ast Survey, and a young son of Mr. Field,
who had spent the day in seeing the sights of Washington. Being
called upon for a recital of his experiences, the youth described his
visit to the observatory, and expressed his surprise at finding no
large telescope. The only instrument they could show him was much
smaller and more antiquated than that of Mr. Rutherfurd in New York.

The guests listened to this statement with incredulity, and applied to
Mr. Hilgard to know whether the visitor was not mistaken, through a
failure to find the great telescope of the observatory. Mr. Hilgard
replied that the statement was quite correct, the observatory having
been equipped at a time when the construction of great refracting
telescopes had not been commenced, and even their possibility was
doubted.

"This ought not to be," said one of the senators. "Why is it so?"

Mr. Hilgard mentioned the reluctance of Congress to appropriate
money for a telescope.

"It must be done," replied the senator. "You have the case properly
represented to Congress, and we will see that an appropriation goes
through the Senate at least."

It chanced that this suggestion had an official basis which was not
known to the guests. Although Mr. Alvan Clark had already risen into
prominence as a maker of telescopes, his genius in this direction
had not been recognized outside of a limited scientific circle.
The civil war had commenced just as he had completed the largest
refracting telescope ever made, and the excitement of the contest,
as well as the absorbing character of the questions growing out
of the reconstruction of the Union, did not leave our public men
much time to think about the making of telescopes. Mr. Clark had,
however, been engaged by Captain Gilliss only a year or two after the
latter had taken charge of the observatory, to come to Washington,
inspect our instruments, and regrind their glasses. The result
of his work was so striking to the observers using the instruments
before and after his work on them, that no doubt of his ability could
be felt. Accordingly, in preparing items for the annual reports of
the observatory for the years 1868 and 1869, I submitted one to the
superintendent setting forth the great deficiency of the observatory
in respect to the power of its telescope, and the ability of Mr. Clark
to make good that deficiency. These were embodied in the reports.
It was recommended that authority be given to order a te