against a strong wiud. The use of Manila hemp for the line might probably add to the flight. The supply of rockets and mortars around the coasts of the United Kingdom is undertaken by the Board of Trade, and they are placed under the management of the Coast Guard, who work them admirably. There are at present 169 stations in England and Wales, 41 in Ireland, and 25 in Scotland, making a total of 233 stations in the United Kingdom; and it is gratifying to add that on an average about 300 lives are annually saved through their instrumentality. J. Birt of London [No. 2,776] exhibits a good illustrative model of this mode of saving life from shipwreck, to which the Jury have awarded Honourable Mention.

A simple and more ready means of communicating with the coast would be from the stranded ship, which is generally on a lee shore, but vessels cannot be got to carry the necessary apparatus. Lieutenant Nares, R.N., was, we believe, the first who successfully worked out the problem of communicating by means of a kite. W. Rich of London [No. 2,798] exhibits a well made kite for this purpose, which seems well balanced and adapted for use. The anchor cradle of W. R. Vail of Melbourne, has been already mentioned. The Iron Boat and Buoy Company of Hamburg, exhibits two small cylinders connected by a cross bar, with a square sail to carry a line ashore before the wind, and so effect communication.

In connexion with lifeboats one important means of saving life is by the use of a lifebelt, and no station can be considered complete without a set of lifebelts for the crew. Several sorts of lifebelts have been proposed, as inflated air belts, cork shavings, horse hair, but there seems to be no doubt now that good cork in small pieces strung together so as to be easily flexible, is the best. Captain J. R. Ward, R.N., exhibits a cork life jacket of this description, [No. 2,810,] which has extra buoyancy equal to about 25 lbs., or sufficient to support a man with his clothes on, with the shoulders and chest above the water. It has great flexibility so as readily to conform to the shape of the wearer, and is so fastenèd on round the waist as not to hinder him while rowing in a boat. This lifebelt is made by J. Birt of Wellclose Square, and costs 14s. It has been adopted by the National LifeBoat Institution for all their boats' crews, and about 4,000 of them have been issued. The Jury have unanimously awarded Captain Ward, R.N., a Prize Medal for his efficient cork life jacket.

The Royal Humane Society | No. 2,801] exhibits models of the apparatus, as ice ladders, drags, &c., used for rescuing persons from drowning, chiefly in lakes, harbours, and rivers, and an account of the means used in restoring suspended animation. The earliest society instituted for this humane purpose was at Amsterdam, about the year 1767, and some years later, chiefly through the efforts of the late Dr. Hawes, M.D., and Dr. Cogan, a similar society was established in London. It is wholly supported by voluntary contributons, has 260 stations, chiefly in and about London, the principal of which is near the Serpentine in Hyde Park, and it has branches at Brighton, Liverpool, Dover, Portsmouth, Bath and Boulogne.

The report of the society states that it has been the means of restoring life to 30,000 persons since its establishment, of which 222 cases occurred during the past year. The Jury have awarded very Honourable Mention to the Royal Humane Society as an acknowledgment of its benevolent efforts in the cause of humanity.

Among other contributions to the Nautical Class the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty exhibit specimens of charts [No. 2,813]. The coast surveys now in course of execution under the orders of the Admiralty are conducted by twenty different surveying parties, one half of which are employed on portions of the coasts of the United Kingdom, the remainder in the colonies of Australia, Cape of Good Hope, West Indies, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and British Columbia, also in the Mediterranean, on the shores of Syria and the Greek Archipelago, in Banka Strait, and on the coasts of Korea, China, and Japan. The specimens of the charts exhibited are portions of the west coasts of Scotland, Lough Swilly in Ireland, and Plymouth Sound; of the colonial and foreign surveys, Haro and Rosario Strait, near Vancouver Island, Grenada in the West Indies, and the island of Crete, and Valetta Harbour in Malta, in the Mediterranean. About one hundred new or very greatly corrected charts are issued from the Hydrographic Office annually, and the number of charts printed and circulated during the past year was 132,000. The Jury awarded a Medal to the Admiralty for the progressive improvement and extensive diffusion of their charts.

