1826.] Geological Societi/. 139 



J. F. W. Herschel, Esq. Sec. RS. : communicated by the Board 

 of Lonptude." 



In this paper, after stating the wish expressed by the French 

 Ministry of War, that the above determination should be made, 

 with the ready accession to their desire of our own Board of 

 Longitude, and describing the method resorted to, Mr. Herschel 

 gives the observations in detail. They were made by himself 

 and one French officer on this side of the Channel, and by 

 Capt. Sabine and another French officer on the coast of France. 

 Their general result is 9' 21^5-'^ for the difference of longitude 

 between the two Observatories ; and though many of the obser- 

 vations had been rendered unavailable by untoward circum- 

 stances which it was impossible to foresee or to obviate, Mr. H. 

 stated that this determination was not likely to require a cor- 

 rection exceeding 1-lOth of a second, and very unlikely to want 

 one of twice that amount. 



Jan. 19. — The Right Hon. George Canning, his Majesty's 

 Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, having been 

 elected into the Society at the preceding meeting, but being 

 unable to attend for admission, on account of the pressure of 

 public business, requested that his name might be inserted in 

 the printed lists of the Society, which was granted accordingly. 

 S. H. Christie, Esq. was admitted a Fellow of the Society ; and 

 the following papers were read : 



On the Cambridge Transit Instrument, being a supplement to 

 a former paper ; by Prof. Woodhouse, FRS. 



On the Magnetic Influence of the Solar Rays ; by S. H. 

 Christie, Esq. AM. FRS. 



Jan. 26. — N. B. Edmonston, Esq. was admitted a Fellow of 

 tlie Society, and a paper was read, On the Barometer ; by J. F. 

 Daniell, Esq. FRS. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Nov. 4. — A paper was read entitled. An Account of some 

 Geological Specimens collected by Capt. P. P. King, in his 

 Survey of the Coasts of Australia ; and by Robert Brown, 

 Esq., on the Shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, during the 

 Voyage of Captain Flinders. By W. H. Fitton, M.D. 

 V.P.G.S. &c. 



The survey of Captain King commenced on the north east 

 coast of Australia, about the latitude of 21° south, and pro- 

 ceeded northward and westward (omitting the Gulf of Carpen- 

 taria previously examined by Capt. Flinders), and southward, 

 on the western shore, to about the latitude of 26°, where the 

 coast had been examined by the French expedition under 

 Capt. Baudin. The chasm in Capt. King's specimens has 

 b«en supplied by those collected on the shores of the Gulf of 



