Jan. 29, 1880] 



NATURE 



303 



inference in his last letter (Nature, vol. xxi. p. 226). Here 

 you have it : — 



" The Mind, that broods o'er guilty woes, 



Is like the scorpion girt by fire ; 



In circle narrowing as it glows, 



The flames around their captive close, 



Till inly search'd by thousand throes, 



And maddening in her ire. 



One sad and sole relief she knows : 



The sting she nourish'd for her foe-', 



Whose venom never yet was vain. 



Gives but one pang, and cures all pain, 



And darts into her desperate brain." 

 I hope to tax your patience no further on scorpion felo de se. 

 Prov. de Jaen, Linares, Spain, January 17 F. Gillman 



Meteor 



A MAGNIFICENT meteor was seen here last Monday evening 

 (19th inst.) at 6.8 p.m. The meteor when first observed had an 

 elevation of about 30° above the horizon and was travelling due 

 west. It appeared to me to be at least four times the size of 

 Jupiter and much more brilliant, the colour being bright blue. 

 It seemed to be moving comparatively slowly and was in sight 

 for some two or three seconds. When still about 15° above the 

 horizon it burst, sending forth a number of different coloured 

 sparks, in fact strikingly reminding one of the bursting of a sky- 

 rocket. No report could be heard after the explosion. I may 

 add that the night was very fine and the moon bright, and that a 

 number of small meteors were seen at the same time. 



West Calder, N.B., January 21 J. S. Thomson 



ON H ALLEY'S MOUNT 



" Hoc primum ab homine Anglo inver.tum fuisse non inficia- 

 bitur sequa posteritas." 



T N Mrs. Gill's account of her voyage to Ascension," she 

 ■*• relates how her husband (since appointed astrono ner 

 at Cape Town) visited Halley's Mount, a prominent spur 

 on the northern declivity from Diana's Peak, the central 

 culminating point of the Island of St. Helena. Here, on 

 a small plate u, the sight of a few roughly-squared blocks 

 of tufa cannot fail to inspire the beholder with deep in- 

 terest, for these stones, now overgrown with wild-pepper 

 and blackberry brambles, are all that remain to mark the 

 site of a celebrated astronomical station. 



The neglected state of these ruinous foundations, 

 " In which there was obscurity and fame, 

 The glory and the nothing of a name," 

 contrasts in a marked manner with the "exquisite neat- 

 ness" (as Mrs. Gill terms it) which distinguishes the 

 ccenotaph of Napoleon 2 in the so-called "Vale of the 

 Tomb" several hundred feet beneath. 



Here it was that Edmund Halley 200 years ago esta- 

 blished his observatory, and first constructed his " Cata- 

 logus Stellarum Australium ; " here he observed the 

 transit of Mercury, and wrote his method of obtaining 

 the sun's parallax by the forthcoming transits of Venus, 

 and here made the first 3 magnetical observations in the 

 southern hemisphere. 



On the eve of Mr. Gill's astronomical experiment at 

 Ascension, then a matter of uncertain expectancy, now 

 happily a successful fait accompli, no wonder is it that a 



• See Naturb, vol. xix. p. 240. " Sir Months in Ascension. An Un- 

 scientific Account of a Scientific Expedition." By Mrs. GUI. (Murray 

 1878.) " 



■ Darwin says : " After the volumes of eloquence which have poured 

 forth on this subject, it is dangerous even to mention the tomb. A modern 

 traveller, in twelve lines, burdens the poor little island with the following 

 titles : it is a grave, tomb, pyramid, cemetery, sepulchre, catacon.b, sar- 

 cophagus, minaret, and mausoleum I " ("A Naturalist's Voyage," p. 486 ) 

 Darwin's lodgings at Hutt's Gate were within a stone's throw of Halley's 

 observatory, of which fact he appears to have been unaware ; and, similarly, 

 neither Napoleon nor any of his staff appear to have remarked the scien' 

 tine associations of Halley's nfoUBt during the six years they were resident 

 at Longwood : a circumstance the more curious, as Napoleon always 

 patronised science, perhaps less for its own sake than from motives of 

 policy. 



