428 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



and speaks of his intention to go to Dusky Bay, in New Zea- 

 land, for the purpose of picking up two anchors, and taking the 

 iron fastenings out of an old Indiaman named the Endeavour^ 

 that lies there deserted, with the intention of selling the former 

 to the Spaniards.' 



"Bass (who discovered Bass' Straits) sailed for Chili, and 

 was never afterwards heard of. 



" No doubt the old Indiaman is the vessel you told me of, 

 lying at Dusky Bay. 



" Yours faithfully, 



" S. Percy Smith." 



Art. LI. — On a Stereoscopic Aspect of the Moon. 



By J. Hardcastle. 



[Read before the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Institute, 15th August, 1887.] 



The full moon presents the appearance of a disc, not of a sphere, 

 to most if not all people, and I have never met with any other 

 description of her appearance. But, by a little ingenuity, a 

 truly stereoscopic view of our satellite may be had. If, when 

 the full moon is on or near the meridian the light is conceived to 

 fall upon her from above, and to the left, the darker portions on 

 the opposite side fall into the positions of shadings natural to a 

 sphere so illuminated under ordinary circumstances, and the 

 visible surface stands out boldly as a hemisphere. The photo- 

 graph of the full moon in Proctor's " Moon" will give this effect, 

 but less distinctly than the orb itself, the dark portions being 

 too dark, perhaps. Having once seen this solid aspect of the 

 full moon, it always presents itself, at least to me. If this is a 

 new and not a re-discovery, and wonder is felt that it was not 

 observed before, the obvious explanation is that the moon is 

 upside down, so to speak, to the inhabitants of the Northern 

 Hemisphere, where observers, till of late years, have lived ; and 

 they must lie down, or stand on their heads, to get the view of it 

 that we have, or suppose the unusual condition of the sphere 

 being illuminated from below. 



