42 . REPORT—1845, 
same opinion as I am concerning the importance of this undertaking, you 
would confer an essential obligation on me by expressing your approval in a 
manner that would give it a sufficient weight to induce some government to 
grant the requisite means; 40/. or 50/. a year, for the term of two years, would 
suffice for a person residing in this country, and I could guarantee the com- 
plete and satisfactory performance of the whole, if completed in the same 
manner as it was begun. I leave it to the decision of the Committee of the 
British Association for the Advancement of Science to recommend this work 
to the attention of one of the two governments (the English and Russian) 
that have already displayed their zeal for the advancement of the magnetic 
science, or to some other, the Prussian for instance, that may wish to follow 
so laudable an example. At all events, I am convinced that the reeommen- 
dation of a committee enjoying so deserved a reputation as yours would be 
attended with the most complete success, a success so desirable for the ad- 
vancement of science. 
The second desideratum that occurs to me, refers to the form of publica- 
tion of meteorological observations at sea. Such observations having been 
regularly made during the many scientitic expeditions of later years, the 
journals of these voyages would easily furnish us with the diwrnal value of 
the observed phenomena, accompanied by a section of the latitude, longitude 
and date on each day of observation. 
The acquisition of similar tables, as afforded by the different voyages, is in 
my opinion of the greatest possible value as regards all questions of scientific 
meteorology. What imparts particular importance to the meteorological ob- 
servations as made at sea is, 
1. The equal elevation of the instruments ; 
2. The equal constitution of the surface on which the observations take 
place. 
As such tables would greatly facilitate the due combination of the observa- 
tions, I consider them in fact as indispensable. 
I am, Gentlemen, 
Your most obedient servant, 
A. ERMAN. 
XII. M. Gauss to Sir John Herschel. 
Gottingen, March 14, 1845. 
Dear Sir,—In answer to your letter of December 5th, 1844, I shall begin 
by replying to your /ast question, that I have no objection against your 
making what use you please of this letter, were it not my consciousness of its 
utter insignificancy. At all events, as I do not pretend to correctness in 
writing in your idiom, I beg your leave to put down what little I may have to 
say in German, the more so as yourself are perfectly master of the language 
of your forefathers. ° 
So sehr ich mich geehrt fiihle, dass Sie auf mein Urtheil in Beziehung auf 
das langere Fortbestehen der mit grossartiger Munificenz von der Britischen 
Regierung in fremden Welttheilen errichteten magnetischen Anstalten einen 
Werth zu legen scheinen, so leid thut es mir dass ich ausser Stande bin, auf 
die mir vorgelegten bestimmten Fragen eben so bestimmte Antworten zu geben, 
und zwar hauptsachlich aus dem Grunde, weil mir die Resultate der bisher 
in jenen Anstalten ausgefiihrten Arbeiten noch fast giinzlich unbekannt sind. 
In der That sind mir zwar der erster Band der zu Greenwich gemachten mag- 
netischen Beobachtungen und ein Band ausserordentliche magnetische Sto- 
rungen zu seiner Zeit richtig zugekommen, wofir ich meinen ergebensten 
