26G SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS. [May 23, 1859. 



Danube in the Black Sea, to wliicli I referred last year, forming a 

 beautiful drawing, wliich lias been exhibited at one of our evening 

 meetings, and justly elicited warm commendation. 



On the coast of Syria Commander Mansell, with his assistants 

 Lieut. Brooker and Mr. Frederick Skead, have surveyed the gulf of 

 Tskanderun, and made plans of the roadsteads of Ayas on the north 

 and Alexandretta on the south. They will now proceed systema- 

 tically to . the southward along the coast by Beirut, Akkah, and 

 Yaffa, and so join their former survey of the coast of Egypt at El 

 Arish. 



South Africa. — In the Cape Colony Mr. Francis Skead has com- 

 pleted the survey of Table Bay, which has been published by the 

 Admiralty. He also accompanied Dr. Livingstone to the mouth 

 of the Zambesi, and has made a sketch survey of the delta of that 

 river, as far up as Expedition Island. It is gratifying to be 

 enabled to report that, thanks to the energy of Eear-Admiral the 

 Hon. Sir Fred. W. Grey, and the ready aid of Mr. Maclear, Astro- 

 nomer at the Cape, a transit clock and a time signal ball have 

 been erected in Simons Bay, and that henceforward vessels will 

 be able to rate their chronometers in Simons as well as Table 

 Bay, in each of which the time signal ball drops at the instant of 

 one o'clock Cape mean time, to which I shall have occasion to 

 revei*t a little farther on. 



Red Sea. — Captain Pullen, in H.M.S. Cyclops, has completed a line 

 of soundings in the Eed Sea, to which I referred last year, and it 

 proves that the greatest depth does not exceed 1050 fathoms : he 

 has also carried a line of soundings from Aden to Kurrdchi, in which 

 the general depth at 12 miles off shore is about 500 fathoms, and 

 the deepest 2000 fathoms in crossing the entrance to the Persian 

 Gulf. Not improbably at the moment I am speaking, the submarine 

 telegraph cable has been laid down that will unite England via 

 Constantinople with Aden. 



In Ceylon a new survey of the harbour of Point de Galle, by Mr. 

 J. Power Eoyston, has been just published by the Admiralty on the 

 scale of 15 inches to a mile; it is, we believe, preparatory to the 

 erection of a breakwater in that much frequented but exposed bay. 

 Mr. Stanton, who has succeeded Mr. Eichards in command of the 

 Saracen, with his assistant Mr. Eeed, is employed in the survey 

 of Banca Strait and its immediate neighbourhood which forms the 

 highway to China, and is still but imperfectly known. 



China. — Commander Ward, who has succeeded the late lamented 



