94 Star anfr Meatber 6o08tp 



been with him a subject of inquiry since his early youth. 

 He was aware that Aristotle had maintained that stars 

 might occasionally be seen from caverns and cisterns, 

 as through tubes, to which circumstance Pliny also had 

 alluded. What the Greek philosopher said was this : 

 " Keenness of sight is as much the power of seeing far, 

 as of accurately distinguishing the differences presented 

 by the objects viewed. These two properties are not 

 met in the same individuals. For he who holds his 

 hands over his eyes, or looks through a tube, is not on 

 that account more or less able to distinguish differences 

 of colour, although he will see objects at a greater 

 distance. Hence it arises that persons in caverns or 

 cisterns are occasionally enabled to see stars." 



Narrien's error in fancying that ancient astronomers 

 made observations from caves in the ground was 

 pointed out by the late Mr. W. T. Lynn thirty years 

 ago. The mistake, Mr. Lynn thought, arose from 

 using a Latin translation of Strabo, and confound- 

 ing " specula," an observatory, with " specus " or 

 " spelunca," a cave. If Narrien, he added, had con- 

 sulted the French translation of Strabo which was 

 begun by order of Napoleon in 1805, and completed 

 in 1819 he would have found the word properly 

 rendered " une espece d'observatoire." The popular 

 error is perpetuated in Washington Irving's story of 

 The Alhambra, thus : " He caused the cave to be 

 enlarged so as to form a spacious and lofty hall, with 

 a circular hole at the top, through which, as through a 

 well, he could see the heavens and behold the stars 

 even at midday." 



It is related by a correspondent to a North Country 

 journal that when working at the bottom of a forty- 



