238 



completed, we shall possess a knowledge of the zone comprised in 

 six degrees on each side of the Ecliptic, which will ensure the detec- 

 tion of even the minutest asteroid. The scale is 2 inches to the 

 degree, and in some squares there are 150 stars. 



I regret to say that the ill health of Dr. Robinson, and the long 

 illness of his principal assistant, have delayed the publication of the 

 Armagh observations, for which a grant was made. Eight hours of 

 right ascension are now ready for the press, but a much more than 

 proportional part of the remainder is completed. The Astronomer 

 Royal has prepared the tabular portion of Mr. Catton's observations, 

 and the introduction is nearly ready, so that the work will be soon 

 in the printer's hands. 



The two grants for the examination, the preparation, and the cor- 

 rection of meteorological instruments at the Kew Observatory, 

 appear to have been very successful. To provide the means of testing 

 the many new instruments which are offered to scientific men, so 

 that their real merit may be ascertained, and waste of time and dis- 

 appointment be prevented, is to render a very important service to 

 science. Regnault's apparatus, recently purchased, has already 

 supplied Standard Thermometers for Government expeditions, and 

 the Committee have received numerous applications for Standard 

 Thermometers constructed with it, from distinguished physicists, and 

 the principal opticians. Dr. Carpenter has completed his drawings 

 of Foraminifera, ninety in number, and Professor E, Forbes has 

 reported so favourably of them that I trust they will soon be 

 published. 



A subject of considerable interest has been taken up by Mr. Horner, 

 geological researches in Egypt ; the question at issue being the 

 rate at which the alluvial land of the Nile valley was formed, from 

 the first cataract to the sea. The French at the end of the last 

 century made out what they considered to have been the rate of 

 secular increase, about six inches in a century ; and the object of 

 the present researches is to ascertain whether that average rate may 

 be assumed to be correct, and if so to apply the scale to vertical 

 sections of the Nile deposit, obtained by sinking pits in the immediate 

 vicinity of monuments, the age of which is known. Extensive re- 

 searches were made in the summer of 1851, liberally aided by Abbas 

 Pacha, on the site of the ancient city of Heliopolis, and during the 

 last summer on the site of the ancient city of Memphis. The ope- 

 rations have been conducted by an engineer in the Pacha's service. 

 Mr. Horner has had several letters from him describing the operations 

 at Heliopolis : he has also received specimens of the layers of soil 

 passed through in the nine sinkings at Heliopolis, a specimen from 

 the deposit of the Nile water at the time of inundation. Some of the 

 soil from the Barage, and some specimens of Nile water have been 

 analysed under the direction of Dr. Hofmann, at the Royal College 

 of Chemistry. Detailed reports have not yet been received from the 

 engineer, either as to the operations at Heliopolis, or at Memphis ; 

 until then it would be premature to form any conclusions. 



'Vhe success of the system of self-registration as applied to mag- 



