4 H. A. LENEHAN. 
at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, U.S.A., and had the satisfaction 
during his life of seeing great use made of it in unravelling 
many of the mysteries of astronomical research. 
The death of Dr. Ralph Copeland, Astronomer Royal of 
Scotland, caused a vacancy, which has been filled by the 
appointment of Mr. Frank Watson Dyson, M.A., F.R.S., chief 
assistant, Royal Observatory, Greenwich, to the position 
of Astronomer Royal of Scotland and Professor of Practical 
Astronomy, Edinburgh University. Dr. Copeland had a 
varied career; he was born Sept. 3rd,1837, in Lancashire, 
was educated at the Grammar School of Kirkham; he emi- 
grating to Australia, spent several years as a shepherd, and 
then at gold digging. During this period he turned his 
thoughts to astronomy, and returned home in 1858. During 
the voyage he observed Donati’s comet of that year. Hethen 
apprenticed himself to a firm of locomotive engineers, and 
withsome fellow employees established a small observatory, 
In 1864, trade being dull, he went to Germany to study 
astronomy and matriculated at Gottingen University, was 
appointed volunteer assistant at the observatory, and with 
Carl Borgen made the Gottingen Catalogue, published in 
1869. His next experience was a voyage to the Arctic 
Regions to explore Greenland’s east coast, and for his 
meteorological and magnetical researches he was decorated 
with the order of the Red Eagle by Emperor William I., 
after which he was appointed assistant to Harl Rosse at 
Birr Castle for three and a half years. In 1876 he was 
appointed to take charge of the Dunecht Observatory of 
Lord Lindsay (now the Ear! of Crawford); in 1879 he was 
assistant at Dunsink Observatory under Sir Robert Ball, 
and in 1889 he was appointed Astronomer Royal of Scotland, 
. (in place of Professor Piazzi Smyth, who had retired), hold- 
ing the position to the time of his death. This is certainly 
a remarkable career for one who had served in Australia 
