THE MAKERSTOUN OBSERVATIONS. 
3 
The first part of the Makerstoim 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. 
The 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 
