Notices respecting New Books. 379 



containing 2306 nebulse and clusters, of which 1781 are identical 

 with objects occurring in Sir W. Herschel's catalogues or in other 

 works, and the remaining 525 are new. Besides nebulse and clus- 

 ters, which were the special objects of attention, there were observed 

 in the course of the review between 3000 and 4000 double stars, of 

 all classes and orders, the positions of which, accompanied with a 

 great number of highly interesting remarks descriptive of their ap- 

 pearance or peculiarities, were given in six catalogues which have 

 been published in the IVlemoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. 

 Having completed this review, and having acquired during the eight 

 years' practice sufficient mastery of the instrument (a reflecting 

 telescope of 18^ inches clear aperture, and 20 feet in focal length), 

 and of the delicate process of polishing the specula, and being more- 

 over strongly incited by the peculiar interest of the subject, he re- 

 solved to attempt a completion of the survey by extending it to the 

 whole surface of the heavens. ' For this purpose it was necessary to 

 transport the instruments into the other hemisphere ; and the Cape 

 of Good Hope was selected as the most convenient and eligible 

 station. 



Sir John, accompanied by his family, and carrying with him the 

 20-foot reflector above alluded to, an achromatic telescope of seven 

 feet in focal length mounted as an equatorial, and other astronomical 

 apparatus, sailed fi'om Portsmouth for the Cape in the East India 

 Company's ship, the Mount Stewart Elphinstone, on the 13th of 

 November 1833, and arrived in Table Bay on the 15th of January 

 1834. Having disembarked his apjiaratus (which was found not to 

 have sustained the slightest injury), his first care was to seek out a 

 residence in a suitable locality. This he fortunately succeeded in 

 speedily finding at the mansion of a Dutch proprietor, at a distance 

 of about six miles from Cape Town. The place, which bears the 

 name of Feldhuysen or Feldhausen, is charmingly situated on the 

 last slope at the base of the Table Mountain, and was well-sheltered 

 from dust, and also from the winds which at some seasons prevail there 

 with great violence. All his preparations were made and the tele- 

 scope set up by the end of February, and on the night of the 5th of 

 March he commenced a regular course of sweeping*. Shortly after 

 a building was begun for the reception of the equatorial, for which he 

 had carried out with him a moveable roof constructed in England, and 

 on the 2nd of May the instrument was brought into approximate ad- 

 justment, and a series of micrometrical measures of southern double 

 stars was commenced. The great reflector stood of course in the 

 open air ; and his whole establishment was within an enclosure sur- 

 rounded by trees, but commanding a tolerably near approach to the 

 horizon on all sides, excepting the western, where the nearer vicinity 

 of the trees shut out a part of the sky. 



The exact geographical position of Feldhausen (which, like Rhodes 

 or Huen, is destined to be an object of interest to the astronomers of 

 all future ages) is in latitude 33" 58' 5G''-55 S., and longitude 22'" 46"' 



* This term is used by tlie autiior to designate tlie system of observation 

 in zones of 3' breadth in polar distance in search of new objects. 



