Royal Society. 389 



The excessive complexity of detail in this singular object baffled 

 every attempt to delineate the whole or any large portion of it by the 

 aid of the telescope. Hewas desirous of giving a correct and magnified 

 drawing of both Nubecula ; and to this end he took the place, with 

 the equatorial, of every star visible in that instrument down to the 

 10th magnitude, in both objects, with a view to the formation of 

 detailed charts to serve as the groundwork of the drawings. This 

 very laborious operation was satisfactorily executed, but the exe- 

 cution of the drawings proved to be beyond his unassisted power, 

 and he was obliged, though with regret, to rest content with having 

 prepared the way for the more successful operations of some other 

 astronomer, to whom he recommends the completion of a work at 

 once so interesting in its performance and instructive in its result. 



Catalogues of the objects (stars, nebulae and clusters), observed in 

 both Nubeculse, including those observed with the 20-foot reflector 

 as well as the equatorial, are given. In the Nubecula Minor the 

 number is 244 ; in the Major 919. They are reduced by clock and 

 index errors obtained from stars occurring in the zones, and, as in 

 the other catalogue, the epoch is 1830. Numerous as are the objects 

 whose places are thus for the first time determined and recorded, the 

 author does not regard his work as more than a commencement, and 

 he calls it, simply, a " First approximation towards a Catalogue of 

 Objects in the Magellanic Clouds . . preparatory to the Construction 

 of Charts of the Nubeculse, and to the future execution of Drawings 

 of them in detail." 



We propose to give, in a future Number, an abstract of the 

 second chapter of the work, which treats of the Double Stars of the 

 Southern Hemisphere. 



Nov. 



LI I. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 307.] 



NJov. 25,l)OSTSCRIPT to Mr. W. H. Barlow's paper on Alter- 

 1847. -■- nating Diurnal Currents of Electricity at the Terrestrial 

 Surface. 



The author states that since his pajier was read to the Society, he 

 had made further experiments to determine with greater accuracy 

 the direction in which the daily electrical currents travel, and also 

 how far the motions of the horizontal magnetic needle correspond 

 with that of the telegraph. With regard to the latter, he finds that 

 although they agree as to the general character of their deflexions, 

 there is no decided simultaneous coincidence in their movements, 



" Magnetical experiments on board H.M. Iron Steam Vessel 

 ' Bloodhound.' " By Captain Edward Johnson, R.N., F.R.S. Com- 

 municated to the President by the Lords Commissioners of the Ad- 

 miralty, and communicated to the Society by the President. 



These experiments were undertaken with the view of ascertaining 



