H flM&gfltercb IRtgbt 27 



And probably the sun has been an incorrigible in that 

 respect ever since it rose upon the earth. 



Since the warm, bright season it has travelled far, 

 or, rather, the earth's orbital motion has made it 

 appear to travel far among the stars. It has traversed 

 Virgo, Libra, the upper and narrow part of Scorpio 

 between Beta Scorpii and Antares crossed the Milky 

 Way in Ophiuchus, and passed through Sagittarius 

 into Capricornus, where it now is. Upon leaving 

 Capricornus it has but to traverse Aquarius and a few 

 degrees of Pisces, and then oh ! happy prospect 

 we shall have it north of the Equator again. 



Poets oft sing of the winter sun's lengthening 

 shadows. In my latitude the solar meridional height 

 at the winter solstice is only about 12J degrees, 

 down to which it has sunk from about 59J degrees, 

 its meridional altitude at midsummer. And from 

 midsummer, through the Autumn Equinox, onward 

 to a few days before Christmas the shadows in our 

 northern hemisphere lengthen. 



But, joyful to relate, we have done with that for a 

 season. To-day the meridian sun rose nearly nineteen 

 degrees above my horizon, and has acquitted itself 

 admirably. Hence my warm welcome. 



A MID-MARCH NIGHT 



As dusk came on last evening, Sirius, not far to the 

 eastward of the meridian, darted white fire so im- 

 petuously that a friend whose attention I drew to it 

 laughed outright at what seemed to him the oddity of 

 the spectacle. And I must admit that there was 

 something diverting in its spitfire splendour. 



