Lick Trustees visited Washington to consult with Professor NEWCOMB and myself upon the plans for the observatory founded by Mr. LICK. In October of that year I prepared the plans and programme upon which the Lick Observatory has been built, organized, and is now administered. A detailed memorandum on this subject may be found in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. IV, page 139 (1892). The position of Director was offered to me in 1874, and accepted. The plans of the first Board of Lick Trustees were not carried out, for reasons which it is not necessary to state here.

In 1876 I became the adviser of the President of the third Board, and from that time until 1887 all the plans of the buildings were made by me, all the instruments ordered from my specifications (excepting the visual object-glass of the great telescope, with which Professor NEWCOMB was alone concerned), and most of the instruments were mounted and used by me personally during official visits to Mt. Hamilton in the years 1881, 1883, 1885, and 1886. Correspondence on file at the Lick Observatory and in the records of the Lick Trust will exhibit my share in this work.

In December, 1885, I was appointed to be President of the University of California, and Director of the Lick Observatory, and I held the former office until 1888. In June of that year the observatory was formally transferred by the Lick Trustees as the Lick Astronomical Department of the University, and from this time onward its scientific history is known to your Board.

The regular annual income of the observatory has been very small in relation to the wants of the establishment. It has been used to supply these wants so far as possible, and the whole observatory buildings, instruments, and equipment-is now in excellent condition. Since 1888 the reservoir capacity has been doubled; the buildings have been made water-tight and much improved in many respects; the instruments have been considerably increased in number, and they have been provided with subsidiary apparatus which was lacking; the library has doubled in size; the area of the reservation has been increased by one thousand acres, and the whole establishment and equipment is far more efficient in 1897 than it was in 1888. Only those who have visited the observatory can appreciate the full force of these statements.

A considerable number of graduate students have received

training here, and have been fitted for responsible positions here and elsewhere. Some 50,000 visitors have been received and cared for, and a contribution of importance to the intellectual advancement of the State has thus been made.

A very large part of the strictly scientific work of the observatory has been accomplished by virtue of subsidies received from its friends. Most of its apparatus has been presented to us outright. All of its foreign eclipse expeditions have been sent at the expense of wellwishers of the institution. The expensive plates of the Observatory Moon-Atlas, of Vol. III. of our quarto Publications, etc., have been provided at private cost. The names of Messrs. D. O. MILLS, C. F. CROCKER, WALTER W. LAW, of Mrs. PHOEBE HEARST, Miss CATHERINE WOLFE BRUCE, among others, are gratefully remembered in this connection. The money value of these gifts is over $47,000. Mr. EDWARD CROSSLEY, an English member of Parliament and amateur of astronomy, presented to the University in 1895 a three-foot reflecting telescope. Its performance from the year 1879 onwards has shown that it has no superior in the world at present. It is fitted to supplement the work of the three-foot refractor in an important way. This instrument was established in its place by the gifts of many citizens of California. and mounting were nearly complete in July, 1896. If it is diligently used, other gifts of like nature will come to the observatory as they are needed- and such gifts will be required if the observatory is to maintain its present standing, unless larger provision is made by the State, or unless a subsidy is received from the general government.

Its dome

The observatory has published three quarto and five octavo volumes, besides an Atlas of the Moon, and two volumes printed for us by the Smithsonian Institution, and very many separate articles published in scientific journals. Some permanent provision should be made for the publication of its work.

In the years which are to come, I wish for the observatory the fullest measure of brilliant success. Its equipment, situation, and its personnel will command this, if it is adequately supported. I am proud to have been connected with the observatory from its inception, and during its early and formative period, and to have done my part towards the creation and maintenance of the spirit which has characterized its own researches and its relations

to other scientific establishments throughout the world. I have given my best endeavors to these ends for twenty-three years.

I am, gentlemen,

Very respectfully and truly yours,

EDWARD S. HOLDEN."

LIST OF RECORDED EARTHQUAKES ON THE PACIFIC COAST, 1769-1897, BY EDWARD S. HOLDEN; ILLUSTRATED.

The Smithsonian Institution is about to print, in its Miscellaneous Contributions, a work with the above title. The data are derived from a similar list of recorded earthquakes. 1769-1888 (with a very considerable number of additions and a few corrections), which was issued by the University of California in 1888, and from the annual publications of the Lick Observatory (printed in the American Journal of Science, the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Bulletins of the U. S. Geological Survey) since that date. The annual records referred to have been compiled by Messrs. HOLDEN, KEELER, and PERRINE from observations at Mt. Hamilton, and from miscellaneous reports of earthquake shocks. They have been thoroughly sifted and revised in the present work, which is believed to contain all trustworthy data on the subject of Pacific Coast earthquakes since 1769. E. S. H.

