THE TORONTO OBSERVATORY : MAGNETIC AND METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.
It is gratifying to learn that the value of these observations, and the liberality of the British Government in defraying the expense of making them and the other magnetic observations in other parts of the world with which they are combined, is so heartily recognized by the scientific men of the United States, as it appears from the following resolutions, adopted at Newhaven by the American Association for the Promotion of Science. It is to be hoped that no penny-wise and pound-foolish economy may cause the Toronto and other Canadian observations to be brought to a premature close - inasmuch as that would materially diminish the value of results to obtain which so much has already been expended.
"At a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Newhaven, in the United States, in August 1850, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted- " Resolved, That in the foundation and maintenance of numerous mag- netical and meteorological observations, the British Government have evinced an appreciation of the claims of science, and a readiness to contribute libe. rally to its support, which challenge the admiration and demand the heart/ acknowledgment of the scientific world.
"Resolved, That the experiments which are now in progress at the To ronto observatory, to test the practicability of self-registering photographic methods, the system of concerted auroral observations, recently organized by Captain Lefroy, and the peculiar interest attached to magnetic observations made near the focus of maximum intensity, render it highly desirable that the Toronto Observatory should be continued in activity for a somewhat longer period.
And inasmuch as a very extensive series of meteorological observatione, embracing the entire area of the United States, is now in progress of organi- zation by the Smithsonian Institution, and it would add exceedingly to the value of the proposed observations if simultaneous ones could be obtained from the region North of the United States, extending even to the shores of Hudson's Bay and the coast of Labrador: therefore, "Resolved, That the British Government and the Directors of the Hud- son's Bay Company be invited to cooperate with the observers in the United States in united and systematic meteorological inquiries."
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