1872.] 



President's Address. 



27 



sea by the Nile or by the Congo ? Opinion is advancing fast in the 

 direction that they are tributaries of the Congo ; that we have, in fact, 

 "rounded" the basin of the Nile-heads, and perhaps those of some other 

 rivers. The observations of Dr. Schweinfurth in a more northerly 

 district appear to support this idea. But, however strong may be the 

 reasons for this conclusion, the world will scarcely be satisfied without 

 local verification. — Some additions have been made to our knowledge of 

 the coasts and seas of Novai Zemlai and other polar regions by Ame- 

 rican and other expeditions, especially that of Rosenthal ; but nothing 

 of striking character has been discovered. — The German Association 

 for the Europaische Gradinessung continues its labours actively ; its last 

 Reports contain details of G-eodesy from Norway to Italy, and exhibit the 

 comparison of various standards of length. — French geodetists have pro- 

 posed the extension of the great French meridional arc to Algeria, em- 

 ploying a triangulation with sides of about 200 miles. — In the progress of 

 our great Indian Survey, Major Montgomerie (charged with the superin- 

 tendence in Colonel Walker's absence) proposed to himself the problem 

 of surveying "the triangular space lying between the Indus and its 

 great Caubul tributary, which is bounded on the north by the Hindoo- 

 Koosh and Mustagh ranges." This has been generally accomplished, 

 and appears to have opened up the geography of an almost unknown 

 and difficult country. It is understood that Eussian surveys, though yet 

 distant, are advancing from the opposite side. — The melancholy account 

 of the death of Captain Basevi, while engaged in pendulum-experiments 

 among the Himalaya Mountains, was given by my predecessor to the 

 last Annual Meeting. An officer has been named to continue the obser- 

 vations, but the actual work is not yet begun. — Much attention has been 

 called to a strange error in the measure of the elevation above the 

 sea assigned to the centre of gravity of continents and islands. Colonel 

 Sir Henry James has given probably the first accurate measure of 

 surface-height (from which that of the centre of gravity may be inferred) 

 on a portion of Scotland. — Perhaps I may consider it not wholly un- 

 connected with this subject to state that the galvanic telegraph now 

 extends (accidents only excepted) to the south of Australia. I have some 

 pleasure in remarking that the gentleman who has attached the last and 

 most difficult link to this chain was Supernumerary Computer and Junior 

 Assistant at the Observatory of Greenwich, and was nominated by me 

 for construction of the first telegraph at Adelaide. 



The year's progress in G-eology has consisted principally, I believe, in 

 increasing the number and the accuracy of the observations of special 

 facts, and in giving careful attention to the details of palaeontology. 



Magnetism continues to advance with slow but, I believe, certain steps. 

 Twice in this year it has happened that unusual outbursts on the sun's 



