TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 807 



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. 

 The following Report and Papers were read : — 



1. Report of the Committee for promoting the Survey of Eastern Palestine. 



See Reports, p. 272. 



% Comparison of the Climates of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. 

 By Dr. J. Beaufort Hurlbert. 



3. Some peculiar Storms on the North American Continent. 

 By Dr. J. Beaufort Hurlbert. 



4. On Dominion Surveys. By Trelawnet Saunders. 



The advent of the British Association appeared to the author to call for a notice 

 of certain unscientific proceedings in the Dominion Surveys. In particular he 

 alluded to the maintenance of an attempt devised in times of geodetic ignorance in 

 the United States, and adopted in the Dominion from that source, involving the 

 application of a network of squares to the allotment of public lands for the purposes 

 of sale. No doubt the idea of allotting land by the square mile, and divisions of 

 the square mile, would naturally commend itself to surveyors trained in the 

 management of estates and parishes. But such a method cannot be carried out 

 over the surface of the earth to any considerable extent. It is only on the basis 

 of meridians and parallels that rectangular intersections can be applied over a 

 spherical surface of any great extent. The discrepancies and objections to the 

 system of squares in the United States in time attracted the attention of the 

 General Legislature of the United States, and in the opinion of the author it is to 

 be regretted that the conclusion arrived at was a compromise contrary to science, 

 providing a method of correction at certain intervals. So far from this compromise 

 offering facilities for the uniform allotment of land, it is decidedly the reverse. 

 There can be no difficulty in finding the area, in acres or otherwise, of any division, 

 however large or however small, on the true geodetic basis of meridians and 

 parallels ; and a given area being once found between any two parallels, it is of 

 course the same all around the sphere in the same belt and over similar limits. It is 

 also to be observed that boundaries defined under the system of squares, or on any 

 other basis natural or even capricious, can be as easily delineated on the true basis as 

 on the false one. There does not, indeed, appear to be any sufficient grounds for 

 retaining the unscientific method now in vogue according to law in the United 

 States, and adopted by law also in the Dominion from the example of the great 

 independent English-speaking Republic. 



Notioe was also called to the aspect of these allotment-maps. They are rather 

 registers than maps — registers, indeed, of the allotment-squares and compromise- 

 spaces rather than maps of the natural features of the ground. Such true maps 

 are, however, far from being altogether wanting, though the public seldom have 

 access to such maps on a large scale sufficient for the study of geographers. 



The triangidation of both the United States and the Dominion of Canada 

 appeared to the author to invite the attention of geodesists, but the subject was 

 perhaps too technical for the present discussion. 



By James Dillon, M.Inst.C.E. 



This apparatus, consisting of a bar attached to the side of the boat or steamer, 

 which automatically registers the depth upon a dial to which its upper end ia 

 attached, was first explained at the York meeting of the Association. 



