3 1A REPORT—1868. 
Interim Report of the Committee on the Safety of Merchant Ships and 
their Passengers. 
As far as the Committee had been able to pursue their inquiry, it appeared 
that no legal regulations were in force in Great Britain affecting the loading 
of merchant ships; but there were regulations in force by the Board of 
Trade relating simply to vessels carrying passengers or emigrants, and these 
only related to space as bearing on the sanitary condition of such passengers, 
totally ignoring their safety as far as the stowage of cargo and deck-loads 
were concerned—the matter on which the Committee had to report. In 
order to carry out effectively any regulations, some precise agreement should 
be entered into with all the great maritime powers, and the deep draught 
of every vessel should be distinctly indicated by a fixed and clearly defined 
mark, such as a painted white ribbon extending about six feet on each side 
of the stem as well as stern-post (not in mid-ship), and so distinctly scribed 
in wooden and cut into iron ships that it could not be tampered with. 
When a ship was so loaded by the stern an average should not be taken, but 
when so loaded the load-line at that point should not be immersed. The load- 
line should be fixed by a government inspector. The great loss of steamers 
sailing from Hull had been occasioned by overloading and the shipping of 
successive heayy seas, the extra weight of which had caused the foundering 
of the vessels. Deck-loads might be carried during summer if well secured, 
and boats when stowed should be some height from the deck, so that the 
water shipped should have a clear passage. The lashings of the boats ought 
to be of rope, so that they could be readily cut in an emergency. Crews 
should be practised in the lowering of boats. The regulations thus indicated 
ought to apply to foreign vessels entering or leaving British ports. 
Report on Observations of Luminous Meteors, 1867-68. By a Committee, 
consisting of James Guatsuyn, IR.S., of the Royal Observatory, 
Greenwich, President of the Royal Microscopical and Meteorolo- 
gical Societies, Rosurt P. Grue, 1.G.S8., KE. W. Brayuey, F-R.S., 
ALEXANDER 8S. Herscuet, /.R.A.S., and Cuartes Brooks, F.R.S., 
Secretary to the Meteorological Society. 
Ix the first Appendix of this Report, immediately following the Catalogue, 
will be found the remarks of observers on the appearance of the August me- 
teoric shower in the current year, together with the heights of eleven shoot- 
ing-stars, simultaneously cbserved at English stations, on the occasion of its 
return. In addition to these results, the heights of several meteors, simul- 
tancously observed in recent years by Professor Heis and his assistants, are 
contained in the first Appendix. 
Large meteors, star-showers, and aérolites have continued during the past 
year to attract the attention of observers, especially on the Ist, 28th, and 
31st of January, and on the 29th of February last. Brief accounts of their 
appearance, with other observations of luminous meteors, chronologically ar- 
ranged, are entered in the Catalogue; while fuller accounts of the details 
and attendant cireumstances of the phenomena are included in the second 
Appendix of the Report. The same Appendix also contains a collection of 
accounts (chiefly extracted from foreign sources) of the August and November 
a 
