elbourne for the first six months, and Professor Neumayer will
take every opportunity of forwarding my letters. It is quite
possible that I may not go, but it is more likely that I shall, as
Professor N. is very anxious that I should, to make magnetic and
meteorological observations, and he is on the Exploration
Committee. If you have not been able to get the books I wrote for,
for myself, you may as well leave them for the present. I have been
indulging greatly in operas lately. I can understand that sort of
music better than high-flown oratorios. The operatic company at the
Theatre Royal is not first-rate, but as good as we can expect to
have in a new colony like this. The pieces they have given are Il
Trovatore, Lucia di Lammermoor, Lucrezia Borgia, and La Sonnambula;
the latter is a delightful one, but they cannot manage it
satisfactorily, some of the songs are so difficult of execution.

Please to give my love, etc., etc.

Your affectionate brother,

WILLIAM J. WILLS.

. . .

The following reply to his mother alludes to the circumstance, which
she had mentioned, of an aurora borealis, having appeared in
England. This completes his letters for 1859.

Flagstaff Observatory, December 18th, 1859.

MY DEAR MOTHER,

Your letter of the 17th of October arrived here by the Columbian
only three or four days after time, which is a wonderful piece of
punctuality for that miserable old tub. I am glad that you were so
much pleased with the sketch of the Observatory that I sent you. I
now forward a photograph made by a friend of mine, which will
convey a better idea than the other of the appearance of our
habitation, etc. You will find an explanation of the various parts
of the picture written in pencil on the back of each respectively.
You had better have it mounted on a piece of cardboard by some one
who is accustomed to mounting photographs; when nicely done it
looks twice as well. It was intended that we should all have been
taken in this picture, but owing to some mismanagement, no notice
was given, so no one was outside at the time. Your remarks about
the aurora borealis of the 12th of October were very interesting
and valuable. We knew that there was an aurora there, but of course
could not tell where it was visible. You little thought that while
you were looking at the vibrations of those beautiful streamers of
red and white light, I was watching sympathetic oscillations of
little steel magnets, which we suspe