Much has been done during the term in cometary investigation, but latterly comets have been observed, as a rule, only immediately upon discovery and towards the end of their visible period, or after they had got beyond the reach of any but the most powerful telescopes. In the summer of 1883 the director journeyed in Europe and visited the principal observatories there. In the following annual report he names as an important result of his journey the obtaining of copies of unpublished manuscripts of Argelander and Sir William Herschel. The former are memoranda of observations of variable stars and the latter of observations made more than 100 years ago of the light of all stars of Flamsteed’s catalogue. The work on the Cambridge zone of stars was completed, as respects the primary plan of observation, on Jan. 26, 1879, and at that stage was regarded as one of the largest astronomical undertakings ever carried through in this country. The reduction of the data was accomplished in 1883, but as was expected, a necessity for reobservation appeared in certain cases. This work was done between Oct. 9, 1883 and Aug. 9, 1884. The observer from the beginning had been Prof. William A. Rogers. He resigned his position as assistant professor in the observatory in 1886, but continued to serve as editor of the published results. The whole series makes half a dozen or more volumes of the annals. The European supervisors of the general undertaking, well pleased, apparently, with the early instalments of manuscript returns, assigned to Harvard the work of reobservation of another zone, that between 9° 50′ south and 14° 10′ south. This work is still in progress. Each zone comprises about 8000 stars or nearly 17,000 in all. The publications of the observatory during the present term in the form of annals, and as contributions by members of the corps to various journals of science, have been numerous and extensive. At the beginning of the term but four volumes of annals had been issued, though about an equal number were in some stage of progress in the printers’ hands, publication having gone on slowly from lack of means. At the present time the continuous series of 22 volumes has been issued, excepting the second or supplementary parts in two or three instances. These parts are nearly ready, and the manuscript for about half a dozen more volumes in regular succession has, in part or whole, been given to the printer. A review of what has been done during the present term in the departments of photometry, spectroscopy and photography will be comprised in the next and closing number of this series. VII.