Page:Surrey Archaeological Collections Volume 1.djvu/386

 INTERESTING NOVELTY. In One Volume., 450 pages, 20 Photo-Stereographs, price 21,?., TENERIFFE, AN ASTEONOMEE'S EXPEBIMENT; OR, Specialities of a Residence above the Clouds. By C. PIAZZI SMYTH, F.R.SS.L. and E, E.R.A.S., CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ACADEMIES OF SCIENCE IN MUNICH AND PALERMO PROFESSOR OF PRACTICAL ASTRONOMY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH AND HER MAJESTY'S ASTRONOMER FOR SCOTLAND. The object proposed in this Experiment was to ascertain how far astronomical obser- vations can be improved, by eliminating the lower part of the atmosphere. For the accomplishment of this, purpose, a large equatorial telescope and other apparatus were conveyed in Mr. Stephenson's yacht Titania to Teneriffe, in June and July, 1 856. There, with the approval of the Spanish authorities, the instruments were carried up the vol- canic flanks of the mountain, to vertical heights of 8900 and 10,700 feet, and were ob- served with therefrom during two months. During this period many interesting photo-stereographs were taken by Professor Smyth, at different points of the ascent, and they have been printed, with great success, under the superintendence of James Glaisher, Esq., F.R.S., for the illustration of the book. Correctness is thus ensured ; and if the reader wishes to enjoy the effects either of solidity or of distance, effects which are the cynosures of all the great painters, he has only to combine the two photographs stereoscopically, and those bewitching quali- ties are produced. Stereographs have not hitherto been bound up, as plates, in a vo- lume ; yet that will be found a most convepient way of keeping them, not incompatible with the use of the ordinary stereoscope, open below, and well adapted for a new form of the instrument, The Book Stereoscope, constructed to fold up in a case like a map, without detriment to its stereoscopic action. last of Photo- Stereographs. 1. Culminating Point of the Peak of Teneriffe, 12,198 feet high, showing the Interior of the Terminal Crater of the Mountain. — 2. Volcanic " Blowing-cone" in Orotava, on the Northern Coast of Teneriffe. — 3. Peak of Teneriffe from Orotava, on the Northern coast. — 1. Tent Scene on Mount Guajara, 8903 feet high. — 5. Sheepshanks Telescope first erected on Mount Guajara ; the Peak of Teneriffe in the distance. — 6. Cliff and Floor of the Great Crater, 8 miles in diameter and 7000 feet above the Sea, under Mount Guajara. — "• Second Mate of Yacht observing Radiation Thermometers on Mount Guajara. — 8. Trachyte Blocks on Guajara. — 9- Breakdown in an Obsidian Lava Stream, on the Peak of Teneriffe, at the altitude of 10,6/0 feet. — 10. Specimen of the Malpays of Black Lava, near Alta Vista. — 1 1. Close View of Alta Vista Observing Station, from the East, altitude 10,702 feet. — 12. Alta Vista Observatory, from the Northern Lava Hidge. — 13. Entrance to the Ice-Cavern, in the Malpays of the Peak of Teneriffe, at the height of 11,040 feet. — 11. Euphorbia Canadensis on the Sea-Coast of Orotava. — 15. Young Dragon-trees and Date-Palm in a Cactus-Garden near Orotava. — 16. Young Dragon-trees (Dracaena Draco) near Orotava. — 17- Dragon-tree Walk at Palazzo near a.~ 18. Cochmcal Gatherers at Orotava.— 19. The "Great Dragon-tree' 1 at the Villa de Orotava. — 20. Trunk of the Great Dragon-tree. " The special interest of this work lies in the fact that it supplies the lirst example oi the application of the principle of the stereoscope to book-illustration A neat little folding stereoscope, called the Book-Stereoscope, accompanies the volume, and may stand beside it on the book-shelf, not occupying more space than a pamphlet. When opened for use, the Book-Sterereoscope is exceedingly light, and can, with the most perfect ease and comfort to the person using it, be applied over the pair of stereoscopic photographs which form eacli illustration. There are twenty of such illustrations, which would cot more than the price of the work which contains them, if sold in the ordinary way as stereoscopic slides. A more interesting scries no dealer in these wares could produce; nearly all the pictures have been taken at heights of from seven to twelve thousand feet above the level of the sen, arid no the lower ground we arc shown a dragon tree walk, a cactus garden, cochineal-gatherers at work, and other scenes i before realized in this manner to eyes in Kngland. The scientific results of the expedition have been communicated to the Royal Society. The details interesting to the public — and Professor Piazzi Smyth is by no means a Dryasdust in science — appear en the volume before us. and deserve a cordial w( l< Examines. The Hunk, price 21s., mid the Stereoscope, price :..,.(>,/, may lie ordered of any Bookseller, eiiher separately m together