348 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. — 1920. 



and better will be of great value to the shipping industry and the country as a 

 whole. Even in home waters there is much to be done, if only due to the changes 

 continually taking place in all estuaries. The Thames, the Humber, Portsmouth, 

 Plymouth, and Liverpool have to be resurveyed annually. The Bristol Channel 

 is badly in need of resurvey, which it is hoped will be carried out shortly (it 

 was last done about 1890). The approaches to Liverpool, the Solway Firth, and 

 the Clyde badly need revision. Most of the East Coast of England and the 

 North Sea has not been surveyed for fifty years, and some of the work is as 

 old as 1830. Apart from the shifting of sandbanks, &c., much of the earlier 

 work is not up to the standard of modern requirements. 



As regards the rest of the world, the coast of Brazil has not been surveyed 

 since about 1852, and that survey suffered from the poor facilities available at 

 the time, and is very out of date. The approaches to Monte Video have not 

 been done since 1849, and the charts are bad. The Falkland Islands are partly 

 unsurveyed, and South Georgia and the South Shetlands almost entirely so. 

 The Straits of Magellan, other than the main routes, are largely unknown. The 

 coasts of China are yet imperfectly charted ; even the approaches to Hong Kong 

 are incomplete. Siam and the Straits Settlements require resurvey ; the charts 

 are not up to modern requirements and are out of date. The Red Sea coasts 

 are at present almost entirely charted from the original sketch surveys. The 

 Grecian Archipelago, the Dardanelles, and the Black Sea all require resurveying. 



There is no school where hydrographic surveyors can receive instruction in 

 the principles and theoa-y of their work, and no staff available for studying 

 methods and instruments and bringing them up to date. The Hydrographic 

 staff of the Admiralty is recruited from volunteers amongst the younger officers 

 of the Executive Branch of the Eoyal Navy who have passed in navigation. 

 They learn their surveying in the surveying ships while work is in progress, 

 and the staff of trained surveyors is at present so limited that they can give 

 little instruction to the beginners. Many officers, after serving in a surveying 

 ship for two or more years, return to ordinary duties afloat, or specialise in 

 other branches where their knowledge of sui-vey work is of great benefit to 

 them. The remainder are advanced in rank with the officers of H.M. fleet. 

 The existence of a school where the theoretical side of the question could be 

 studied would be of great benefit to all. 



The principles involved in survey are the same, whether applied by land or 

 sea, and the instruments are largely the same. One establishment could usefully 

 stu4y and give instruction in both sides of sm'vey work. 



Survey cannot be carried out over large tracts of country without considera- 

 tion of the science generally known as geodesy, which is really only survey as 

 applied to the earth as a whole. The problems involved in this require not 

 only world-wide data but high mathematical skill. Problems interconnected 

 with these are those concerning the tides and terrestrial magnetism, both of 

 great importance to navigation. These, again, connect with the study of the 

 earth's structure in its wider sense, and so connect with seismology and geology. 

 These problems may all be summed up in the word geophysics. 



WhUe a knowledge of geophysics is not necessary for every surveyor, no 

 survey authority can function satisfactorily without it. At the same time few 

 such authorities have the staff available for its proper study. A central institu- 

 tion, which could be referred to for information, would add greatly to the 

 efficiency of the Survey authorities. 



The need for a British Geodetic Institute is admitted by all who are 

 acquainted with the natm'e and importance of the pressing Imperial and scientific 

 problems which depend on the great surveys. The study of such problems has 

 hitherto been left, in characteristic British fashion, to the initiative of enthu- 

 siastic individuals or neglected altogether. Take, for example, the case of the 

 tides, so vital a matter to our sailors. While the late Sir George Darwin still 

 lived it could at least be said that one master-mind was devoted, with some 

 approach to continuity, to the study of the great problems which must be 

 attacked and solved if tidal prediction is to advance beyond its present elementary 

 and scrappy state, but since his lamented death in 1912 the subject has lacked 

 attention. 



At the request of the B.A., Prof. Horace Lamb recently reviewed the whole 



