n-. SOUTH AFRICAN ASSOCIATION FOR ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



that it has in every way surpassed our most sanguine expectations. 

 The rush from day to day during the sessions at Capetown and 

 Johannesburg was so great that it left me but little time for attend- 

 ance at the sectional meetings. I shall not, therefore, attempt to 

 give any appreciation of the valuable presidential addresses which 

 were delivered, or of the papers which were read. Since Capetown 

 is the seat of the Royal Observatory, and since Sir David Gill's 

 eminence as an astronomer is well known, it was to be expected 

 that the crop of astronomical papers would be large. Moreover, we 

 were fortunate in having among us Dr. Kapteyn, of Groningen, who 

 has collaborated largely with Sir David in the study of the stars of 

 the Southern Hemisphere. Prominent among the papers read were 

 Sir David Gill's account of the survev of South Africa — a scientific 

 enterprise of the first importance — and Dr. Ka23teyn's study of the 

 motion of the stars, which seems to give us some insight into what 

 is happening in that vast universe of which our sun is so insignificant 

 a member. Dr. Roberts, of the Native College at Lovedale, gave us 

 an account of his study of double stars carried out in South Africa. 

 This paper was especially interesting to me, since it seems to afford 

 some evidence of the actual efficiency of tidal friction in changing 

 the configuration of a pair of stars even within the lifetime oi a 

 man. I am unable to speak at first hand of the work in the 

 biological sections, but I know that in our subsequent journeys the 

 entomologists and botanists found much to interest them, although 

 our visit coincided with the deadest time of the year. The geologists, 

 among whom were Penck, of Vienna, Sollas, of Oxford, and Davis, 

 of Harvard (more properly a geographer), reaped a rich harvest of 

 observation in the geological excursions whicu filled up the fortnight 

 between the meeting at Capetown and that at Johannesburg. The 

 engineers and chemists must have learned much, and perhaps may 

 have taught a little, at Johannesburg and Kimberley. Finally, I 

 cannot pass over in silence Sir Richard Jebbs very remarkable ad- 

 dress at Capetown in the educational section, repeated with some 

 additional matter at Johannesburg. It should be read by all in- 

 terested in education, whether at home or in Africa. A volume of 

 papers read before the Association which have a special bearing on 

 South Africa is to be printed, and some generous citizens of Johan- 

 nesburg will defray the incidental expenses. It will, I hope, be 

 found to repay in a measure our debt of gratitude for all the kind- 

 ness shown us. In conclusion, at the risk of being irrelevant, I can- 

 not refrain from mentioning that I had the pleasure of meeting an 

 old lady, Miss Maclear, daughter of the former Astronomer Royal 

 at the Cape, who had actually seen my father when he was there 

 in 1835. She told me that, as a young girl, she remembers him 

 riding round the Observatory Hill — at that time bare of trees — clad 

 in a white Chilian dress. This is a link with the past that I little 

 expected to find." 



Reference was made in the first annual report of your Council 

 to the petition presented to the Transvaal Government for the estab- 

 lishment of an observatory in this neighbourhood. As you are aware, 



