910 



and the temperature of the air and sea at 3 a.m. and p.m., and at 9 

 A.M. and P.M.; sights for longitude at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., and latitude 

 at noon, besides the dip three times, and sometimes five times a day ; 

 ever}^ absolute determination was made by me. 



Thus on shore as well as at sea, observations were commenced at 

 3 A.M., and never terminated till 9 p.m. : I had for my assistant an 

 Indo-Briton, 



I will not trouble the Council of the Royal Society with stories of 

 the difficulties I met v/ith ; suffice it to say, that a stranger amongst 

 the Dutch, the necessity of conciliating the natives in seeing me em- 

 ployed in a manner so strange to them, travelling in the monsoons 

 and in all weathers, sometimes for hours wet in the saddle, living 

 in huts for weeks, the only shelter being cocoanut leaves, and at sea 

 in a leaky old schooner that was perpetually in danger of foundering, 

 with a captain who was scarcely ever sober, — it is not surprising 

 that once or twice I fell sick. I am now but slowly recovering from 

 Java and Car Nicobar fever caught in the execution of my duty. 

 I take the liberty of adding for the information of the Council of the 

 Royal Society, that I never took a single observation unless I was by 

 myself and my attention undisturbed. If strangers were importunate, 

 I waited until they left me. If the weather was against me, I took 

 no observations until it settled. I made it a rule never to be in a 

 hurry, and always to finish one set of observations before I commenced 

 another, and to be as comfortable as circumstances would admit. 

 I am certain that an observation is the more valuable in propor- 

 tion to the mind being not only at ease, but able to fix itself with 

 undivided attention on the observations. I never, for instance, would 

 think of taking an observation whilst bored by an intruder, or a high 

 wind, or a heavy shower of rain faUing. I preferred under such 

 circumstances invariably to sacrifice the observation rather than 

 to record it. 



I have the honour of sending to the Council as a specimen of the 

 way in which the work was carried on, some of the absolute deter- 

 minations made at the Cocos or Keeling Islands ; they will be able 

 to see that often after the labours of the day had commenced at 

 3 A.M., they were not terminated at 9 p.m.; and in order to observe 

 moon-culminating stars, I had sometimes to remain up the greater 

 part of the night, for I had no one on whom I could place any de- 

 pendence to awake me at the proper time. 



Paper A contains the way and order in which the instruments of 

 the observatory were registered. 



Paper B. The dip taken at the Cocos, with an example. 



Paper C. The horizontal intensity, with an example. 



Paper D. The declination, with an example. 



Paper E. The latitude, with an example. 



Paper F. The longitude from moon-culminating stars. 



I have the honour to be, Sir, 



Your most obedient Servant, 

 Madras, C. M. Elliot, 



August 6, Captain Madras Engineers, 