the

Although not falling within the limits of Class XII., the Jury must be permitted to express its gratification at the sight of the charts and other results, the fruits of the voyage round the world of the Austrian frigate Novara, which are exhibited by the Commander-inChief of the Imperial Austrian marine [No. 1,174]. The track chart of the voyage, and the plan and model of the island of St. Paul in the South Indian Ocean, and of the Nicobar Islands in the bay of Bengal are well worthy of notice, and deserve very honourable mention. In concluding the Report of the Jury of Sections B and C of Class XII, reporter considers it incumbent upon him to acknowledge the assistance he has received in the several branches of inquiry. To Adm. Pâris, C.B., of the French Imperial Marine, he is indebted for a description of the forms and peculiarities of the vessels and boats of the Eastern Seas and Pacific Ocean, and to Rear-Admiral Washington for some account of fishing vessels and lifeboats of the United Kingdom; Sir W. Snow Harris has contributed the result of his investigatious and practical experience of electricity as applied to the preservation of ships from the effects of lightning, and Mr. H. D. P. Cunningham, R.N., has traced the progress of improvements in connexion with the rigging and equipments of ships, and in the various mechanical appliances that have lately been introduced in the mercantile marine of this and all other countries. The Report also has been much aided by the opinions of the Jurors as expressed at their several meetings, where all the points were amply discussed.

FRED. J. EVANS, Reporter.

THE "PORCUPINE'S SOUNDINGS," OR PROFESSOR WILLIAM KING'S REPLY TO DR. WALLICH'S STATEMENTS.

Belmont, near Galway, Jan. 9th, 1863. Dear Sir,-In the last number of your valuable periodical, Dr. Wallich unhesitatingly accuses me of "wholesale plagiarism." This is a grave charge,-expressed in strong language. Permit me to answer Dr. Wallich; and in the end, I feel assured, you will see that it will be unnecessary for me to take any further notice of "statements" made by this gentleman.

Dr. Wallich "feels himself imperatively called upon to put the public in possession of a few facts and extracts upon which our respective claims to originality of thought and correctness of reasoning may readily be estimated." I am quite willing to bow to the decision of the public.

Yours, &c.,

To the Editor of the Nautical Magazine.

WILLIAM KING.

I beg in the first place to correct a misstatement made by Dr. Wallich in the beginning of his paper! I totally deny having "set forth any of the propositions as original," which he has noticed; though I strongly suspected that one, at least, might prove to be such.

Dr. Wallich extracts from my papers thirteen passages, which principally treat of the following ten propositions or subjects:First.-Corals and Foraminifers abstract the lime composing their skeletons from calcareous solutions occurring in the ocean. See first portion of No. 3 extract.*

Second.-Oceanic calcareous matter is derived from limestones and other rocks on land, and conveyed into the sea by rivers. See No. 9 extract, and second portion of No. 3.

Third.-Limestones, generally, are of organic origin. See No. 6

extract.

Dr. Wallich wishes it to be understood that he has "discussed in detail" these and the other propositions, in his North-Atlantic Sea-bed, and two previously published pamphlets. Be this as it may, any one conversant with geology must be well aware that Dr. Wallich, notwithstanding his implied pretensions, can have no "claims to originality of thought" with regard to the three propositions just adduced.

Dr. Wallich sent a copy of his paper to the Editor of the Galway Express, who necessarily felt himself bound to publish the following observations with reference to the above stated propositions.

"No doubt Professor King will give a satisfactory reply to Dr.

* I beg of the reader to number consecutively the extracts from my papers in the order given by Dr. Wallich.

Wallich's remarks; and it is therefore unnecessary for us to do more than express an opinion, that as to many of the matters in dispute, neither Dr. Wallich nor Mr. King can have any claim to originality. They have long since been made public property, and identified with the names of Bischof, Maury, Berryman, Bailey, Pourtales, Dayman, Huxley, and others, and have all been admirably condensed in the new edition of Professor Juke's Manual of Geography."

It is unnecessary for me to add a single word to the foregoing, except to supplement the names of Phillips, Lyell, De la Beche, and Dana (others might be added), who, in their several writings, have treated of some or all of the subjects named.

