116 A SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY. 
“ What is the Milky Way?” may be called the question of questions 
for future astronomers; but it has only of late been brought to some 
extent within the range of available methods. More feasible aims 
prompted the foundation of southern observatories. English official 
astronomy in particular took its rise directly from the requirements of 
English seamen. Flamsteed was commissioned to determine the places 
of the stars, not because any speculative interest attached to them, 
but simply in order that they might serve for divisions (as it were) of - 
the great dial plate of the heavens, upon which the moon marked 
Greenwich time, and might hence be got to tell the longitude in every 
part of the world. 
But English astronomy was incomplete, even from a strictly utilita- 
rian point of view, so long as it failed to embrace the whole of the 
celestial sphere; and in proportion as England’s colonial empire be- 
came consolidated, the need of a supplementary establishment to that 
at Greenwich was rendered more and more imperative. 
~In the choice of its situation, there was scarcely room for a doubt. 
The Cape of Good Hope was already distinguished as the scene of 
Lacaille’s labors in 185152; and these furnished the virtual starting- 
point of austral astronomy. As their result, 10,000 southern stars and 
forty-two nebulie were known at the beginning of this century; and an 
indication of a somewhat anomalous character (yet the only one of any 
kind at hand) had been procured regarding the figure of our globe 
south of the equator. It seemed to show that the earth bulged the 
wrong way,—in other words, was prolate instead of oblate. Its cor- 
rection or verification was hence of extreme interest, and the re-meas- 
urement of Lacaille’s are of the meridian came to be recognized as a 
prime necessity of geodetic science. By an order in council, dated 
October 20, 1820, the establishment of a permanent observatory at the 
Cape was accordingly decreed, and the first royal astronomer was im- 
mediately afterwards appointed, in the person of the Rey. Fearon 
Fallows, of St. Johns College, Cambridge. 
A Cumbrian weaver’s son, he had contrived, while still a boy work- 
ing at the loom, to attain a notable proficiency in mathematics; and, 
his talents attracting attention, some gentlemen of the neighborhood 
subscribed to procure him a suitable education. He graduated in 
1813, as third wrangler to Herschel’s and Peacock’s first and second, 
and was elected on the earliest opportunity a fellow of his college. The 
prosperity and happiness of his life culminated when he found himself 
aS His Majesty’s astronomer at the Cape, in a position to marry the 
eldest daughter of his first patron, the Rev. Mr. Hervey, of Bridekirk. 
This however was the last fortunate event of his life. Disappoint- 
ment and chagrin presided over the entire series of poor Fallows’ ex- 
periences in South Africa. Suspense through circumlocutory proceed- 
ings at home, anxiety due to the misconduct or lawlessness of those 
employed by him in the colony, vexation indescribable at the defects 
