U'ho, without being an orientalift, has accitlentally fallen Oli 

 the means of explaininff this obfcure writing merely by his 

 expertnefs in the art of decyphering. The refiilt of his re- 

 fearch is, that thefe wedge-hke figures are aflualiy chatac- 

 tejs, and not fyllables, which proceed from right to left; that 

 the language of thefe infcriptions is Zendic ; jnd that all the 

 Perfepolitan infcripiions which he has hitherto been able to 

 explain relate to Darius Hyitafpes, and Xerxes. 



ASTRONOMY. 



ift. One of the mofi: Angular phaenomena in aflronomy 

 Is, to fee the fiar Algol decreafe in light every three days. 

 I obferved it very fenfibly on the 29th of September. It was 

 at II hours 15 minutes mean lime that its light was the 

 leaft. 



2d. The eclipfe of the fun on the 27th of Augufi:, which 

 I could not fee at Dijon, was obferved at Viviers by C. Fla- 

 gucrgues, and at Marfeilles by C. Thulis. The end at Vi- 

 viers, 18 h. 13 m. 34"; at Marfeilles, 18 h. 11 m. 24''. I 

 thence conclude that the conjunftion took place at 19 h. 

 9 m. 46" true time at Paris. 



3d. C. Pons, keeper of the obfervatory of Marfeilles, has 

 difcovercd a fecond comet. I fent him a fmall prefent. 1 

 have requedcd the minifter to fend him one more confidera- 

 blc, in order to encourage amateurs to fearch for comets, 

 which are now the great defideratum in aftronomy. 



4th. I have carefully examined the Egyptian Zodiac 

 which C. Dcnou has published. I have obferved that the 

 lign Cancer is found in the two lines ; it is at the end of the 

 afcending (igns and the commencement of the defcending. 

 This feems to indicate clearly that the folflicc was in the 

 middle of Cancer. This would go back to 1470 years be- 

 fore the vulgar sera. But I have Ihown in my AHronomy, 

 that in the time of Eudoxus, 370 years before the vulgar 

 sera, the Greeks followed this method from' fome antient 

 Egyptian tradition, which they did not correft becaufe they 

 made no obfervations. 



5th. The fmall tables of logarithms juft puhliflied, being 

 the moll corre(il and convenient, the minillers of the inte- 

 rior and the m;-.rine have determined that they ihall be fent 

 to all the national fchools. Delalande. 



NEW COMET. 



In our'laft we announced this difcovery by C. Mechain on 

 the 28th of Auguit, at nine in the evening, in the conftella- 

 tion of Serpcniarius. It was rifing rapidly towards the North 



pole. 



