Haast.— Address. 41 
telescope of four and a-half feet focal length and three and a-half inch 
aperture (by Dallmeyer), mounted upon an equatorial stand, not driven by 
clock-work, but moveable at an even pace by a tangent screw and handle 
with Hooke’s joint, the eye-piece being furnished with cross spider-web lines ; 
the low magnifying power of 75 being used in order to allow of the pro- 
jection upon a card-board screen, supported by an easel, of the whole image 
of the sun’s disc, on a scale of about 14 inches diameter. The means of 
measurement were provided by the passage of the sun’s image, by the 
diurnal motion, along and across the said lines, which were set in the 
proper position by the passage along the equatorial wire of any marking on 
the sun's dise—facula or spot. Sidereal seconds could be noted in one 
direction, and in the other angular intervals by means of the declination 
circle, and the distances from the margin referred to these co-ordinates, 
and, by an obvious caleulation, to the centre of the sun. The nautical 
almanac would do the rest. A revolving roof over the telescope-shed, and 
a shutter the opening of which could be reduced to any required aperture 
by stops, and a screen attached to the object end of the telescope, served to 
darken the observatory to any required extent. Watch was kept on March 
20, 21, 22, and 23, from sunrise to sunset, by relays of watchers prepared 
to measure and to draw the appearance of any unusual object. The weather 
was mostly fine and favourable; the exceptions were on the afternoons of 
March 21 and 22, from one p.m., when clouds intervened. Desultory 
observations were also made at frequent intervals for several days before 
and after the days above cited. But, as before observed, our patience was 
not rewarded by any discovery, the sun’s face being marked only by the 
general mottled appearance, and by a group of spots travelling towards the 
north-west margin, leaving a facula to mark the place of disappearance on 
the 24th, these spots having been first noted on the 18th, near the middle 
of the disc. A group of facule on the south-east border was also noted on 
the 24th and 25th. Let us hope that the observations in Europe and 
America will be more successful, so that Vulcan will no longer remain a 
phantom, but will have joined his wife Venus in the heavens, and both may 
at last become, what they were said not to have been in ancient classical 
times, a steady-going couple. Such a happy state of affairs may still more 
surely be expected, as Mercury, the witty and lively god, whilst going 
between them, is certain to keep them in order, and at the same time at a 
respectful distance from each other. 
Another subject of which I wish to speak is a question of physical geo- 
logy, to the elucidation of which, in years past, I have devoted a great deal of 
thought. However, when I came to the conclusion that I had found its 
E 
