6 
RETORT OF 
aid, and has kindly put into their hands for the use of the 
Society, fifty copies of a very interesting and instructive topo¬ 
graphical map, illustrating the ancient roads and earth-works 
near Langton, in the East Riding of this county. 
The Council have the gratification to state that the arrange¬ 
ments for the proper employment of the valuable instruments 
presented by Er. Pearson are complete, and that a Committee 
of observers has been appointed, who have entered on their 
work with a zeal and perseverance which it may be hoped will 
make this establishment not only useful in its immediate neigh¬ 
bourhood, but also of service to the general progress of astro¬ 
nomy. The subscriptions for the Observatory have fallen 
considerably short of the cost of its construction; but the 
Committee hope that the deficiency may yet be supplied by 
additional contributions. 
It is proper to mention that the current expenses of this 
and the other Committees for science and antiquities, appointed 
by the Council, are not charged in the Account of the Insti¬ 
tution. 
On the state of the Society's finances the Council have to 
remark that during the past year they have succeeded, with¬ 
out much inconvenience, in reducing the expenditure to about 
i ?.70 less than the income, and that the result of their 
efforts would have appeared still more favourable but for the 
serious damage done to the building by the late violent storms. 
In the expenses of the year occur some items which will not 
be repeated, and some charges which may be yet further 
slightly diminished. The Council have not formed this 
opinion lightly, or upon a cursory investigation. They have 
already proposed an arrangement by which, without any in¬ 
jury to the utility of the establishment, and without unreason¬ 
able burden on the officers, some real saving may-be effected 
