ir phases and
position at each moment being accurately presented to the eye. Around
this circle was a narrow band divided into strips of different length
of various colours, each representing one of the peculiar divisions of
the Martial day; that point which came under the golden indicator
showing the _zyda_ and the exact moment of the _zyda_, while the
movement of the inner circle fixed with equal accuracy the period of
day or night. Below were other circles from which the observer could
learn the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, the intensity of the
sunlight, and the electric tension at the moment. Each of the six
smaller circles registered on a moving ribbon the indications of every
successive moment, these ribbons when unrolled forming a perfect
record of temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind, and so forth, in
the form of a curve--a register kept for more than 8000 Martial years.

Four times during the revolution of the great circle each large clock
emits for a couple of minutes a species of chime, the nature of which
my ignorance of music renders me unable to describe:--viz., when the
line dividing the green and black semicircles is horizontal at noon
and midnight, and an hour before, at average sunrise and sunset, it
becomes perpendicular. The individual character of the several chimes,
tunes, or peals, whatever they should be called, is so distinct that
even I appreciated it. Further, as the first point of the coloured
strip distinguishing each several _zyda_ reaches the golden indicator,
a single slightly prolonged sound--I fancy what is known on Earth as a
single chord--is emitted. Of these again each is peculiar, so that no
one with an ear for music can doubt what is the period of the day
announced. The sound is never, even in the immediate vicinity of the
clock, unpleasantly loud; while it penetrates to an amazing distance.
It would be perfectly easy, if needful, to regulate all clocks by
mechanical control through the electric network extended all over the
face of the planet; but the perfect accuracy of each individual
timepiece renders any such check needless. In those latitudes where
day and night during the greater part of the year are not even
approximately equal, the black and green semicircles are so enlarged
or diminished by mechanical means, that the hour of the day or night
is represented as accurately as on the Equator itself.

The examination of this establishment occupied us for two or th