It would have reflected little credit on me had I not expatiated on these propositions in my class lectures. Indeed, there would be no difficulty in obtaining ample testimony to this effect from my students; but my doing so is rendered quite unnecessary after the publication of the following statement by the authority already cited:

"With_reference to the four propositions-that the mud of the Atlantic Sea bottom consists essentially of dead and living Foraminifera; that these organisms obtain by vital action their calcareous matter from the ocean, while it in turn derives it from the limestones of the land through the agency of rivers; and that limestones are of organic origin; we have before us a course of lectures delivered under the auspices of the Board of Trade, at Bandon, by Professor King, early in September, 1861, in which these propositions are enlarged upon, in almost the same terms as those employed by him in his Preliminary Notice, and in which, so far from claiming any originality of discovery, he distinctly attributes them to the distinguished authorities whose names we have mentioned above. We may also mention that more than twelve months ago these lectures were in our hands, and we then strongly advised Professor King to publish them, a step which we still hope he may be induced to take." Dr. Wallich entirely disregards the fact that my Preliminary Notice is descriptive of phenomena which I was bound to notice. The subjects which it has fallen to our lot to bring before the public are kindred; it was therefore to be expected that our respective writings would occasionally contain coincidencies of "thought" and 'identity of terms;" especially as both of us must have read some or many of the writers who have been named.

"

Now that I have reperused the various papers written by the late Professor Bailey, (whose name must ever remain associated with pelagic soundings) particularly the one in Silliman's American Journal, of March, 1854, I must candidly confess that the discoveries of this distinguished microscopist in deep sea Foraminifera, made such a lasting impression on my mind, at the time of thefr publication, that much of what I have written on the subject has taken a colouring from his language. The testimony already adduced shows that in my Bandon lectures, delivered in August and September, 1861, I have acknowledged Bailey as one of my authorities in regard to the foraminiferous character of Atlantic soundings. I have also made a

similar acknowledgment, even mentioning Dr. Wallich's name at the same time, on the very earliest occasion in my Preliminary_Notice. But it is a remarkable and no very creditable fact, that Dr. Wallich himself has no where in any of his writings noticed Professor Bailey's name in connection with this subject!

Reverting to the first proposition, that "Corals and Foraminifers abstract the lime composing their skeletons from calcareous solutions occurring in the ocean," Dr. Wallich's view is different from mine. He ignores altogether the presence of sulphate of lime in sea water as far as the point in question is concerned; for, according to his opinion, these organisms form their solid structures directly from carbonate of lime. I am quite willing for the public to decide as to "our respective claims to correctness of reasoning" on this point. Dr. Wallich indulges largely in "originality of thought." The South and North Atlantic respectively possesses organic and inorganic features unknown to others. He has imagined having found at the bottom of the one what no one else could have conceived-a microcopic Mammal, while in the depths of the other he has discovered, besides Buss' “sunken land” at 748 fathoms, a salt of which no one has ever detected a trace.

Fourth.-Atlantic deep-sea mud consists of living and dead Foraminifera. See No. 1 extract.

What resemblance is there between our respective passages on this subject? Truly Dr. Wallich must have got a remarkable vision to detect in such passages a case of "wholesale plagiarism" on my part. But will it be believed? Instead of our views, as regards the proposition involved in the passages noticed, being identical, they are not so. I have not hesitated to declare, with Ehrenberg, that the "surface of the deep-sea-bed of the Atlantic is one vast sheet of living Foraminifera;" whereas Dr. Wallich, albeit the advantages he had while attached to the Bulldog, and his "reasoning" for upwards of two years, has not got much beyond the dawning conclusion of Bailey (Am. Jour., cit., p. 178) and the favoured view of Huxley (Dayman's Report, p. 67); inasmuch as it cannot be said he latterly maintains otherwise than that there is a considerable "degree of probability attached to the opinion that Foraminifera live and multiply at the depths from which the sounding machine occasionally brings them"+ (North-Atlantic Sea-bed, p. 82). Here is what Huxley says! "I confess, though, as yet, far from regarding it proved that the Globigerine live at these depths, the balance of probabilities seems to me to incline in that direction.”*

* I may be permitted to ask if Dr. Wallich's "reasoning" in the bottom paragraph, p. 137, North-Atlantic Sea-bed, is not "borrowed without acknowledgement" from Huxley's sixth paragraph, p. 66, Dayman's Report?! Accusers, before going into court, ought to see if their own hands are clean! Again, why has the author of the North-Atlantic Sea-bed never noticed Colonel Schaffner's deep-sea soundings, taken between Labrador and Greenland, also between Greenland and Iceland in 1859, and in nearly the same places, which yielded much of the "Globigerina mud" described in this work.