16 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
tion and powers of Ramsden’s great theodolite, stationed on the 
Dalton Hill in the year 1817 or 1818. Now in the present year, 
as we may gather from the catalogue of published maps which 
appeared by authority on the 8th of May last, there remains to be 
published about two-fifths of the sheets of the 25-incli survey; 
fully one-half of those on the 6-inch scale ; and of those on the 
1-inch scale — the scale most generally desired by the public at 
large — no less than two-thirds of the whole. In the course of a 
life which has not been short I have witnessed the completion of 
one-third part of the Survey. At this rate, some grandson of the 
youngest among you, if he be fortunate enough to attain a great 
age, may be also so lucky as to see the whole maps before he 
dies; and yet I cannot guarantee even him that pleasure. 
To the 1-inch map of Scotland the index map of the May 
Report assigns 120 compartments or sheets; but Orkney and 
Shetland, which are left out, will require three more. Of the 
whole number, only 44 were published on the 8th of last May — 38 
of them shaded, and 6 in outline. These embrace all Scotland 
south of the Forth and Clyde, and, to the north of that boundary, 
the counties of Fife, Clackmannan, Stirling, and Dumbarton, 
most of Perthshire, all Forfar and Kincardine, a little corner of 
Aberdeen, the island of Arran, and, far apart from all other com- 
pleted work, the “ Ultima Thule ” of the west, the island of 
Lewes. Since 8th May there have been issued separate slips, 
showing what has been added since, viz., two sheets, one of which 
is an outline map of a small portion of the coast line of Aber- 
deenshire, and the other the small corner of that county already 
mentioned, with a conterminous part of Kincardineshire, con- 
verted from outline into a shaded map. The Society will judge 
for themselves how much remains to be done, and what is the rate 
of progress of the 1-inch maps. 
The misery of the want of two-thirds of these maps is enhanced 
by the minute accuracy and admirable execution of those which 
we do possess. Permit me to illustrate this statement by a single 
incident. This was no more, indeed, than an incident in the 
holiday life of a wanderer in quest of recreation ; but numberless 
analogous occurrences must happen to others engaged with more 
important objects. Four years ago I made a long day’s excursion 
