179 28 W 4 34 2 517 31 3 12 8 39 2.32 P.M. 8 h O. 180 29 Th 4 35 3 181 30 F 4 35 37 31 3 15 7 31 11.20 A.M. 4 31 161 10 S 4 32 5 22 27 11 52 O 14 5678 2 43 9 41 10 2 6.4 3 28 10 25 10 47 6.5 4 II II 911 306.5 4.34 P.M. Sum.com. O 25 O 54 9 6352 I 23 10 9 38 10 9 4 25 4 57 5.3 4 27 9 36 1 58 11 10 42 11 16 5 28 6 15.6 7.44 P.M. oc. μ2 Scor. 5 43 10 37 2 38 12 II 48 6 35 7 7 5-7 840. TRUE TIME. Two kinds of time are used in almanacs-clock or mean time in some, and apparent or sun time in others. Clock time is always right, while sun time varies every day. People generally suppose it is twelve o'clock when the sun is due south, or at a properly-made noon-mark. But this is a mistake. The sun is seldom on the meridian at twelve o'clock; indeed, this is the case only on four days of the year-namely, April 15, June 15, September 1 and December 24. In this almanac, as in most other almanacs, the time used is clock time. DIVISIONS OF TIME. A Solar Day is measured by the rotation of the earth upon its axis, and is of different lengths, owing to the ellipticity of the earth's orbit and other causes; but a mean solar day, recorded by the time-piece, is twenty-four hours long. An Astronomical Day commences at noon, and is counted from the first to the twenty-fourth hour. A Civil Day commences at midnight, and is counted from the first to the twelfth hour, when it is recounted again from the first to the twelfth hour. A Nautical Day is counted as a Civil Day, but commences, like an Astronomical Day, from noon. A Calendar Month varies in length from 28 to 31 days. A Mean Lunar Month is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2 seconds, and 5.24 thirds. A Year is divided into 365 days. A Solar Year, which is the time occupied by the sun in passing from one vernal equinox to another, consists of 365.24244 solar days, or 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 49.536 seconds. A Julian Year is 365 days. A Gregorian Year is 365.2425 days. Every fourth year is Bissextile, or Leap-Year, and is 366 days. The error of the Gregorian computation amounts only to one day in 3571.4286 years. The Public Ledger is one of the very best of newspapers. Its editorials are fair, candid, outspoken, courteous, truthful and brief; its news is presented without circumlocution and is always the latest and most trustworthy; and its advertising columns are invariably filled with the best class of advertisements. It gives us much pleas ure to record the eminent success of so skillfully managed and in every way excellent a news paper. Long may it flourish, and long may its worthy proprietor live to enjoy his own and the paper's well-earned popularity!-New York Weekly. life the moment it touched the cross on which our Lord had been crucified, the others being the crosses of the two thieves. The empress built a church on the spot, and carried with her to Rome A large part of the true cross. St. John Ante Port. Latin-See Dec. 27. 14 Rogation Sunday.-So called from rogare, to beseech. The three rogation days are the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Holy Thursday. No special service has been provided for them, but one of the Homilies is enjoined to be read. 15. Quarter day in Scotland.-In that country the term Whit Sunday is so fixed that it may fall on any day in the week. " 18. Ascension Day-Holy Thursday, in commemoration of the day Christ "ascended into heaven, led captivity captive and opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers." It is celebrated forty days after Easter. Members of the High-Church party have endeavored to get this day set apart as a general holiday, in the same manner as the days of the Birth, Passion and Resurrection, but their efforts have not been attended with any large amount of success. On this day the parochial bounds are beaten by the charity children, who are attended by the beadle and other officials. Formerly it was the custom to flog or bump some of the children at the bounds, in order that those localities might be impressed on their memories. 19. St. Dunstan was born in the Isle of Avalon, and early assumed the monastic habit with all its austerities; he built a cell near the Abbey of Glastonbury, and employed himself in goldsmith's work. The great enemy of souls, foreseeing his future greatness, tried in various ways to seduce St. Dunstan, who on one occasion seized the fiend by the nose with a pair of red-hot tongs. At the age of 21 he restored Glastonbury Abbey, then in ruins, and became abbot. was banished by Edwy, but recalled by Edgar, and made Archbishop of Canterbury, in which office he died, A. D. 988. He 26. St. Augustine-When Pope Gregory determined to send a mission to England, he selected St. Augustine, then prior of a Roman monastery, to head the forty monks. Apparently, neither St. Augustine nor St. Gregory was aware that England had been, more or less, a Christian country, although at that time in a retrograde condition. St. Augustine landed in Kent in 596, and converted King Ethelbert, whose wife Bertha was a French Christian princess, and had brought over her own chaplain. St. Augustine introduced and insisted upon the observance of the Roman ritual, and was strenuously opposed by the native bishops. He was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury in 597 and died in 604. 