I could not understand it until I learned that the director of the observatory has a large number of aids, and they, with all their families, live in large houses, connected with the central building by covered ways.
"All about the grounds, too, were small observatories,--little temples,--in which young men were practising for observations on the transit of Venus.

These little buildings, I afterwards learned, were to be taken down and transported, instruments and all, to the coast of Asia.
"The director of the observatory is Otto Struve--his father, Wilhelm Struve, preceded him in this office.

Properly, the director is Herr Von Struve; but the old Russian custom is still in use, and the servants call him Wilhelm-vitch; that is, 'the son of William.' "When I bought a photograph of the present emperor, Alexander, I saw that he was called Nicholas-vitch.
"Herr Struve received us courteously, and an assistant was called to show us the instruments.

All observatories are much alike; therefore I will not describe this, except in its peculiarities.

One of these was the presence of small, light, portable rooms, i.e., baseless boxes, which rolled over the instruments to protect them; two sides were of wood, and two sides of green silk curtains, which could, of course, be turned aside when the boxes, or little rooms, were rolled over the apparatus.