xxvi Presidenfs Address. [A.ug. 29, 



of Mauritius, and they probably exist to a greater or less amount 

 elsewhere. Obviously then the proper method of procedure is to 

 adopt some standard spheroid or ellipsoid which shall represent as 

 closely as may be the average shape of the earth and to tabulate 

 the deviations from this standard for each particular place. In this 

 w^ay the inconvenience of altering our tables with every additional 

 arc that is measured would be obviated, while every such arc would 

 add its quota to our knowledge of the true shape of the earth. The 

 approximate determination of the latitude of a place is a simple 

 matter, but an accurate determination free from errors in the refraction 

 tables and from instrumental defects is a very different thing. Prof. 

 J. C. Kapteyn, of Groningen, has proposed a method for securing an 

 accurate result which is now being carried out at the Cape Obser- 

 vatory, but the observations are not yet completed. Numerous deter- 

 minations of difference of longitude by telegraphic signal have been 

 made. Thus Europe and America have been connected by four inde- 

 pendent cable operations : S. America and the United States have 

 been connected, and also S. America and Lisbon. During this last 

 operation, which was carried out by officers of the U. S. Navy, an 

 error of 8J- seconds of time (equal to about 2^ miles) was discovered 

 in the accepted longitude of Lisbon. How such an error in the 

 position of a place like Lisbon could have remained undiscovered 

 is inconceivable ! Australia and New Zealand have been connected 

 with India : India with Aden, the Cape with Aden, and Aden with 

 Greenwich. Besides these cable operations the Transits of Venus 

 in 1874 and 1882, and several Eclipse expeditions have led to 

 astronomical determinations in out of the way places, so that, although 

 there yet remains plenty of work to be done in connecting intermediate 

 stations, we may say there are few important places on the earth 

 where accurate Greenwich time is not known. With regard to inter- 

 mediate telegraphic connections I will only mention those carried out 

 in S. Africa, as being of more immediate interest to ourselves. The 

 Cape Observatory has naturally been the standard reference point 

 and with it Durban and Newcastle (Natal), Kokstad, Berlin, Umtata, 

 Aberdeen Road, Montagu Road (now Touws River), and Port 

 Elizabeth have been connected. Five of these determinations w^ere 

 made by Major Morris, R.E., in the course of the Trigonometrical 

 Survey of Natal and the Cape Colony. This survey, undertaken by 

 Natal and the Cape Colony at the instigation of Dr. Gill and under 

 his superintendence, has been carried out by Major Morris with the 



