594? Rmjal A&tronomical Society : — Mr. Maclear on the 



made, which the confined locality admitted of, to secure the canvass 

 against the effects of the wind. The instrument was erected and 

 adjusted on the 29th of January, and the observations commenced 

 the same evening. They were carried on until the 19th of Fe- 

 bruary, but under very disadvantageous circumstances, principally 

 from the violence of the north-east wind acting on tire unsettled 

 canvass, and the showers of sand carried into the tent from the 

 street. This series of observations proved to be unsatisfactory, and 

 was not used for the determination of the amplitude. 



As one of the objects for which the present observations were 

 undertaken was to determine the influence of Table Mountain on 

 the direction of the plumb-line, the sector was next transferred to 

 a station close up towards the precipitous front of the mountain, on 

 its north side, and about 1000 feet above the level of the sea. 

 Previous, however, to the commencement of the observations at 

 this station, Mr. Maclear removed the bisecting wires, which had 

 been found too thick fqr several of the stars employed, and substi- 

 tuted cobweb. The observations began on the 24th of February, 

 and were continued till the 13th of March, when the sector was 

 dismounted and carried, as before, by coolies to the office of the 

 Engineer Department in Cape Town. 



The next step in the proceedings was to transport the sector to 

 Klyp Fonteyn, the northern extremity of the arc. The party ar- 

 rived at the station on the 24th of March, and immediately prepared 

 to erect the sector on the corn-floor described in the former Notice 

 as Jacobus Cotsee's foundation, which is situated at, and rather 

 within, the south extremity of the ruin supposed by Captain Everest 

 to be the granary of Lacaille. Before the instrument was set up, 

 the several pieces forming the bearing and upper adjustments of the 

 tube were separated, and carefully cleared from sand and dust. A 

 tent having been raised, and fixed to iron pins driven into the floor, 

 the tube was placed on its bearings, and the two barometers sus- 

 pended from the sector tripod. At the distance of twenty-one feet 

 exactly, and due east of the sector axis, a nail was driven into the 

 floor, on which the axis of the repeating circle was placed. 



The observations for zenith distances began on the 28th of 

 March, and were continued to the 21st of April, a sufficient num- 

 ber having then been made for settling the question of the ampli- 

 tude. Before leaving the station plans were made of the place, and 

 of the foundations which had been discovered by Lieutenant Williams 

 and the sappers ; a base-line was measured, and the nature of the 

 country to the north of the station examined. It was on the 6th of 

 April that the foundation was discovered, whose dimensions cor- 

 respond in some measure to the description given by LacaiUe in his 

 Journal of the granary he had occupied. The sector having been 

 taken down, and a bottle containing an inscription deposited in a 

 hollow chiseled into the solid rock about three feet below the 

 surface, to mark the spot over which it had been erected, the party 

 quitted Klyp Fonteyn on the 25th of April, and arrived at the Ob- 

 servatory on the 1st of May. 



