REPORT OF THE COUNCIL TO THE GENERAL COMMITTEE, xlvii 



of Science have the honour, by tlie direction of the General Committee of the 

 Association, assembled at Cork in August 1843, to make an earnest applica- 

 tion to Her Majesty's Government for the addition to the engraved sheets of 

 the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, of a series o^ contour lines, representing the 

 various degrees of elevation of the surface of the country from actual survey. 



" The grounds of this application are, that the execution of such lines would 

 prove eminently serviceable to the landed, commercial, and mining interests 

 of Ireland; that it would afford information and assistance of the highest value 

 to persons engaged in the cultivation of science, and in applying scientific 

 discoveries to practical purposes ; and that the work sought to be accomplished 

 can be performed by the present Ordnance establishment in Ireland within 

 a short time and at a moderate cost. 



" In all cases where the improvement of farms, by opening them to markets, 

 or to each other, by the cheapest roads, by drainage or by irrigation, is 

 desired — in all the operations for ameliorating the condition of towns, espe- 

 cially by diverting for their use existing streams of water, or obtaining new 

 supplies by Artesian wells — in arranging the situations of coal-pits and mining 

 adits — in planning or diverting roads, railways and canals, a knowledge of the 

 inequalities of level of the surface of the country is of primary importance. 



♦' This knowledge, contour lines, engraved on the Ordnance Maps, would 

 supply, not only in a general sense, but with an exactness suited to particular 

 cases and actual operations, and thereby facilitate in a high degree the pre- 

 paration of good plans for public improvement, and save the heavy expense 

 of innumerable special surveys, which, however well performed, cannot be 

 compared in authenticity and apphcability with theresultsof a general system, 

 which, once completed, would be available for new cases and future times. 



" Independent of the assistance which the Ordnance Maps thus rendered 

 complete would afford to public works and private enterprises, their aug* 

 mented value in a multitude of oases, embracing the applications of science 

 and the ordinary concerns of life, is worthy of attention. In fact, without the 

 introduction of such lines marking inequalities of level, these splendid maps 

 would be incomplete, and less useful to the public than they might be made. 



" The British Association has been assured that this desirable addition to 

 the Irish maps is extremely practicable at the present time, because in the 

 progress of the survey a great number of the lines and stations necessary for 

 contouring have been determined, and a large body of persons has been trained 

 to the correct use of the instruments which must be employed in the process, 

 whose services are now disposable. As experiments, the county of Kilkenny, 

 and parts of Donegal and Louth, have been already contoured for general 

 purposes ; a property of the Crown at Llangeinor, in South Wales, for mining 

 operations, and Windsor for sanatory objects. 



" From these trials the probable cost of the operations, by which the data 

 for contouring the whole of the Maps will be supplied, has been estimated at 

 £10,000, a sum which it is hoped Her Majesty's Government will deem 

 altogether inconsiderable in comparison with the public advantages which 

 cannot fail to arise from the performance of the work. It is also worthy of 

 notice, that the newly-discovered process of electrotype is applicable to the 

 purpose of enabling duplicate plates to be produced at an extremely small 

 cost, in which these lines can be inserted, leaving the original plate unaltered, 

 to furnish other duplicates for other purposes — such, for example, as the in- 

 sertion of geological lines. 



" The British Association therefore begs leave to solicit from Her Majesty's 

 Government a favourable consideration of the subject; and that IJcr Majesty's 