MT. HAMILTON, September 1, 1897.

MEASURES OF THE COMPANION OF SIRIUS, AND OF B 883.

I have obtained measures of the companion of Sirius on two nights, September 23d and October 2d. On the former date the companion was readily seen for at least ten minutes after sunrise. The measures are:-

Another binary star of considerable interest is ẞ 883. It was discovered by Mr. BURNHAM in 1879, and was soon found to be in rapid motion. Dr. SEE (Monthly Notices R. A. S., June, 1897), in a recent investigation, found the period to be only five and a half years. If this result is even approximately correct, the star is by far the most rapid visible binary known.

I have secured three measures recently with the 36-inch

telescope. The two components are of nearly the same magnitude, and the angles may need to be increased by 180°.

The Leonids were watched for from November 13th to November 18th, inclusive, but no unusual shower was seen. In fact, the displays were very meager, the greatest number being observed on the morning of November 17th, when nine Leonids were counted from 3" 40" to 4" 30TM A.M. As the Moon was in this region of the heavens and near the time of last quarter, the conditions were not the best. C. D. P.

COMETS DUE TO RETURN IN 1898.

In the year 1898 there are no less than five periodic comets due to return to perihelion:

Winnecke, March 20th; Encke, May 26th; Swift, 1889 VI; Wolf, June 30th; Temple's first periodic comet.

Of these comets, Winnecke's, Encke's, and Wolf's are well determined and should be found, except, perhaps, Wolf's which is so situated that it does not become very bright-only about two and a half times as bright as at the time of its rediscovery in 1891, when Professor BARNARD estimated it at thirteen and a half magnitude.

In the case of Swift's comet, there is an uncertainty of 0.9 year in the time of perihelion passage, which precludes any accurate prediction of its place, and hence renders impracticable any extended search with large telescopes. Those having small

and moderate-sized telescopes will do well to devote some of their time to sweeping, with the chance of picking up this comet, and thereby save another from being added to the already long list of missing ones.

Temple's first periodic comet was observed at the returns of 1873 and 1879, subsequent to its discovery in 1867, but at the last two apparitions it was not seen. It is to be hoped that it may be rediscovered at the coming apparition.

The Temple-Swift comet (1869 III, 1880 IV, 1891 V) was due to pass perihelion on June 4th of the present year, but owing to the unfavorable situation of the Earth, the comet was always in the twilight, and being on the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth, its brightness was small, and hence was not found. Its next return should be more favorable. C. D. P. MT. HAMILTON, November 20, 1897.

PHOTOGRAPH OF THE SPECTRUM OF A METEOR.

In Harvard College Observatory Circular No. 20, dated November 8, 1897, Professor E. C. PICKERING states that the spectrum of a meteor has been photographed for the first time.

At about II P.M. on June 18, 1897, when the eight-inch BACHE telescope (provided with a large objective prism) at Arequipa, Peru, was directed towards the constellation Telescopium, a bright meteor appeared in Right Ascension 18h 19m, Declination - 47°10', and passed out of the field of view at Right Ascension 18h 29, Declination 50° 30'.

Mrs. FLEMING's examination of the photographic plate shows that the spectrum consists of six bright lines, whose intensity varies in different positions of the photograph, thereby showing that the light of the meteor changed as its image passed across the plate. The intensities of these lines are estimated at 40, 100, 2, 13, 10, and 10, respectively, and their wave lengths show that the first, second, fourth, and sixth lines are probably identical with the hydrogen lines He, H8, Hy, and Hg. The fifth line is probably identical with the band which forms the distinctive feature of the spectra of stars of the third class of the fifth type, and the third line, which is barely visible, is perhaps identical with another band contained in these stars.

The Hs line is the most intense of the four hydrogen lines in the spectrum of the meteor. This is also the case in the spectrum of o Ceti, and of many other variable stars of long period. The relations between the other hydrogen lines also indicate an important resemblance between meteors and stars having bright lines in their spectra. These results may aid in determining the conditions of temperature and pressure in these bodies.

Professor PICKERING adds that special efforts will be made to photograph meteor trails and spectra during the November meteoric shower of this year. R. G. AITKEN.