344 Remarks on Aneknl EclipsisL 



duced, and the hive so light, that it was impossible it could ^et 

 through the winter, and I therefote unwillingly took it. 



I shall now conclude what I have the honour to offer to thq 

 Society with this observation, that the reward which the Society 

 offers, either pecuniary or honorary, should be held out to him 

 who produces the hive of given dimensions, of the greatest weight, 

 and of course containing the greatest quantity of honey and wax. 

 To give to iiim whose pretensions are the number and not the 

 weight of the hivesj is to enable any one to practise a fraud on 

 the Society, whose object is, to hold out encouragement to the 

 production of the greatest quantity of wax and honey, by inducing 

 him to hive' as a distinct stock, everv late small swarm or cast, 

 not one of wiiich I have ever found yield the smallest quantity of 

 honey fit for any purpose whatever. 



I declare to the Society, that I was possessed of fifty-six stocks 

 of bees, previous to my beginning to take them in August last, 

 1817, all of which were composed of my old stock of the pre- 

 ceding year, and of swarms from them in the year 1817. My 

 stock of the year 1816 consisted of 52 hives, 24 of which I car- 

 ried through the winter without the loss of one, having taken the 

 rest. From the 24 hives I had upward of 40 swarms and casts, 

 which were hived in 32 hives. 



Isaac EsptNASsE, 



LIU. Catalogue of Ancient Eclipses, with the Dates of their 

 corresponding Eclipses at 07ie and two Periods Distance. 

 With Remarks. By Mr. Thomas Yeates. 



[Continued from p. 248.] 



'Remark C). In 912 solar years the Julian calendar falls short 

 of the true solar time by seven whole days, at the rate of eleven 

 minutes per annum ; and therefore, to reduce the ancient with 

 the reformed calendar, seven whole days must be added to the 

 former, to bring it up with the latter during one lunar period. . 



7. And in 912 solar years the moon gains eleven whole days 

 when she comes up with the sun within four days, which pro- 

 duces a compound equation and a third number, amoimting to 

 three days in the joint motions of the sun and moon in one pe- 

 riod, according to the table of the ancient eclipses, and the doc- 

 trine of the anticipation of the moo7i ; but whether this recession 

 of the conjunctions of the sun and moon in the ecliptic is any 

 real and absolute anticipation, or whether it is produced by sonje 

 unknown variation of the calendar reckoning during the above 

 period, is an astronomical question to be inquired into. 



8. Ths 



