'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From January 1863 to December 1864. (Edited by the Secretary.) Volume XVII.' [‎17] (46/524)

BOMBAY GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.
XVII
times predicted in the Bombay Almanac, be bad naturally assumed
(}tat as they claimed to issue from the Colaba Observatory, they
mi< 4 be depended upon as the results of the formula: these and
the 0 observations published, were the basis of the deductxons of Ins
paper and he had necessarily assumed that both were to be depended
pom Hence, as both computation and observation related to he
actual position of the Observatory, no objections to the posi ion of the
ide gauge could affect his results in the least, by which he thought he
had shown that the formulae were insufficient to represent the
phenomena.
Mr. Kennelly said, “ I have listened to Mr. Burgess’ paper with very
much interest, for we have a subject again brought before us, which was
last presented to the Society, in a valuable and extensive paper by Cap
tain Boss, then its President. Mr. Burgess, m laying down 336
tidal points, both as computed and observed, and m giving us the result
on the diagram before the Society, sufficiently proves the zealous la oui
with which he has prepared his Paper ; and I feel confident, now that
the subject has been again renewed, that science will be benefited i, n
addition to the result which Mr. Burgess has computed from one year s
tidal observations, we succeed in gaining that which may be obtame
from the sixteen years’ observations printed m the Coiaoa Observatory s
Annual Reports. Lieutenant Fergusson, in the remarks which have
fallen from him this evening, stated that the formula by which he
obtained the time of high-water at Bombay, was by deducting a time
constant from the time of high-water at London Bridge, as given m the
Nautical Almanac on any day required. I allow, that for practical
purposes this plan is found to answer; but I must also state, that em
pirical and erroneously based, it claims no relation to science, for it has
its birth in error. It is already acknowledged, that our computed esta
lishment is far from the truth. How much more must -any computa
tion, made on a system of time constant, derived from two distant meri
dians, complicate and increase that error ? Again, it has been said,
“ supposing we even have a formula by which we can calculate the time
of high-water or the height of the water at any required hour to within
one minute, as Mr. Burgess appears to think so desirable- What, shall
we be the gainers? How often are scientific theories exploded and
rendered null by the inscrutable ways of Nature, and where is it oftener
the case than with the tidal system ? An abnormal wind will sometimes
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