27. Venerable Bede was born at Jarrow. He was regarded as a prodigy of learning, and was much esteemed for his saintly life, but does not appear to have conformed in all things to the established usages of the Church of Rome. He died 735. One of the monks commenced an epitaph, but was puzzled to find the proper epithet to it in with the words he had written 28. Whit Sunday commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the aposties immediately after the Ascension. It derives its name from the Saxon word Witte, or wisdom, which the Holy Spirit imparted. It is also called Pentecost, a Jewish term for the feast which fell fifty days after Easter. Monday and Tuesday are also holydays, a fact of which people in general are willing to avail themselves. The weather at this time is mostly fine, and working men and women are but too glad to get away for a few hours from their close homes. 29. Restoration of King Charles II-Royal Oak Day, in memory of Charles II. having sought safety by hiding in the thick branches of an oak. Oak-apples used to be worn on this day, which was also a red-letter day in the calendar, having been set apart as a day of public thanksgiving for "that signal and wonderful deliverance vouchsafed to our then most gracious sovereign King Charles the Second and all the Royal Family, and in them to this whole Church and State, and all orders and degrees of men in both, from the unnatural Rebellion, Usurpation and Tyranny of ungodly and cruel men, and from the sad confusion and ruin thereupon ensuing." But like the service for King Charles' execution, it was set aside in 1859. June. Although poets in all ages have sung the praises of May, June is, in reality, the most pleasant month of the year. The day reaches its full length; flowers appear in their richest bloom; birds are in song; earth, air and water teem with life, and all nature is gay and joyous. 1. St. Nicomede, who is said to have been a disciple of St. Peter, was discovered to be a Christian by giving burial to Felicula, a maiden who had been martyred in the Domitian persecution. He was scourged to death by means of a whip heavily laden with lead, A. D. 90. 4. Trinity Sunday.-On this day the Church commemorates the mystery of the Holy Trinity. It will be noticed that while the life and death of Christ form the subject of many commemorations, of the Holy Spirit there is but one, and of the Father none. All the remaining Sundays of the ecclesiastical year are in the English Church named after the Holy Trinity, while in the Church of Rome they are named after Pentecost. 5. St. Boniface, the apostle of Germany, was born in Devonshire about the year 680. He had a strong desire to spread abroad a knowledge of the Gospel, and having obtained the sanction of Pope Gregory II., he proceeded on a mission to Germany, and was made first Archbishop of Mayence in 745. He appears to have labored in Bavaria and on and about the Rhine; and in the year 755, having previously resigned his bishopric in order that he might carry on his missionary work without impediment, he suffered martyrdom at Utrecht with fifty-two of his companions. 8. Corpus Christi is not in the Anglican calendar, but is a high day in that of Rome. It was instituted in honor of the doctrine of transubstantiation by Pope Urban IV., about the year 1263, and confirmed by the Council of Vienne in 1311. 11. St. Barnabas.-One of the most active of the disciples was Joses, surnamed Barnabas, the Son of Consolation. He is said to have been one of those who, having possessions, sold them and hitherto invisible, and verified the conclusions to which astronomers had been led by reasoning on the facts they had ascertained. PLANETS BRIGHTEST. MERCURY, February 13, June 13 and October rising before the sun; also April 20, August 17 and December 12, setting soon after the sun. Venus, August 20 and November 1, being at the latter time an early Morning Star. Mars, March 19, rising about sunset. Jupiter, not this year, not reaching the opposition. Saturn, June 28, rising about sunset. MANY things combine to render this brilliant star an object of profound interest. Who can gaze on its pure silvery radiance, and reflect how many ages it has adorned the heavenly dome with its peerless lustre, and how many generations of mankind have rejoiced in it-and among them all the wise and the good and the great of history-6, without awe and admiration? In ancient Egypt it was an object of idolatrous interest. It was then of a brilliant red color, but is now a lustrous white; and the cause of this change of color, as well as the nature and period of the revolution it denotes in the star itself, are wholly unknown. Its distance from the earth is not less than 1,300,000 times our distance from the sun, and its light must travel