508 FOURTH BULLETIN OF [1846. 
If you consider it sufficiently curious to render it worthy of preservation, you aro 
at liberty to dispose of it as you may think best calculated to achieve that end. 
I only have the favor to ask, in case you should send it to the National Institute, 
that my name may appear in the matter with as little conspicuousness as possible. 
If I can make it convenient to ride out and see you before I leave, I will do so ; 
if not, in departing from the Brazils I shall leave behind me my sincere wishes for 
your own and your family’s happiness. 
I remain, very truly, your most obedient servant, 
B. SHEPARD. 
Hon. Henry A. Wise. 
Description of the Almanac. 
Top. —The lines on the centre brass circle show the aspects which the moon 
makes during a revolution round the earth: namely, sextile, or 60°>|< ; a square or 
quadrate, 9U° □; a trine, 120°^^]. 
The first and third lines on the steel circle I cannot make out. The middle 
circle on the steel shows the age of the moon. The use of the seventeen points, 
or prongs, not known. The next circle contains the names of the months and 
days. The outer circle contains the lunar epact, or the excess of the solar above 
the lunar year. 
The reverse. —The first and second circles from the centre show the Dominical 
or Sunday letter. The third shows the golden number from C to 19, as after 
a period of nineteen years the moon returns to the same place she was nineteen 
years ago, and the new and full moon, the tides, &c., occur at the same times as 
before. The other circles contain the names of the planets, the days of the week. 
The rest of the figures 1 cannot make out at present. 
Second compartment. —A compass in the centre, variation marked about a point 
east. The first circle has the hours marked for the shadow of the gnomon of a 
sun dial, which is wanting, as the holes are there in which it has been placed. 
The next circle contains the letters of the alphabet. I think the outer circle con¬ 
tains the twenty-four hours of the astronomical day. 
The reverse. —Compass turned round. The first circle appears to contain the 
names of countries, and the outer circle, which is a compass, shows the bearings 
from the place where this instrument was made. Around the outside are marked 
the four cardinal points, E. W. N. S. 
The bottom. —The first circle contains the names of the first six signs of the 
zodiac; the second the signs and their characters; third, the degrees of each sign ; 
fourth, the names of the months; fifth, the days of the month for every ten days. 
The outer circle contains every day in the half year, the next inner circle the Sun¬ 
day letter, the next broad circle the names of saints and celebrated men for every 
day in the half year. 
I perceive in this circle that the sun entered each sign on or about the tenth of 
each month; now it enters each sign about the twentieth or twenty-first of each 
month. The reverse is the same for the other six months. 
E. E. W. 
Legation United States, Rio de Janeiro, January 31, 1846. 
My dear Sir: I accept with pleasure your very curious and antique present for 
the National Institute. I have no doubt of its being a genuine relic of 1604, and 
as such, both for its apparent uses and ingenious contrivance, it is highly worth pre¬ 
serving. It shall be transmitted by the first opportunity, with Professor Ward’s 
description, to Francis Markoe, esq., of Washington, naming you simply as the 
donor, who has been mindful abroad of your country’s institutions at home for the 
promotion and preservation of human knowledge. 
We shall be very happy to see you whenever you can make it convenient to pay 
us a visit; and I assure you, sir, that when you depart from this station you will 
carry with you the best wishes of myself and family. 
Yours truly, 
Xo Lieut. B. Shepard, U. S. frigate Raritan. 
HENRY A. WISE. 
