28 



Anniversary Meeting, 



[Nov. 30, 



over about 1° 50' of the proposed arc of 4|- degrees. A convenient loca- 

 lity has also been found for the base-line. The continuation of the preli- 

 minary survey to the extreme southern limit is to be the work of the 

 summer of 1864. The report of the Geodesical Surveyors has shown that 

 the northern portion presents no impediments which may not be sur- 

 mounted by courage and perseverance ; and with regard to the southern 

 portion, the knowledge already acquired is considered to justify the ex- 

 pectation that the result of the second year's exploration will be no less 

 favourable. Should such be the case, it is anticipated that the necessary 

 steps will be taken for carrying into execution the measurement of the arc 

 itself. 



I may perhaps be permitted to allude for a moment to the peculiar in- 

 terest with which I must naturally regard the proposed undertaking. The 

 measurement of an arc of the meridian at Spitzbergen is an enterprise 

 which nearly forty years ago was a cherished project of my own, which I 

 had planned the means of executing, and which I ardently desired to be 

 permitted to carry out personally. I may well therefore feel a peculiar 

 pleasure in now seeing it renewed under what I regard as yet more 

 promising auspices, — whilst I cannot but be sensible of how little I could 

 have anticipated that I should have had the opportunity, at this distance 

 of time, and from this honourable chair, of congratulating the Swedish 

 Government and Academy upon their undertaking, and of thanking Dr. 

 Torell for having traced its origination to my early proposition. 



It is well remarked by Dr. Torell, that the triangulation, should it be 

 proceeded with, will not be the only result of the years of scientific labour 

 at Spitzbergen. There are, indeed, many important investigations for which 

 the geographical circumstances would be eminently favourable. Two such 

 may be specified, for which we may reasonably anticipate that full oppor- 

 tunity would be afforded, and for which the requisite instruments of pre- 

 cision are neither costly nor cumbersome. One is a more exact determi- 

 nation of the data on which our Tables of Astronomical Refraction are 

 founded. The other is the employment of Cagnoli's method for determining 

 the figure of the earth by occultations of the fixed stars*. This last 

 would be tried under circumstances far more favourable than those con- 

 templated by its original proposer, by reason of the high latitude of the 

 northern observer — the greater number of stars in the moon's path, now 

 included in our catalogues, of which a special ephemeris might be made 

 — and the much greater amount of concerted corresponding observations 

 which might now be secured. The advantage peculiar to this mode of 

 determination is, that it is exempt from the influence of local irregu- 

 larities in the direction and force of gravity which embarrass the results of 



* Antonio Cagnoli, " Nuovo e sicuro mezzo per riconoscere la Figura della Terra," Me- 

 morie della Societa Italiana, Verona, vol. vi. 1792. 



An English translation, with Notes and an Appendix, was printed for private circula- 

 tion in 1819, by Mr. Francis Daily. 



