226 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



and by the winged Rams placed across at these two 

 places. In the great zodiac of the same city, 

 the marks would be the cross position of the 

 Bull, and the reversed one of the Sagittary. 

 There would thus be but a portion of a constel- 

 lation traversed between the dates of Esne and 

 those of Dendera, but even this would be still too 

 long for buildings so closely resembling each other. 

 An operation of the late M. Delambre upon 

 the circular planisphere appears to confirm these 

 conjectures, detracting from its remote antiqui- 

 ty ; for, on placing the stars upon Hipparchus's 

 projection, according to the theory of that astro- 

 nomer, and according to the positions which he 

 has given them in his catalogue ; and augment- 

 ing all the longitudes, so that the solstice 

 might pass through the second of the Twins, he 

 nearly reproduced this planisphere - y and " the re- 

 semblance," says he, " would have been still 

 greater, had the longitudes been adopted such as 

 they are in the catalogue of Ptolemy, for the year 

 123 of our era. On the contrary, by referring to 

 twenty-five or twenty-six centuries back, the 

 right ascensions and the declinations will be con- 

 siderably changed, and the projection will assume 

 quite a different figure *. All our calculations," 



Delambre. Note at the end of the Report on the 



