227 



absence of moisture on the plains might render the ground a bad conductor j 

 but I have since learned from Mr. Mason, the gentleman at present in charge 

 of the Telegraph Office here, that in some of the veiy driest districts of 

 Australia, it is only necessary to force a small iron bar a few inches into the 

 ground, effectually to disperse any electricity which might be conducted to it > 

 whereas in Christchurch, where, a foot or so from the surface, the ground is at 

 all times moist, an earth plate of the size ordinarily used in England disperses 

 the electricity in a very imperfect manner. 



Mr. Meddings, in one instance, connected the wires with the pipes of an 

 artesian well from which the water was flowing, and it proved a very imperfect 

 dead earth for the electricity conducted to it. He also experimented on a 

 telegraph line forty-one miles in length, iu the Province of Hawke's Bay, with 

 the following results. He generated the electricity at a point about a mile 

 from one of the extremities of the line, which was connected with the earth by 

 wires and earth plates, at this point, as also at the nearest extremity. This under 

 all ordinary states of the earth in other parts of the world, would, I am led to 

 believe, at once have disposed of any current of electricity sent along it ; in 

 place of which, however, the electricity was resisted by the earth at each of the 

 places where it was connected with it, and was forced to the more distant 

 extremity. At the Cheviot Hills Station, which is provided with an ordinary 

 earth plate, a considerable portion of the electricity finds its way to Christ- 

 church, when it shoiilcl be absorbed in the earth at the station. 



I must ask your indulgence for the crude and superficial character of this 

 short paper, but I trust that the subject which I have thus had the temerity 

 to bring under your notice, may lead to its investigation by others more able 

 to expend time, and bring knowledge and requisite appliances to its 

 elucidation. 



Akt. I/Vlll. — On the Mechanical Principles involved in the Fliyht of the 

 Albatros* By Captain F. W. Hutton, F.G.S. 



[Read before the Auckland Institute, June 1, 1868.] 



Perhaps no subject in ornithology has been less satisfactorily treated than 

 that of flight, although it possesses very great interest, both for the naturalist 

 and the mathematician. It is, however, one of considerable difficulty, as 

 it has to deal with the complicated question of the resistance of the air to 

 bodies moving with Variable velocities ; and the following remarks do not 

 pretend to do more than indicate the principles involved in the flight of the 

 albatros when sailing along without moving its wings. 



I must premise, at starting, that I take it for granted that no movement 

 of the wings, body, or feathers of the bird takes place other than those 

 necessary for seeking its food, or altering its direction of flight, as all observers 

 are agreed on this point. It may also be necessary to remark that the 

 velocities spoken of are velocities of the bird through the air, and not over 

 the water, which might be very different. For example, suppose an albatros 

 to be flying with a velocity of 40 feet a second, against a wind having also a 



* This, and the following paper on "Sinking Funds" (Art. LX. ), had to be reserved 

 last year, for want of the necessary algebraic type : they are now printed, together with 

 a reply by Mr. J. S. Webb, to Captain Hutton's paper on the "Flight of the Albatros." 

 As it was still found impossible to procure all the mathematical signs, the following 

 substitutions have been made throughout : — 



For Greek Beta the letter F has been inserted, 

 ,, ,, Theta „ I ,, „ 



,, PM „ Q „ ,, „ —Ed. 



H H 



