THE OBSERVATORY.

The annual report of the University Observatory was made public by Professor E. C. Pickering yesterday morning. The report, in addition to reviewing the detailed work of the department for the past year, points out several of the more important requirements, in regard to the endowment and the present in efficient equipment of the observatory.

Although the income of the departments at present, amounts to nearly $50,000, the decreasing rates of interest on standing investments calls for an additional sum of about $200,000 in order that the present income, received during the last two years, may be permanently established. The entire value of the equipment both in Cambridge and at the Arequipa station in Peru amounts only to $134,000, as compared with a corresponding value of $500,000 on the equipment at the Lick and Yerkes observatories more recently established in California. In addition to this handicap in financial matters, the department is much in need of a fire-proof Library building for the safe keeping of the valuable astronomical library. There are also buildings at the Cambridge and Blue Hill stations in need of immediate repair.

The review of the year includes the record of the work with various instruments in Cambridge and at Arequipa. Twenty-one variable stars were found in addition to a new star in the constellation. Aquila, which makes the sixth "Nova" discovered at Harvard by means of photography. At the Blue Hill Station, apart from routine observations, the chief work has been the continued exploration of the air by kites--twenty-two flights being made. The average height of these was 8973 feet, and the greatest single height being 15,800 feet. This system of lifting self recording instruments into the free air, originated at Blue Hill in 1894 and is now being extensively employed by European meteorologists.