'^'iQ Translation fro7n the Astronomical Jour, of Hamburgh. 



self, than imitate others, and whose arrangements therefore, 

 always bear an independent character. 



It is to be lamented that circumstances should have oc- 

 curred, which hindered the complete execution of the work. 

 To judge from the contents of the publication, not only com- 

 plete success, in reaching the intended object would have 

 been obtained, but also many other useful results.* 



According to Mr. H's plan, two observatories were to be 

 established, one in Washington, and one in New Orleans,! 

 these were calculated not only for the purposes of the sur- 

 vey, but also to subserve the general objects of astronomy. 

 Of the observatory for Washington, the whole plan is given, 

 \vhich appears to me very appropriate ; it recommends itself 

 l>y a minute attention to all that can secure the accuracy of 

 the observations ; we miss in it none of those arrangements 

 which on this side of the Atlantic have been made in the 

 most modern observatories ; in its special arrangements this 

 observatory often agrees with the most modern one in Ger- 

 many, that of Altona.J The instruments are, a transit, of 

 five feet of Troughton ; a clock of Hardy, an eighteen inch 

 repeating circle ; there were also to be placed in it finally a 

 zenith sector and a meridian (mural) circle, &c. I cannot 

 describe the building in detail, but I will remark that it was 

 to be surrounded by a ditch in order the better to avoid the 

 oscillations of the ground, by the passage of waggons, &c. 

 The pillars of the instruments were to be placed upon solid 

 bases six feet thick, standing in a cellar of five feet depth, 

 and to pass through the floor of the observatory, which was 



* The opinion thus expressed by Mr. Bessel, is praise of the highest descrip- 

 tion, for no man has ever stood higher as an astronomer, than that distinguish- 

 ed professor. 



I According to Mr. Hassler's original plan, one of the observatories was to 

 have been established in the State of Maine, near the north eastern frontier, 

 the other in Louisiana near the south western boundary of the United States. 

 Circumstances led to the choice of Washington for one, the exact place of the 

 other, although it must have been near New Orleans was not decided. 



t The close coincidence between the plan proposed by Mr. Hasslcrfor the ob- 

 servatory at Washington, and that erected under the superintendence of Schuh- 

 macher at Altonais very remarkable. This last is unquestionably the best in 

 Europe, as well as the most modern. Mr. Hassler's plans were presented to 

 our government in 1816, but his papers were not published until 1826. The 

 observatory at Altona was finished in the last named year. Thus it appears 

 that these two astronomers deduced from obvious principles two plans of the 

 closest similitude, each without any knowledge of the other's proceedings, 

 while the American project is prior in point of date by several years. 



