ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 167 
County. From C. C. Coleman, Ramie fiber. From C. D. 
Gibbes, fibrous Asbestos and Manganese. From Star & Mathi- 
son, Plumbago from Ceylon, Antimony from Nevada, and ‘‘ Reg- 
ulus” from San Francisco. From Charles Reed of San Mateo, 
Argentiferous Galena from Sacramento mine, San Mateo County, 
Gold ore from San Gregorio Creek, and Indian implements 
(stone) from Redwood City. From G. W. Dent, two Lizards 
from China as prepared for medicine by Chinese. From J. 
Daniels & Co., Scotch Granite. From Holmes & Dawson, 
Suisun Marble. From Fred. MaCrellish, Sulphur from Sulphur 
Banks, Humboldt County, Nevada. 
Mr. Williamson read a paper on ‘‘ Fish Culture.” 
T. J. Lowry read a paper describing a new method of deter- 
mining positions in Hydrographic Surveying, as follows: 
A New Method of Determining Positions of the Sounding- 
Boat—Application of the Two-Point Problem to Hydro- 
graphic Surveying. 
BY T. J. LOWRY. 
This is called the age of practice—the inventive age. And, undoubtedly, 
the prevailing tendency of the science of this age is synthetic. The problem 
it places before itself is not so much to discover isolated truths as to combine, 
to harmonize, to generalize, to utilize those already found out. Instead, 
then, of indulging in ineffectual wanderings in the labyrinths of analytics, 
let us pause for a moment in the field of synthetical geometry—where Euclid, 
Newton, and Bessell deigned to labor—and see if there are not ‘‘ seed fallen 
by the wayside, among rocks and in stony places,’’ which we may cause to 
yield profitably for the exact arts. 
The increased traffic and travel on the rivers, bays, lakes, gulfs, and oceans, 
within the last half-century, have made the accurate mappings of the topog- 
raphy of these water-basins of the earth commercial, national necessities. 
The civilized nations of Europe have long felt and acted upon these demands 
of navigation and commerce; nor has the United States been left in arrears, for 
already has she executed a system of hydrography—even extending her re- 
searches into the Gulf Stream and kindred inter-ocean rivers—securing 
results which challenge at once the wonder and admiration of the scientific 
and navigating worlds. 
The hydrographic chart is the lamp to the navigator’s path over the intri- 
cate windings of the waters of the earth; the revealer of rocks, shoals, reefs, 
hidden beneath smiling seas, and therefore the secret to a safe navigation, 
and hence successful international commerce. Does it not, then, gentlemen, 
behoove us, as a scientific body, to make all possible improvements in the 
theory and practice of hydrography? 
