148 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



sky, most especially on some very calm and clear night when, 

 in addition to those constellations and stars already men- 

 tioned, I have also had those of Orion, Taurus, Scorpio, Canis 

 Major, and others, and sometimes (as lately here) the brilliant 

 planet Jupiter — together forming a glorious mind-elevating 

 sight. At such seasons, alone beneath the solemn vault of 

 heaven, when the stars were looking down in their silent 

 splendour, an overpowering sense of high feeling steals over 

 one — of time and eternity — of man's littleness and God's 

 greatness. Yet too often, accustomed as we are from our 

 youth upward to see Nature's works outspread before us in 

 eternally renewing riches, we commonly pass them coldly by. 



There is also another pleasing natural sight close at hand 

 — the silent, orderly, yet ever-changing march of the regent of 

 the night, the moon, across the vault of heaven : not merely 

 to note its different phases night after night, but also its con- 

 junction with the planets and larger stars, as given in the 

 " Nautical Almanac " ; especially to note its passing between 

 the earth and one of the larger really bright stars — to see 

 how instantaneously the star disappears when hidden by the 

 moon, and how soon and clearly it reappears when the moon 

 has passed by. It is mainly from this well-known appearance 

 that astronomers have fairly and reasonably deduced the fact 

 of there being no inhabitants in the moon, as that single 

 natural phenomenon shows us that the moon has no atmo- 

 sphere around it, for if it had the star would have been hidden 

 thereby before the moon should pass it. 



Yet another curious and little-known item respecting two 

 of our greatest southern stars — Achernar, in Eridanus, and 

 Canopus, in Argo Navis — is this : that these are the only two 

 which never rise above the horizon of Europe whose names 

 have been derived from the ancient astronomers, showing 

 clearly they were anciently known to them. 



To return : The latter of those two great events alluded 

 to by me as taking place this year is the antarctic exploration, 

 which is now sought to be conducted and carried out on a 

 grand and novel scale, even to the wintering there far within 

 the Frozen Zone and not far from the South Pole. And this 

 daring achievement, I have no doubt, will some day be effected; 

 but, for my part, I do not anticipate any great additions to 

 the sciences of zoology, botany, and geology. 



The remark has more than once been made to me that so 

 much has been done of late years in the natural sciences, 

 zoology and botany especially, in the discovery of new species 

 in New Zealand, tha,t now little remains to be done. This, 

 however, is not correct ; there are hundreds of animals and 

 plants in our colony yet unknown to science waiting to be 

 detected and made known. Take, for instance, two small yet 



