NA TURE 



\_Nov. 5, 1885 



Thine was unstinted zeal, unchilled devotion, 

 While the blue realm had kingdoms to explore — 



Patience, like his who ploughed the unfurrowed ocean. 

 Till o'er its margin loomed San Salvador. 



Through the long nights I see thee ever waking, 

 Thy footstool earth, thy roof the hemisphere. 



While with thy griefs our weaker hearts are aching, 

 Firm as thine equatorial's rock-based pier. 



The souls that voyaged the azure depths before thee 

 Watch with thy tireless vigils, all unseen — 



Tycho and Kepler bend benignant o'er thee. 

 And with his toy-like lube the Florentine — 



He at whose word the orb that bore him shivered 



To find her central sovereignty disowned, 

 While the wan lips of priest and pontiff quivered. 



Their jargon stilled, their Baal disenthroned. 



Flamsteed and Newton look with brows unclouded. 

 Their strife forgotten with its faded scars — 



(Titans, who found the world of space too crowded 

 To walk in peace among its myriad stars). 



All cluster round thee — seers of earliest ages, 

 Persians, lonians, Mizraim's learned kings, 



From the dim days of Shinar's hoary sages 

 To his who weighed the planet's fluid rings. 



And we, for whom the northern heavens are li^h'ed. 

 For whom the storm has passed, the sun has smiltd, 



Our clouds all scattered, all our stars united, 



We claim thee, clasp thee, like a long-lost child. 



Fresh from the spangled vault's o'crarching splendour, 



Thy lonely pillar, thy revolving dome. 

 In heartfelt accents, proud, rejoicing, tender, 



We bid thee welcome to thine earthly home. 



The Rev. James Freeman Clarke in saying a word in 

 honour of " our friend, the eminent astronomer, who is 

 our guest to-night," remarked that — 



"We are on the verge of still greater discoveries than any 

 yet made, and our own country is prepared to do its full part in 

 the work. When the Russian Government wishes for a better 

 telescope than any now in Europe, it sends to Cambridgeport to 

 get it. Mr. Rutherfurd invents an instrument which gives us 

 the best photographs of the moon ever made. The Washington 

 Observatory discovers the two satellites of Mars. Prof. Langley, 

 in the midst of Pittsburg smoke, has made observations with 

 instruments of his own invention, with an account of which he is 

 now arousing great interest araongthemenof science of England. 

 Dr. Peters, of Clinton, N.Y., and Prof. Watson, of Ann Arbor, 

 have been the chief discoverers of the asteroids. Prof. Young 

 and Harkness first gave, in 1S69, the true theory of the solar 

 corona. The two Bonds, at the Cambridge Observatory, have 

 taken rank among the chief astronomers of our time. Our 

 friend. Prof Pickering, amid all his other labours, has invented 

 instruments of precision by which the light of the stars can be 

 measured with accuracy. And now we welcome home Dr. 

 Gould, who has given long years of labour in a far-off land, away 

 from home and friends, to complete his great work of a catalogue 

 of the southern stars. To him and to his noble wife who shared 

 l.ii labours, sustained his courage, was his companion in his 

 sacrifices, we give our thanks and our love to-night. We 

 sympathise with him in that great loss, and we thank God with 

 him that he and she had this great opportunity, and that they 

 were able to share together, side by side, the consciousness of 

 doing a work which will never be forgotten." 



Other tributes were paid to the work of Dr. Gould by 

 Prof. Levering, of Harvard, Prof Pickering, of Harvard 

 Observatory, Dr. William Everett, Prof W. A. Rogers, 

 of Harvard. The last-named said that there is no 

 exaggeration in the statement that the work which Dr. 

 Gould has accomplished during the past thirteen years is 

 without a parallel in the annals of astronomy. 



