REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. XXXIX 



cessors to Captain Elliot in the Magnetic Survey of India. In transmitting 

 Chevalier Bunsen's letter to the Court of Directors, the Royal Society took 

 occasion to express their strong opinion of the importance of completing this 

 Survey, and their belief of the competency of the Messrs. Schlagintweit for 

 such employment. These gentlemen, having been appointed accordingly by the 

 Court of Directors, and supplied with the necessary instruments, in the use 

 of which they were specially instructed at the Kew Observatory, sailed for 

 India in 18.55, and continued their observations through the years 1856, 1857, 

 and 1858, during which they determined the magnetic elements at 69 stations 

 in British India, including some stations north of the Himalayan chain. These 

 observations have been prepared for publication by the Messrs. Schlagintweit, 

 and the printing of the volume containing them is nearly completed. 



8. Twenty years having elapsed since the former Survey of the British 

 Islands (referred to in the first paragraph) was made, the British Association 

 deemed that a sufficient interval had passed to make a repetition of the 

 survey desirable, with a view to the investigation of the effects of the secular 

 change which the magnetic lines are known to undergo. Accordingly, at 

 the Cheltenham Meeting of the Association in 1857, the same gentlemen 

 who had made the Survey of 1837, and who, as it happened, were all living, 

 were requested to undertake a fresh Survey. This has been for the most 

 part accomplished, and the observations in England, Scotland, and Ireland 

 are now undergoing the process of reduction and coordination ; and it is 

 hoped that a part, if not the whole, will be completed in time to be included 

 in the volume of the Transactions of the Association in 1859. 



Edward Sabine. 



b. The General Committee at Leeds having directed that application be 

 made to the Sardinian Authorities for obtaining additional facilities to scien- 

 tific men for pursuing their researches on the summits of the Alps, — 



The President was requested to communicate thereupon with the Marquis 

 d'Azeglio, the Sardinian Minister, and the Council have now the pleasure of 

 communicating the following statement from Professor Owen as the result of 

 that communication : — 



" I wrote to his Excellency, the Marquis d'Azeglio, on the 3rd February ; 

 and on the 4th received an acknowledgement of my letter, with the assurance 

 that the subject of it would be forwarded to the competent authorities at 

 Turin, accompanied by a special recommendation from his Excellency. 



" On the 17th February, 1 was favoured by a letter from the Marquis 

 d'Azeglio informing me that the Minister of the Interior had been occupied 

 by the preparation of new regulations on the subject of the Guides at Cha- 

 mouni ; and that, in all probability, the new regulations, based upon a prin- 

 ciple of wider liberty of action, would be rigorously enforced at the com- 

 mencement of the summer of 1859; and that he had every reason to believe 

 it would satisfy all the requirements of scientific travellers in the Piedmont- 

 ese Alps. 



" I communicated this favourable reply to Professor Tyndall, and received 

 the expression of his entire satisfaction in the result of the intervention of 

 the British Association." 



2. The Council has been informed by a letter from Dr. A. D. Bache to 

 the General Secretary, that at the Meeting of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, held at Springfield in August 1859, the 

 officers were instructed to express to the British Association for the Advance- 



