THE MAKERSTOUN OBSERVATIONS. 3 



The first part of the Makerstoun Observations was published in June 1845, 

 and the last part appeared in June of the present year : the last part contains the 

 detailed tables of results for the years 1845 and 1846, together with the general 

 results of all the observations, including the monthly means of observations made 

 in 1847, 1848, and 1849. The Makerstoun Observations have appeared as a por- 

 tion of the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, that body having 

 liberally granted £600 towards the expense of printing; a grant for one object 

 which, I am satisfied, will bear comparison with the grants of much richer 

 societies. 



I shall now notice some of the more salient matters in connection with the 

 Observatory itself and its instruments. 



TJie Observatory. — The geographical co-ordinates are — 



Latitude, 55° 34' 45" N. 

 Longitude, 0^ 10" 3^5 W. of Greenwich. 

 Height of the barometer cistern above mean water at Berwick, 213 feet. 



The observatory is constructed of wood, like that at Greenwich ; its architec- 

 tural character is not of the highest order ; it is placed on a small rising ground 

 which is probably formed of felspathic trap, covered with rolled boulders, pebbles, 

 and gravel. The internal division of the building, and the number, size, and 

 positions of the windows are ill adapted for the purposes of the observatory. 

 The plan and elevation were due to an assistant in the Dublin Observatory. Care 

 was taken to exclude iron completely from the structure, copper nails having been 

 used throughout : the telescopes and instruments were placed upon excellent 

 white sandstone pillars, well-founded, and unconnected with the floor. The care 

 taken in this matter is the most deserving of praise in connection with the con- 

 struction of the observatory, and that care was chiefly or altogether your own. 

 It should not be forgotten that the knowledge of the best arrangement for such a 

 building was very small at the time it was planned, if it is considerable now. 



The range of temperature within the observatory was much too great, owing 

 to the thinness of the walls, and the number and largeness of the windows. The 

 building was at first heated by copper stoves which soon became oxidated, and 

 produced suffocating fumes of most hurtful character. It was altogether im- 

 possible to approximate to anything like uniformity of temperature in a house 

 so easily affected by external variations. The stove was discontinued in 1843. 

 and a small brick building erected at a distance for a computing room in winter. 

 I proposed, in 1843, to heat the observatory with hot water pipes, but the difficul- 

 ties connected with this process were too considerable to render the experiment 

 desirable. It was found possible in 1845, to erect a fire-place with a tubular 

 brick chimney in one of the ante-rooms, which, though wholly useless for heating 



