XXXViil REPORT—1846. 
effectively answered by those geologists who are best acquainted with the 
sections in the interior of this county, and with the levels at which the upper — 
greensand and subcretaceous strata there crop out and receive the waters, 
which thence flow southwards beneath the whole body of chalk of the hills 
in the south of Hampshire. 
Again, as we are now assembled in the neighbourhood of our great 
naval arsenal—as some of its functionaries, including the Admiral on the 
station, have honoured us with their support, and as, further, I am now 
speaking in a town whose magnificent new docks may compete with any 
for bold and successful engineering, I must say a few words on our naval 
architecture, the more so as we have here a Mechanical Section, presided 
over by the eminent mechanician Proféssor Willis, assisted by the great || 
dynamical mathematician Dr. Robinson, and that sound engineer George | 
Rennie. Duly impressed with the vast national importance of this subject, 
and at the same time of its necessary dependence on mathematical principles, | 
the British Association endeavoured in its earliest days to rouse attention to 
the state of ship-building in England, and to the history of its progress in: 
France and other countries, through a memoir by the late Mr. G. Harvey. 
It was then contended, that notwithstanding the extreme perfection to which 
the internal mechanism of vessels had been brought, their external forms 
or lines, on which their sailing so much depends, were deficient as to ad- 
justment by mathematical theory. Our associate Mr. Scott Russell has, 
as you know, ably developed this view. Experimenting upon the resistance | 
of water, and ascertaining with precision the forms of vessels which would 
pass through it with the least resistance, and consequently with the greatest 
velocity, he has contributed a most valuable series of memoirs, accompanied 
by a great number of diagrams, to illustrate his opinions and to show the 
dependence of naval architecture on certain mathematical lines. Employed, 
in the meantime, by merchants on their own account, to plan the construction 
of sailing ships and steamers, Mr. Scott Russell has been so successful in 
combining theory with practice, that we must feel satisfied in having at 
different meetings helped him onwards by several money grants; our only 
regret being, that our means should not have permitted us to publish the 
whole number of diagrams of the lines prepared by this ingenious author. 
But however desirous to promote theoretical knowledge on this point, the 
men of science are far from wishing not to pay every deference to the skilful 
artificers of our wooden bulwarks, on account of their experience and practi- 
cal acquaintance with subjects they have so long and so successfully handled. 
We are, indeed, fully aware, that the naval architects of the Government, | 
who construct vessels carrying a great weight of metal and requiring 
much solidity and capacious stowage, have to solve many problems with 
which the owners of trading vessels or packets have little concern. All that 
we can wish for is, that our naval arsenals should contain schools or public 
boards of ship-building, in which there might be collected all the “ constants 
of the art,” in reference to capacity, displacement, stowage, velocity, pitching 
and rolling, masting, the effect of sails and the resistance of fluids. Having 
ourselves expended contributions to an extent which testify, at all events, 
our zeal in this matter, we are, I think, entitled to express a hope, that the. 
data derived from practice by our eminent navigators may be effectively 
combined with the indications of sound theory prepared by approved culti- 
vators of mathematical and mechanical science. 
I cannot thus touch upon such useful subjects without saying, that our Sta- 
tistical Section has been so well conducted by its former presidents, that its 
subjects, liable at all times to be diverted into moral considerations and thence 
