OBSERVATORY AT CORDOBA, ARGENTINE REPUBLIC. 269 



as the Naval Observatory and the Nautical Almauac office, contributed 

 full series of all their publications. Bj some grievous mischance the 

 boxes containing these invaluable books never reached their destination, 

 but the loss has been repaired to a considerable extent by new gifts. 

 The American Academy of this city lent money, from its Rumford fund, 

 to purchase apparatus for studying the light of the stars, and gave me 

 permission to return either the instruments or the money, and at the 

 most convenient time. Four of the scientific societies of England, the 

 observatories of Greenwich, Pulkowa, and Leipzig, astronomers in Eng- 

 land, France, Germany, Eussia, and Italy, sent such generous gifts of 

 valuable books, maps, charts, &c., that the faintest heart could not have 

 failed to gather courage. Not to mention my own countrymen and all 

 i owe them. Professors Bruhns and Zollner in Leipzig undertook to 

 superintend the construction of instruments for the new institution; 

 and, during the whole period of my absence, the former has attended to 

 all the apparatus and books which I desired from Germany. So, too, 

 Professor Auwers in Berlin took charge of extensive computations which 

 I needed to have made in some place where professional computers could 

 be found. And, from the beginning of my labors to the present time, I 

 have been encouraged and aided by the sympathy and counsel of my 

 revered friend, Professor Argelander. 



The means available for procuring the necessary assistance were in- 

 sufficient to permit the engagement of trained astronomers, and it was 

 an especial disappointment that I was unable to secure the companion- 

 ship of any of my own former pupils or assistants, whose aid in such an 

 enterprise would Tiave been doubly valuable. But I did secure the aid 

 of four very capable and well-educated young men, recently graduated, 

 three from Pennsylvania and one from New England. These gentlemen 

 sailed for Buenos Ayres direct, while I went by way of Europe, and we 

 reached our destinations at about the same time. 



It was the 25th August, 1870, when I arrived in Buenos Ayres with 

 my family, and from that day until that on which I left the same pleas- 

 ant capital just two months ago, our history is a record of private kind- 

 ness and public generosity. 



Thence we ascended the La Plata, threading an exquisite maze of 

 beautiful and closely crowded islands, decked with the dark-green foliage 

 and glowing fruit of the orange ; through narrow channels guarded by 

 luxuriant willows, whose trailing branches swept our decks ; amid jungles 

 sheltering unnumbered alligators and countless tigers ; and then, enter- 

 ing the vast delta of the Parana, moved up that stately river for about 

 twenty hours ; now descrying on its western bank the buildings of some 

 large pastoral estate, and now touching at some one of the embryo cities 

 which are, at no distant day, to become flourishing sea-ports and centers 

 of an active commerce. 



In the thriving town of Rosario, 250 miles above Buenos Ayres, we 

 found a hospitable welcome at the house of our divStinguished country- 



