144 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



A very amusing misprint has found its way into 

 many newspapers in connection with the coming tide. 

 It is interesting as serving to show how little is 

 really known by the general public about some of the 

 simplest scientific matters. The original statement 

 announced that the sun would not be in perihelion by 

 so many seconds of semi-diameter, in itself a very in- 

 correct mode of expression. Still it was clear that 

 what was meant was, that the earth would be so far 

 from the place of nearest approach to the sun that the 

 latter would not look as large as it possibly can by 

 so many seconds of semi-diameter. In many papers, 

 however, we read that the ' sun will not be in perihe- 

 lion by so many seconds of mean chronometer ! ' Who 

 first devised this marvellous reading is unknown he 

 should have a statue. 



(From the Daily News for September 27, 1869.) 



DEEP-SEA DREDGINGS. 



MEN have ever been strangely charmed by the 

 unknown and the seemingly inaccessible. The as- 

 tronomer exhibits the influence of this charm as he 

 constructs larger and larger telescopes, that he may 

 penetrate more and more deeply beyond the veil which 

 conceals the greater part of the universe from the 

 unaided eye. The geologist seeking to piece together 

 the fragmentary records of the past which the earth's 

 surface presents to him, is equally influenced by the 



