TO stat an& Weatber (Bosstp 



THE NIGHT-SKY IN FIJI 



From Suva, Fiji, I received, during October, 1911, 

 this deeply interesting communication. The writer 

 was Mr. Hugh Daniel Badcock, M.A., M.INST.C.E., 

 then H.M. Commissioner of Works at Suva. 



" One of the chief advantages of an amateur study 

 of astronomy is that it makes one feel at home in the 

 most out-of-the-way places. Years ago, when sleeping 

 on the open veld, during the South African war, I used 

 to look out night after night into the wonderfully 

 clear skies of the Transvaal and watch my old friends 

 among the zodiacal constellations pass in orderly 

 procession from dark to dawn. By day, I was in a 

 strange land, with strange companions, and in alto- 

 gether unwonted circumstances. By night, I might 

 have been at home again, peering from my bedroom 

 window at the stars I had known from childhood. 

 Here in Fiji, separated from England by almost the 

 diameter of the earth, it is still the same. Indeed, if I 

 were asked what feature of the sky makes the most 

 impression in the tropics, or in any land, for the 

 matter of that, I should pick out this familiarity. It 

 is true, of course, that there are a few striking con- 

 stellations, such as the Southern Cross and the incom- 

 parable region of Argo, which are not visible at home, 

 but here we see our old friend the Great Bear as well 

 though not so often as in England and everything 

 south of him. Cassiopeia hugs the horizon, but the " W" 

 is distinctly seen, and really the Little Bear is the only 

 striking constellation that cannot be picked out at all. 



