1854.] 



BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



8' 



possible to solicit tlie co-operation of all who are connected with the 

 commerce of the country, I have asked Capt. Fitzroy to communi- 

 cate to me the present condition of the question; and he has kindly 

 furnished me, not officially, with the following memoranda, which, 

 with your permission, I will read : — 



"Memorandum I. — The maritime commerce of nations having spread 

 over the world to an unprecedented extent, and competition ha\'ing 

 arrived at such a point that the value of cargoes and the profits of 

 enterprise depend more than ever on the length and nature of voyages, 

 it has become a question of the greatest importance to determine the 

 best tracks for ships to follow, in order to make the quickest as well 

 as the safest passages. The employment of steamers in such numbers, 

 — the general endeavour to keep as near the direct line between two 

 places (the arc of a great circle) as the intervening land, currents, and 

 winds will allow — and the improvements in navigation, now so preva- 

 lent, have caused a demand for more precise and readily available in- 

 formation respecting all frequented parts of the oceans. Not only is 

 greater accuracy of detail required, but much more concentration and 

 arrangement of very valuable, though now scattered, information. 

 Besides which, instrumental errors have vitiated too many results, 

 and have prevented the greater portion of the meteorological observa- 

 tions hitherto made at sea from being considered better than approxi- 

 mations. ' It is one of the chief points of a seaman's duty,' said the 

 •well known Basil Hall, ' to know where to find a fair wind, and where 

 to fall in with a favourable current:' but, with the means at present 

 accessible, the knowledge of such matters can only be acquired by 

 years of toil and actual experience, excepting only in the greater 

 thoroughfares of the oceans, which are well known. Wind and Current 

 Charts have been published of late years, chiefly based on the great 

 work of the United States Government, at the suggestion of, and 

 superintended by, Lieut. Maury ; and by studying such charts and 

 directions, navigators have been enabled to shorten their passages 

 materially. In many cases as much as one-fourth, in some one-third 

 of the distance or time previously employed. Much had been col- 

 lected and written about the winds and currents by Rennell, Capper, 

 Beid, Redfield, Thorn, Piddington, and others ; but general attention 

 was not attracted to the subject, however important to a maritime 

 country, till the publication of Lieut. Maury's admirable observations 

 Encouraged by the practical results obtained, and induced by the just 

 arguments of that officer, the principal maritime powers sent duly 

 qualified persons to assist at a conference held at Brussels last j'ear 

 on the subject of Meteorology at sea. The report of that Conference 

 was laid before Parliament, and the first direct result of it was a vote 

 of money for the purchase of instruments and the discussion of obser- 

 vations. AU the valuable meteorological data which have been 

 collected at the Admiralty, and all that can be obtained elsewhere, 

 will be tabulated and discussed in this new department of the Board 

 of Trade, in addition to the continually accruing and more exact data 

 to be furnished in future. A very large number of ships, chiefly 

 American, are now engaged in observations ; stimulated by the advice, 

 and aided by the documents so liberally furnished by the United 

 States Government, at the instance of Lieut. Maury, whose labours 

 have been incessant. Not only does that Government oflfer directions 

 and charts gratis to American ships, but also to those of our nation, 

 in accordance with certain easy and just conditions. In this country 

 the Government, through the Board of Trade, will supply a certain 

 number of ships which are going on distant voyages ^¥ith ' abstract 

 logs' (or meteorological registers), and instruments gratis, in order to 

 assist effectively in carrying out this important national undertaking. 

