Annual Address to the Members. xli 



•expense. With this view he made a collection of astronomical books 

 and instruments, and engaged two assistants — Mr. Charles Emuker 

 and Mr. James Dunlop — to act as his astronomers. 



On his arrival in the Colony in November, 1821, a situation for 

 the Observatory was fixed upon at Paramatta, near his official 

 residence, about fifteen miles distant from Sydney. Evidently no 

 time was lost, for the Observatory was completed, the instruments 

 mounted, and observations begun by May, 1822. Sir Thomas 

 Brisbane had acquired a taste for astronomy by making sextant 

 observations at sea. He had no previous experience in the use of 

 the larger instruments of precision, and those which he selected for 

 his Observatory proved unsuitable, partly from defects in their con- 

 struction or erection, partly from inefficient methods of use. The 

 result is that the catalogue of 7,385 stars computed and prepared by 

 Mr. Wm. Bichardson from about forty thousand observations made 

 •at Paramatta in the years 1822-26 is of comparatively little value. 



The Eoyal Observatory at the Cape was established by an Order 

 in Council on the 20th of October, 1820. The first holder of the 

 office of His Majesty's Astronomer was the Eev. Fearon Fallows, 

 who arrived at the Cape in May, 1821, and, after some inquiry, 

 selected the site of the present Observatory, and made preliminary 

 observations with portable instruments which he had brought with 

 him for the purpose. 



In his days the site was practically a bare rocky hill covered with 

 thistles, infested with snakes (its name was Slang Kop or Snake 

 Hill), the jackals howled dismally around it at night, and a guard of 

 soldiers had to be established to protect the property from theft. To 

 .give some idea of the Observatory surroundings — a member of the 

 Maclear family told me that in Fallows 's days a hippopotamus 

 found its way from the Berg Eiver into the treacherous marsh which 

 then existed, about half a mile from the Observatory, near to the 

 site of the present railway bridge at Maitland. The poor animal 

 sank in the mud so deep as to be unable to get out, and was killed 

 by the neighbouring farmers. The story goes that their bullets 

 •could not penetrate the animal's hide, so they cut holes in the hide 

 and fired through them. 



It was not until December, 1824, that building operations were 

 commenced, nor until the end of 1828 that the instruments were 

 mounted and ready for work. 



Meanwhile Fallows, to occupy himself, opened a school and taught 

 the children of neighbouring farmers. His fee was a load of earth for 

 ■each lesson, and to this we owe nearly the whole of the soil and the 

 amenities of the site. 



