303 
(6) worked out (a) on Norie’s method gives Lat. 37°. 49°, 10", 
(b) on Godfray’s method gives Lat. 37°. 48°, 54", 
The hour-angle of the Sun, by obs. (7), on the theory 
(1) that the lat. of the chart is correct, and that the instru- 
ments were in adjustment, is 16m. 45s.—an error of 1m. 20s. ; 
(2) that there was an error of about 2‘ in one of the two, 1s 
17m. 57s.—an error of 8s., which tends to prove the existence 
of some such error. 
The present Admiralty chart, issued as newly corrected, 
1873, gives 37°. 50°. 50" as the lat. of the spot where the obser- 
vations were taken. At first sight, this would seem to prove an 
error of nearly 2‘, either in the instrument or the artificial 
horizon, as levelled at the time. 
But (1) Admiral Smyth, in his survey of Sicily, carried out 
in 1813—15, places Taormina in 37°. 48°. 40". (2) He states 
in his book on the subject that he was remarkably well supplied 
with sextants and other surveying instruments. (3) The long. 
and lat. of the principal points on the coast given by him often 
agree with those now given in the charts. (4) His estimate of 
the height of Etna, obtained by triangulation from a base on the 
sea, viz. 10,874 ft., is very nearly accurate, that recently obtained 
by levelling being 10,840 ft. (5) The lat. of Taormina, as now 
given in the charts, agrees exactly with, and may possibly be 
borrowed from, that given by Baron von Waltershausen, in his 
survey of Mt. Etna and its environs, executed from 1840 to 
1850, and may therefore be not perfectly accurate. 
On these grounds it was argued that the latitude of Taor- 
mina, as given by Adm. Smyth, and (approximately) by this set 
of observations, may perhaps be more nearly accurate than that 
given in the present charts: at any rate they shew that it is 
perfectly feasible for a person, with simple instruments and 
merely arithmetical processes, to determine his latitude, in any 
part of the globe, with reasonable accuracy. 
Dr Campion said, that from practical experience, he was 
