1888. | NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 13 
ings and bunchings on strings of native copper. These are 
generally altered to a softer variety of cuprite, but more often 
coated with malachite, as in the crystals from Chessy, France. 
The other form, kindly sent me by Mr. T. A. Heistand, 
from the collection of Clarence S. Bement, occurs in cavities of 
cuprite, sometimes as single crystals and again covering sur- 
faces several millimetres across. These are often most brilliant 
ruby-red in color, and as splendent as any known mineral. In 
size, they vary from 1mm. to 6mm. in diameter, and, as the 
measurements show, are remarkable for their sharpness of 
angles and polish of faces. 
The locality given for the topaz and phenacites in the Amer. 
Jour. Science, September number, as near Stoneham, Me., is 
in reality near the Maine State line, in New Hampshire, in the 
town of North Chatham, on the top of Bald Mountain. 
On motion of Mr. W. H. J. SreBeRrG, the President appointed 
acommittee to prepare resolutions in memory of the late Mr. 
B. B. CHAMBERLIN, naming Mr. Sieberg, Prof. Martin, and 
Mr. Kunz as the members. 
Pror.JoHN K. Rexs then read the paper of the evening, entitled: 
ASTRONOMICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY FOR THE YEAR, 
OCTOBER IsT, 1887, TO OCTOBER IsT, 1888.’ 
The subject was treated under the following heads: 
Instruments.—Mention was made of the new personal-equa- 
tion machine of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England, 
of Sir Howard Grubb’s new arrangement of electrical control 
for driving-clocks of equatorials; of the electric illumination of 
Dr. Gill’s heliometer; of Gothard’s apparatus for registering the 
readings of the wedge photometer without disturbing the eye; 
and of Repsold’s automatic method of recording transits of stars. 
Observations.—The work of the U. S. Naval Observatory, 
Harvard College, Yale College, and the Lick Observatory, were 
briefly alluded to. Especial attention was paid to the work at 
Yale, carried on by Dr. Elkin. The work done by some of the 
foreign observatories was also stated with brevity. 
!'This paper appears in full in Appleton’s Annual Cyclopedia for 1888, 
