A SA VANT THA WED. 1/ -" I am here," replied the Lieutenant, " You have not yet started % " " Not yet, sin" " Then," replied Thomas Black, " I have only to thank you, and to go to sleep until to-morrow morning/' The Captain and his companions retired, leaving their strange visitor to his repose. Half an hour later the fete was at an end, and the guests had regained their respective homes, either in the diflftrent rooms of the fort, or the scattered houses outside the enceinte. The next day Thomas Black was rather better. His vigorous constitution had thrown off the effects of the tenible chill he had had. Any one else would have died from it ; but he was uot like other men. And now who was this astronomer ? Where did he come from ? Why had he undertaken this journey across the territories of the Company in the depth of winter % What did the courier's reply signify] — To see the moon! The moon could be seen anywhere; there was no need to come to the hyperborean regions to look at it! Such were the thoughts which passed through Captain Craventy's mind. But the next day, after an hour's talk with his new guest, he had learned all he wished to know. Thomas Black was an astronomer attached to the Greenwich Observatory, so brilliantly presided over by Professor Airy. Mr Black was no theorist, but a sagacious and intelligent observer ; and in the twenty years during which he had devoted himself to astronomy, he had rendered great services to the science of ourano- graphy. In private life he was a simple nonentity ; he existed only for astronomy; he lived in the heavens, not upon the earth ; and was a true descendant of the witty La Fontaine's savant who fell into a well. He could talk of nothing but stars and constellations. He ought to have lived in a telescope. As an observer he had not his rival; his patience was inexhaustible ; he could watch for months for a cosmical phenomenon. He had a specialty of his own, too ; he had studied luminous meteors and shooting stars, and his discoveries in this branch of astronomical science were considerable. When-- ever minute observations or exact measurements and definitions were required, Thomas Black was chosen for the service ; for his clearness of sight was something remarkable. - The power of obser vation is not given to every one, and it will not therefore be surpris B
