480 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 
ing, on account of the uniqueness and refined construction of its 
instruments. As these have been described at some length in 
these Proceedings,* by their constructor Mr. Howard Grubb, it 
will here only be necessary to note, that the principal instruments 
are to be an 8-inch equatorial, a 5-inch transit circle with 20-inch 
circles of glass, and a 4-inch siderostat of novel construction. ‘The 
telescope of this instrument points towards the south pole, and 
carries outside the object-glass a plane silvered mirror, which by 
the rotation of the tube round its optical axis (either by hand 
or clockwork), will keep the object under examination in the 
centre of the field. The equatorial, for which Mr. Grubb obtained 
the Gold Medal at the Paris Exhibition, is furnished with all the 
latest improvements, including arrangements for reading both 
circles from the eye-end, electrically controlied clock-movement, 
a duplex micrometer, like the one recently made by Mr. Grubb 
for the University Observatory, Oxford, &c. It is to be hoped 
that with such an equipment the Cork Observatory will take its 
place among the active astronomical establishments of this country. 
An observatory is being built on the site of the “Casa degl’ 
Inglesi,” on Mount Etna, 9,650 feet above the sea. It is only 
to be inhabited during the months of June, July, August, and 
September ; and the 12-inch lens, by Merz, is then to be brought 
to Catania, where there is to be a duplicate mounting for it. The 
observatory is to be devoted to solar work, for which its high 
elevation, according to the experience of Prof. Tacchini, as also 
of Prof. Langley, makes it especially suited.t 
M. Bischoffsheim is building a new observatory at Mont des 
Mignons, Nice, of which M. Perrotin, of the Paris Observatory 
has been appointed the director. A sum of 900,000 frances is to 
be spent on it. 
It is now more than five years since James Lick, of San 
Francisco, placed in the hands of trustees the sum of 700,000 
dollars for the purpose of erecting and equipping an observatory 
near the Pacific coast, which was to constitute the Lick Astro- 
nomical Department of the University of California.{ The site 
originaily chosen was at Lake Tahoe; but afterwards a series of 
+ Antea, p. 847. A plan of the observatory is given in Nature, xix., p. 558. 
t The following account is borrowed from The Kansas City Review of Science and 
Industry, Vol. III., p. 482. (December, 1879.) 
