54 President's Address. [Feb. 



The introduction of these furnaces has been, as may easily be conceiv- 

 ed, a work of considerable difficulty, but they are now perfectly successful 

 and are worked with an ease scarcely hoped for some time since. 



I look to this as a very great step made in the Coal question of India, 

 both in respect to its application and to its economy ; for where distances are 

 so great, economy in working means extending the area over which coal is 

 available. 



As to the second question, I have for a long time been employed on a 

 a very extensive series of Coal Trials, the results of which I hope to be able 

 soon to make public, when it will be found that the duty done by many of 

 the coals from the Raneegunge field comes near to that done by English 

 coal and gives hope that ere long Indian coal will take a better place among 

 mineral fuels. 



You are also aware the Secretary of State sent out early in the year 

 Mr. Bauerman to report upon the Iron and Coal-fields of India with a 

 view to the manufacture of Iron in this country. 



Mr. Bauerman's preliminary report has been sent in and the Labora- 

 tory Department, Geological Survey, is now actively employed on the neces- 

 sary analysis of Ores and Coals and Limestone for the final report which it 

 is to be hoped will be published at an early date. 



In Meteorology, some progress has been made in Bengal in discerning 

 the causes and courses of the Indian Monsoons. But it is not possible to 

 complete this work, nor indeed to gain any satisfactory acquaintance with 

 Indian Meteorology so long as no information can be obtained from, the 

 Punjab, Bombay and Madras. 



A ver}' extensive system of Weather-Telegraphy has just been esta- 

 blished in the China Seas under the control of the Inspector- General of 

 Customs and it is intended to extend it from Possiet in the Russian Terri- 

 tories in the North to Batavia in the South, with a view to warning all parts 

 of the coast of the approaching storms. Stations for observing and tele- 

 graphing the weather are established on several parts of the Coast, and in 

 Japan, the Phillipines, &c., and then there will be three stations in the 

 interior, viz., Pekin, Hongkong and Kinkiang. 



With the example of China and those seas before us, I do think that 

 the question is one that demands the attention of our Society. The Govern- 

 ment of India are liberal in their provision of instruments, but I fear that 

 throughout the greater part of the country, the liberality is wasted. 



The necessity for taking and recording observations seems to be 

 acknowledged, but there is a want of some carefully drawn out scheme. 

 At present the instruments are distributed to those who cannot possibly 

 devote sufficient time either to learning how to use the instruments or to 

 use them, and yet this should not be. For when there are distributed over 



