Dreyer — Oil TnstrumenU in the Old Ohservatory , Peking. 469 



was divided to 15",' and the observations were taken " per pinnacidia 

 rimosa more Tychonico."* In the north-west corner was a quadrant 

 (with the arc downwards), turning in azimuth round an axis which 

 passed through the middle of the horizontal radius. In the middle of 

 the west side of the platform was an azimuth circle, supported on 

 four legs, and having in the middle a vertical axis, the upper end of 

 which was joined by wires to the two ends of an alidade, which can 

 be turned round the axis to any azimuth. In the south-west corner 

 stood then a zodiacal armillary sphere, to which corresponded an 

 equatoreal one in the south-east corner, while there was a revolving 

 sidereal globe between them, six feet in diameter. Lastly, the middle 

 of the east side of the platform was taken up by a low square tower, 

 in the four corners of which four mandarins were posted, day and 

 night, to observe the weather, meteors, &c., about which they pre- 

 pared a daily report. 



It would be needless to describe these instruments more in detail ; 

 they are true copies of the astronomical instruments devised and 

 constructed by Tycho Brahe, and generally used long after his time. 

 They were not furnished with telescopes. The photographs show with 

 certainty that they have been moved about since they were mounted 

 in 1673, as they do not now occupy the places they did then (as 

 described above). Besides, there has been added a new instrument 

 to the collection (but when I have not been able to find out), viz., 

 another azimuthal quadrant. This instrument differs from all the 

 others in not being profusely ornamented with dragons and serpents ; 

 on the contrary, it is in very pure European style. Possibly it was 

 constructed some time during the eighteenth century, when the mis- 

 sionaries felt more at home, and less afraid of dispensing with what 

 looked to them as heathen symbols. 



Besides these instruments on the roof of the old observatory there 

 are still in existence two others, equally large and imposing-looking, 

 which are placed inside low brick enclosures in a kind of yard 

 adjoining the observatory. These I had also (as I believe they have 

 generally been) attributed to Verbiest, as they were not very different 

 in their general appearance from his instruments. However, when I 

 came across a Paper by Mr. A. Wylie — " The Mongol Astronomical 

 Instruments in Peking" * — I found that they were in fact two of the 

 old instruments which Verbiest removed from the observatory. When 

 they were placed in their present positions appears to be unknown ; 

 Gaubil states that he was not permitted to get a look at them, and 

 that they were kept in a closed room.'' This agrees with what Father 

 Le Compte says, who was in Peking about the year 1688, and who 



' Probably by means of transversals. 



* Astronomia JEicropiea, p. 52. 



■* Travcmx de la 3'' Session die Congrhs International dcs Oiicnlalislos, ^ ol. ii. 



*> Souciet, Observations Matlteinatiques, &c., T. ii., p. 108. 