twenty-two years to reach us. Another circumstance of deep interest connected with it is that it has changed its position, during the life of the human family, by about the apparent diameter of the moon, and that astronomers, detecting some irregularities in its motion, have been convinced that it had a companion star, which they thought must be non-luminous, since their telescopes could not detect it. But Mr. Clark, with his new and powerful achromatic telescope, has found this neighbor of Sirius, According to previous announcement, the Pub lic Ledger has appeared in an enlarged form, about four columns of space having been added to its previous size. This change Mr. Childs found it necessary to make to accommodate the increasing business, which, since he took control of the Ledger, has constantly been growing greater and greater. There could be no better evidence, either of the prosperity of the journal, or of the skill with which it is managed, than is given in the necessity which has enforced this enlargement.— North American. 45 578. 4 515 12 17 33 5 54 2 O 2 23 9 19 10 4 30 11 29 11 49 6.5 O 31 0 52 6.2 1 13 1 36 6.0 3.47 P.M.HC. 9.35 A.M.E.45 3 8.26 P.M. 10.58 A.M.. 6.44 A.M. 9.37 P.M. 8. 5 32 I 59 2 24 5.8 37 2 51 3 22 5.5 50 3 56 10 25 11 II 36 Laid down the price at the apostles' feet. He for some time labored with St. Paul; but after a while disputes arose and he pursued his own course, choosing Cyprus for the field of his labors. He was stoned to death at Salamis, and was buried with a copy of St. Matthew's Gospel on his breast. This was the longest day, old style; hence the saying, "Barnaby bright, Barnaby bright, Longest day and the shortest night." 17. St. Alban, the first English martyr: suffered in 303. He was converted to Christianity by Amphibalus, a priest of Caerleon, who, flying from persecution, was hospitably entertained by St. Alban at Verulam. Being closely pursued, he made his escape in his host's clothes. This, being discovered, exposed St. Alban to the fury of the pagans; and, on his refusing to sacrifice to their gods, he was first miserably tortured, and then put to death on the spot where the town of St. Albans now stands. 24. St. John the Baptist.-Unlike most other saints in the calendar, whose deaths alone are commemorated, the Church celebrates the birthday of St. John, for the reason, says an old writer, that even before his birth he was canonized. He was son of Zacharias, a priest, and Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary. Like his prototype, Elijah, he was a recluse, and also a preacher of righteous ness. 29. St. Peter, brother of St. Andrew and son of Jonas, was a fisherman who left all to follow Christ. He appears to have been one of the most zealous and attached of all the disciples, and although frequently rebuked was one of those most honored by the friendship of his Master. He was married, and is said to have had a daughter, Petronilla. St. Paul, having founded a church at Rome, of which Linus was the first bishop, went there again accompanied by St. Peter, and as a Roman citizen suffered death by decapitation, A.D. 65. St. Peter, regarded as a Jewish slave, was crucified, but, at his own request, with his head downward, not conceiving himself worthy of suffering in the same manner as his Master." July. "Now comes July, and with his fervid noon Unsinews labor. The swinkt mower sleeps; The weary maid rakes feebly; the warm swain Pitches his load reluctant; the faint steer, Lashing his sides, draws sulkily along The slow encumbered wain in mid-day heat." This month, originally named Quintilis, or fifth, received its present name in honor of Julius Cæsar. 2. Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary This festival was instituted by Pope Urban VI. in commemoration of the journey which the Virgin Mary took to the hill country of Judea, in order to visit her cousin Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist. The feast was instituted in 1389, and confirmed at the Council of Basle in 1431, "in order that the Blessed Virgin, being honored with this solemnity, might by her intercession reconcile her Son, who is now angry for the sins of men, and that she might grant peace and amity among the faithful." 4. Translation of St. Martin's relics from their humble resting-place to the noble cathedral at Tours, A. D. 473: trary." So says the author of the "Shepherd's Kalendar." That it should rain for forty days after a wet St. Swithin appears to have been an article of popular belief, even in Anglo-Saxon times. The legend of the day is that the saint, who died in 868, desired to be buried in the open churchyard, not in the chapel of the minster, as was usual with bishops; this desire was complied with; but on his being canonized, the monks, thinking it disgraceful for the saint to lie in the open cemetery, determined to remove his body into the choir. This was attempted with solemn procession on the 15th July; it rained, however, so violently for forty days together that the design was abandoned. The monks, finding it vain to contend with one who had the elements so entirely under his control, like discreet and prudent men let him have his own way; he, to show his opinion of their conduct, and to warn others against interfering with the wishes of the dead, still continues the forty days' rain. Unfortunately for the truth of the legend, the saint's relics were in 971 translated by St. Athelwold to a shrine, and in 1094 retranslated to Winchester Cathedral by Bishop Walkelin. 