Soe 
SS. ee 
4 
REPORT OF THE KEW COMMITTEE. XXXili 
(Copy.) 
‘613, Ashley Place, London, 
January 7th, 1857. 
* Sin,—I have received from Mr. James Yates a copy of the letter which 
you addressed to him on the Y6th of last month, describing the scheme of the 
scientific voyage of cireumnavigation about to be undertaken by His Impe- 
rial and Royal Majesty’s Frigate ‘ Novara,’ and requesting to be furnished with 
any suggestions which may assist you in carrying out the objects for which 
this voyage has been undertaken. I have deemed, therefore, that it may be 
agreeable to you to be informed, that in consequence of an application from 
Baron Rothschild to the British Admiralty, I have been requested to under- 
take, and have undertaken, to prepare the following instruments named in 
Baron Rothschild’s letter for the magnetical observations to be made during 
the voyage, viz.— 
J. A Standard Azimuth Compass for the Declination. 
“2. A Barrow’s Inclinometer for the Inclination. 
3, A Fox’s apparatus with Gimbal Stand for Inclination and Magnetie 
Force at sea. ; 
«4, A Unifilar Magnetometer for observations of the Absolute Horizontal 
Magnetic Force on land. 
** These instruments, will be examined and their constants determined at the 
Kew Observatory of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 
and will be ready by the end of February or beginning of March, together 
with instructions for the use of each of the instruments, and blank forms for 
the convenient record of the observations to be made with them. It is most 
desirable, however, that the physicist who is to he charged with the observa- 
tions should have some previous practice with the instruments, and I would 
therefore beg leave to suggest that the gentleman who may be appointed to 
that duty should be directed to proceed in the first instance to London, so 
as to arrive there about the third week in February, and after having made 
himself familiar with the use of the instruments, should take them with him 
to Gibraltar, and there await the arrival of the *‘ Novara’ on the passage from 
Trieste to Rio Janeiro. 
*T have the honour to remain, Sir, 
“ Your obedient Servant, 
(Signed) “Epwarp Saszrve, 
Major-General.” 
“ P.S. Several of the instruments above mentioned will be ready by the end 
of the present month. Baron Rothschild’s letter does not say anything 
about Marine Meteorological instruments. Should instruments of this de- 
scription, such as are now furnished to the British Navy, be desired, they 
could be supplied by the Kew Observatory, and might accompany the mag- 
netical instruments to Gibraltar.” 
“Dr. Karl Scherzer, Vienna.” 
The Magnetical Instruments for this Expedition have been prepared, and 
the Constants determined-at the Observatory. Dr. Hochstiatter, of Vienna, 
who has undertaken the superintendence of the Magnetical Observations to 
be made during the voyage, visited the Observatory in the end of February 
and beginning of March, to receive instructions in the use of the various 
instruments. 
__ A letter has been received by General Sabine from the Archduke Ferdi- 
nand Maximilian, expressing his thanks, as Chief Officer of the Austrian 
1857. ec 
