ing that one
of our eclipse reports was the laughing-stock of Europe was drowned
in the general applause.

In the latter part of 1869 I had carried forward the work with
the transit circle as far as it could be profitably pursued under
existing conditions. On working up my observations, the error which
I had suspected in the adopted positions of the stars was proved
to be real. But the discovery of this error was due more to the
system of observation, especially the pursuit of the latter through
the day and night, than it was to any excellence of the instrument.
The latter proved to have serious defects which were exaggerated by
the unstable character of the clayey soil of the hill on which the
observatory was situated. Other defects also existed, which seemed
to preclude the likelihood that the future work of the instrument
would be of a high class. I had also found that very difficult
mathematical investigations were urgently needed to unravel one
of the greatest mysteries of astronomy, that of the moon's motion.
This was a much more important work than making observations, and
I wished to try my hand at it. So in the autumn I made a formal
application to the Secretary of the Navy to be transferred from
the observatory to the Nautical Almanac Office for the purpose of
engaging in researches on the motion of the moon. On handing this
application to the superintendent he suggested that the work in
question might just as well be done at the observatory. I replied
that I thought that the business of the observatory was to make and
reduce astronomical observations with its instruments, and that the
making of investigations of the kind I had in view had always been
considered to belong to the Nautical Almanac Office. He replied that
he deemed it equally appropriate for the observatory to undertake it.
As my objection was founded altogether on a principle which he
refused to accept, and as by doing the work at the observatory
I should have ready access to its library, I consented to the
arrangement he proposed. Accordingly, in forwarding my application,
he asked that my order should be so worded as not to detach me from
the observatory, but to add the duty I asked for to that which I
was already performing.

So far as I was personally concerned, this change was fortunate
rather than otherwise. As things go in Washington, the man who
does his work in a fine public building can gain consideration for
it much more