eal firmament. He had made a great number of
photographs at Irvington, and the photographic laboratory was a charming
illustration of my father's ingenuity and precision. At Mt. Cook we
enjoyed a marvellously clear atmosphere for work of this sort, and
amongst the first thoughts of my father was to provide the most
satisfactory means for the continuance of our stellar photography.
Besides our visual telescope we had a photographic telescope which was
used, instead of connecting the visual lens on one and the same
instrument, as in the Lick Observatory.

The innovations introduced by photography have revolutionized the
processes of stellar measurement. Instead of the laborious task of
measuring the stars through the telescope, the photographic plate can be
studied at ease as a correct and identical chart of the heavens and the
results thus obtained placed at the disposal of astronomers. My father
appreciated this and amongst his numerous projects of scientific
usefulness the preparation of photographs of the stars fully occupied
his mind.

We had no Meridian Circle, as it was less in the direction of the
determination of the position of stars than in the elucidation of the
surfaces of planets, that my father's astronomical predilections lay.
Our telescope was a refractor and had an objective of two feet diameter.
It was firmly supported on a trap rock pedestal. The eye piece
adjustment was unusually successful, and the remarkable freedom of the
objective from any traces of spherical or chromatic aberration gave us
an image of surprising clearness. The photographic results were
admirable. I imagine few more satisfactory photographs of the face of
Moon have been made than those we secured, so far at least as definition
is concerned, and the detail within the limits of our powers of
magnification.

The telescope was very slowly installed and it was well in 1885 before
we were able to use it for either observation or photography.

As the surprising messages detailed in the following pages came by means
of wireless telegraphy, I will dwell for an instant for the benefit of
the non-scientific reader, upon the investigations made by my father and
myself in this subject.

The installation of a wireless telegraphic station is not necessarily
difficult. The progress made since my father and myself began these
experiments has been, of course, considerable, and yet so far as I am
able to ascertain the new devices in this direc