AiJ]oendix. Ixxvii 



been for some time under construction by Sir Howard Grubb, of 

 Dublin, and the whole would probably be completed before the end 

 of 1896. The new instrument was also to be fitted with object glass, 

 prism, spectroscopes, &c., so that, upon the completion of all, the 

 Cape Observatory might enter on the pursuit of the new astronomy 

 with every advantage possible in the way of equipment. Here was 

 indeed a revival of hopes almost dead, of ambitions almost aban- 

 doned. The value of the gift was, if possible, enhanced by the fact 

 that Mr. McClean is himself a distinguished worker in Astrophysics. 

 One had seen his splendid photographs of terrestrial spectra, one 

 knew something, but not all, of the great work on which he was 

 then engaged, viz., of obtaining intercomparable spectra of all the 

 stars to the 3^ order of magnitude, and one felt that his gift was due 

 solely to a clear and well-founded perception of the needs of science 

 and of an earnest and helpful desire to fulfil them. The Lords 

 Commissioners of the Admiralty accepted, with warm appreciation of 

 Mr. McClean's generosity, the offer of this splendid instrument and 

 expressed the view that its possession would greatly increase the utility 

 of the Cape Observatory, and might be expected to result in consider- 

 able advancement to science. The year 1896 saw the Observatory 

 building ready for reception of the telescope and the dome erected. 

 In the following year Mr. McClean visited the Cape, attached his 

 object-glass prisms to our photographic telescope, and was thus 

 enabled to complete that remaining portion of his spectroscopic 

 survey of the whole heavens which could not be completed from his 

 own observatory in Kent. His work at the Cape was also memor- 

 able by his discovery of the existence of oxygen in the spectra of a 

 certain class of stars, and for this discovery and his spectroscopic 

 labours generally he was awarded the gold medal of the Eoyal 

 Astronomical Society of London in 1899. With the fullest expec- 

 tation that the instrument would be erected during 1897, Mr. 

 McClean had ordered the inscription stone which Your Excellency 

 is about to uncover to be cut. It was not until April, 1898, that 

 forty-four cases containing the telescope arrived from Dublin, nor 

 until November of the same year that all was complete and ready 

 for testing. Then another disappointment was in store. The large 

 object glass was, after exhaustive trials, found to be defective in 

 some particulars, and, at the request of Sir Howard Grubb, it was 

 sent to Dublin in October, 1899, for correction, and was .not re- 

 turned to the Cape until early in the current year. The insertion of 

 the inscription stone had been delayed until the telescope might be 

 regarded as complete, and it is only within the past two or three 

 months that the final tests have assured us that this may now be 



