the Figure and Dimensions of the Globe. 1 49 



arc, amounting to 2° 50', viz. from Dunnose in the Isle of 

 Wight to Clifton in Yorkshire, was published in the Phil. 

 Trans, in 1803. As the whole arc, extending from Dunnose 

 to Unst and Balta, the most northern of the Shetland Islands, 

 would comprise more than 10°, and as nearly half a century 

 had elapsed since the publication of the earlier part of the 

 survey, it is not surprising that some degree of impatience 

 should have been felt, both by those who desired the results 

 for scientific use, and by those who were interested for the 

 scientific character of the nation, that the general results of 

 the survey applicable to scientific purposes should at length 

 be given to the world. Accordingly, at the Birmingham 

 Meeting of the British Association in 1849, a resolution was 

 passed appointing a deputation to confer with the Master- 

 General of the Ordnance, and a similar resolution was passed 

 about the same time by the President and Council of the 

 Royal Society. On communicating with the Master-General, 

 it appeared that the want of special funds for the requisite 

 calculations formed the only obstacle, a difficulty which was 

 happily immediately surmounted by an application of the 

 President and Council of the Royal Society, to Lord John 

 Russell, then First Lord of the Treasury. The report of the 

 Council of the British Association to the General Committee 

 at the meeting of the last year at Ipswich, contained an offi- 

 cial statement from the Inspector-General of Fortifications 

 of the progress of the reduction and examination of the ob- 

 servations preparatory to the desired publication, and con- 

 cluded with expressing the expectation of the director of the 

 survey, that he " should be able to furnish for communication 

 to the British Association that would probably assemble in 

 1852, the principal results obtainable from the geodetic 

 operations in Great Britain and Ireland." By a recent letter 

 to my predecessor from Captain Yolland of the Royal En- 

 gineers, who is intrusted with the direction of the publication, 

 I am enabled to have the pleasure of announcing that the 

 u printing of the observations made with the zenith sector, 

 for the determination of the latitudes of stations between the 

 years 1842 and 1850, is finished, and will be presented in 

 time for the meeting of the British Association, and that the 



