1865.] and on the Meteorological Department. 535 



Officers, the first desideratum appears to be a clear and intelligible manual, 

 or set of directions on the subject containing such practical rules as the 

 present state of Science can furnish, and such a statement of the prin- 

 ciples as may be necessary for the comprehension of those rules ; and 

 inquire whether the Royal Society can put them in the way of obtaining 

 such a manual, stating that any expense connected with its preparation 

 will be readily defrayed by the Board of Trade. 



" The President and Council do not consider the manual to be the 

 first desideratum, but, on the contrary, they consider that, so long as 

 the present system continues, such a manual would have a very limited 

 and partial use. It will be remembered that in the Memorandum the 

 Council itself suggested, as part of the general scheme proposed, that 

 notice might be given that after a certain period, say two or three years, 

 a certain amount of knowledge will be required from Candidates, and 

 that in the meantime a text-book containing the necessary amount of 

 information might be prepared and published ; and they conceive it would 

 be one of the earliest duties of the proposed department to cause such 

 a text-book to be prepared ; but the President and Council conceive that 

 it would be premature to prepare it until the system to be pursued has 

 been decided on, and without the concurrence of the person to be charged 

 with carrying it into effect. 



" As regards introducing the subject of the deviation of the compass into 

 Examinations in Navigation, the President and Council will be happy to 

 give any information or assistance in their power. They feel, however, 

 as in the case of the text-book they have referred to, that such examina- 

 tion should follow, not precede the appointment of a Superintendent, and 

 should be under his direction. 



" As regards inquiries into the causes of wrecks, the Council are happy 

 to find that the Board of Trade are disposed to take some step in the direc- 

 tion indicated in the Memorandum. 



" In the former Memorandum attention was called to the importance, as 

 regards the advancement of the science of the deviation of the compass, 

 of observations of the deviations of the same compass in the same ship 

 at different times and places being made and systematically reduced and 

 discussed. Trustworthy observations of this kind are now among tho 

 principal desiderata in this science. As regards such observations, the 

 Board of Trade state that all they can do is to obtain observations from 

 Masters of Merchant ships in the manner originally proposed by the 

 Royal Society when the Meteorological Department of that office was 

 established, and that the subject will come under the consideration of 

 tho Board, with the whole subject of the Meteorological Department. 



" The proposal made by the lloyal Society in the year 1855, in con- 



