and the Outlines of its Bottom, 155 



issued a circular which calls for the co-operation of the princi- 

 pal maritime nations in collecting materials for wind and 

 current charts. The prayer of the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, and of the Royal Society, that 

 a more extended and systematic direction be given to meteoro- 

 logical observations at sea, as prepared by Lieut. Maury, 

 will, I trust, meet with favour in the eyes of the British 

 Government. The Royal Society says truly, that, short as 

 the time is that the system has been in operation, the results 

 to which it has led are of very great importance to the in- 

 terests of navigation and commerce ; and it is earnestly to 

 be hoped that the system of co-operative observation may be 

 zealously promoted. In short, when Lord Wrottesley ex- 

 plained in Parliament what enormous spaces of the ocean 

 were still blanks as to any records of the winds, or of the 

 currents and temperatures of the sea, the words which he 

 added will find a response in the breasts of all whom I now 

 address : — " That these blank spaces are a reproach to the 

 civilization of the present age ; that it is our duty not to rest 

 satisfied until we know all that can be known about the globe 

 we inhabit that can be rendered in any way profitable to our 

 common species ; and that, therefore, the principal maritime 

 nations should share the labour of exploring these vacant 

 spaces." 



Our neighbours the French* have indeed shewn their desire 

 to promote useful surveys of distant seas by the addition 

 they have recently made to our knowledge of the hydro- 

 graphy of the Chinese seas, resulting from the researches of 

 the " Capricieuse" corvette, under the command of Captain 

 Roquemaurel, who has trigonometrically surveyed the eastern 

 coast of Corea and Chinese Tartary for an extent of 130 

 leagues. One of the results is the ascertainment of an ex- 

 cellent port in the Golfe d'Anville, nearly in the same parallel 

 as the strait of Matsmai, from which it is about 130 leagues 

 distant ; parallels in which it is suggested some profitable 

 whale-fishing grounds may also be met with. 



* Since our last anniversary the Meteorological Society of Paris has heen 

 estahlished, and is now organized in so satisfactory a manner, that I have joined 

 it myself, and trust that many of my countrymen may do so likewise. 



