324 Royal Society. 



nish data, which by their combination might serve to assign the 

 localities from whence the disturbances are propagated — contribute 

 still further to disentangle the complications of the forces which pro- 

 duce them, — and thus hasten the attainment of that " triumph of 

 science" foreseen and foreshadowed by the great geometrician of 

 the last age. Of such a nature was the scheme contemplated by 

 the Joint Committee of the Royal Society and British Association, 

 and submitted to II. M. Government in the. hope of obtaining 

 their aid in the execution of such part of it as fell within British 

 dominion; and of thus "maintaining and perpetuating our national 

 claim to the furtherance and perfecting of this magnificent depart- 

 ment of physical inquiry." (Herschel in 'Quarterly Review' 

 September 18-10, p. 277.) The scheme was no unreasonable one: 

 probably eight or nine stations in the contour of the hemisphere 

 might suffice ; and of these we already possess the observations at 

 Toronto ; those at Kew are in progress ; and self-recording instru- 

 ments, similar to those at Kew, are now under verification at Kew pre- 

 paratory to being employed on the Western or Pacific side of the 

 United States Territory, at a point not far from the previously desired 

 Station of Vancouver Island, for which a substitute is thus provided. 

 This Observatory, as well as one at Key West on the southern coast 

 of the United States, in which self-recording instruments are already 

 at work, will be maintained under the authority and at the expense 

 of the American Government, and both have been placed under the 

 superintendence of the able and indefatigable director of the " Coast 

 Survey," Dr. Alexander Dallas Bache. The Russian Observatory at 

 Pckin, the trustworthy observations of which are already known to 

 the Society, is understood to have recommenced its hourly observa- 

 tions, and stands only in need of an apparatus for the vertical force 

 (which might be readily supplied from this country), to contribute 

 its full complement to the required data. More than half the stations 

 may therefore be regarded as already provided for, and there are 

 other Russian observatories in the desired latitudes and longitudes 

 which might be completed with instruments for a full participation. 

 It would be wrong to conclude these imperfect notices without 

 recognizing how greatly the researches have been aided in their 

 progress by the united and unfailing countenance and support of the 

 Royal Society and of the British Association. The Kew Observatory 

 owes its existence and maintenance to funds most liberally supplied 

 from year to year by the British Association ; and the cost of the 

 self-recording magnetic instruments, of which the first instalment of 

 the results has formed the early part of this paper, was supplied from 

 funds at the disposal of the Council of the Royal Society. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 247.] 

 June 5, 1861. — Leonard Horner, Esq., President, in the Chair. 

 The following communications were read : — 

 1. " On the Occurrence of some larsre Granite Boulders, at 



