[Illustration: WILDFOWL SHOOTING IN SCOTLAND.]

* * * * *




A PLEA FOR THE COMMON TELESCOPE.[1]

By G.E. LUMSDEN.

[Footnote 1: Paper read before the Astronomical and Physical
Society of Toronto, Canada, April 18, 1891.]


These are the palmiest days in the eventful history of physical and
observational astronomy. Along the whole line of professional and
amateur observation substantial progress is being made, but in certain
new directions, and in some old ones, too, the advance is very rapid.
As never before, public interest is alive to the attractions and value
of the work of astronomers. The science itself now appeals to a
constituency of students and readers daily increasing in numbers and
importance. Evidence of this gratifying fact is easily obtained. There
is at the libraries an ever-growing demand for standard astronomical
works, some of them by no means intended to be of a purely popular
character. Some of the most influential and conservative magazines on
both sides of the Atlantic now find it to be in their interest to
devote pages of space to the careful discussion of new theories, or to
the results of the latest work of professional observers. Even the
daily press in some cities has caught the infection, if infection it