LT.-COL. G. MACKINLAY ON BIBLLCAL ASTRONOMY. 125 



nomical observations were generally made on the visible 

 horizon of risings and settings, although some, as at the Great 

 Pyramid, were doubtless made on the vertical meridian. 



The contrast between our modern western and the ancient 

 eastern use of astronomy for practical purposes was brought to 

 my notice in a very matter-of-fact sort of way some 30 years 

 ago, when travelling with my wife by ordinary marches in the 

 lower valleys towards Cashmere. We were in the habit of rising 

 about an hour before daybreak, so as to be dressed and ready 

 to start with the earliest streak of dawn, and thus avoid as 

 much as possible the heat of the coming day. The native 

 servants used to look at the positions of the stars during the 

 night from time to time, until they judged that it was about an 

 hour before daybreak, and as they did this from night to night 

 they became very fairly accurate. They then called me, and I 

 looked at my watch, and we got up at once or delayed a little 

 according as their estimate had been fast or slow. One day a 

 very long march down a hot valley was before us, and I was 

 specially anxious to start in good time. Unfortunately my 

 watch had stopped the day before, and it was the only timekeeper 

 in all our little party. Before turning in at night I had a good 

 look at the stars, and roughly estimated what their position 

 should be at the time for our rising next morning. I got up 

 during the night to look for myself, and then I found the heavens 

 indicating, as I thought, about an hour before dawn ; but not a 

 move did I perceive among the servants and coolies, and when 

 I woke them up they assured me that it was not yet time. 

 However I insisted upon it that daybreak must soon come, so 

 we rose, struck tents, packed up and drank the early coffee, 

 but still no signs of morning ! It was no use to wait, so off we 

 started in the dark with a lantern ; presently the path led into 

 a dark wood, and then it skirted the edge of a hill with a pre- 

 cipitous fall on the left hand, which made it somewhat dangerous 

 without daylight. Our progress was slow, and I began to realise 

 that I had made a mistake, and that the Easterns who had been 

 accustomed to judge of the time night after night) from the 

 position of the stars, were more to be trusted for practical 

 purposes than the Western who attempted to do so for the first 

 time after a single rough estimate the night before. 



It is no uncommon thing for a servant in India to glance at 

 the position of the sun in the heavens, and then make a very 

 fair estimate of the time of day. Of course an Englishman 

 could also do this if he practised this habit of observation, but 

 our universal possession of watches and clocks hinders us from 



