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No. LIX.—ASTRONOMY. 
Divisions of the Year. —There are two celestial phenomena 
by which they may be affected :—(1) The solar method, by 
noting the group of stars which rise just before the sun, or 
set just after him and in his immediate neighbourhood ; this 
suffices to fix the time within 10 days ; (2) the lunar method, 
by counting the number of new moons and reckoning the odd 
parts of the first and last lunation ; this may suffice to fix the 
time even to a day ; but a lunar year of 13 complete months 
is not of the same length as the solar year, to which the 
seasons conform; and therefore each method has an advantage 
and a disadvantage, and the two cannot be used together except 
by some clumsy compromise. 1. Inquire into the plan used for 
dividing the year as regards (a) seasons and crops, ( b) sun, 
(c) moon. 2. Is the difficulty of combining solar and lunar 
years recognized ? 3. If so, is it met or avoided, and how ? 
4. Are there names for the phases of each lunation ? and for 
how many phases ? 
Division of the Day.-- There is a difficulty in using the 
height of the sun as a means to divide the day, because at the 
same hour it stands at different heights at different periods of 
the year, whether the hour be reckoned from midday or from 
sunrise or sunset. The difference of its bearing at sunset and 
sunrise is always considerable, but greatest within the polar 
circles, where it varies the whole way from N. to S. Near 
midsummer it momentarily dips below the horizon toward . 
the pole, and near midwinter it momentarily emerges above 
the horizon, opposite to the pole. 5. Is the fact of the varia¬ 
tion of the sun’s position at the same hour known and 
regarded when using it to divide time or to steer courses ? 
6. Is the property of the sundial known ? viz., that the 
shadow of a fixed rod sloping towards the pole, always falls in 
the same direction at the same hour all the year through ? 7. 
How is the day divided, by the position of sun or the length or 
direction of its shadow 1 8. How as regards other means of 
