70 NOTES TO BOOK XII. 



assembled at Newcastle in 1838. The Association there 

 expressed its strong interest in the German system of 

 magnetic observations ; and at the instigation of this 

 body, and of the Royal Society, four complete magnetical 

 observatories were established by the British government, 

 at Toronto, St. Helena, th Cape of Good Hope, and Van 

 Dieman's Land. The munificence of the Directors of the 

 East India Company founded and furnished an equal 

 number at Simla (in the Himalayah), Madras, Bombay, 

 and Sincapore. Sir Thomas Brisbane added another at 

 his own expense at Kelso, in Scotland. Besides this, the 

 government sent out a naval expedition to make disco- 

 veries in the Antarctic regions, under the command of Sir 

 James Ross. Other states lent their assistance also, and 

 founded or reorganized their magnetic observatories. Be- 

 sides those already mentioned, one was established by the 

 French government at Algiers ; one by the Belgian, at 

 Brussels ; two by Austria, at Prague and Milan ; one by 

 Prussia, at Breslau ; one by Bavaria, at Munich ; one by 

 Spain, at Cadiz ; there are two in the United States, at 

 Philadelphia and Cambridge ; one at Cairo, founded by 

 the Pasha of Egypt ; and in India, one at Trevandrum, 

 established by the Rajah of Travancore ; and one by the 

 King of Oude, at Lucknow. At all these distant stations 

 the same plan was followed out, by observations strictly 

 simultaneous, made according to the same methods, with 

 the same instrumental means. Such a scheme, combining 

 world-wide extent with the singleness of action of an indi- 

 vidual mind, is hitherto without parallel. 



At first, the British stations were established for three 

 years only ; but it was thought advisable to extend this 

 period three years longer, to end in J845. And when the 



