ADDRESS. XXXI 



such a form that they can be directly compared with the theory. Above 

 800/. has been expended on tide observations ; 250/. on experiments on waves ; 

 500/. on experiments on the best form of vessels ; 200/. on experiments on 

 cast iron ; about 400/. has been employed in various labours relative to me- 

 teorology ; and above 300/. on the description of fossil fishes and reptiles. I 

 shall not detain you by mentioning smaller sums which have been devoted to 

 various objects ; but I may call to your notice a work executed mainly in 

 this county, upon which the Association expended about 550/ in 1838 and 

 1839. This work consisted in striking a level line from the north coast of 

 Somersetshire to Axmouth, in order to determine whether the level of the 

 sea is the same in the Bristol Channel and in the British Channel, and in 

 order to afford a standard of reference in future times, if, from any cause, the 

 relative level of the land and the sea should change. This operation has 

 already afforded us the means of determining, that the great land slip, which 

 has recently taken place near Axmouth, was not accompanied by any per- 

 manent change in the level of the land itself, where a block of granite lies, 

 which marks one of the extremities of our level line. 



Since the first institution of the Association, about 7000/. has been ex- 

 pended on such objects as I have pointed out : but it is impossible for any 

 one, who knows the nature of scientific researches, and the difference between 

 the result of money expended in experiments by a good and a bad philoso- 

 pher, to doubt that this sum has produced effects which many times the sum 

 applied without the same advantages could not have obtained. Without the 

 encouragement of the Association, these researches would never have been 

 undertaken ; without the aid of such men as have frequented the meetings 

 of the Association, they would have been attempted to no purpose. It has 

 been said of certain parts of Europe that they afford— 



Iron and man, the soldier and his sword ; 



in like manner we may say of this Association, that it has supplied at the 

 same time the philosophical soldier and the weapons with which he gains his 

 victories over nature. 



But further, besides the expenditure of its own funds, the Association has 

 been the means of procuring the appropriation of very large sums to scientific 

 purposes from the national resources. At the suggestion or request of this 

 body, the reduction of the observations of the planets made at Greenwich 

 from the time of Bradley has been completed ; and the reduction of the ob- 

 servations of the moon has been begun. Up to the present time, about 

 2200/. has been expended in all. And by a letter from the Astronomer 

 Royal, received since I came here, I am informed that, within a few weeks, 

 the Government expressed great willingness to advance more money for this 

 purpose ; and Mr. Airy adds, that next Monday he is to have twelve calcu- 

 lators employed upon the work. We have applied to the Government for 

 the extension of the Ordnance Survey into Scotland, and have received a 

 favourable answer. We have tendered our advice that the Ordnance Survey 

 of England shall in future be conducted on a larger scale in the mining and 

 metalliferous districts, and this advice is already acted on in the northern 

 counties of England, where the survey is now proceeding on a scale of six 

 inches to a mile. 



Above all, I must mention an undertaking, entered upon in pursuance of 

 our repeated recommendations (a service which the philosophers of future 

 ages will duly estimate), — the great Magnetical Survey of the terrestrial 

 globe, by the combined operation of a naval expedition and fixed observa- 

 tories in every quarter of the world, which is now carrying into effect ; — a 



