50 ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH. 



eye caught two red stars about three degrees south-west of 

 the sun, with large round and equally bright discs which I 

 estimated as of the fifth magnitude, appearing (this was my 

 thought at the time) about as bright in the telescope as the 

 pole-star does to the naked eye. I then carefully noted their 

 distance from the sun and from each other, and the direction 

 in which they pointed, &c., and recorded them in my memory, 

 where, to my mind's eye, they are still distinctly visible. I 

 then swept southward, not daring to venture far to the west, 

 for fear I should be unable to get back again, and soon came 

 upon two stars resembling in every particular the former two 

 I had found, and, sighting along the outside of the tube, was 

 surprised to find I was viewing the same objects. Again I 

 observed them with the utmost care, and then recommenced 

 my sweeps in another direction ; but I soon had them again, 

 and for the third time, in the field. This was also the last, as a 

 small cloud hindered a final leave-taking just before the end 

 of totality, as I had intended. I saw no other star besides 

 these two, not even Delta, so close to the eastern edge of the 

 sun/ 



He adds that the apparent distance between the two 

 bodies was about one-fourth the sun's diameter. (These 

 are not his words, but convey the same meaning.) 



Again, he adds that, from three careful estimates, he 

 found the two stars pointed exactly to the sun's centre. He 

 knew one of the two bodies was Theta ; but unfortunately he 

 could not tell which was Theta and which the new star or 

 planet. ' But/ he says, ' Professor Watson happily comes to 

 the rescue, and with his means of measuring finds the planet 

 nearest to the sun.' 



Unhappily, however, Professor Watson does not come 

 absolutely to the rescue here. On the contrary, to use 

 Professor Swift's words in another part of his letter (and 

 speaking of another matter), 'it is just here where the 

 trouble begins.' If we construct a little map illustrating 

 what Professor Swift describes, we get the accompanying 

 arrangement (fig. 2). It is clearly quite impossible to 



