178 CELESTIAL MEASURINGS AND WEIGHINGS. 



as concluded from the immense series of great Trigono- 

 metrical Surveys carried on now during nearly two 

 centuries, have quite recently, and in two distinct and 

 independent quarters,* undergone a fresh, and most 

 searching and elaborate inquiry. And the conclusion 

 from both is, that our knowledge on this point is not 

 likely to be improved in any material degree by any 

 further operations of the kind ; at least until the time, 

 probably yet far distant, when the Australian Continent 

 shall have become easily and conveniently traversable 

 from North to South, and when the wastes of Patagonia 

 and Terra del Fuego shall afford to future geodesists the 

 opportunity of winning a hard-earned distinction. Till 

 then (and most probably then also), we must rest satisfied 

 with the conclusions arrived at, conclusions, be it ob- 

 served, which have disclosed a numerical relation of 

 singular simplicity between our British unit of measure 

 and the length of the earth's polar axis. 



(4.) Moreover, in ignorance probably of this last-men- 

 tioned fact, and therefore with too gratuitous a contempt 

 for our national and time-honoured standards, and too 

 hasty a preference for the apparently more scientifically, 

 and certainly more symmetrically, constructed system of 

 our continental neighbours, an agitation is and has for 

 some time been going on, headed by persons of con- 

 siderable influence, and strongly, no doubt, though we 

 think unduly, impressed with the advantage of the 

 change; with the object of abolishing in toto our British 



* By Gen. de Schubert (Mem. Imp. Acad. Petersburg, 1859), 

 and Capt. A. R. Clarke, K.E. (Mem. R.A.S., 1860). 



