Page images
PDF
EPUB

the map. To the importance of this latter consideration Colonel Colby was particularly alive, as he had noticed in the English map the want of harmony of tone which had been the result of engraving isolated portions before a scale of shades had been arranged for the whole map. Whenever the inch map of Ireland shall be published, it will prove the value of these preliminary inquiries, by forming one harmonious whole, in which independently of contour lines, every gradation of shade will correspond to a definite altitude. In 1825, the Irish Triangulation commenced on the Divis Mountain, near Belfast, and as a preparatory measure, Lieutenant Murphy was sent into Cumberland and Westmoreland, and Lieutenant Portlock into the Isle of Man, to recover the sites of the old stations, and to re-establish upon them either large staves twenty-five or thirty feet in height, or conical piles of stones from sixteen to eighteen feet in height. On undertaking a duty so novel to them, both Lieutenant Murphy and Lieutenant Portlock naturally inquired what had been the system adopted by their chief, and the present writer can therefore give this his first experience in survey duties as at least an imitation of the vigorous system of Colonel Colby. Landing at Douglas, his first object was to hasten towards North Baroole, and to locate himself at its base in a small public-house on the roadside, kept by Mrs. Looney. The next morning, as the month was June, he started with a small party of men, about three o'clock, for the summit, and was soon hard at work preparing for and erecting the

object. A few hours thus employed, and the free breathing of the wholesome mountain air prepared the stomach also to do its duty; and welcome therefore was the sight of Mrs. Looney, attended by her maidens as she scaled the summit, with kettle in hand, a store of burning fuel in an iron pot, and all the glorious appendages of a substantial breakfast. The repast was soon ready, appetite was boundless, and digestion sound, and yet the supply was inexhaustible. With new vigour the work was now resumed, and about eight o'clock, P.M., the party descended, when Mrs. Looney, whose heart was a generous one, served up a dinner, or supper, which, though it might not have suited the palates of a court of aldermen, was in quantity sufficient to gorge a company of giants. Day after day the same hours, the same labours, and the same feasting were repeated, when having completed North Baroole and Snea Fell, the author took his leave of Mrs. Looney, and was somewhat astonished when, for several days' lodging, for roasting-pigs of some months old, for gooseberry-pies more than a yard in circumference, and custard-puddings in half gallon jugs, and for all her journeys to the mountaintop, that lady demanded the exorbitant sum of nine shillings! Peace be with Mrs. Looney! and let us ask, where should the wanderer with, as our poorer brethren sometimes express it, a wolf in his stomach, go for comfort, if not to the humble inn of Mrs. Looney, at the foot of North Baroole. South Baroole then followed; but alas! there was there no inn nor liberal hostess, and though hospitality was as much

alive in the peasant's cabin-now the only resource as it was afterwards found in a neighbouring mansion, hard work for a week on milk and oatcake served as a fast to correct the evils of the preceding week of feasting. Such scenes as these had been familiar to Colonel Colby for many years of his life; scenes wild and occupations laborious, it is true, but which derived from that very wildness, from that glorious sense of freedom which seems to swell the bosom as the fresh mountain air is inhaled, a charm which dispelled from the performance of duty the very thought of labour. Never, indeed, in twenty years of intimacy, did the author hear from the lips of Colonel Colby a single expression which could imply that in exertions beyond the powers of ordinary men he had done anything deserving of a moment's notice. During the time that these operations were in progress in England and in the Isle of Man, Lieutenant Drummond had proceeded to Ireland and prepared the Divis station for the great theodolite. The season had now fairly commenced under the immediate directions of Colonel Colby, as it was his invariable rule personally to initiate all his officers in their duties, and Lieutenant Drummond was the only one who had already passed through this training. Captain Orde (now Lieutenant-Colonel Orde), the late Captain Henderson, who subsequently, in conjunction with Mr. Maclear, measured a new base at the Cape of Good Hope; Lieutenants Drummond, Murphy, and Portlock, constituted the staff of officers of Engineers; and with them were associated about

sixty of the Royal Sappers and Miners, part of a force which, at the recommendation of Colonel Colby, had been trained at Chatham under Sir Charles Pasley, K.C.B., for survey duties, their instruction having been superintended by Lieutenant (now Lieut.Colonel) Streatfield, R.E. This, though to most a season of instruction, was indeed a noble season, as the operations had, with Colonel Colby's usual comprehensive view of the subject, been made to combine the use and observation of every description of meteorological instrument, including all those recently invented by Professor Leslie, so that the camp on Divis became a school not merely of geodesical but of meteorological science; and though the difficulty of moving such delicate instruments from hill to hill, and preserving them from injury amidst the mountain storms, obliged Colonel Colby to abandon the use of some of them in subsequent stations, enough were retained to add the skill of practice to the theoretical knowledge which had been acquired at that first and most instructive station. The duty was divided amongst the officers according to a regular roster, and the officer of the day was called at the earliest dawn to rise, and kept watch on the weather. If the hill continued clear of fog, he called Colonel Colby at the moment when the light became sufficient to prepare for observation; and without an instant's delay he came to the observatory, and proceeded to observe all the more difficult and distant objects, which were practicable, leaving the officer on duty, when sufficiently trained, to observe minor objects, the other

officers assisting him by reading the microscopes. Except when absent selecting new stations, Colonel Colby continued this steady course of observation when the weather permitted, or of calculation in his marquee when clouds from the summit of the hill closed it up from external observation, as was occasionally the case for many successive days, without a symptom of weariness, until November, when he left Lieutenant Henderson in charge of the instrument, and the season terminated by the observation of Drummond's Light, on Slieve Snacht, a mountain in Innishowen, on which Lieutenant Drummond patiently prepared his oxygen gas, and watched and directed the light. The distance was sixty miles, and the light appeared like a star of the first magnitude, being visible by the naked eye. The station of 1826 was Slieve Donard, in the county of Down; and whilst on this occasion the author proceeded to Wales and Anglesey, to refind stations and erect objects, Lieut. Larcom proceeded to Slieve Donard to prepare it for the great instrument, and thus commenced his connection with a survey in which he afterwards filled so important an office. The author, as soon as he had finished his work in Wales, joined him there, and having put up the instrument, began the observations. Colonel Colby came to the station immediately afterwards, with Captain Pringle, who had been appointed to the Survey, as well for his mineralogical knowledge, he having studied at Freyberg under Mohs, as for his general talents, and with Lieutenants Drummond and Murphy, and con

« PreviousContinue »