XVII 



labour in observing. This will be apparent to anyone who will count the 

 number of observations of stars between 67° and 117° north polar distance, 

 and consider that a catalogue formed from the results of other years would 

 .contain observations of these stars to very nearly the same relative extent. 

 Of the large number of observations accumulated here from 1832 to 1855 with 

 the transit instrument and mural circles, the places of the southern stars, out 

 of reach of northern observatories, will, when reduced, still be of value for 

 proper motions, but the immense number of observations of well-known 

 stars made here with the old instruments can now, I fear, never repay 



the labour required for their reduction I have made these 



remarks, not only in justice to the present staff, and to explain the work 

 upon which they have been employed, but because it was these considera- 

 tions which led me to pass over the earlier observations, and to commence 

 the systematic reductions with the year 1856, when the transit circle was 

 first brought into regular use. I felt that these reductions could not be 

 any longer delayed without the value of the results being greatly diminished. 

 I had, and still have, hopes that the data collected in the present cata- 

 logue for corresponding observations at the northern observatories would 

 be found sufficient to meet the actual requirements of astronomers so far 

 as these requirements can be met by the material collected here, and that 

 I might be relieved from the laborious and somewhat useless task of com- 

 pleting the reductions of the earlier observations of stars whose positions 

 have been fixed already with an accuracy greater than could be expected to 

 be attained in the observations made with the, comparatively speaking, 

 inferior instruments in use at this observatory before the introduction of the 

 transit circle." 



We dwell somewhat on this point because inquiry has shown that 

 these words convey precisely Stone's frequently expressed views, and 

 we can thus more fully admire the high sense of duty which 

 prompted the self-sacrifice and devotion with which he applied 

 himself to the subsequent execution of an uncongenial but honour- 

 able task. 



The meridian results for the year 1856 were published by Stone in 

 1871, for the years 1857 and 1858 in 1872, and those for 1859 and 

 1860 in 1874. The general catalogue of 1159 stars, derived from all 

 these observations and reduced to the equinox of 1860, was published 

 in the year 1873. 



In the interval of his regular labours Stone next devoted his 

 attention to the examination and publication of the results of obser- 

 vations made with the transit instrument and mural circle in the 

 years 1834 to 1840. Maclear had already reduced the whole of 

 these observations, and Stone accepted these results generally as 

 satisfactory, but he redetermined the azimuthal errors and re-reduced 

 the observations of the close circumpolar stars. The work of exami- 

 nation occupied Stone from time to time as opportunity offered, and 

 " much progress was made in it during the comparative leisure 

 enjoyed during my visit to England in 1875." The results were 



