642 



Halley's northern foci, and at no great distance from either : in such 

 a situation the exposure to disturbing influences proceeding from both 

 might well be supposed to be very great. The displays of Aurora at 

 Point Barrow exceed also in numerical frequency any record received 

 from any other part of the globe. 



The further prosecution of this investigation appears to stand in 

 need of some more systematic proceeding than would be supplied by 

 the uncombined efforts of individual zeal. Observations similar to 

 those of the Kew Observatory, made at a few stations in the middle 

 latitudes of the hemisphere, distributed with some approach to 

 symmetry in their longitudinal distances apart, would probably fur- 

 nish data, which by their combination might serve to assign the 

 localities from whence the disturbances are propagated contribute 

 still further to disentangle the complications of the forces which pro- 

 duce them, and thus hasten the attainment of that " triumph of 

 science" foreseen and foreshadowed by the great geometrician of 

 the last age. Of such a nature was the scheme contemplated by 

 the Joint Committee of the Royal Society and British Association, 

 and submitted to H.M. Government in the hope of obtaining 

 their aid in the execution of such part of it as fell within British 

 dominion ; and of thus " maintaining and perpetuating our national 

 claim to the furtherance and perfecting of this magnificent depart- 

 ment of physical inquiry." (Herschel in * Quarterly Review,' 

 September 1840, p. 277.) The scheme was no unreasonable one: 

 probably eight or nine stations in the contour of the hemisphere 

 might suffice ; and of these we already possess the observations at 

 Toronto ; those at Kew are in progress ; and self-recording instru- 

 ments, similar to those at Kew, are now under verification at Kew pre- 

 paratory to being employed on the Western or Pacific side of the 

 United States Territory, at a point not far from the previously desired 

 Station of Vancouver Island, for which a substitute is thus provided. 

 This Observatory, as well as one at Key West on the southern coast 

 of the United States, in which self-recording instruments are already 

 at work, will be maintained under the authority and at the expense 

 of the American Government, and both have been placed under the 

 superintendence of the able and indefatigable director of the " Coast 

 Survey," Dr. Alexander Dallas Bache. The Russian Observatory at 

 Pekin, the trustworthy observations of which are already known to 



