PROCEiEDINGS OF THE MEETrNG. XXXVU 



.; Committee for Natural History. 



The Committee reported the following Recommendations : 

 // was resolved, 



1 . That Mr. James Wilson be requested to report on the pre- 

 sent state of our knowledge of the geographical distribution of 

 Insects, particularly Coleoptera. 



2. That Dr. Richardson be requested to prepare a Report on 

 the state of our knowledge of the Zoology of North America. 



stands almost alone among the civilized nations of Europe, whilst it is obvious 

 that in no country can the perfection of its maps be more imperiouslj' called 

 for. The trigonometrical survey of Austria is completed as respects the Tyrol, 

 the Eastern Alps, Bohemia, and Austria Proper. 



" Prussia has nearly completed her survey. 



" France, though possessing the elaborate maps of Cassini, has still deemed it 

 essential to institute a new survey of her whole dominions, which is now going 

 on in so vigorous a manner, that though only commenced in the year 1828, 

 there is every reason to suppose that the whole will be finished long before 

 the British survey (at its present rate of progress) will have been completed. 



" Bavaria holds forth an example highly worthy of imitation. Her survey, 

 commencing in 1819, has made such rapid progress that out of one hundred 

 sheets to illustrate her territories sixty-three have been already published, and 

 the whole work will be terminated in six years, and this too upon a scale of 

 three inches to a mile. 



" Now in none of these countries is there the hope that such expenditure of 

 public money can be repaid, whilst in England and Scotland there are many 

 districts where the sale of the Trigonometrical Survey tvill go far towards re- 

 paying the cost of production. 



" Though deeply sensible of the advantages which must accrue to physical 

 science from the diffusion of these maps, seeing that the published portions of 

 them have already enabled the geologist to develope with precision the mineral 

 structure of large tracts of England, your memorialists solely avoid dwelling 

 upon this important point because the subject requires more explanation than 

 can be well condensed into a short memorial. 



" Anxious for the progress of science, and its application to national uses 

 in evei-y portion of the United Kingdom, your memorialists have had their at- 

 tention the more powerfully attracted to the languid condition of the Ordnance 

 Survey of Great Britain, by the contrast which it presents to the active manner 

 in which the survey of Ireland is now conducted ; for whilst they rejoice that 

 this important object is there so munificently supported as to admit of the rapid 

 publication of a map constructed upon a scale of six inches to a mile, they must 

 at the same time deplore, in regard to some of the most valuable tracts of 

 'England and Scotland, that a survey upon a scale of only one inch to a mile 

 is making such feeble progress. 



" Your memorialists therefore trust that His Majesty's Government will 

 suggest to Parliament the propriety of an adequate gi-antfor the acceleration of 

 a work in which so many public interests are involved, and they feel confi- 

 dent that enlightened men of all political parties will unite in the support of 

 such a truly useful and national measure. 



" By order of the Council of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, 

 . "May 28, 1835. (Signed) " ROD. I. MURCHISON, 



" Chairman," 



