Excerpt from Papers on Subjects Connected With the Duties of the Corps of Royal Engineers, Vol. 3 Some portion, indeed, of the delay in publication which it has been necessary to notice, was the result of the early distinction which several of General Colby's officers thus acquired, the preparation of part of the work for publication having been'relinquished by Captain Drummond on his appointment to an important political office and, subsequently, by Lieutenant Murphy, on his becoming an associate in the scientific and arduous Euphrates expedition of Colonel Chesney. In respect to temper, General Lewis and his other contemporaries have spoken favourably of General Colby, who had the great merit of having conquered himself, and reduced a naturally warm disposition to such discipline and order, that few could say they had ever seen him lose his self-command and if he ever did se, his usual equanimity was disturbed but for a moment, as may be judged from the following characteristic anecdote The writer of this memoir had prepared the great instrument for observation on Slieve Donard early in a morning of August, 1826, and had watched for some time the light as it slowly broke behind the dark mountains of Cumberland, when observing the outline of Sea Fell gradually assuming a distinct shape, he called up Colonel Colby who instantly came to the Observatory and directed the telescope on the mountains. The distance was 111 miles, and the difficulty, therefore of accurately bisecting the object very great. Alternately, however, Colonel Colby and the present writer attempted to achieve the task, and at length Colonel Colby. Was on the point of successfully finishing his observation, which would have been a geodesical triumph, as including the longest side of a triangle ever attempted, when an officer on entering the Observatory accidentally struck his elbow, and threw the telescope off the object. A momentary ejaculation of anger escaped his lips, but though he could not again succeed, and the object was therefore lest, he never afterwards alluded to the subject. In manners and habits, he was singularly simple and temperate, being as much at home and as satisfied on the mountain top with the most ordinary fare, as in comfortable winter quarters with corresponding good cheer. In London, when a bachelor, he dined very often at the clubs of scientific and literary societies, being a member of almost every one then established; but all who served under him at that time will remember to have, on some occasion, metexxon! OP ajor-general colby. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.