During the year, arrangements have been made for clothing the navy; the ranks of officers have been fixed; the ratings, pay and allowances for the navy have also been fixed. A corps of marines have been formed (at present about 400 strong, but to be increased to about 800); they are chiefly Satsuma men. A band for marines has been organised, and a bandmaster (Mr. Fenton) engaged. A naval college, for instruction of 200 cadets, has been built; a naval hospital has been established; so one may say the Japanese navy has progressed during the year.

I enclose you a list of the Japanese ships now in commission :Rin Jho Kan.-Steam corvette, armour belt round water line, 280 h.p., ten guns, viz., two 100-pounder M.L.R. revolving, eight 64-pounder M.L.R. shunt broadside, complement 275.

Nitsin.-Steam sloop, wood, 250 h.p., seven guns, viz., one 7-inch, M.L.R. Woolwich, revolving, six 60-pounder M.L.R. Dutch, broadside, complement 145.

Kotetz.-Iron-clad ram, 500 h.p., three guns, viz., one 300-pounder M.L.R. Armstrong, in fore turret, two 70-pounder M.L.R. Armstrong in aft turret, complement 135.

Katsuga Kan.-Despatch vessel, 300 h.p., six guns, viz., one 100pounder, M.L.R. Blakeley, four 50-pounder M.L.R. Japanese, one 20pounder B.L.R. Armstrong; complement 130.

Moshin, Hosho, Thabor 1, Thabor 2.-These are gun vessels, commanded by lieutenants, each carrying four guns, viz., one 70-pounder, revolving, one 40-pounder, revolving, two 20-pounder, broadside, h.p. 90, complement 60 to 65.

Chiyoda.-Small steam vessel for cadets.

Malacca.-Steam corvette, not yet armed or commissioned.

Chiom has lately handed over a gun vessel, but I have not heard the details yet. The Fusiyama, lately in commission, has gone to Jokotska, to repair and do up for training ship for cadets; she is an old steam sloop they got from America. There are a few other men-of-war dismantled and unarmed at present, some lying up the river at Yedo, and others at Jokotska. The list I give are the present navy of Japan.

BRITISH AND AMERICAN TERRITORIES.-The Queen has been graciously pleased to appoint Captain Donald Roderick Cameron, of the Royal Artillery, to be Her Majesty's Commissioner for Surveying and marking out, in conjunction with a Commissioner on the part of the United States of America, the line of boundary between the British and American territories under the second Article of the Treaty of October 20, 1818, from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains.

"THE RULE OF THE ROAD AT SEA."

The following important letter is included in the recent Parliamentary Paper on the subject:

"Association for the Protection of Commercial Interests, as respects Wrecked and Damaged Property, Royal Exchange, London, May 2, 1872. 'Sir,-As it appears that some efforts are being made to alter the Rule of the Road at Sea, which was settled 9th January, 1863, by an Order of Council, and explained by the Order in Council of the 30th July, 1868, I beg to be allowed, on the part of the Committee of this Association, to express an earnest hope that the applications made to secure that object will not be yielded to. * *

*

*

"I beg further to be allowed to point out, that it has never been intended to suggest, that any rule can be so absolutely, unmistakeably perfect, as that it should be impossible for ingenious people to discover flaws in it, or so clearly expressed, that masters of ships could never be found to misunderstand it, or misapply it.

"If, therefore, the fact were so, as alleged, that many collisions have happened, from misunderstanding or misapplication of the existing rule, it does not at all follow that that rule is not, notwithstanding, the best rule to be found, and a very good rule for general guidance.

"I imagine that the gentlemen who propound new rules, to be substituted for the existing one, will not pretend that their rules are so absolutely perfect, and so clearly expressed, that shipmasters will not misuse those rules just in the same way that they allege that shipmasters sometimes misuse the existing rule. You will see by the observations contained in Captain Heathcote's two letters upon one of the proposed new rules, that it is open to at least as many objections as those suggested against the existing rule.

"I think I am able to say, that, in the minds at least of a great number of nautical gentlemen, the objections to these proposed new rules are more solid and more serious than any that can be alleged against the existing rule.

"Without pretending to exercise any judgment upon a question so strictly technical, I may yet venture to point out that, to say the very best of the position assumed by the objectors to the existing rule, there is a considerable difference of skilled opinion on the subject of the rule of the road.

"But that difference of opinion existed, and was manifested with at least as much energy as it is now, at the time when the whole subject was under deliberation in 1862, and again in 1868, and when the deliberate opinion of the Government and of the Admiralty upon that controversy found expression in the existing rule.

"This being the case, the Committee represent that it would be, in their opinion, unwise in the highest degree to allow the question to be discussed again, for two classes of reasons:

"First. The nautical mind has become impregnated with the existing rule; and the confusion which will arise if that rule were were now to be altered, would be so great and so dangerous, that nothing short of a clear, palpable, almost undisputed necessity, could justify it.

"Secondly. That the maritime countries of the world have accepted the existing rule. They may have accepted it a good deal upon the authority of the Government of this country, an authority to which the Government is entitled, by its great experience in maritime affairs. But, also, each country must be supposed to have given an intelligent attention to the rule itself, and in adopting it, to have approved it. And I cannot help representing, that the rule could hardly be changed now by the Government of this country alone.

