538 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



serrations. Finally, there exists at Madras a private observatory, be- 

 longing to Mr. Burton Powell. 



Tiie Cape of Good Hope was an astronomical station long before a 

 permanent observatory was thought of. From 1751 to 1753 the 

 celebrated Abbe do LaCaille prepared his catalogue of the stars of the 

 southern heavens, at the same time that he measured a meridional arc, 

 and that he determined with Lalande, who had been sent to Berlin, 

 the parallax of the moon, by means of a series of simultaneous observa- 

 tions. The immense labors accomplished by La Caille, in his short 

 abode at the Cape, are so much the more worthy of praise as he had 

 to struggle against a climate unfavorable for observation, for in this 

 latitude there are only two months when the days are calm and serene ; 

 during the rest of the year the weather is variable, or a violent south 

 wind fills the air with dust, and deprives it of its transparency. In 

 spite of these inconveniences, the Cape is from its geographical situa- 

 tion one of the best stations for the study of the southern heavens, 

 without taking into the account that the necessities of navigation de- 

 mand the maintenance of an observatory in these regions. But it was 

 not till 1820 that the English Admiralty decided upon the foundation 

 of an observatory at the Cape, which should be constructed upon the 

 model of that of Greenwich. The first director was the Rev. Fearon 

 Fallows, who began regular observations in 1829 ; but, soon left alone 

 by the departure of his assistant, he was obliged to avail himself of 

 the assistance of his wife, who observed with the mural circle, while 

 he made use of the transit instrument. Fallows died in 1831, and was 

 succeeded by Henderson, to whom Sir Thomas Maclear succeeded in 

 1834. Better provided with instruments and personnel than his pred- 

 ecessor, Mr. Maclear resumed the geodesic operations of La Caille, 

 and measured anew, with the superior means at his command, a 

 meridian arc more extended than the former. Among the other works 

 of the establishment, noteworthy mention must be made of numerous 

 cometic observations. Mr. Maclear resigned his office in 1870, and 

 was replaced by a Greenwich astronomer, Mr. Stone. It should be 

 mentioned here that, outside of the Royal Observatory, Sir John Her- 

 schel prepared, from 1833 to 1838, at the Cape of Good Hope, his 

 celebrated catalogue of the nebulae and double stars of the southern 

 heavens, by the aid of a telescope and an equatorial which he had 

 brought with him. 



Since the abode of La Caille at the Cape, no serious attempt had 

 been made to add to our knowledge of the southern half of the heav- 

 ens, when, in 1821, Sir Thomas Brisbane, then governor of the colony 

 of New South Wales, resolved to supply the want at his own expense. 

 He founded three observatories, one at Makerstown, where Mr. Allen 

 Brown, who has since become the astronomer of the Rajah of Trav- 

 ancore, began a series of meteorological and magnetic observations, 

 the two others at Brisbane and at Paramatta near Sydney. Of the 



