218 Captain Hall's details of experiments 
pied some considerable time ; to decide upon a station ; our 
tents to rig up ; the Observatory to build ; then to land the in- 
struments, and set them up ; and as we had no time for trials 
and alterations, every thing required to be permanently fixed 
at once. We were fortunate in weather during the first two 
days, when our things were all lying about, and our habita- 
tions ill assorted ; but on the third night it rained hard, and the 
water which trickled through the canvas caused us some dis- 
comfort, although we fortunately succeeded in sheltering the 
instruments. The heat during the day was not only opppres- 
sive at the time, but very exhausting in its effects ; and at 
night, although the thermometer never fell lower than 73 0 , the 
feeling of cold arising from the transition from 93 0 , to which it 
sometimes rose in the day, was no less disagreeable. 
It was with reluctance that I left the neighbourhood of the 
equator, without having made more numerous and more 
varied, and consequently more unexceptionable observations 
on the length of the pendulum. It would, above all, have 
been desirable to have swung it at stations more nearly 
resembling those with which its vibrations were to be com- 
pared. Thus, the results obtained from the experiments at 
the Galapagos, though curious in themselves, are not so 
valuable for comparing with those you have deduced in this 
country. The time may come, however, when they may be 
rendered more useful ; that is to say, should experiments be 
made with the same pendulum at stations remote from the 
Galapagos, but resembling them in insular situation, in size, 
and in geological character ; such as the Azores, the Canaries, 
St. Helena, the Isle of France, and various stations amongst 
the eastern islands of the Indian and the Pacific oceans. The 
advantage of having it swung at the Cape of Good Hope, 