"I am informed that the gentlemen who are agitating this question seek, for the present, only to have the matter investigated by the Government, or by Order of the House of Commons.

"I beg to represent that it would be a most unfortunate thing that those gentlemen should succeed in their attempt. The decision of the Government in 1863 and in 1868 must be regarded as a deliberate and almost solemn proceeding; and, so soon after that decision to begin to inquire whether it was a wise one or not, must tend seriously to shake that confidence of the maritime countries of Europe, which they have manifested in the opinion of this Government on the subject.

"To settle so important a thing as the rule of the road in the year 1863 and 1868, and to begin in the year 1872, when the whole maritime world has become inoculated with it, to inquire whether or not it was a very bad rule, would seem a course most carefully to be avoided, unless some evident, irresistible necessity for such an inquiry should be established by facts or by reasoning, which the general sense of men would deem to be incontrovertible.

"With respect to collisions, it has been alleged that the number of collisions has increased, and that the increase and the bulk of collisions at all times were due to the existing rule. I think this statement will not bear examination. I find that the increase in the number of collisions does not bear any proportion at all to the increase in the tonnage of ships, which, without going into detail, I will represent thus: Increase of British tonnage entered inwards and outwards, between 1864 and 1869, 16 per cent.; increase of collisions everywhere, between 1864 and 1869, under 7 per cent.; so that it would appear there has been a

considerable relative decrease in the number of collisions since the rule was established. And I beg to be allowed to adduce the fact of the decrease in the number of collisions, commencing shortly after the adoption of this rule, as a pretty fair proof that the rule is having a wholesome operation.

'But I think that, or any other rule, is not to be really tested by the number of collisions at any particular date.

"Collisions are due to things very different from the rule of the road. Probably, the most effective cause of collision is carelessness in navigation; that carelessness is manifested in many ways. It is sometimes having no lights in the ship at all. Very commonly the lights are in very bad order, and do not answer their purpose. At other times it is the bad look-out kept by one or both ships; and sometimes (and I am afraid many times) it is the incapacity of the persons in charge of the ships at the time of the collision; and I am very much afraid that drunkenness has a good deal to do with that.

But besides that, there are dense fogs, dark and stormy weather, and all the natural causes, which, no doubt, must account for not an inconsiderable number. Also increased speed in steamers, a speed which has become almost a necessity both to shipowners and to merchants, but which will certainly lead to collisions in spite of most careful precaution and the most able seamanship.

"I am afraid the gentlemen who try to fix the whole body of collisions upon the rule of the road have their minds so engrossed with this pet topic, that they exclude from their consideration all these other pregnant sources of collision.-I am, &c.,

"(Signed)

J. A. W. HARPER, Secretary. "The Assistant Secretary, Marine Department, Board of Trade."

NOTE ON THE NEW FORM OF CLOUD DESCRIBED BY M. POEY IN "NATURE" FOR THE 19TH OF OCTOBER, 1871, A PAPER BY ROBERT H. SCOTT, M.A., F.R.S. (REPRINTED FROM THE "QUARTERLY JOURNAL" OF THE METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY FOR FEBRUARY 21, 1872.)

ON reading, in Nature, Frofessor Poey's description of the so-called "New Form of Cloud," I at once wrote to the Editor, pointing out that the figure he gave corresponded with one formerly given by Dr. Clouston, as an illustration of the form of cloud he calls the "Pocky Cloud."

My letter appeared in the next number of the paper; and the succeeding number contained a third communication on the subject, bearing the signature of "J.," and giving a reference to the Philosophical Magazine for July, 1857, where a description of a similar phenomenon is given in a paper "On the Cirrous Form of Cloud," by Mr. W. S.

Jevons.

This latter notice of the cloud seems to be the earliest in point of date of publication; but as Dr. Clouston's, given in his "Explanation of the Popular Weather Prognostics of Scotland," published in 1867, was illustrated by the best representation of the cloud which has as yet appeared, I wrote to him to ask for other sketches, and have received four, which I submit to the Society, and reproduce one as an illustration.

The date of the observation of this cloud has not been preserved; but Dr. Clouston states that it was followed by a storm.

Another sketch is that which has been reproduced in the above-named pamphlet. The observation was made at Stromness Manse, March 5, 1822, and it was immediately followed by a storm, the barometer falling 1.2 inch from 29.5 to 28.3 within 9 hours!

The other two sketches are less detailed.

One was made at Shanghai, August 5, 1871, the observer stating:"Came on to blow a strong gale about 15 hours after observation, and blew for 6 days; at same time typhoon, on coast, about 200 miles off." The last sketch was taken in the Mediterranean, November 7, 1871, and the observer reports:-" Had strong breeze for 12 hours; it came on almost at time of observation."

od wod wods of eueniqzs on rang This is copied from a sketch made at the time of the occurrence of the cloud, followed by a storm; but the date is not known.

Dr. Clouston has added nothing to his printed account of the cloud, from which I extract the most important portions.

He says that," when properly developed, it was always followed by a storm or gale within 24 hours."