Verbiest has placed
there. These are large, well cast, adorned in every case with figures of
dragons," etc. He then proceeds to describe them:

"(1). Armillary Zodiacal Sphere of 6 feet diameter. This sphere reposes on
the heads of four dragons, the bodies of which after various convolutions
come to rest upon the extremities of two brazen beams forming a cross, and
thus bear the entire weight of the instrument. These dragons ... are
represented according to the notion the Chinese form of them, enveloped in
clouds, covered above the horns with long hair, with a tufted beard on the
lower jaw, flaming eyes, long sharp teeth, the gaping throat ever vomiting
a torrent of fire. Four lion-cubs of the same material bear the ends of
the cross beams, and the heads of these are raised or depressed by means
of attached screws, according to what is required. The circles are divided
on both exterior and interior surface into 360 degrees; each degree into
60 minutes by transverse lines, and the minutes into sections of 10
seconds each by the sight-edge[2] applied to them."

Of Verbiest's other instruments we need give only the names: (2)
Equinoxial Sphere, 6 feet diameter. (3) Azimuthal Horizon, same diam. (4)
Great Quadrant, of 6 feet radius. (5) Sextant of about 8 feet radius. (6)
Celestial Globe of 6 feet diameter.

As Lecomte gives no details of the old instruments which he saw through a
grating, and as the description of this zodiacal sphere (No. 1)
corresponds in some of its main features with that represented in the
photograph, I could not but recognize the _possibility_ that this
instrument of Verbiest's had for some reason or other been removed from
the Terrace, and that the photograph might therefore possibly _not_ be a
representation of one of the ancient instruments displaced by him.[3]

The question having been raised it was very desirable to settle it, and I
applied to Mr. Wylie for information, as I had received the photographs
from him, and knew that he had been Mr. Thomson's companion and helper in
the matter.

"Let me assure you," he writes (21st August, 1874), "the Jesuits had
nothing to do with the manufacture of the so-called Mongol instruments;
and whoever made them, they were certainly on the Peking Observatory
before Loyola was born. They are not made for the astronomical system
introduced by the Jesuits, but are altogether conformable to the system
introduced by Kublai's astronomer Ko Show-king.... I will