About two months ago I was, for the last time, unfortunately, at the theatre, when Professor Schumacher and the Chevalier Kessel, of Danneburg, called on me. As soon as I came home I sent a note of invitation for the next evening, but had one returned informing me of their leaving Hanover next morning, and a promise of coming perhaps next summer. But I hear Struve is coming, and I hope I shall get a sight of him. The Emperor of Russia and the King of Denmark are cramming their observatories with astronomical instruments, &c., of all descriptions, made, I believe, some of them by Hohenbaum.... * * * * * To my dear niece I beg you to give my best love and thanks for the kind arrangement to indemnify me for the loss of her dear letters, by charging her brothers to inform me of all they know, &c., which, thank God, is hitherto of the most comforting nature. With the most heartfelt wishes for the continuance of the health of you all, I remain, &c., &c., C. HERSCHEL. [Sidenote: 1835. _Sir John Herschel at the Cape._] FROM J. F. W. HERSCHEL TO MISS HERSCHEL. FELDHAUSEN, C. G. H., _Feb. 22, 1835_. * * * * * For my own part I never enjoyed such good health in England as I have done since I came here. The first coming on of the hot season affected me a little (odd enough with colds and rheumatisms), but it soon went off. The stars continue to be propitious, and the nights which follow a shower, or a “black south-easter,” are the most observing nights it is possible to imagine. I have swept well over Scorpio, and have many entries in my sweeping books of the kind you describe, viz., blank space in the heavens _without the smallest star_. For example:— R.A. 16^h 15^m—N.P.D. 113° 56ʹ—a field without the smallest star. R.A. 16 19 N.P.D. 116 3—_Antares_ (α Scorpii.) R.A. 16 23 N.P.D. 114 25 to 214° 5ʹ—fields entirely void of stars. R.A. 16 26 N.P.D. 114 14 not a star 16^m—Nothing! R.A. 16 27 N.P.D. 114 0 not a star as far as 114° 10ʹ. and so on. Then come on the globular clusters, then more blank fields, then suddenly the Milky Way comes on as here described (from my sweep 474, July 29, 1834):— “17^h 28^m, 114° 27ʹ.—The Milky Way comes on in large milky nebulous irregular patches and banks, with few stars of visible magnitude, after a succession of black fields and extremely rare stars above 18th magnitude. I do not remember ever to have seen the Milky Way so decidedly nebulous, or, indeed, at all so, before.”