small fire having occurred in the Magnetic Observatory, a new building of zinc, for the operation of naphthalizing the illuminating gas, is in preparation, external to the Observatory:  and thus one of the possible sources of accidental fire will be removed.—­Miss Sheepshanks added, through me, L2000 to her former gift:  I transferred it, I believe, to the Master and Seniors of Trinity College.”—­In this year Airy contributed to the Royal Society two Papers, one “On the Magnetic properties of Hot-Rolled and Cold-Rolled Malleable Iron,” the other “On the Strains in the Interior of Beams.”  He gave evidence before the Select Committee on Weights and Measures, and also before the Public Schools Commission.

In the latter part of 1862 a difference arose between Airy and Major-General Sabine, in consequence of remarks made by the latter at a meeting of the Committee of Recommendations of the British Association.  These remarks were to the effect “That it is necessary to maintain the complete system of self-registration of magnetic phenomena at the Kew Observatory, because no sufficient system of magnetic record is maintained elsewhere in England”; implying pointedly that the system at the Royal Observatory of Greenwich was insufficient.  This matter was taken up very warmly by Airy, and after a short and acrimonious correspondence with Sabine, he issued a private Address to the Visitors, enclosing copies of the correspondence with his remarks, and requesting the Board to take the matter of this attack into their careful consideration.  This Address is dated November 1862, and it was followed by another dated January 1863, which contains a careful reply to the various points of General Sabine’s attack, and concludes with a distinct statement that he (the Astronomer Royal) can no longer act in confidence with Sabine as a Member of the Board of Visitors.

Of private history:  There were the usual short visits to Playford at the beginning and end of the year.—­From June 28th to Aug. 5th he was in Scotland (chiefly in the Western Highlands) with his wife and his sons Hubert and Osmund.  In the course of this journey he visited the Corryvreckan whirlpool near the island of Scarba, and the following paragraph relating to this expedition is extracted from his journal:  “Landed in Black Mile Bay, island of Luing, at 10.30.  Here by previous arrangement with Mr A. Brown, agent of the steam-boat company, a 4-oared boat was waiting to take us to Scarba and the Corryvreckan.  We were pulled across to the island of Lunga, and rowed along its length, till we came to the first channel opening from the main sea, which the sailors called the Little Gulf.  Here the sea was rushing inwards in a manner of which I had no conception.  Streams were running with raving speed, sometimes in opposite directions side by side, with high broken-headed billows.  Where the streams touched were sometimes great whirls (one not many yards from our boat) that looked as if they would suck anything down.  Sometimes among all this were great smooth parts of the sea, still in a whirling trouble, which were surrounded by the mad currents.  We seemed entirely powerless among all these.”