British Association Catalogue of Stars. 211 



few cases confirmed, but in those of the greater number of 

 southern stars, they have been either negatived or rendered 

 doubtful ; these will, therefore, have to be observed after the 

 lapse of a few years, in order to set the question at rest. 



I should state that only a small proportion of the observa- 

 tions were made by myself, the great mass being taken by the 

 native assistants, and the work may be considered as credit- 

 able to them. The computations were either made in dupli- 

 cate and compared, or were made by one party, and the re- 

 sults examined in a different manner by another ; and nearly 

 the whole of them underwent a thorough revision by myself. 

 The amount of labour thus involved in the reduction of nearly 

 12,000 observations will not easily be conceived, except by 

 those who have been accustomed to operations of the like kind. 



At the time of undertaking the above work, I was not aware 

 that my friend Mr Maclear was about the same time com- 

 mencing a similar revision at the Cape Observatory. His plan 

 of proceeding, however, being somewhat different from mine, 

 our results, while partly confirmatory, will be in a great mea- 

 sure supplementary to each other, especially as he would be 

 able to fill up the circle of 25° round the south pole, which was 

 beyond my range. As the northern circumpolar stars have 

 been carefully gone over at Oxford, the revision of the Cata- 

 logue may now be considered as pretty complete. 



W. S. Jacob. 



This state of things described by the author is, therefore, 

 highly encouraging, and we seem now on the point of possess- 

 ing ample materials for the construction of a far finer cata- 

 logue of stars than the world has yet seen. 



The notice of ^the indications of interesting discoveries of 

 proper motions of stars, as given by the Australian obser- 

 vations of our venerable President (Sir Thomas M. Brisbane), 

 will be read with much pleasure ; while the mention of the 

 accuracy of Groombridge's Catalogue will be extensively re- 

 ceived as another illustration of the never-dying character of 

 good astronomical work. Mr Groombridge was past fifty be- 

 fore he had leisure and means to apply himself to astronomical 

 observation. When he did begin, he worked zealously and 



