t--as was said when speaking of the
Astronomical Observatory--Greenwich is a practical place, and not one
prepared for show. Science, like virtue, does not require a palace for a
dwelling-place. In this collection of deal houses, during the last ten
years, Nature has been constantly watched, and interrogated with the
zeal and patience which alone can glean a knowledge of her secrets. And
the results of those watches, kept at all hours, and in all weathers,
are curious in the extreme; but before we ask what they are, let us
cross the barrier, and see with what tools the weather-students work.

The main building is built in the form of a cross, with its chief front
to the magnetic north. It is formed of wood, all iron and other metals
being carefully excluded; for its purpose is to contain three large
magnets, which have to be isolated from all influence likely to
interfere with their truthful action. In three arms of the cross these
magnets are suspended by bands of unwrought, untwisted silk. In the
fourth arm is a sort of double window, filled with apparatus for
receiving the electricity collected at the top of the mast which stands
close by. Thus, in this wooden shed, we find one portion devoted to;
electricity--to the detection and registry of the stray lightning of the
atmosphere--and the other three to a set of instruments that feel the
influence and register the variations of the magnetic changes in the
conditions of the air. "True as the needle to the pole," is the burden
of an old song, which now shows how little our forefathers knew about
this same needle, which, in truth, has a much steadier character than it
deserves. Let all who still have faith in the legend go to the
magnet-house, and when they have seen the vagaries there displayed, they
will have but a poor idea of Mr. Charles Dibdin's sea-heroes, whose
constancy is declared to have been as true as their compasses were to
the north.

Upon entering the magnet-house, the first object that attracts attention
are the jars to which the electricity is brought down. The fluid is
collected, as just stated, by a conductor running from the top of the
mast outside. In order that not the slightest portion may be lost in its
progress down, a lamp is kept constantly burning near the top of the
pole, the light of which keeps warm and dry a body of glass that cuts
off all communication between the conductor and the machinery which
supports it. Another light, for the pur