HIS ASTRONOMICAL STUDIES: DIALLING. 103 



he also made a drawing of a large geographical clock 

 and dial, while staying at Longfolds. 



John once possessed a watch, bought as soon after 

 he had completed his apprenticeship as he gained suffi- 

 cient funds, proud like all young men to possess this 

 evidence of money and manhood ; but this his after needs, 

 about the time he left Aberdeen, obliged him to part with 

 to a fellow- workman, and he never had another wheeled 

 chronometer of any kind. His astronomical knowledge, 

 however, was an adequate practical substitute. Through- 

 out his life, he could tell the hour with remarkable 

 accuracy, by observing the height of the sun when in the 

 open air, and by the direction and length of the shadows 

 when his beams streamed across his loom. At night, the 

 position of the stars was sufficient to show the time ; and 

 his accomplishments in this way, especially in the dark, 

 created profound astonishment amongst his ignorant 

 neighbours, who thought this another of his ways that 

 were " no very canny." 



But his desire of accuracy in all things, including hours, 

 which his study of astronomy had increased, rendered 

 him dissatisfied with this more or less indefinite mode of 

 measuring time ; and he made a pocket sun-dial as a 

 substitute for watch or clock, which he carried about with 

 him for years, and which still remains as a proof of his 

 executive power and the practical direction all studies 

 took in his hands. It consists of a card about five inches 

 long and three and a half broad, nailed to a piece of thin 

 wood of the same size, with certain lines and figures 

 drawn upon it and a pendent green, twisted cord, half 

 as long again as the card, bearing a small blue glass bead, 



