114 SIR JOHN FREDERICK WILLIAM HERSCHEL. 



memoirs of the Astronomical Society is an account of the great nebulae 

 of Andromeda and Orion, accompanied by an admirable engraving of 

 the latter. From 1825 to 1833 nearly all his astronomical energies were 

 given to this kind of observation. The catalogue of uebulse and clusters, 

 previously mentioned, contains a list of more thau twenty-five hundred 

 of both ; their right ascensions and declinations determined ; the char- 

 acter of their general appearance recorded; and those which present an 

 unusual constitution, or an extraordinary shape, (of which there are 

 nearly one hundred,) are drawn with a precision, delicacy, and taste 

 worthy of the most accomplished artist. The astronomer royal, on pre- 

 senting the gold medal of the Astronomical Society to Captain Smyth, 

 on behalf of Sir John Herschel, who was then residing at the Cape of 

 Good Hope, remarks : "That one of the most important parts of this 

 work is the division containing the engraved representations of the most 

 remarkable nebulse. The peculiarities they represent cannot be described 

 by words nor by numerical expressions. These drawings contain that 

 which is conspicuous and distinctive to the eye, and that which will en- 

 able the eyes of future observers to examine whether secular variation 

 is perceptible. They are, in fact, the most distinct and most certain 

 records of the state of a nebulfe at a given time." 



The second series of investigations to which it is desired here to draw 

 especial attention, is that described in the unique volume entitled " Ee- 

 sults of Astronomical Observations made during the years 1831-1838, 

 at the Cape of Good Hope ; being the completion of a telescopic survey 

 of the whole surface of the visible heavens."' After the publication of 

 the catalogue of nebuhc in 1833, Sir John Ilerschel determined to 

 undertake a voyage to South Africa, for the purpose of continuing his 

 researches in another hemisphere under a new heaven. He had the 

 same plan in view and the same instruments. It had been irksome to 

 his honored father, and was alike fretful to his own spirit, that the 

 clouded sky of England allowed free sweep of the great telescope along 

 the path of the stars at a rate so niggardly. Hardly more than thirty 

 hours in thrice that number of nights were the mysteries of the great 

 vault exposed to his search. He resolved, therefore, to seek a clearer at- 

 mosphere and a wider field of iuqui ry . The southern extremity of Africa, 

 where was an English colony, in which seclusion could be found without 

 loss of 'means of communication with the philosophic world, and an un- 

 clouded sky bending above a healthy climate, seemed to offer the 

 greatest advantages. He consequently fixed upon the Cape of Good 

 Hope as the most fitting place for a protracted residence away from Eng- 

 land, and the broadest field for thorough researches. 



Sir John Ilerschel embarked at Portsmouth, in company with his 

 family, on the loth of November, 1833, and arrived safely at Table P.ay 

 on the 18th of January, 1834, after a pleasant voyage, diversified by 

 few nautical incidents. 



No one knew so well as the great astronomer of whom we write, even 



