Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 165 



He thought it would be a very proper thing for the Society 

 to tr}^ and get some kind of expedition formed to make 

 observations, and see if they would corresjDond with the 

 results obtained by JMewton. Mr. Love suggested the possi- 

 bility of the earth not being spheroid, Ijut ellipsoid. He 

 doubted very much if the gravity determination would tell 

 us tiiat. About practical details, he thought the expense 

 should not exceed £300, and that sum should not interfere 

 with the carrying out of the project. 



Mr. Ellery said that, havino; had some considerable 

 experience in former times in obtaining the sympathy ot 

 our neighbouring colonists in matters of this kind, he 

 thought we should now set to work to make some little 

 enquiry into the matter. When it was desired to carry out 

 the telegraphic determination of longitude, we adopted a 

 similar course. The neiofhbourino- colonies contributed their 

 quata, and there was no trouble so long as the Government 

 were satisfied that it was scientific work endorsed by 

 scientific people. If the Society made up its mind upon the 

 matter, we could communicate with the Home authorities as 

 to the possibility of getting reliable pendulums. So soon as 

 we considered the thing practical and desirable, we could 

 apply to the Premier of the colony for the necessary 

 assistance, and also ask the neighbouring colonies to join in 

 the expense. 



The PRESIDENT said : — As to the expense, he could 

 corroborate what Mr. Ellery has said. He thought that 

 there would be no real difficulty in getting the compara- 

 tively small sum of money required for such a survey, 

 provided we could show that it was a real scientific work ; 

 and secondly, that what we propose, to do was not likely to 

 end in a fiasco. Of course no Premier or Treasurer liked to 

 give some hundreds of pounds and then afterwards find 

 nothing done, but provided there were reasonable jjrospects 

 of observations being made, with proper instruments and a 

 sufiicient amount of skill to ensure that the results would 

 be reasonably accurate and comparable with results 

 ■elsewhei-e, they would not be against such a proposal. 



Mr. Ellery undertook to write to England to learn what 

 pendulums could be obtained. 



The President said that he regretted to have to make 

 the announcement to the Members of the death, since the 



