132 
Nickel-steel wires have been made and 
furnished to the Geographic Service of the 
French army, to the Swedish- Russian Expe- 
dition to Spitzbergen and to the Geodetic 
Service of Cape Colony, for experimental 
use. 
Work in Spitzbergen is in progress under 
the extremely difficult climatic conditions 
usually found inthis region. The missions 
sent out by the two Governments were en-. 
gaged in field work from the last of June 
to the beginning of September. They are 
now in winter quarters, isolated from the 
rest of the world during nine months, en- 
gaged in making astronomical and meteoro- 
logical observations and in studying grav- 
ity, refraction, etc. 
Sir David Gill addressed the Association 
on the motion of Professor Darwin, the 
delegate from Great Britain. He announced 
that since the publication of the first vol- 
ume of the Geodetic Survey of South Africa, 
two extensions of the Geodetic Survey have 
been undertaken there. The first was re- 
quired for the purpose of delimiting the 
boundary of British Bechuanaland and Ger- 
man Southwest Africa ; with the cordial co- 
operation of both governments concerned, it 
was arranged to carry out this work as far as 
latitude 22° 8. with the accuracy of a geo- 
detic operation. 
Connection was made with previous work, 
and the combination of these observations 
secures the measurement of a latitude are 
along the 20th meridan from Cape Agulhas, 
(the southernmost point of Africa), to lati- 
tude 22° §.—an are of nearly 13°. 
The second operation is the more impor- 
tant of the two, and provides for the exten- 
sion of an arc along the 30th meridan of E. 
longitude, from the southern border of Rho- 
desia (22° S.), to the southern end of Lake 
Tanganyika. The work owes its inception 
to the enlightened policy of the Chartered 
Company, which has accepted the results 
of all experience and has determined to 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 317. 
base its surveys of the country on a frame- 
work of the most accurate possible trian- 
gulation. The work has been in progress 
for some years and a chain of triangulation 
has been carried along the 30th meridian 
- from Gwelo (lat. 194° S.) to the Zambesi. 
Sir David Gill plans an extension of this 
work to Alexandria, Egypt, with the co- 
operation of Germany and Belgium through 
their African possessions, and of the Egyp- 
tian Government, and sees no special diffi- 
culties in the way of accomplishing the 
measurement of this great meridional are, 
covering 66° of latitude. 
Splendid as is the scientific prospect 
which the realization of these projects would 
present, its importance is further enhanced 
by the consideration that by the execution 
of a triangulation around the Levant to 
join Struve’s great arc of the meridian 
(which extends from the North Cape, in 
Norway, along the 30th meridian to the 
southern limit of Russian territory), an arc 
having an amplitude of 104° would be com- 
pleted. 
A resolution was adopted expressing ap- 
preciation and approval of the project pro- 
posed by Sir David Gill. 
The new measure of the Equatorial Are 
of the meridian, known as the Peruvian 
Are, undertaken by the Geographic Service 
of the French Army, was discussed by the 
Association with great interest. Captains 
Maurain and Lacombe, of this service, 
spent five months in South America dur- 
ing 1899, and finished the reconnoissance, 
during this time, of an are of 6°, extend- 
ing the old arc 1° on the north and 2° on 
the south. The scheme includes base lines, 
azimuth stations, astronomical observa- 
tions, leveling, gravity and magnetic obser- 
vations, topographical work and geological 
investigations. 
The French Minister of Public Instruc- 
tion referred the report of MM. Maurain and 
Lacombe to the French Academy of Sciences 
