'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎82] (103/458)

Ixxxii
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY.
Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land.
June and December.
29.686
1 29.626
1 29.656
.068
Lat. S.
Long. E.
29.853
.781
| 29.817
•072 227
42°52 / 5"
147°27'5"
Here it will be seen that both the daily and yearly ranges decrease to a mere fraction of those
at corresponding parallels of northern latitude. A.t Lat> 30° N. and Lat. 31° N., at an alti.
tude of 1800 feet, with a barometer at 15 inches, Lieut. Strachey found the tides as regular as they
are in the plains of Hindoostan—.057 to .043—say .050— if we may assume the tide throughout
the year to be about one-three-hundredth part of the length of the mercurial column, say at Bom.
bay, which it nearly is, we should have the range at this high latitude reduced to the level of the sea
above a tenth of an inch, or greater than it is in August in any of the stations enumerated. By
the time we reach Toronto, U. S., Lat. 43 ° , all these laws have either broken down, or become so
masked by constant irregularities, that they are only discovered in masses of means—as it is
equally at Hobart Town Lat. 42 ° S., though in these as in all cases, indeed, it is traceable
through a sufficiency of mean observations. In a matter of so much interest and mystery, the
great thing is to get a sufficiency of observations to ascertain the rule followed by the facts—
these furnishing the only means of obtaining an explanation of the cause. It is sad to think that
so much time, money, and labour, should be thrown away in pursuing the system usually adopted
by the local governments of India, where everything must be done in accordance with form, and
which, if form be attended to, nothing more is looked for. There are at present a vast number
of observations being made all over the country under the authority of Government: from the
returns occasionally received by the Society there cannot be the slightest doubt that in nine-
tenths of cases the time and money so employed is thrown away ; there are no means of suffi.
ciently instructing or superintending the observers, excepting through the direct instrumentality
of meteorologists—no books or manuals of instruction will, in India at all events, suffice. The
number of meteorologists amongst us is marvellously small, and none of them are ever consulted.
Dr. Buist laid before the meeting a paper on the volcanoes and volcanic regions betwixt
the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal and Gibbel.Tier in the Red Sea, betwixt the parallels
of 10° and 26° N. It will be found amongst the papers.
The Ordinary Monthly Meeting of the Geographical Society took place in their rooms, on
Thursday, the 13th November,—Captain Estridge in the Chair.
Present,—Captain Griffith Jenkins, I. N.; Manockjee Cursetjee, Esq; Dr. G. Buist, and
Professor Patton, Secretaries.
The minutes of last meeting were read and confirmed.
The maps, charts, and reports, forwarded by Lieutenant Maury, from the National Observa
tory, Washington, were laid on the table, and greatly admired by the members present.
In referring to the mode of determining submarine currents still practised, as described in
the Washington Report—that of lowering a heavy kettle or a gigantic log to the depth required,
and then making it fast to a float on the surface,*—Dr Buist described his improved current
measuring instrument, which promised to fulfil the ends required in a manner more worthy of
the present state of science. It had, with the instrument described in the last year’s number of
the Transactions, been found so difficult to exclude the sea water from the compass at very gref t
depths, that it was considered more expedient to admit it at once, protecting the needle, if
necessary, from rust by varnish or electrotype gilding : this had been found to answer perfectly,
and enabled the instrument to be very greatly lightened and simplified, the original principle of
©oiistruction being retained. The velocity of the current was determined by a little fly, like that