But eight days after the first peep had been obtained through the great glass, a very unfortunate accident happened in the observatory. The elevating floor of the telescope gave way, and fell forty feet, to the bottom of the dome. Two astronomers had been observing the stars the entire night, but happily they had left the building just before the accident occurred. As good luck would have it, the great telescope was also uninjured, but a great deal of damage was done to the building. It is estimated that it will take the whole summer to tear out the wreckage and make the repairs. During that time the telescope cannot be used. This is a great disappointment to the scientists. We told you of the labor entailed in the grinding of a lens. Mr. Alvan G. Clark, the man who made the great glass of which we have been speaking, has just died. He and his father and brother had devoted their entire lives to the making of telescopes, and made many of the famous glasses of the world. The great glass at the Lick Observatory, which measures thirty-six inches across, is of their manufacture. Their greatest triumph was the Yerkes lens, which is forty inches in diameter, and which was completed only a few months before Mr. Clark's death. This firm did a great deal to further astronomical research. Not only did they manufacture such perfect instruments that the possibilities of observing the stars were greatly increased, but they were close students of the science themselves. Mr. Alvan G. Clark, in particular, made several important discoveries, having found no less than fourteen new stars. * * * * * We told you about the _Holland_, the new submarine boat which has just been launched at Elizabeth-port. It will interest you to know that she has had a partial trial, which has proved very satisfactory. While she was still at the wharf an attempt was made to submerge her. On the turning of the lever she sank, inch by inch, until only her tower was out of water. A day or two after she was taken for a spin down Staten Island Sound. She attracted a good deal of attention among the seamen, who looked rather askance at the strange cigar-shaped craft that shot through the water. From all accounts it would appear that her crew do not regard her with very much favor. It is said that the swish of the waters against her sides can be heard very distinctly in the engine-room, and that the crew feel somewhat nervous about her seaworthiness. Several of these fish-like boats are being made just now. One has just been completed in Wisconsin, in which it is hoped to explore the bottom of Lakes Michigan and Huron. Like the _Holland_, this boat can move on the surface of the water or dive beneath it at will. But this vessel is arranged with a view to remaining under water for a whole day without causing any inconvenience to the inmates. This is not the only kind of curious vessel that has been built lately.