20. St. Margaret was one of the most popular saints in England, no fewer than 238 English churches being dedicated to her. She was the daughter of a pagan priest at Antioch, but was educated as a Christian. She refused to marry a Roman governor, and in consequence was exposed to the most dreadful tortures, and at last beheaded, A. D. 278. 22. St. Mary Magdalene is believed to have been the sinner to whom much had been forgiven and the saint who loved much. She was the most constant of all our Lord's followers: "Not she with traitorous kiss her Master stung, Not she denied Him with unfaithful tongue; She, when apostles fled, could danger brave, Last at His cross and earliest at His grave.' After the Ascension she is said to have lived for some time in Judea, and then to have retired to Ephesus, where she resided with the Virgin Mary. Painters have represented her as a lovely woman in a large number of repentant attitudes, some of them being only such as unrepentant Magdalenes" could be induced to assume. 25. St. James, surnamed the Great, apostle and martyr. He was originally a fisherman, brother of St. John; he is the patron saint of Spain, where, after the death of his Master, he is said to have preached the Gospel. On his return to Jerusa fem he received the crown of martyrdom, being beheaded by order of Herod the Great, A. D. 43. He was the first martyred of all the apostles, and is regarded as the patron of pilgrims. 26. St. Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, was daughter of Matthew the priest and Mary his wife; she married Joachim, and after twenty years was made happy by the birth of a daughter, who has been called blessed" by all generations. August. The ancient Roman name of this month was Sextilis, the sixth from March, till the Emperor Augustus changed the name to his own, because in this month Cæsar Augustus took possession of his first consulate, reduced Egypt and put an end to civil war. 15. St. Swithin's Day.-"If on St. Swithin's day it prove fair, a temperate winter will follow; 1. Lammas Day should rather have been Loafbut if rainy, stormy or windy, then the con- mass, of which Saxon name it is a corruption. AMERICAN WORLD-FINDERS. Up to 1781, when Sir William Herschel discovered the distant Uranus, but six planets were known to constitute our solar system. Since then, through the improvements in the telescope, 107 small planets have been discovered, of which 23, or nearly one-fifth, have been the trophies of the scientific skill of American astronomers. Of these, 17 were discovered by two astronomers since May, 1861-9 by Prof. Watson, of the University of Michigan, and 8 by Prof. Peters, of Hamilton College, New York. which is eight feet and one-third in a century, 380,000 years." The former was Sir Charles Lyell's estimate, which, if considered too great, is probably outdone in the other extreme of one inch a year; if, however, we take the mean of these two estimates-namely, six inches a year-the time would then be 68,000 years since the probable close of the Champlain epoch. We inadvertently omitted last week to notice the intended enlargement of the Public Ledger Since then its length has been so increased as to add, in effect, four columns to its size; and its present crowded news and advertising pages show that the wear-growing circulation of the paper and its consequent value to the public as an advertising medium fully warranted the change that has been made in its dimensions. It is highly creditable to Mr. Childs, its present proprietor and manager, that the Ledger, which is said to have been losing money when he bought and assumed control of it, has since steadily advanced in popular favor and prosperity; and we are glad to be able to say, conscientiously, that we believe that the splendid success the paper is now enjoying is mainly attributable to his rare intelligence as a publisher and his equally rare virtues as a man.-Sunday Mercury. The Disintegrating Power of Water. THE following is an actual example of the ing away of solid material since a given period. The Falls of Niagara have been cut back at least six miles since the Champlain epoch, for lake deposits formed by the old extension of Lake Ontario, and containing similar shells to those now lying near the entrance of the lake, are found both at Goat Island and on either side of the gorge near the whirlpool; six miles, then, at least, of the gorge have been excavated since the formation of these deposits. Dana says, "Taking the rate at one foot a year, the six miles will have required over 34,000 years; if at one inch a year, |