> In 1667 Halley found the variation of the compass to be 40' E., it is now 

 «4° W. 



sincere sympathy with the aspirations of his predecessor 

 determined him to some day find the means and oppor- 

 tunity to raise a memorial on the spot. 



To astronomical students the apotheosis of the great 

 Halley is immortally celebrated by the comet which bears 

 his name ; but to the "pro/anum valgus" the mention of 

 Dr. Halley conveys no conception of his genius nor of 

 the practical scientific benefits he bequeathed to the 

 English nation. It was Delambre who, speaking of 

 Halley's "Synopsis Astronomical Cometae," said {As/. 

 Sieck, xviii. p. 310) : " Voila bien, depuis Kepler, ce qui 

 on a fait de plus grand, de plus beau, de plus neuf en 

 astronomie." 



It is a fact hardly yet appreciated either in England or 

 America, that Dr. Edmund Halley is second only to 

 Isaac Newton, whose friend and contemporary he was 

 (Newton's "Principia" was first printed in 1686-7 at 

 Halley's expense), and that it is to this close contempo- 

 raneity alone that the bright light of Halley's star has 

 suffered diminution of lustre from the brilliant rays of his 

 world-renowned neighbouring luminary. 



No biographer has yet appeared to write the life of this 

 great man, nor does any public monument yet adequately 

 represent the national estimation which is so richly 

 deserved by the second most illustrious of Anglo-Saxon 

 philosophers. The first of these two reproaches is, we 

 believe, on the eve of being wiped away; for we learn 

 that Prof. Pritchard' of the Oxford University, to whom 

 (as holding the Chair of Astronomy denied to Halley by 

 Stillingfleet) pertains the honour of compiling so valuable 

 a biography, is preparing for the press a full account of 

 the long life-work of the venerable astronomer. 



It is to remove the second of these wants that we now 

 would advocate, through the columns of Nature, the 

 erection of a fitting memorial to our illustrious country- 

 man on the spot which is indissolubly connected with his 

 name, as the scene of his famous achievement. 



The onerous duties of the astronomer at Capetown have 

 prevented his doing more than suggesting the idea of a 

 monument to Halley and the most appropriate site ; it 

 now remains for us with more leisure at home to forward 

 the idea, and do our utmost to carry out his well-inten- 

 tioned scheme ; nor need we fear that it will be lost sight 

 of and fall to the ground, now that it has been brought 

 forward to the notice of our scientific societies. This 

 recognition of the claim of Halley to his proper place on 

 the roll of English scientific worthies, although somewhat 

 tardy, need not therefore be the less hearty and thorough 

 now that it takes place. It is now some seven or eight 

 years since the Tuscans expended nearly forty thousand 

 pounds in a memorial to their "Divinus Galilaeus," at 

 Florence;' and in 1874 the preparations for observing the 

 transit of Venus recalled to our minds the hitherto obscure 

 memory of the long-forgotten Jeremiah Horrocks. Surely 

 we need not wait for the advent of the next transit in 

 1882 to remind the present generation what they owe to 

 the St. Helena observer of 1677. Have we not therefore 

 established the fact that it is desirable to erect a memorial 

 to Halley on the ancient site of his observatory in St. 

 Helena? 



Receiving in anticipation an affirmative reply from our 

 readers in answer to the question above, we may now 

 approach the next stage of our subject by inquiry as to 

 the form which such a memorial should take ; and the 

 fact is that it matters very little in reality whether tablet 

 or bust ; whether column, pyramid, or statue be chosen, 

 so long as it is not too ornate. 3 The simplest and most 



1 Sec Monthly Kotices, Royal Astronomical Society, December, 1875, 

 p 54 Large materials fur a life of Dr. Halley were found among the papers 

 of the late Prof. Rigaud, which will be edited by Prof. Charles Pntchard, 

 M.A , ... 



a -Tuscan Memorial to Galileo," by G. F Rodwell (Nature, vol. vm 

 p. 328. August. 1S73) . . 



1 The sketch of one design has been shown us. consisting of a pyramid 

 whose four sides are inclined at an angle of 70° with the base standing on a 

 podium, which is d-xlecagonal surrounded with seats. 1 he faces of the 

 pyramid face the card.nal points. O.i the n;r.h face is Ursa Major, and on, 



