ii2 To the River Plate and Hack 



Durchniusterung there are about half a million stars. 

 In this work of photographing the southern heavens the 

 observatory at La Plata was intended to take a very 

 active part, but for various reasons very little has up 

 to the present time been done. Now, however, the 

 observatory has a most skillful astronomer at its head, 

 and it may be anticipated that it, as well as the observa- 

 tory at Cordoba, will begin to give a good account of 

 itself. It is true in all scientific effort that something 

 more is needed to achieve success than mere machinery. 

 Of what use are the most advanced appliances if there 

 be lacking the power to use them? The importance of 

 the human element dare never be overlooked. Some 

 very worthy people are obsessed with the idea that 

 power is secured by the multiplication of machines, 

 forgetting the fact that after all it is "the man behind 

 the gun' 1 who should be the supreme concern. Here I 

 was standing in the morning sunshine, on the broad 

 grounds of an observatory where hundreds of thousands 

 of dollars have been spent in securing the very latest 

 and best appliances for discovering the secrets of the 

 skies, and yet where until this moment practically little 

 has been done, except to supply time-signals to the naval 

 stations of the republic, a service which could be ren- 

 dered at an outlay of a fraction of that which this great 

 establishment has cost. It is much easier to purchase 

 a supply of scientific tools than to find a man with the 

 genius to use them well. 



It was with such reflections that I went with my kind 

 host on a stroll through the grounds of the Observatory. 

 He showed me the dome under which is the large refract- 

 ing telescope, the almost equally large dome under 

 which are the photographic telescopes. He pointed out 

 a dozen other buildings large and small, all prepared 



