No. 1. pocket Memorandum Book, measuring three inches and a half by five, made of strong paper. (Captain Blakston did not use, and I should not advise travellers to use, “prepared” paper, for it soon becomes rotten, and the leaves fall out; besides that, wet makes the paper soppy.) The books are paged with bold numbers printed in the corners; two faint red lines are ruled down the middle of each page, half an inch apart, to enable the book to be used as a field-surveyor’s book when required.  In this pocket=book, every single thing that is recorded at all, is originally recorded with a hard HHH pencil.  Everything is written consecutively, without confusion or attempt to save space.  There may easily be 150 pages in each of these books; and a sufficient number should be procured to admit of having at least one per month.  Do not stint yourself in these.

No. 2.  Log-Book.—­This is an orderly way of collecting such parts of the surveying material as has been scattered over each day in your note-book.  It is to be neatly written out, and will become the standard of future reference.  By using a printed form, the labour of drawing up the log on the one hand, and that of consulting it on the other, will be vastly diminished.  I give Captain Blakiston’s form, in pages 28, 29, and I would urge intending travellers not to depart from it without very valid reasons, for it is the result of considerable care and experience.  The size in which the form is printed here is not quite accurate, because the pages of this book are not large enough to admit of it, but the proportion is kept.  The actual size is intended to be five and a half inches high and nine inches wide, so that it should open freely along one of the narrow sides of the page, in the way that all memoranda books ought to open.  Four pages go to a day; of these the pages 1 and 2 are alone represented in this book, pages 3 and 4 being intended to be left blank.

[P 28 and p 29 show samples of the log book pages being described].

The bold figures 17 and 18 in the right-hand corners of the form I give, show how the pages should be numbered.  The lines in p. 18 should be faint blue.

No. 3.  Calculation Book.—­This should be of the same size and shape as the Log Book, and should contain outline forms for calculations.  The labour and confusion saved by using these, and the accuracy of work that they ensure, are truly remarkable.  The instruments used, the observations made, and especially the tables employed, are so exceedingly diverse, that I fear it would be to little purpose if I were to give special examples:  each traveller must suit himself.  I will, therefore, simply make a few general remarks on this subject, in the following paragraph.

Number of Observations requiring record.—­A traveller does excellently, who takes latitudes by meridian altitudes, once in the twenty-four hours; a careful series of lunars once a fortnight, on an average; compass variations as often; and an occulation now and then.  He will want, occasionally, a time observation by which to set his watch (I am supposing he uses no chronometer).  He ought therefore to provide himself with outline forms for calculating these observations, even if he finds himself obliged to have them printed or lithographed on purpose; and in preparing them, he should bear the following well-known maxims in mind:—­