It will be observed that the two reports are substantially the same, and very strongly corroborate the remarks made at pages 15, 16, and 17 of this work. Indeed no other report could have been given without the author’s becoming subject to the charge of glaring, obstinate, and wilful misrepresentation. What then has again been demonstrated? That the surface of all water _is horizontal_, and that, therefore, the Earth cannot possibly be anything other than a Plane. All appearances to the contrary have been shown to be purely optical and adventitious. [Illustration: FIG. 33.] [Illustration: FIG. 34.] Another proof that the surface of all water is horizontal and that therefore the Earth cannot be a globe is furnished by the following experiment, which was made in May, 1864, on the new pier at Southsea, near Portsmouth:--A telescope was fixed upon a stand and directed across the water at Spithead to the pier head at Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, as shown in the subjoined diagram. The line of sight crossed a certain part of the funnel of one of the regular steamers trading between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight; and it was observed to cut or fall upon the same part during the whole of the passage to Ryde Pier, thus proving that the water between the two piers is horizontal, because it was parallel to the line of sight from the telescope fixed at Southsea. If the Earth were a globe the channel between Ryde and Southsea would be an arc of a circle, and as the distance across is 4¹⁄₂ statute miles the centre of the arc would be 40 inches higher than the two sides; and the steamer would have ascended an inclined plane for 2¹⁄₄ miles, or to the centre of the channel, and afterwards descended for the same distance towards Ryde. This ascent and descent would have been marked by the line of sight falling 40 inches nearer to the deck of the steamer when on the centre of the arc of water, as represented in the following diagram; but as the line of sight did not cut the steamer lower down when in the centre of the channel, and no such ascent and descent was observed, it follows necessarily that the surface of the water between Southsea and the Isle of Wight is _not convex_, and therefore the Earth as a whole is _not a globe_. The evidence against the doctrine of the Earth’s rotundity is so clear and perfect, and so completely fulfils the conditions required in special and independent investigations, that it is impossible for any person who can put aside the bias of previous education to avoid the opposite conclusion that the _Earth is a plane_. This conclusion is greatly confirmed by the experience of mariners in regard to certain lighthouses. Where the light is fixed and very brilliant it can be seen at a distance, which the present doctrine of the Earth’s rotundity would render altogether impossible. For instance, at page 35 of “Lighthouses of the World,” the Ryde Pier Light, erected in 1852,