" First of all it needs to be said that in 1S70 there was no 

 Cordoba Observatory. I susj^ect, also, that it must be said that 

 astronomers had at that time little faith in the fulfilment of plans 



which required that the Government of a South American Re- 

 public should persistently pursue, for a series of years, that wise, 

 enlightened and liberal policy which has made the Argentine 

 Republic a conspicuous example of !he way in which a govern- 

 ment may foster learning and research w ith the most encouraging 

 results. I do not know of a better way to give a clear idea of 

 the magnitude of this work than by comparing it with similar 

 work done previous to 1872. There are in the northern heavens, 

 between the north pole and a little distance below the equator, 

 about 4500 stars visible to the naked eye. These stars have 

 been oljserved with more or less regularity at various observa- 

 tories since about 1750. Within the same limits there are about 

 95,000 stars as bright or brighter than the ninth magnitude, 

 which are usually observed in narrow belts or zones, and such 

 stars are usually referred to as zone stars. The bright stars are 

 common to nearly all general catalogues, but the positions of the 

 fainter stars depend for the most part on two or three separate 

 observations. Dr. Gould has formed two catalogues since 1872 

 — a general catalogue of stars extending to the south pole, con- 

 taining 34,000 stars, and a catalogue of zone stars, numtiering 

 73,000. These two catalogues 1 epresent about 250,000 separate 

 observations. It is stated in one of the printed volumes that the 

 chronographic register of the transits, the pointing of the tele- 

 scope for declination, and the estimation of the magnitude have 

 all been done by Dr. Gould personally. The distinct and 

 Sep irate observations involved in this work must certainly exceed 

 1,000,000. I suppose there must be several gentlemen present 

 who have a realising sense of what a million really means, but 

 for myself I commonly say that it seems to me to be a very large 

 number. Having made less than 50,000 observations during 

 the lime covered by Dr. Gould's observa'ions, can you wonder 

 that this work, which seems so far beyond the limit of human 

 enduiance, is at once my amazement, my admiration, and — I 

 must add — my despair ? The whole number of stars in the two 

 Cordoba catalogues is nearly three times as great as in any single 

 catalogue thus far constructed ; and it must be remembered in 

 this connection, that the great catalogues of Lalande, of Bessel, 

 of Argelander, and of Schjellerup, represent the labours of a 

 life-time. The total number of stars in all catalogues formed 

 previous to 1870, is about 260,000 as against the 105,000 stars 

 in the Cordoba catalogues. But there is another comparison 

 which may be made, which will reveal yet more clearly, not only 

 the magnitude of the work which Dr. Gould has now finished, 

 but the intense energy with which it has been pushed to com- 

 pletion. Since 1869 a confederation of fourteen observatories, 

 situated in different parts of the world, has been engaged in the 

 accurate determinations of the positions of the 100,000 stars to the 

 ninth magnitude, in the northern heavens. Up to 18S2 a total 

 of about 346,000 observations had been made. Considerable 

 progress had been made in this work before Dr. Gould left this 

 country for South America. His work, involving two-thirds as 

 many observations as all others cornbined, is completed, and is 

 all in the hands of the printer, while the actual formation of the 

 catalogue to be issued under the direction of the Astronomische 

 Gesellschaft can hardly be said to have been begun." 



TELPHERAGE 



ON Saturday, October 17,3 special train from Victoria 

 conveyed a party of about 200 guests, among whom 

 were many leading electricians, engineers, and other well- 

 known men of science, to Glynde, in Sussex, to witness 

 the ceremony of the opening of the first telpher line 

 erected in this country. The ceremony was performed 

 by the Viscountess Hampden, and was of an exceedingly 

 simple character ; on lifting a small box containing a 

 present which the Chairman of the Company invited her 

 ladyship to accept, electric communication was instantly 

 established between the dynamo in the engine-house and 

 the telpher line, and a train loaded with clay at once 

 began to move up an incline towards the Glynde Railway 

 Station, amidst the applause of the assembled spectators. 

 Whether this ceremony, which brought so many distin- 

 guished visitors down to Lord Hampden's estate on 

 Saturday, is the inauguration of a great commercial en- 

 terprise is beyond our province to inquire ; but it is 

 unquestionable that the slight flash seen when Lady 

 Hampden lifted the little box lying on the table in front 