 In the preface to a late edition of Johnston's ' Wind and Current 

 Charts,' published last Juno at Edinburgh, Dr. Buist says, — 'It has 

 been shown that Lieut. Maury's charts and sailing directions have 

 shortened the voyages of American ships by about a third. If the 

 voyages of those to and from India were shortened by no more than a 

 tenth, it would secure a sa^Tng in freightage alone, of £250,000 an- 

 nually. Estimating the freights of vessels trading from Europe with 

 distant ports at £20,000,000 a year, — a saving of a tenth would bo 

 about £2,000,000 ; and every day that is lost in bringing the arrange- 

 ments for the accomplishment of this into operation occasions a sacri- 

 fice to the shipping interest of about £li,000, without taking any 

 account of the war navies of the woi-ld.' It is obvious that, by making 

 a passage in less time, there is not only a saving of expense to the 

 merchant, the ship-owner, and the insurer, but a great diminution of 

 the I'isk from fatal maladies, — as, instead of losing time, if not lives, 

 in unhealthy localities, heavy rains, or calms with oppressive heat, a 

 ship properly navigated may bo speeding on her way under favourable 



circumstances. There is no reason of any insuperable nature why 

 every part of the sea should not be known as well as the land, if not 

 indeed better than the land, generally speaking, because more ac- 

 cessible and less varied in character. Changes in the atmosphere, 

 over the ocean as well as on the land, are so intimately connected 

 with electrical agency (of course including magnetism), that all sea- 

 men are interested in such matters, — and the facts which they register 

 become valuable to philosophers. Meteorological information collected 

 at the Board of Trade will be discussed with the two-fold object in 

 view — of aiding navigators, or making navigation easier, as well as 

 more certain, — and amassing a collection of accurate and well-digested 

 observations fcr the future use of men of science. 



" Memorandum II. — As soon as the estimate fcr Saeteorological ex- 

 penses had passed, steps were taken to organise a new branch depart- 

 ment at the Board of Trade. On the 1st of August, Captain Fitzroy 

 was appointed to execute the duties of this new office, referring to Dr. 

 Lyon Playfair, of the department of science and art, and to Admiral 

 Beechey, of the marine department, for such assistance as they could 

 render. As soon as registers and instruments are ready, and an office 

 prepared, Captain Fitzroy will be assisted by four or five persons, whose 

 duties he will superintend. It is expected that several ships wiU be 

 supplied with ' abstract logs' (meteorological registers) and instru- 

 ments in October, and that the office will be in full work next Novem- 

 ber. The Admiralty have ordered all the records in the Hydrographieal 

 Office to be placed at the disposal of the Board of Trade for a sufficient 

 time. All other documents to which Government has access will be 

 similarly available ; and the archives of the India House may likewise 

 be searched. There will be no want of materials, though not such as 

 would have been obtained by using better instruments on a systematic 

 plan. Captain Fitzroy ventures to think that the documents hitherto 

 published by Lieutenant JIaury present too much detail to the sea- 

 man's eye ; that they have not been adequately condensed ; and there- 

 fore are not, practically; so useful as is generally supposed. His In- 

 structions, or Sailing Directions (the real condensed results of his ela- 

 borate and indefatigable researches), have effected the actual benefits 

 obtained by mariners. Reflecting on this evil, which increasing in- 

 formation would not tend to diminish. Captain Fitzroy proposes to 

 collect all data, reduced and meaned (or averaged) in a number of 

 conveniently arranged tabular books, from which, at a subsequent 

 period, diagrams, charts, and ' meteorological dictionaries,' or records, 

 will be compiled, so that, by turning to the latitude and longitude, all 

 information about thatlocality may be obtained at once, and distinctlv." 



I cannot doubt that the spirited merchants and shipowners of England 

 will not be slow to follow the example of their brethren in the United 

 States, and wUl lend their heartiest assistance to a work so useful. 

 Great facilities will be afforded them in the way of instruments of tested 

 accuracy ; and the increasing number of scientific seamen, which is 

 resulting from the local institutions of education, and the system of ex- 

 amination of masters and mates for certificates, will furnish them with 

 observers in every part of the ocean, fit to be intnisted with such in- 

 struments and skilful in their use. Let not the practical man think 

 lightly of such matters when he is reminded of the great services of 

 the barometer in forewarning of the coming storm, that the ascertained 

 temperature of the sea which his ship is traversing, will inform her 

 master whether he is engaged in one current or another, and announce 

 to him the approach of the dangerous iceberg, when it is not discover- 

 able by any other means. 



I will now, with your permission, proceed to the consideration of 

 some other departments of oui- work, such as geography, ethnography, 

 and statistics, which are more connected with my own pursuits, which, 

 affected as they are by the character of man, the uncertainties of his 

 will, and the accidents of his physical and moral nature, and thus being 

 less the subjects of direct and pure experiment, seem nt first sight to 

 be hardly reducible to those fixed laws which it is the object of science 

 to investigate and ascertain. For these reasons, indeed, among others, 

 these branches of simdy formed at first no part of the scheme of the 

 British Association, and there was some doubt about their subsequent 

 admission. 



Nevertheless, I rejoice that they were so admitted. The apprehen- 

 sion that they must introduce the spirit of party into our proccc<ling8 

 has been most honourably disappointed ; and as one, who, in the ca])ft- 

 city of a member of the Legislature, has to act from time to time on 

 the subject of some of their inquiries, I cannot but express my grati- 

 tude for tlie assistance wliich they have afforded, both by informing 

 and forming the public mind on many important questions ; and above 



