1862.] 37 



suitable observers than the difficulty of choice among several proper 

 persons, who will be glad to give their services. To remove any 

 difficulty as to the first trial, I presume to offer for the first two 

 years my own services at Oxford ; having already sketched out a 

 definite plan of work, which has not yet been attempted, and which 

 I believe myself able to accomplish. 



19. It would be no part of my plan to take photographs of the 

 moon, but rather to obtain from other observatories the best 

 examples of this kind of work, and devote every available hour to 

 eye-sketching on a large scale of the exact appearance of selected 

 parts of the lunar disk. 



The drawings thus made, scrutinized and corrected in succeeding 

 years, would gradually and not very slowly* grow up to complete 

 eye-draughts of the moon, under the conditions of sunrise, mid- 

 day, and sunset; and would themselves be again a starting-point 

 for the guidance of even closer scrutiny, with the greatest telescopes 

 and the sharpest eyes. 



20. Finally, my proposal, if allowed to make one, would be, that, 

 for the purpose of securing a series of satisfactory drawings of the 

 physical features of the moon, a six-inch achromatic, by Cooke, con- 

 structed for the purpose, be purchased out of the funds of the 

 Government Grant Committee, and held by a Board composed of 

 three Members of the Royal Society, to be nominated in the first 

 instance and the number afterwards filled up by the Council of the 

 Royal Society, in trust for the use of observers to be appointed by 

 the Board, each for a limited period, and for a defined area of work : 

 the drawings and observations to be communicated, at least once a 

 year, to the Board. Cost of the instrument not to exceed 320 

 guineas, of a moveable house not to exceed 



