THE TRANSATLANTIC LONGITUDE. ^ 



much assistance. The cordial and effective aid of Captain J. P. Anderson, of 

 H. B. M. mail steamer Africa, then temporarily in command of the Asia, was of 

 peculiar value, and calls for the sincerest acknowledgments. I may also mention 

 here our obligations to Mr. Grierson, agent of the Cunard steamship at Queens- 

 town, who, both at the debarkation and reshipment of the instruments, assisted us 

 in the most effective manner. 



At Halifax the accounts given by Messrs. Davidson and Dean were far from 

 encouraging. Between the terminus of the Atlantic cable and the American 

 frontier there proved to be four " repeaters" and two stations at which messages 

 were rewritten. Repeaters and batteries were at once provided by ns for use at 

 these last-named stations, and it was decided that Mr. Davidson should charter a 

 schooner, in which to visit the various points along the coast of Nova Scotia, Cape 

 Breton Island, and Newfoundland, carrying with him the necessary outfit, and 

 giving the requisite instructions to the operators. 



This Mr. Davidson successfully accomplished through great energy and per- 

 sonal exertion, while Mr. Chandler, at his direction, refitted the Calais station, and 

 mounted the instruments; the first observations made there being on the 25th 

 October. 



Messrs. Dean and Goodfellow reached Heart's Content on the 20th September, 

 and proceeded to the immediate preparation of an astronomical station; but were 

 not favored with the sight of any celestial luminary until the 16th October, on 

 which day they brought the transit and clock into tolerable adjustment, and on the 

 18th their regular observations commenced. 



On the morning of Saturday, September 22, the Asia arrived off Queenstown, 

 where Mr. Mosman landed with the instruments, while I kept on to Liverpool, 

 and thence to London, to confer with the officers of the Company. 



The management and control of the cables being with the Anglo-American 

 Telegraph Company, which had conducted the expedition of 1866, and not with 

 the Atlantic Telegraph Company, on whose friendly promises of assistance we had 

 depended, it became necessary to apply anew for permission to use. the lines, and 

 for the needful facilities at Valencia. To the cordial friendliness of George 

 Saward, Esq., Secretary of the Atlantic Company, we had already been indebted 

 for many acts of courtesy, and he aided me without delay in the most effective 

 manner. 



The use of the cables was at once granted by John C. Deane, Esq., Secretary of 

 the Anglo-American Company, siibject, of course, to the condition that the obser- 

 vations and experiments should not interfere with the regular business of the 

 Company ; and I was furnished by him with letters to the telegraphic staff at Valen- 

 cia. From the eminent Electrician to the Company, Latimer Clark, Esq., I 

 received much valuable information and important practical suggestions, as well as 

 full authority for the trial of electro-magnets in connection with the cables, besides 

 the needle-galvanometers in use by the Company. 



The Astronomer Royal also gave his ready sympathy to the undertaking. His 

 own plans had been formed, authority obtained, and some of the preparations 

 already commenced, for mailing a telegraphic longitude-determination between Val- 



