d confidence in his ability to meet Mr. Lick's requirements.
The great Vienna telescope which he afterward constructed was then
only being projected.

Not long after my return with this not very encouraging report,
Mr. Lick suddenly revoked his gift, through some dissatisfaction with
the proceedings of his trustees, and appointed a new board to carry
out his plans. This introduced legal complications, which were soon
settled by a friendly suit on the part of the old trustees, asking
authority to transfer their trust. The president of the new board was
Mr. Richard S. Floyd, a member of the well-known Virginia family of
that name, and a graduate, or at least a former cadet, of the United
States Naval Academy. I received a visit from him on his first trip
to the East in his official capacity, early in 1876, I believe. Some
correspondence with Mr. Lick's home representative ensued, of which
the most interesting feature was the donor's idea of a telescope.
He did not see why so elaborate and expensive a mounting as that
proposed was necessary, and thought that the object glass might be
mounted on the simplest kind of a pole or tower which would admit of
its having the requisite motions in connection with the eyepiece.
Whether I succeeded in convincing him of the impracticability of
his scheme, I do not know, as he died before the matter was settled.

This left the trustees at liberty to build and organize the
institution as they deemed best. It was speedily determined that
the object glass should be shaped by the Clarks, who should also be
responsible for getting the rough disks. This proved to be a very
difficult task. Chance & Co. were unwilling to undertake the work and
Feil had gone out of business, leaving the manufacture in the hands
of his son. The latter also failed, and the father had to return.
Ultimately the establishment was purchased by Mantois, whose success
was remarkable. He soon showed himself able to make disks not only
of much larger size than had ever before been produced, but of a
purity and transparency which none before him had ever approached.
He died in 1899 or 1900, and it is to be hoped that his successor
will prove to be his equal.

The original plan of Mr. Lick had been to found the observatory
on the borders of Lake Tahoe, but he grew dissatisfied with this
site and, shortly before his death, made provisional arrangements
for placing it on Mount Hamilton. In 1879 preparations had so