ON EARTHQUAKES IN GREAT BRITAIN. 125 
to receive information on this important and yet ill-understood subject, not 
merely from Peru and India, but from every other country where the phe- 
nomena are well developed, he would suggest that both Lieutenant Smith’s and 
Mr. Hamilton’s offers should be accepted; and, moreover, that two or more 
instruments, at the expense of the Association, should be put under Mr. Ha- 
milton’s charge, if he will undertake to register their indications and report 
them half-yearly to the Committee. 
With regard to British earthquakes, and particularly those which occur so 
frequently, indeed almost periodically in Perthshire, the Committee entertain 
a hope, that if the Association will authorize them to continue their superin- 
tendence, they may eventually: gather much information which will prove 
valuable in any inquiry into the origin of them. In Perthshire, where instru- 
ments have, at the expense of the Association, been erected, it is quite neces- 
sary that means should, as before, be supplied to watch and register their in- 
dications. There are other two localities in that part of Scotland where instru- 
ments should be placed, viz. Ardvoirlich (about ten miles west of Comrie) 
and Tyndrum (about forty miles north-west of Comrie). Most of the instru- 
ments now in Perthshire are either in the town of Comrie or to the east of it, 
and it is considered desirable that there should be the means of marking the 
directions of the shocks on opposite sides of the supposed focus of action. 
Mr. Stewart, the proprietor of Ardvoirlich, has undertaken the charge of the 
instrument proposed to be sent there; and Lord Breadalbane has authorized 
the manager of his mines at Tyndrum also to take charge of one, and to re- 
gister its indications. Instruments for these places have been ordered. 
The Committee take leave to repeat the wish which they expressed in last 
year’s report,—to have instruments placed at Comrie for the purpose of mark- 
ing more frequently meteorological changes in that district. There is already 
at Comrie a barometer and a thermometer belonging to the Association, the 
state of which is registered only in the morning and evening. But it would 
be desirable that this town should be one of the stations of the Association 
for hourly observations of the barometer, for reasons which are well known 
to all who have studied the subject. Moreover, if there be any instrument 
sufficiently perfect to indicate the varying electrical condition of the earth and 
atmosphere, there certainly should be one sent to Comrie. 
But perhaps it would be proper to leave this part of the subject in the 
hands of the Meteorological Committee of the Association, a duty which it is 
understood that they are willing to undertake, and the importance of which is 
well appreciated by the convener of that Committee. 
(The Committee annexed to their report an account of the expense in- 
curred by them during the last year, which amounted only to £10.) 
They respectfully suggest that the Committee should be reappointed, with 
such additional or such other persons to be members of it as the Association 
may see fit, and with the sum of £100 at their disposal, as hitherto. If the 
Committee might venture to suggest any new names to the Association, it 
would be those of Mr. Darwin, so well known for his paper on South Ame- 
rican volcanoes, and also Mr. Mathie Hamilton, if the Association should 
agree to the proposal which has been made to them. 
Wao. BuckLanp. 
Davip MILNE. 
