Haast. — Address, 41 



telescope of four and a-lialf feet focal length and three and a-lialf uich 

 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 

 mfeasurement were provided by the passage of the sun's image, by the 

 diurnal motion, along and across the said hues, which were set in the 

 proper position by the passage along the equatorial wire of any marking on 

 the sun's disc — facula or spot. Sidereal seconds could be noted m one 

 direction, and in the other angular intervals by means of the declination 

 chcle, and the distances from the margin referred to these co-ordinates, 

 and, by an obvious calculation, to the centre of the sun. The nautical 

 almanac would do the rest. A revolving roof over the telescope-shed, a,nd 

 a shutter the opening of which could be reduced to any requked 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 kex^t 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 v/eather 

 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 faculse 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 ^nll no longer remain a 

 phantom, but will have joined his vv^ife 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 gomg 

 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 



