"The site of this institution is ideal, both for telescopic and spectroscopic purposes. So great is the purity of the air that both these instruments can be used in the most accurate measurement. The definition of the stars and disks of the planets is perfect, and the entire year presents but few nights during which a micrometer cannot be used. Stellar spectra are clear cut and steady, and in the solar spectrum the Fraunhofer lines are perfectly defined, the thin lines, in diameter equal to that of a spider's web, can be seen without difficulty. Few observatories in the world have a clearer sky, or a location presenting less trouble from air currents and changes. To illustrate the clearness of the atmosphere, it will be merely necessary to state that the trapezium in the Great Nebula in Orion shows distinctly at the exact instant of rising over the mountain peaks! The writer has often observed the trapezium—the entire seven stars—when only one minute had elapsed since rising over the rocks forming the summit of the mountains! This will be appreciated by all who have long used a telescope in any of the Eastern observatories. The moon is white—not yellow, and the floors of the craters, the cones, whence escaped molten lava ages ago, and the delicate tracery of shadows are revealed with marvellous accuracy of detail.

"NebulÆ can be seen here that are invisible in many other instruments of equal or greater aperture. Double stars are separated at this observatory, that would seem to be beyond the power of a sixteen-inch glass. Closely packed clusters are dispersed into separate diamonds, rubies and sapphires. But no tongue or pen can describe the glories of the Milky Way. Imagine jet black velvet spread over with heaps, streamers and spirals, made up of every possible color of precious gem—with diamonds in excess. These stars all separately invisible to the unaided eye, are seen as individual points in the telescope. They glitter with supernal light, and scintillate in every hue of the spectrum. They are piled up by the million on the inconceivable blackness of infinite space, for never-ending space is black in the telescope. The Zodiacal light in autumnal evenings and mornings is seen extending almost to the zenith—a cone of pearly light.