July 9, 1874] 



NATURE 



i! 



over the old [Navy Conjmissioners and the indorsement 

 of the Secretary to their recommendation for something 

 better. He pressed the Naval Committees frequently and 

 closely, but enlisted scarcely one, except Mallory, of the 

 House. Almost to a man they kept away from the Depot, 

 although it was " so near," and no help seemed available. 

 But a celestial visitant now appeared, as, singularly 

 enough, another did in 1S43 for the benefit of the Cam- 



bridge Observatory. It gained the day for Gilliss, and 

 for an observatory at Washington. He had closely ob- 

 served Encke's comet, and read a paper on it before the 

 National Institute. When he made, shortly after this, his 

 last intended visit to the Senate Committee, Preston of 

 South Carohna asked, " Arc you the one who gave us 

 notice of the comet ? I will do all I can to help you." In 

 a week a bill passed the Senate ; and, strangely enough, 



; Naval Observatory, Washiogton. 



passed the House also, without discussion, on the last day 

 of its session. It appropriated 25,000 dols. ; but still "for 

 a Depot of Charts and Instruments." 



But the Secretary of the Navy was no longer officially 

 bound by the name. The report of the committee, which 

 secured the bill, was so expressly in favour of astronomi- 

 cal, meteorological, and magnetic objects, that Congress 



was justly understood to sanction them. Gilliss was sent 

 abroad for instruments and plans for an observatory. 



The site chosen by President Tyler for the building 

 was fraught with historic interest. The square embraces 

 a little more than nineteen acres in measurement. It 

 is now tastefully laid out and ornamented. Nearly 

 central within it stands the building represented 



in Fig. 4. It is on the second highest eminence 

 within the city limits, commanding the view of the public 

 buildings, of the neighbouring cities of Georgetown and 

 Alexandria, and of Arlington. 



In 1844 Gilliss reported the completion and equipment 

 of the central building. He had secured the excellent 



equatorial, the meridian circle, the transit, prime vertical, 

 and mural circle on which so much valued work 

 has bien done. He had begun a library, to which 

 nearly 200 volumes of the highest standard works were 

 presented by the Greenwich, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna 

 institutions. ( To be continued.) 



