148 REPORT — 1844. 



Completion of the Antarctic Survei/. 



The contributions of the officers of the Surveying Expeditions in the Hy- 

 drographical department of the Admiralty have already done the greater 

 portion, and promise to leave nothing to be desired in respect to that part of 

 the ocean comprised between tiie Equator and the 50th degree of south lati- 

 tude ; so that it might at all events have been confidently expected that in a 

 year or two fi'om the present time the sole remaining desideratum of import- 

 ance unprovided for would be that part of the higher parallels not traversed 

 by the Antarctic Expedition, viz. the region comprised between the meridian 

 of Greenwich and the 1 30th degree of east longitude, and extending southward 

 to the edge of the ice. The survey of this portion of the Antarctic ocean, 

 however, has been undertaken by Lieutenant Clerk, R.A., of the Ordnance 

 Magnetic Observatory at the Cape, who has zealously volunteered his ser- 

 vices to that effect, and at the instance of the Royal Society has been liberally 

 furnished by the Admiralty with the nautical means of executing his de- 

 sign, a vessel having been taken up and placed at his disposal for that express 

 purpose *. 



Proposed Survey of the Eastern Archipelago and China Seas. 



Animated by a kindred spirit. Lieutenant Elliott, superintendent of the 

 East India Company's magnetic and meteorological observatory at Singapore, 

 has volunteered a survey of the Malayan Archipelago, proposing to visit 

 Malacca, Penang, the Tenasserim Province and Sumatra, to undertake a 

 minute survey of Java, to procure determinations in Timor and Borneo, to 

 attempt the Philippines, and to observe at all the open ports in China. The 

 especial importance of such a series of observations need hardly be insisted 

 on ; and although the East India Company have not felt themselves (in this 

 single instance) justified in complying with the suggestion, no doubt for 

 reasons of the most valid nature, and arising probably out of the peculiar 

 political relations of some of the countries proposed to be visited, your Com- 

 mittee have considered that they would not be doing justice to the energj^ 

 and devotion of Lieutenant Elliott, or to his discernment of what would be 

 scientifically desirable, in originating the proposition, were they to forbear 

 making mention of it in this report. 



Continental Surveys — Austria, Siceden, ^c. 



During the last summer, M. Kreil, director of the magnetic observatory at 

 Prague, travelled over a considerable part of Bohemia, making geographical 

 and magnetical determinations at many points, an account of which will be 

 found in the sixth delivery (heft) of Lamont's ' Annalen.' The same distin- 

 guished observer has more recently applied to the Emperor of Austria for the 

 authority and means to travel over and execute a magnetic survey of the whole 

 empire of Austria, an application which His Majesty has liberally acceded to, 

 and granted the requisite funds, so that in a few years we may hope to be put 

 in possession of a survey of that great monarchy, equalling or excelling what 

 has been done for any other great portion of the European continent. 



M. Angstrom, astronomer of Upsala in Sweden, leaving Munich in the 

 early part of the season, is understood to have undertaken a series of obser- 

 vations with a magnetic theodolite at all the principal stations on his return 

 to Upsala. And M. Lamont proposes to connect his own observatory at 



* The Pagoda barque, 360 tons, has been chartered l)y government for this service, 

 luainied with forty men, under Lieut. Marshall, to sail the first week in November. (Note 

 added during the printing.) 



