The skill and science brought to bear on the
task of breeding accomplish this and much more difficult operations
with marvellous ease and certainty.
On one of the buildings I observed one of the most remarkable,
largest, and most complete timepieces I had yet seen; and I had on
this occasion an opportunity of examining it closely. The dial was
oblong, enclosed in a case of clear transparent crystal, somewhat
resembling in form the open portion of a mercurial barometer. At the
top were three circles of different colours, divided by twelve
equidistant lines radiating from the centres and subdivided again and
again by the same number. Exactly at the uppermost point of each was a
golden indicator. One of these circles marked the temperature,
graduated from the lowest to the highest degree ever known in that
latitude. Another indicated the direction of the wind, while the depth
of colour in the circle itself, graduated in a manner carefully
explained to me, but my notes of which are lost, showed the exact
force of the atmospheric current. The third served the purpose of a
barometer.
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