General Van Rensselaer, the present proprietor of the Manor House, at Albany, presented for the purpose eight acres of land upon an eminence north of the city. This preliminary step was followed by Mrs. Blandina Dudley, widow of a wealthy Albany merchant, who offered twelve thousand dollars towards the cost of erecting a building. Those having the matter in charge resolved to call it the Dudley Observatory, in honour of the generous lady. She subsequently increased her gift for apparatus and endowments to seventy-six thousand dollars. The chief spring of her

THE DUDLEY OBSERVATORY.

generosity was a reverential respect for her husband. With Avisdom she chose this instrument of scientific investigation to be his enduring monument. Others made liberal donations, trustees were appointed, a scientific council, to take charge of the establishment, was formed, and the building was commenced in the spring of 1853. A great heliometer, named in honour of Mrs. Dudley, was constructed ; and Thomas W. Olcott, of Albany, who took great interest in the enterprise from the beginning, contributed sufiicient money to purchase the splendid meridian circle by Pistor and Martin, of Berlin, the finest instrument of the kind in the world.

THE HUDSON.

It is called the Olcott Meridian Circle. The whole establishment was to have been placed under the supeiintcndence of the eminent Professor Ormsby M. Mitchel, of Ohio. The Civil War broke out, and Mr. Mitchel, animated by patriotic zeal for the salvation of his country, entered the military service, for which he had been educated at West Point, and was made a general officer. While in command of the "Department of the South" at Beaufort, South Carolina, he died from the effects of yellow fever.