hould it be a binary system. I have given an account of this in the
"Connexion of the Physical Sciences," so I shall only mention here that
in one or two of the binary systems the revolving star has been seen to
make more than one revolution, and that the periodical times and the
elliptical elements of a great many other orbits have been calculated,
though they are more than 200,000 times farther from the sun than we
are.

After Sir John Herschel was married, we paid him a visit at Slough;
fortunately, the sky was clear, and Sir John had the kindness to show me
many nebulae and clusters of stars which I had never seen to such
advantage as in his 20 ft. telescope. I shall never forget the glorious
appearance of Jupiter as he entered the field of that instrument.

For years the British nation was kept in a state of excitement by the
Arctic voyages of our undaunted seamen in quest of a north-west passage
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The idea was not new, for a
direct way to our Eastern possessions had been long desired. On this
occasion the impulse was given by William Scoresby, captain of a whaler,
who had sailed on the east coast of Greenland as high as the 80th
parallel of latitude, and for two successive seasons had found that the
sea between Greenland and Spitzbergen was free of ice for 18,000 square
miles--a circumstance which had not occurred before in the memory of
man. Scoresby was of rare genius, well versed in science, and of strict
probity. When he published this discovery, the Admiralty, in the year
1818, sent off two expeditions, one under the command of Captains
Franklin and Buchan to the east of Greenland, and another under Captains
Ross and Parry to Baffin's Bay. Such was the beginning of a series of
noble adventures, now the province of history.

I had an early passion for everything relating to the sea, and when my
father was at home I never tired asking him questions about his voyages
and the dangers to which he had been exposed. Now, when I knew something
of nautical science, I entered with enthusiasm into the spirit of these
Arctic voyages; nor was my husband less interested. We read Scoresby's
whaling voyages with great delight, and we made the acquaintance of all
the officers who had been on these northern expeditions.

Sir Edward Parry, who had brought us minerals and seeds of plants from
Melville Island, invited us to see the ships prepared for his third
voyage, and three years' resi