Congress to help make discoveries which are now the pride of our
century. They all dealt in facts and conclusions quite devoid of
that grandeur which renders so captivating the project of
attacking the rains in their aerial stronghold with dynamite
bombs.





XIII

THE ASTRONOMICAL EPHEMERIS AND THE NAUTICAL ALMANAC

[Footnote: Read before the U S Naval Institute, January 10, 1879.]


Although the Nautical Almanacs of the world, at the present time,
are of comparatively recent origin, they have grown from small
beginnings, the tracing of which is not unlike that of the origin
of species by the naturalist of the present day. Notwithstanding
its familiar name, it has always been designed rather for
astronomical than for nautical purposes. Such a publication would
have been of no use to the navigator before he had instruments
with which to measure the altitudes of the heavenly bodies. The
earlier navigators seldom ventured out of sight of land, and
during the night they are said to have steered by the "Cynosure"
or constellation of the Great Bear, a practice which has brought
the name of the constellation into our language of the present day
to designate an object on which all eyes are intently fixed. This