THE NAVY DEPARTMENT—THE UNITED STATES OBSERVATORY—THE STATE
DEPARTMENT.
The Navy-Yards and Docks—Equipment of Vessels—Bureau of Ordnance
and Hydrography—The Naval Observatory—The Bureau of
Medicine—Interesting Statistics—The Navy Seventy Years
Ago—Instructions of the Great Napoleon—Keeping Pace with
England—Scene from the Observatory—Peeping through the
Telescope—The Mountains in the Moon—The Largest Telescope in
the World—The Chronometers of the Government—The Test of
Time—Chronometers on Trial—The Wind and Current Charts—The Good
Deeds of Lieutenant Maury—“The Habits of the Whale”—The
Equatorial—A Self-acting Telescope—The Transit Instrument—The
Great Astronomical Clock—Telling Time by Telegraph—Hearing the
Clock Tick Miles Away—The Transit of Venus—Great Preparations—A
Trifle of Half-a-Million of Miles—A Little Secret
Suggestion—Pardons and Passports, 507