72 REPORT—1845. 
it might be desirable to hold out some specific pecuniary encouragement for 
the invention or improvement of such instruments, under such regulations as 
might seem most likely to be effective for the purpose. 
That it is desirable to add to the meteorological observations now made, 
observations of the thermometer and wet bulb hygrometer, at more than one 
height above the ground, and to register the temperature below the surface 
by means of long thermometers, sunk in the ground at depths of three, six, 
twelve, and at extra-tropical stations twenty-four French feet below the 
surface. 
That the meteorological instruments should be observed at short intervals 
in disturbed states of the atmosphere, during extreme depressions or eleva- 
tions of the barometer, and during rapid changes; and that the simultaneous 
directions of the wind should be carefully noted. 
That instruments for the observation of atmospheric electricity on the prin- 
ciple of the apparatus at Kew should be employed in the observatories, and 
that an instrument should be devised and employed for the purpose of indi- 
cating the variations in the electricity induced from the earth. 
That it is desirable to have rain-gauges established at different heights, the 
heights to be dependent on local circumstances. 
As regards the general question of the continuance of the system, the sta- 
tions and their duration, surveys and auxiliary stations, and other points con- 
nected with the prolongation of the observations, fourteen distinct resolutions 
were entered into by the Conference, which are contained in the paper marked 
(A) accompanying this report ; all which were subsequently adopted by the 
Committee of Recommendations, and being thus brought before the General 
Committee of the British Association, were further adopted as part of the 
proceedings of the Association, and as such are hereby most respectfully 
submitted to the favourable consideration of those authorities by which alone 
they can be carried into effect. 
Among particular suggestions deserving consideration, it was agreed that 
Professor Erman’s offer to act as a committee to superintend certain calcula- 
tions connected with the Gaussian constants for 1829 with a grant of £50 per 
annum, to be placed at his disposal, out of the funds of the British Association 
for two years, ought to be accepted and recommended for adoption. And it 
was accordingly subsequently adopted by the Committee of Recommendations 
and by the General Committee. 
M. Dove’s offer to reduce the meteorological observations at one station, 
viz. Van Diemen’s Island, was also recommended to be accepted, as well as a 
similar offer from the Astronomer Royal to do the same on the same plan for 
those at Greenwich; and both were accordingly accepted and placed on the 
list of recommendations not involving grants of money for the year. 
During the continuation of the Conference, in an interval of its meetings, 
an inspection took place by its members of several magnetic instruments of 
recent construction. Among these were a dipping-needle by Repsold, Dr. 
Lamont’s apparatus for magnetic surveys, and several of the smaller instru- 
ments in use in the British Colonial observatories. 
The Committee appointed to prepare this report cannot conclude it with- 
out recording their opinion of the very great and important advantages se- 
cured to science by the zeal and disciplined regularity of the officers, non- 
commissioned officers, and men of the Royal Regiment of Artillery and of 
the Naval and East India Service, who have been employed on the duties of 
the observatories ; advantages which could hardly have been secured in so 
eminent a-degree at all the stations by other means. Nor ought they to omit 
attributing their due share of merit to those officers and non-commissioned 
