There was a pause; then he heard the sound of claws; and the dragging of a heavy body away from him over the observatory floor.

These, as regards the objects of the institution, were merely auxiliaries: the history of the circumstances which led the Government of the day to supply the funds for the construction of the Observatory shews that, but for the demands of accurate Lunar Determinations as aids to navigation, the erection of a National Observatory would never have been thought of.

In fewer than two hundred years from that time the Church of St. Ignasio was built, and the monastery on whose walls the instruments of the modern observatory stand.

Two matters (in addition to the daily routine of Observatory work) occupied me at the beginning of this year.