him with attention. His instructions were fully impressed upon

our minds by Mr. Cooper, the teacher of the evening school, which
I attended. After giving the young lads employed at the works

their lessons in arithmetic, he would come out with us into the
night--and it was generally late when we separated--and show us

the principalconstellations, and the planets above the horizon.
It was a wonderful sight; yet we were told that these hundreds

upon hundreds of stars, as far as the eye could see, were but a
mere vestige of the creationamidst which we lived. I got to

know the names of some of the constellations the Greater Bear,
with 'the pointers' which pointed to the Pole Star, Orion with

his belt, the Twins, the Pleiades, and other prominent objects in
the heavens. It was a source of constant wonder and surprise.

"When I left the Bleachfield Works, I went to Inverury, to the
North of Scotland Railway, which was then in course of formation;

and for many years, being immersed in work, I thought
comparatively little of astronomy. It remained, however, a

pleasant memory. It was only after coming to this neighbourhood
in 1854, when the railway to Blairgowrie was under construction,

that I began to read up a little, during my leisure hours, on the
subject of astronomy. I got married the year after, since which

time I have lived in this house.
"I became a member of a reading-room club, and read all the works

of Dr. Dick that the library contained: his 'Treatise on the
Solar System,' his 'Practical Astronomer,' and other works.

There were also some very good popular works to which I was
indebted for amusement as well as instruction: Chambers's

'Information for the People,' Cassell's ' Popular Educator,' and
a very interesting series of articles in the 'Leisure Hour,' by

Edwin Dunkin of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. These last
papers were accompanied by maps of the chief constellations, so

that I had a renewed opportunity of becoming a little better
acquainted with the geography of the heavens.

"I began to have a wish for a telescope, by means of which I
might be able to see a little more than with my naked eyes. But

I found that I could not get anything of much use, short of 20L.
I could not for a long time feel justified in spending so much

money for my own personal enjoyment. My children were then young
and dependent upon me. They required to attend school--for

education is a thing that parents must not neglect, with a view
to the future. However, about the year 1875, my attention was

called to a cheap instrument advertised by Solomon--what he
called his '5L. telescope.' I purchased one, and it tantalised

me; for the power of the instrument was such as to teach me
nothing of the surface of the planets. After using it for about

two years, I sold it to a student, and then found that I had
accumulated enough savings to enable me to buy my present

instrument. Will you come into the next room and look at it?"
I went accordingly into the adjoining room, and looked at the new

telescope. It was taken from its case, put upon its tripod, and
looked in beautiful condition. It is a refractor, made by Cooke

and Sons of York. The object glass is three inches; the focal
length forty-three inches; and the telescope, when drawn out,

with the pancratic eyepiece attached, is about four feet. It was
made after Mr. Robertson's directions, and is a sort of

combination of instruments.
"Even that instrument," he proceeded, "good as it is for the

money, tantalises me yet. A look through a fixed equatorial,
such as every large observatory is furnished with is a glorious

view. I shall never forget the sight that I got when at Dunecht
Observatory, to which I was invited through the kindness of Dr.

Copeland, the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres' principal
astronomer.

"You ask me what I have done in astronomical research? I am
sorry to say I have been able to do little except to gratify my

own curiosity; and even then, as I say, I have been much
tantalised. I have watched the spots on the sun from day to day

through obscured glasses, since the year 1878, and made many
drawings of them. Mr. Rand Capron, the astronomer, of Guildown,

Guildford, desired to see these drawings, and after expressing
his satisfaction with them, he sent them to Mr. Christie,

Astronomer Royal, Greenwich. Although photographs of the solar
surface were preferred, Mr. Capron thought that my sketches might

supply gaps in the partially cloudy days, as well as details
which might not appear on the photographic plates. I received a

very kind letter from Mr. Christie, in which he said that it
would be very difficult to make the results obtained from

drawings, however accurate, at all comparable with those derived
from photographs; especially as regards the accurate size of the

spots as compared with the diameter of the sun. And no doubt he
is right.

"What, do I suppose, is the cause of these spots in the sun?
Well, that is a very difficult question to answer. Changes are

constantly going on at the sun's surface, or, I may rather say,
in the sun's interior, and making themselves apparent at the

surface. Sometimes they go on with enormous activity; at other
times they are more quiet. They recur alternately in periods of

seven or eight weeks, while these again are also subject to a
period of about eleven years--that is, the short recurring

outbursts go on for some years, when they attain a maximum, from
which they go on decreasing. I may say that we are now (August

1883) at, or very near, a maximum epoch. There is no doubt that
this period has an intimateconnection with our auroral displays;

but I don't think that the influence sun-spots have on light or
heat is perceptible. Whatever influence they possess would be

felt alike on the whole terrestrial globe. We have wet, dry,
cold, and warm years, but they are never general. The kind of

season which prevails in one country is often quite reversed in
another perhaps in the adjacent one. Not so with our auroral

displays. They are universal on both sides of the globe; and
from pole to pole the magneticneedle trembles during their

continuance. Some authorities are of opinion that these
eleven-year cycles are subject to a larger cycle, but sun-spot

observations have not existed long enough to determine this
point. For myself, I have a great difficulty in forming an

opinion. I have very little doubt that the spots are depressions
on the surface of the sun. This is more apparent when the spot

is on the limb. I have often seen the edge very rugged and
uneven when groups of large spots were about to come round on the

east side. I have communicated some of my observations to 'The
Observatory,' the monthlyreview of astronomy, edited by Mr.

Christie, now Astronomer Royal,[2] as well as to The Scotsmam,
and some of our local papers.[3]

"I have also taken up the observation of variable stars in a
limited portion of the heavens. That, and 'hunting for comets'

is about all the real astronomical work that an amateur can do
nowadays in our climate, with a three-inch telescope. I am

greatly indebted to the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, who
regularly sends me circulars of all astronomical discoveries,

both in this and foreign countries. I will give an instance of
the usefulness of these circulars. On the morning of the 4th of

October, 1880, a comet was discovered by Hartwig, of Strasburg,
in the constellation of Corona. He telegraphed it to Dunecht

Observatory, fifteen miles from Aberdeen. The circulars
announcing the discovery were printed and despatched by post to

various astronomers. My circular reached me by 7 P.M., and, the
night being favourable, I directed my telescope upon the part of

the heavens indicated, and found the comet almost at once--that
is, within fifteen hours of the date of its discovery at

Strasburg.
"In April, 1878, a large meteor was observed in broad daylight,

passing from south to north, and falling it was supposed, about
twenty miles south of Ballater. Mr. A. S. Herschel, Professor of