Royal Society. 373 
guide of his nephew in this undertaking. M. Berard, whose 
activity we have so often had to praise, has drawn with re- 
markable success all the kinds of canoes which are used by the 
inhabitants of the numerous archipelagos of the South Sea. 
It is a work complete in its kind, and which furnishes more 
than one occasion to admire to what degree necessity.and long 
experience may supply the place of scientific knowledge. 
Conclusion. 
The Academy will find, in the preceding analysis, a proof 
that the voyage of the Coquille deserves to occupy a distin-" 
guished rank amongst the most brilliant scientific expeditions 
performed either by the French navy or those of other 
nations. The Commission has but one wish to express; that 
a speedy and full publication may put the learned world in 
possession of riches as numerous as varied, which we owe to 
the zeal, the talent and the indefatigable activity of M. Du- 
perrey and his fellow-labourers. 
— 
LVI. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
ROYAL SOCIETY. 
April 27.— A PAPER was read, entitled, Experiments on 
the Elasticity of Ice; in a letter from Benja- 
min Bevan, Esq., to Thomas Young, M.D. For. Sec. R.S. 
A paper was also read, On the application of. the Floating 
Collimator to the Dublin Circle; by John Brinkley, D.D. 
F.R.S. Andrews’ Professor of Astronomy, Dublin. 
May 4.—A paper was read, On the means of facilitating 
the observation of distant stations, in Geodesical Operations ; 
by Lieut. T. Drummond, Roy. Eng.: communicated by Lieut. 
Col. T. Colby, F.R.S. 
The means of connecting distant stations in geodesical ope- 
rations described in this paper, were devised, in order to ex- 
pedite the prosecution of the new trigonometrical survey of 
Ireland, undertaken last year, in consequence of a recom- 
mendation to Government, to that effect, from a select com- 
mittee of the House of Commons. Their immediate objects, 
are, to obviate the delay frequently occurring, from the un- 
favourable state of the weather rendering the ordinary signals 
indiscernible, and to render night-observations readily available. 
For the first object, Lieut. Drummond has invented, and em- 
ployed with perfect success, an instrument on the principle of 
Gauss’s Heliostat described in the paper, to which illustrative 
drawings of it are annexed. For the purpose of effecting ob- 
servations during the night, he has constructed an instrument, 
in which a spherule of quick-lime is exposed to the flame of Boe 
10 
