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board the "Worcester" and "Conway," where excellent instruction is given to 160 young gentlemen in each of those ships. At Gosport there is a school of science, commenced in 1873, where the number of students, in navigation and astronomy, averages from three to fifteen, at ages from thirteen to nineteen. This school has also been successful at South Kensington. The master reports, however, that few mercantile seamen join the classes, because "rule-of-thumb methods are entirely ignored." At Yarmouth there is also a class of about twenty boys. At the excellent navigation school, established in 1862, and conducted by Mr. Merrifield, at Plymouth, the principal work is preparation for the examinations; but two evenings every week are devoted to classes where a course is given of plane and spherical trigonometry, the use of instruments, and method of fixing the position of the school by observation. An endeavour is also made to give those who attend some knowledge of natural phenomena. The average attendance at these evening classes is about twenty, mostly young lads. At South Shields there are some good navigation schools, and there are able and experienced teachers in London, and at Liverpool, Sunderland, Leith, Dundee and Aberdeen, but they are all mainly employed in preparing adults for the examinations.

At Bristol the class for teaching navigation, which was founded by the Guild of Merchant Venturers in 1788, was recently given up, on the ground that scarcely any pupils attended, and a navigation class was substituted at the Trade School, which is supported by the Guild. But this was also discontinued in 1879, and there is now no provision at all for the thorough instruction of sailors and explorers in Bristol. At Liverpool there are, I am informed, at least five private establishments for preparing candidates for the Board of Trade Examinations, and some excellent

teachers, but there are few students who study the subjects thoroughly. The navigation classes which were opened from 1874 to 1879, in connection with the Science and Art Depart ment, under the management of the Liverpool School of Science, have been given up, owing to the want of pupils. Glasgow and Greenock are as destitute as Liverpool.

Navigation is taught, to some extent, in a few other places, as shown by the South Kensington Reports. But there is no system in this country for supplying instruction to sailors and explorers-the instruction that was considered to be so necessary in olden times. There is no endowed navigation school for thoroughly training young lads belonging to the poorer classes at London, Liverpool, Bristol, Glasgow, or at any of the great seaports except Hull. Such training was deemed essential to the prosperity of Spain in the height of her power, of Holland when she sent forth her expeditions of discovery, of England in the days of Elizabeth and the first Stuarts. Nor is it neglected in neighbouring countries.

In France, for example, liberal and effective means of education are provided for the seafaring classes. An Instructor, paid by the Government, resides in each of the principal seaports, and affords instruction free of charge to all seamen who desire it.

In Holland there is a great navigation school at Amsterdam-"de Kweekschool voor de Zeevaart"-which was founded in 1780. Here about fifty boys are clothed, fed and boarded for a hundred guilders (£10) a year. There are also ten other navigation schools in Holland, where, by the latest report, 440 students received instruction. When we consider that the population of Holland is 4,000,000, and of Great Britain 30,000,000, we may form some idea of the difference between the two countries in their appreciation of the importance of supplying instruction to their sailors.

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Belgium has only two important seaports, Antwerp and Ostend, but at both there are large and carefully-regulated navigation schools, with gratuitous instruction. In Germany there are large navigation schools at Hamburg, Bremen, and other ports.

The system of education in Denmark, as regards navigation and nautical astronomy, is just as complete. There are five navigation schools to a population of under 2,000,000, each receiving about £170 a year to provide instruments and apparatus useful for teaching. Examinations are held periodically at one or other of these schools, and lads pass after studying for one or two years, according to their ability and previous training. They learn arithmetic, the use of logarithms, geometry, trigonometry, the use of the compass and of charts, of the sextant and its adjustments, tides and the movements of heavenly bodies, variation by azimuth and amplitude, and the methods of finding latitude and longitude. The candidate must also understand great circle sailing, deviation of the compass, the construction of charts and instruments, ocean routes and the influence of winds and currents, and meteorology. He must be fifteen years of age. Every candidate who passes an examination receives a sum equal to £2 15s. if his home is at the place where the examination is held, and £5 10s. if he has come from a distance. His payments at the school amount to £1 2s. a month, and £1 8s. for board and lodging. There is a similar system in Sweden and Norway.

Even in the little province of Biscay, in Spain, the Basques have established no less than four navigation schools along its coasts, at the small towns of Lequeitio, Bermeo, Plencia, and Santurce. The first and last were founded and endowed through the liberality of wealthy individuals, but the two others were set on foot by the towns themselves. The school at Santurce, particularly, is conducted by a capable

master, and is well supplied with instruments, charts, and books. It struck me, in visiting this coast last August, that, considering their means and the size of their little province, with a population under 200,000 souls, these Basques were doing more than has yet been undertaken by this great and rich country of ours, and that they were setting an example which we should do well to follow.

In modern England alone is the training of those whose avocations take them to distant regions by sea or land, in the knowledge which is necessary to them, comparatively neglected. Yet of all people in the world, the English need such knowledge most. Large numbers of Englishmen visit countries which have never been geographically described or correctly mapped, and traverse routes along which no observations have ever been taken. Many more annually pass and repass over tracts respecting which some previous contributions have been recorded, but which need additional and more correct observations before they can be adequately described and mapped. Every year these wanderers, in various professions, and engaged upon diverse avocations, spread themselves over every quarter of the globe. Yet, for want of necessary training, they travel and return without any or with few results that can be utilised for geographical purposes. There are officers in the army and navy, clerks and others employed in merchants' houses, planters and settlers, engineers, missionaries, consular agents, collectors, sportsmen, and ordinary travellers wandering over all parts of the earth.

It seemed so discreditable that our travellers and explorers, from want of instruction, should so constantly fail to produce any tangible results from their journeys, that the Council of the Royal Geographical Society resolved to attempt the application of at least a partial remedy. It was believed that in many instances such travellers would gladly and even zealously add the work of observing and collecting geograph

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