380 report — 1865. 



in his work oil the Atlantic sea-bed, and lie will lay before this Meet- 

 ing a description of the mode of sounding. 



From the nature of the work to be done, it is manifest that individual 

 efforts cannot be made available. The apparatus is both cumbersome 

 and costly, and it requires a small steam-engine to use it. It must there- 

 fore be left to Government. 



Perhaps the best form of apparatus, and the relation of the sounding 

 lines to it, have not yet been determined ; but it is believed that, when 

 these preliminary matters are fully adjusted, the work could be carried 

 out with celerity and certainty ; and if the services of some of the ves- 

 sels of Her Majesty's !Navy could be impressed, we should soon have an 

 accumulation of data whereon a satisfactory system of ocean physics might 

 be raised. 



For the. direct benefit of seamen also, we should have the means of 

 proving, or, what is better, of disproving the existence of the great 

 number of reported shoals and dangers which embarrass navigation. 



In furtherance of the views of the Committee of Eecommendation, 

 Admiral Collinson has conferred with several officers since the last 

 Meeting. 



There may be some difficulties as to the mode of carrying out the 

 plan desired by the Committee in its full extent ; but the recent adop- 

 tion of steam launches in the navy might give the necessary steam power, 

 and some form of apparatus will have to be adapted to the special cases 

 of those vessels not otherwise properly fitted. But the subject has made 

 some progress. Commander C. Bullock, R.N., the Oriental Surveyor, 

 son of Bear-Admiral Bullock, has been supplied with apparatus for H.M.S. 

 ' Sphinx,' under his command, and he will doubtless send home good 

 accounts of it in his progress toward the Indian Archipelago, and in the 

 seas north of Australia, to which his expedition is bound. 



The first instalment of the observations has not yet arrived, but is 

 expected shortly. We therefore hope that by the next Meeting some 

 considerable advances will have been made in this interesting subject, and 

 which, as far as possible, will be laid before the Meeting. 



On the Composition of the Gases evolved by the Bath spring called 

 King's Bath. By Prof. A. W. Williamson, University College, 

 London. 



It was at the suggestion of Dr. Daubeny, who examined the gases from the 

 Bath water in 1832, and measured the quantity evolved per hour, that the 

 Association did me the honour to request me to undertake an analysis of the 

 gas, and to make arrangements for its careful collection. I understood that 

 one reason for desiring these experiments to be made, was the possibility that 

 variations might have occurred in the rate of their evolution since the time 

 of Dr. Daubeny's analysis. 



On inquiring of the authorities in Bath, I learned that there are in that 

 city no less than four hot springs, each of which continually evolves gas 

 simultaneously with hot water. These springs supply respectively the King's 

 Bath, the royal private bath in Hot Bath-street, the Cross Baths, and the 

 Kingston Baths. 



