ings and floaings over or about various dangers, constitutes the study of a lifetime; so that we, when speaking of the oldest pilot, seem to imply the ablest pilet—as the ability referred to is attainable only by long observation and experience. Some masters of coasting yawls are of a still higher grade as regards education, inasmuch as when the vessels they navigate are of the burden of 100 tons, not only must the master himself have received a certificate of examlnntign by officers of the Board of Trade, but one other officer, at least, in the vessel must be also certifiszted. Perhaps no other nation possesses no large a number of these daring and devoted seamen ; trained in all weathers and in all Poisons, they acquire a position among unpretending navigators, which would render comparison of them with those of other nations a source of pride and congratulation.
It is remarkable. that while m'ncrs and manufacturers have their special schools, surgeons their colleges. men of law their inns of court; the clergy, their universities; the over-sea-officers, or ocean navigators, a body of men who form a large majority of the ship-masters of England, have no suitable schools of navigation Teachers are not wanted. it is true, but it is what they teach, or rather what they do not teach that specially needs public attention. In all other branches of science, a knowledge of the why and the wherefore is deemed indis pensable to the proficiency of the student, but iu navigation alone, a person is absolutely doomed to work blindfold, as regards the very ground-work on which all practical navigation rests. For not only do the very best works in use set at nought the necessity for a proper foundation being laid in the doctrine of spherics,and projection in par ticular, but in the highest examination of a captain by the Board of Trade for an extra certificate, it is required only that he be able to explain enough of spherics to illustrate the nature of great circle sailing: he is "not romired to go into the eoru1utions.' It is no reproach to our rulers that such is the case Evils so extensive have not been the growth of recent years. Remedies are yet required. The establishment of institutions of a higher order for instruction would tend to remove such evils, and would inevitably promote the production of works of a superior character.
In navigation we have to deal with changes of a ship's position as sailing upon a spherical figure. It may be said, that the formula used in Jiercator's, or middle latitude sailing, are sufficiently simple for general practice; yet how few in the merchant service can even con struct the figure. And again in great circle sailing, who would not prefer seeing a merchant captain, when desirous of finding his tangent course, use an elegant, short, but exceedingly simple method by con struction, which he would understand, to the more tedious method of calculation which he would not understand. Of far more importance is it to the nautical astrononier, who alone deserves the name of navigator, to clearly comprehend the nature of spherical trigonometry. AU his problems and daily observations are the practice of spheric operations. The imaginary lines of the " vast concave" are designated and estimated by terms derived from the doctrinal attributes of the sphere. If then we inquire how an ordinary so-called navigator makes use of celestial observations while totally ignorant of principles, we arc constrained to a confession, which, were not the ship-masters them selves loudly complaining of its truth, would stigmatise our mercantile inaiine, while the onus of the defect actually rests, not with them, but with the votaries of science themselves. How can it be, that while 200 years since every work on navigation taught spherics both by projection and calculation, in 1860 not a work iu this great country gives the same faciLties for a seaman's use / The cause of this may be thus traced. Towards the close of the last
century, various elegant diagrams for the aiding of the mariner by saying the labour of calculations were published in England. As an example, the perhape most elaborate and in themselves most ingenious of them were by Margett in about 1772. A means of working, which was totally independent of calculation, soon began to be found a convenience to sea officers. Those of the greatest school of navigation ever formed, namely, the officers of the late East India company possessed such pleasant and interesting aids as Margett's ' Tables of Longitude,' and more recently, sets of ' Linear Tables, &c. &e.; these gradually superseded calculation by logarithms in operations derived directly from the doctrines of the sphere. [SrlienoenAris] And again, ingeuieua formulas sprung from various equational conibinationr, Lading from the mind's eye their palpable origin, until now, the sailor unfortunately has nothing else to rely on. These formula are, still more unfortunately, considered useful in proportion as they become condensed and shorter. 1Ve have thus blindly and unconiscionnly offered a premium to mathematicians fur the obecumtion of those principles of which a proper knowledge is now claimed on behalf of navigators. The abridgment of formula:, in Itself is not to be stigma tised; It was, however, in the circumstance of such abridgments occurring just at a period when diagrams entered largely into the practice of the day, in which lay their danger. Nor do we complain of diagrams, merely aa such, but the great evil has been the publication of such as illustrate no system, or assist in no elementary study. If they had helped in the demonstration of spheric principles, calculation itself would have been simplified and retained in practice. A very long experience in educational matters enables the writer (who for upwards of thirty years has anxiously watched the question, being himielt a navigator), to await that all nautical diagrams which arc not palpably deduced from the projections of the sphere, namely. such as the stereographic. orthographic, and gnomonic, have a baneful tendency ; while on the contrary, such diagrams as are really illustrations of, and demonstrative of, spherics, cannot be too plentiful. It follows then, that the present generation of navigators want assistance in spherics. It may be suggested that to attempt is sudden remedy would be impolitic. The authorities might. however, as a first step insist in their examination of an ocean captain, to see that he knew enough of stereographic projection to enable him to answer ordinary questions by spheric construction. But everything that can be done to illustrate stereographic projection Is worthy the encouragement of the Board of Trade. Navigation therefore, as a branch of highly important practical science, does not at present in England take its legitimate place. Young sea officers require a peculiar education. The Board of Admiralty have taken the initiative, and in H.M. Navy, the privations which affect the merchant service du not exist. It is a notorious fact, that whereas in other professions, experience increases knowledge of principles; in navigation the older practitioner knows less of them than the young sailor fresh from his examination.
As regards the nature of the operations used in conducting a ship's course at sea, we give details under various heads, such as COMPASS; DEPARTURE; GREAT CIRCLE OR TANGENT SAILING; LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE; LEAD-LINE; LOCAL ATTRACTION; LOG AND LOG-LINE; LOG-BOARD AND BOOS ; SAILING, &C. ; to which we refer.