April -4, 1884] 



NA rURE 



597 



prises four rooms, each 20 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 14 

 feet high. In the entrance hall is placed the telegraphic 

 apparatus ; to the right is my private office, where the 

 library is placed, contained in glazed teak-wood book- 

 cases, to protect the books from insects in the summer. 

 I have already received extensive donations from scientific 

 institutions in all parts of the world. The 100m next to 

 this contains the clocks, which are fixed to brick piers 

 neatly covere'I with teak wood. The piers, which rest on 

 cement concrete, are carried down 6 feet below the ground 

 in holes lined with bricks. Behind this is a small room 

 in which the galvanic batteries are placed. 



6. The mean-time clock, which is to discharge thetiine- 

 ball automatically, is furnished with a magnetic apparatus 

 for setting to correct tiine without touching any part of 

 the clock. The time ball will be dropped at Tsim-sh'at-sui 

 Point, opposite the harbour, about a mile from the Obser- 

 vatory. It is 6 feet in diameter. Opposite the mean- 

 tiire clock is the sidereal standard clock, which is of the 

 moit finished construction. It communicates by "ire 

 with a sympathetic dial placed in the transit-room. The 

 face of the latter is black, and the hands and the figures 

 are white, which I found very convenient at Markree 

 Observatory, but unforiunately, Messrs. Dent and Co., 

 who made all ihe horological apparatus, have omitted a 

 second every minute. For marking a chronograph such 

 an arrangement is most desirable, but it is rather awkward 

 in observing with eye and ear. The clock-room contains 

 the relays, and aho one sidereal and two mean time 

 chronometers. 



7. The transit instrunif-nt, by Troughton and Simms, is 

 placed in a wing room painted dark gray, 14 feet square 

 and 14 feet high, next the clock-room The merHian 

 opening is I foot w ide. The transit insfrument has also 

 a delicate level for observing zenith distances accordmg 

 to Talcott's method. The pivots are made of chilled bell- 

 metal, a material which, I believe, was introduced to 

 astronomical instrument-makers by Brinkley of Dublin, 

 whose instruments remain serviceable up to this dav, 

 while the pivots of transit instruments of much later date 

 are corroded, being made of steel — a material that should 

 not be used except where unavoidably necessary. An 

 adjustable meridian mark is placed on a pier 66 feet north 

 of the transit instrument. It is observed through a lens 

 of that focal length, which is fixed in the meridian o; en- 

 ing of the transit-room. 



8. To the left of the entrance hall is the general office 

 and computing room, next to which is the room where 

 the barometers, as well as the self-recording thermograph 

 and barograph, are placed. Behind this is a small room 

 that serves as a photographic laboratory. Every part of 

 the-e two rooms, including ceilings, floors, and furniture 

 is painted dark red, and there are only a few panes of 

 glass in the windows, which are glazed with double red 

 glass. The thermograph is supported by massive blocks 

 of wood fixed on solid masonry, but the barograph is 

 placed on a stand merely screwed to the floor. The 

 screw that holds the self registering thermograph is made 

 of zinc. 



9. Over the upper story of the building a turret rises 

 8 feet above the flat roof. This holds the self-recording 

 parts of the anemometer, which is erected on top of it. 

 The cups are 45 feet above the ground. The roof forms a 

 convenient platform for making obsenat'ons. The sun- 

 shine-recorder is placed in a groove in the coping-stone 

 on the parapet, 34 feet above the f;round. Lightning 

 conductors are placed on the two chimneys. They rise a 

 few feet higher than the anemometer. 



10. A one-storied block of outbuildings, containing 

 servants' quarters and store-rooms, communicates with 

 the main building by a covered passage. 



11. Themagnetx hut is 17 feet long, 13 feet broad, and 

 the roof rises 11 feet high. It is made of wood, painted 

 pure white outside and inside. Bamboo chips instead of 



nails were used in its construction, as well as in that of 

 the furniture. It has double dours, louvered and glazed, 

 to the north and south, and two windows on either side, 

 as well as two windows in the roof, which is convenient 

 for reading the verniers. C n top of massive teak-wood 

 bloc! s sunk 3^^ feet in the ground and rising 4 feet above 

 the floor are placed the dip-circle and the unifilar mag- 

 netometer. All the instruments were brought out safely, 

 except the dipping needle-, which appear not to have been 

 sufficiently cleaned before packing. The hut is very com- 

 fortable, and forms therefore, in my opinion, a contrast 

 to other structures used for making magnetic observa- 

 tions, in arranging which the importance of attending to 

 the comfort ot the observer in t^e hut is but too often 

 lost sight of. The deviation is only 47 minutes easterly. 

 The dip is 32 degrees (north end dipping). A broad road 

 leads from the main building to the magnetic hut. This 

 road is broken in the middle by a depression, across 

 which a bridge will shortly be built. 



12. Beside this road, at a distance of about 75 feet from 

 the main building, it is intended to build a small house 

 for the assistants, and near this has been selected the 

 site for the refractor of 6 inches aperture, the loan of 

 which I was promised by the Astronomer- Royal. That 

 will complete the outfit. W. Doberck 



Government Astronomer 



Hong Kong Observatory, March II 



THE CEDAR FOREST OF CYPRUS 

 TN 1879 Sir Joseph Hooker communicated to the 

 -'■ Linnean Society' the tinexpected discovery of a form 

 of the cedar of Lebanon (Cei/n/s lihani var. brevifolia, 

 Hook, f.) by Sir Samuel liaker in Cyprus. 



The following extract from a letter lately received by 

 the Director of the Ro\al Gardens, Kew, from Sir Robert 

 Biddulph, K.C.M.G., C.B., the High Commissioner, gives 

 a more detailed account of the forest, and will no doubt 

 be interesting to many readers of Nature : — 



" Cyprus, March 25 

 " With regard to the cedars, I went last summer all 

 through the thickest part of the forests, including the 

 cedar forest, and I am able to give you some of the par- 

 ticulars you ask for, having noted them at the time. The 

 cedar forest occupies a ridge on the principal watershed 

 of the southern range, and about filteen miles west of 

 Mount Troodos The length of the forest is about three 

 miles, its breadth very much less. A few outlying cedar- 

 trees were visible on neighbuuring hills, but on the ridge 

 they were quite thick, and probably many thousands in 

 number. I took the height above the sea by an aneroid 

 barometer, and found it to be 4300 feet. The trees are 

 very handsome and in good condition, but comparatively 

 young. The smallest seemed to be from ten to fifteen 

 years old ; the largest, I am told by the principal forest 

 officer, are probably not over sixty or seventy years. The 

 worst feature is that there were no seedlings or )Oung 

 trees under ten years ; and indeed this is the same with 

 regard to the pine forests. It would seem as if the great 

 influx of goats has been comparatively recent. I made a 

 tour through the heart of the forest last August. I started 

 from a point on the west coast, and from thence ascended 

 to the main watershed, and kept along the top till I 

 reached Mount Troodos, taking three days to do it. The 

 country through which we pa-sed on the first day was 

 perfectly uninhabited, and a mass of hills and forest, 

 chiefly Piitiis maritiina \^P. hahpcnsis~\ and the Ilex. 

 The trees were in very great number, but there was a 

 scarcity of young trees, and mo;t of the old ones had 

 been tapped for resin. On the second day we passed 

 through the cedir forest, and the same sort of country as 

 before, the J'liiiis Laricio beginning at an altitude of 4000 



^ Jcjirn. Liini. Sdc. Bot. xvii. pp. 517-19. 



