I had imagined the Emperor of Brazil to be a dark, swarthy, tall man, of forty-five years; that he would not really have a crown upon his head, but that I should feel it was somewhere around, handy-like, and that I should know I was in royal presence.

But he turns out to be a large, old man,--say, sixty-five,--broad-headed and broad-shouldered, with a big white beard, and a very pleasant, even chatty, manner.
"Once inside of the dome, he seemed to feel at home; to my astonishment he asked if Alvan Clark made the glass of the equatorial.

As he stepped into the meridian-room, and saw the instruments, he said, 'Collimators ?' I said, 'You have been in observatories before.' 'Oh, yes, Cambridge and Washington,' he replied.

He seemed much more interested in the observatory than I could possibly expect.

I asked him to go on top of the roof, and he said he had not time; yet he stayed long enough to go up several times.