plished geographer M. de la Eoquette zealously devoting his best 

 energies to the publication of a sketch of the life of Franklin, and 

 then coming forward generously with a large subscription to aid in 

 the final search after the ships and crews of our illustrious country- 

 man. Next we find the same liberal spirit evinced in the award of 

 their annual Gold Medal to our own Livingstone. 



When we turn from the general efforts of the Geographical 

 Society of France to the works executed by the Imperial Govern- 

 ment, we recognize a steady progress in the surveying and mapping 



