700 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



' was on that day. My Vulcan I find on that day was at 301° heliocentric long- 

 ' itude or j4 revolution plus 1° from yours. It is only to be regretted that you 

 ' did not make observations to see whether it moved and what was the direction 

 ' of its motion, probably at its descending node, as it was seen at its ascending 

 'node again with a companion on 20th July, 1876. Now the earth is at. 302" 

 'heliocentric longitude on July 20th. 1876, was a leap-year, hence on that day 

 ' in that year it was 301°, or just half a revolution plus 1° from where you saw 

 'it. This observation was made in California with the naked eye as I under- 

 ' stand yours to have been. I write in a great hurry, as I am closing up some 

 ^ scientific matter before leaving for Wisconsin and Iowa. I am very thankful 

 ' to you for the information. 



Respectfully, John H. Tice." 



I had no further correspondence with Mr. Tice, and I do not know 

 whether or not he ever published the facts I gave him. If Mr. Tice's state- 

 ments in the above letter are irue, there appears tome to be a coincidence worthy 

 of notice. At any rate I feel that my observation, as short and imperfect as it 

 was, should go upon record someivhere. My statement of the time when, place 

 where, and circumstances under which I saw the objects mentioned, is true. 

 The question is, What were they? 



Note. — Having been requested by Dr. Watson to submit the above article 

 to some experienced astronomer, we sent it to Prof. C. W. Pritchett, of Morrison 

 Observatory at Glasgow, Mo., who replied as follows: 



Editor Review : — On this correspondence I can afford but a few brief notes 



First. So far as I am informed, there were no remarkable Sun-spots in Jan-, 

 uary, 1865. Surely they would hive been remarkable, for two of them to be seen 

 at once with the unassisted eye. Had they continued several days, they could 

 not have escaped the attention of astronomers in some parts of the world. 

 The veteran observer Schwabe, of Dessau, devoted a long life solely to the ob- 

 servation of Sun-spots. He observed the Sun on 307 days of 1865; and found 

 but twenty-five days on which the Sun was entirely free from spots ; but they 

 were small groups, and entirely telescopic. Had these spots been sudden and 

 transient outbursts of solar activity, even though they escaped detection on the 

 Sun's disc, it is not probable that they would have been unattended by very 

 marked magnetic and auroral displays — such as attended the great spots, at their 

 rupture in April and September, 1882. It now seems to be well ascertained, 

 that magnetic storms and remarkable auroras are always counted, in lime at 

 least, with disturbances on the Sun. I am tempted to cite numerous instances, 

 but forbear. 



Second. It is entirely improbable that the phenomenon was a transit of 

 intra-mercurial planets. If such planets exist, it is quite certain they sre much 

 smaller bodies than Mercury ; and it requires preparation, e^ort and close scrutiny 

 to detect Mercury with the naked eye, on the Sun's disc, even when we know 

 he is projected there. It is quite improbable that the unaided eye would ever have 



