62 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



The memory of these brilhant young- 

 fellows and their housekeeping- has not 

 yet faded out of Cambridge. What in- 

 terests us here, however, is that Winlock 

 was already at work on the "Nautical 

 Almanac," which later became his great 

 life work, while Gould was engaged in 

 determining longitudes for the Coast 

 Survey. Between them, they actually 

 managed to corral, for a short while a 

 great telescope, the property either of 

 their Uncle Samuel or of the Harvard 

 Observatory, which they mounted in the 

 unused henhouse, and by natural asso- 

 ciation of ideas christened "the Shang- 

 hai." 



The biographer of one of the Whit- 

 neys confessed himself sorely puzzled by 

 a sentence in an old letter from one 

 brother to the other, "Now is the time to 

 ox up Lunam with the Shanghai." 



But with "Shanghai" as the key, one 

 quickly recalls ihatLnna is Latin for the 

 moon, and that "ox" in college slang 

 might easily mean "work" or "study." 

 Edwin Tenney Brewster. 



This letter is indeed most interesting, 

 containing as it does this personal remi- 

 niscence of the two eminent astronomers, 

 Gould and Winlock. The latter is at 

 once suggested to all double star astron- 

 omers by his discovery of the very mi- 

 nute attendant to Regulus and also by 

 liis discoveries of very many other pairs 

 which are known by his name, while the 

 most accurate meridian work of the for- 

 mer at the observatory of Cordoba 

 marks an epoch in the history of the as- 

 tronomy of the southern heavens. Dr. 

 Gould also founded the astronomical 

 journal of perhaps the highest standard 

 of any astronomical periodical of the 

 world, and after its death there has been 

 added to its title, "Founded by B. A. 

 Gould." Many stories of his uniform 

 consideration for younger astronomers 

 are known to all and he may truly be 

 said to have done fully as much as any 

 one man ever did to advance American 

 astronomy. I was indeed most inter- 

 ested in this slight contribution to a his- 

 torv of these eminent men. — Professor 

 Eric Doolittle. 



We Need $700 More 



An Unusually Bright Halo. 



Mr. Edward Pennock, of Philadelphia, 

 has kindly sent us extended notes de- 

 scribing rings around the sun together 

 with a column article from a Phila- 

 delphia newspaper. There was really 

 nothing extraordinary about this halo 

 except its unusual brightness. That the 

 halo not only stirred up interest in the 

 sun, but was in some cases even a cause 

 for alarm, is shown by the following 

 cpotation from the paper : 



"About lo o'clock, persons who 

 glanced up at the sky for a hint of the 

 weather saw a broad band encircling the 

 sun, the outer rim a deep purple and 

 the inner a gorgeous red. In the north- 

 western quadrant of its centre, a point 

 in the circumference of the lirst circle, 

 was a second band of whitish hue, great- 

 er in size but much less distinct than the 

 other. In addition there appeared in 

 the southeast quadrant of the primary 

 band a segment of about 90 degrees, still 

 less distinct, although the red and violet 

 of its edges were discernible. The first 

 had a 22 degree radius and the second 

 one of 44 degrees. 



"For two hours and more this strange 

 sight met the gaze of millions, for it was 

 visible in the greater part of Eastern 

 Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Dela- 

 ware. 



"By noon all Philadelphia and virtu- 

 ally the rest of the territory concerned 

 went out of doors and stood on tiptoe 

 watching the strange sight. Knots of 

 persons would point their fingers at the 

 halo and assure themselves that it was 

 a 'war ring' or that it signified the end 

 of the world. 



" 'Old timers' remembered that a simi- 

 lar apparition had appeared just before 

 the Civil War ; others versed in biblical 

 literature compared it with the rainbow 

 that cheered the hearts of Noah and his 

 crew on the Ark, or quoted from Revel- 

 ations on the end of the world. 



"In the Italian section of the city and 

 in Italian settlements in rural communi- 

 ties where the rings were observed the 

 terror in some cases nearly assumed the 

 proportions of a panic. It was held by 

 them to be a bad omen for Italy's en- 

 trance into the war." 



This article and other inquiries were 

 referred to our Professor Doolittle and 

 he replies as follows : 



"The brilliant haloes described bv Mr. 



