1. Popular Edition, handsome paper cover. Price 25 cents.

2. Library Edition, with 100 additional pages; elegantly bound in full scarlet cloth. Price, $1.50.

Copies of the former issues, 1878, 1879, 1881, and 1882, may be had, bound, at $1.50 each.

The American Almanac for 1880 is out of print.

PRESS OF

WM. K. BOYLE & SON,

BALTIMORE.

The Solar Cycle embraces a period of 28 years.

The Roman Indiction is a cycle of 15 years.

The Lunar Cycle is 235 synodical revolutions of the moon=19 years.
The Epact denotes the age of the moon on the first day of January.

ECLIPSES IN THE YEAR 1883.

In this year there will be four Eclipses, two of the Sun, and two of the Moon.

I. A Partial Eclipse of the Moon, on the morning of April 22, upon the Moon's northern limb, invisible at Washington, but visible on the Pacific coast, the Pacific ocean and in Asia. The magnitude for all places is about one digit.

II. A Total Eclipse of the Sun, May 6th, invisible in the United States.

III. A Partial Eclipse of the moon, on the southern limb, on the evening of the 15th and morning of the 16th of October; visible generally throughout the United States. Magnitude 3.3 digits.

IV. An Annular Eclipse of the Sun, October 30th, invisible at Washington, but visible as an annular eclipse from the eastern coast of Asia, near the 40th parallel of latitude, across Japan, and over the greater part of the Pacific Ocean. It will be partly visible on the Pacific coast of the United States.

MORNING STARS.

VENUS from January 1 to September 20. MARS from January 1 to September 1. JUPITER from July 5 to October 27. SATURN from May 20 to August 26. MERCURY from February 5 to April 16: from June 7 to July 29, and from October 6 to November 26.

EVENING STARS.

VENUS from September 20 to December 31.
MARS from September 1 to December 31.
JUPITER from January 1 to July 5; and
from October 27 to December 31.
SATURN from January 1 to May 20; and
from August 26 to December 31.
MERCURY from January 1 to February 5
April 16 to June 7; July 29 to October 6;
and from November 26 to December 31.

PERPETUAL

CALENDAR.

For finding the day of the week on which any day of any month fall,
(or the day of the month of any given day of the week) in any year
before or after Christ, Old Style or New.

N. B.-Leap

35

36

36

37

years being in-

40

41

42

43

serted twice, the

46

47

48

48

first number is

52

used when the

given date is in

2. Find the year in

"Years of the Cen-

tury; follow up the

column to the day on

the same horizontal

line with the given cen-
tury. Find this day
under the given month.
The figures above it in
the same vertical line
show the dates of that
day during the given
month, and the week-
days in the same hori-
zontal line to the right
or left have their re-
spective dates above
them, thus forming the
entire calendar for
that month and year.
EXAMPLE 1.-To find the day of the week for July 4th, 1881. Opposite Century 19, New
Style, and over year 81, is Saturday. Under July, Saturday falls in the vertical line
under 2, and the second day to the right following, under 4, is Monday, July 4th.
EXAMPLE 2.-To find the day of the week on which Columbus discovered America,
October 12th, 1492, Old Style. Opposite Century 15, Old Style, and over 92 in black letter
(it being leap year,) is Monday. Therefore, October 8th was Monday; and the line of
week-days in which Monday falls under October (which is the sixth,) with the days of
the month above, constitute the entire Calendar for October, 1492, Old Style, and the
12th, as seen, falls on Friday.

EXAMPLE 3.-To find the 1st Tuesday after the 1st Monday in November, (Election

Day,) 1882. Find 82 in "Years of the Century;" follow up the column to the day on a

line with the figure 19 of the "Centuries, New Style:" this will be found to be Sunday.

Under November, Sunday is found in the vertical line under 5, of the calendar above,

Monday to the right of it under 6, and Tuesday under 7. So the Tuesday after the first

Monday, is the 7th.

12

23

28

34

40

45

51

56

61

62

66

67

68

THE TIME OF HIGH WATER

at the places following may be found approximately for each day by adding to
or subtracting from the time of high water at New York the hours and
minutes annexed.

[Corrected at the office of the United States Coast and Geodetical Survey.]

EXAMPLE.-To ascertain at what hour it will be high tide at Baltimore on the
1st of August, find the time of high water at New York under August 1st, which
is 4.24 A.M., then add 10 hours 52 minutes, as found in the table of Tide Con-
stants under Baltimore, and we have 3.16 P.M. as the hour of high water at Bal-
timore August 1st, 1880.

NOTE.-The hours of high water in the calendar pages are the morning hours
-from midnight to noon-throughout the year, as computed for the U. S. Coast
Survey. To find the time of next high water, or the afternoon tide-from noon
to midnight-add 12 h. 25 m. in each day. The result will be the proximate hour
of evening tide. For low water, add 6 h. 12 m., approximately, to the time of
high water.

Explanation of the Calendar.

THE two natural divisions of time are the day, of 24 hours, representing one
revolution of the earth on its axis, and the year, 365 days, approximately repre-
senting one revolution of the earth around the sun. The month represents
(nearly) the period of the moon's revolution round the earth (about 291 days),
while the week is approximately one-fourth of this.

By the Julian Calendar, established by Julius Cæsar, 46 B.C., the months
were reconstructed; the Roman year, which began March 1, and had but ten
months, being changed to Jan. 1, and two months added. Thirty-one days were
given to the 1st, 3d, 5th, 7th, 8th, 10th, and 12th months, and 30 days each to the
rest, except February, which on every fourth year received an intercalary day,
made by the sexto Calendas Martius, whence "leap year" came to be called Bis-
sextile. As the Julian year had 3654 days, its length exceeded the true solar
year by 11m.14 sec., so that the equinox in the course of centuries fell back several
days. To correct this error, Pope Gregory XIII. in 1582 reformed the calendar
by suppressing ten days, restoring the equinox to March 21. The Gregorian
Calendar also made every year which is divisible by four without & remainder
a leap year, except the centesimal years, which are only leap years when the
first two figures are divisible by four: thus 1600 was a leap year, 1700, 1800, and
1900 common years, 2000 a leap year, etc. The length of the mean year is 365 d.
5h. 49m. 12sec., exceeding the true solar year nearly 26 sec., which error
amounts only to 1 day in 3.325 years.

The Gregorian Calendar was adopted by Germany in 1700, and by English
law in 1752, when the Julian Calendar, or old style, gave place to the new style,
by dropping eleven days from the month of September, 1752.

The festival of Easter, commemorating the resurrection of Christ, used to be
observed on the 14th day of the moon, i.e., near the full moon-the same as the
Jewish Passover. But the Council of Nice, A.D. 325, ordered Easter to be cele-
brated on the Sunday next succeeding the ful' moon, that comes on or next
after the vernal equinox-March 21st; thus makin, Easter and the related feast
and fast days movable holidays.

To find the time of high tide at fifty places in the United States, see page 5.

JANUARY is so named from the Roman Janus, who was the porter of heaven, having
the surname of Patulcus, the opener. He presided over the beginning or opening of
everything, hence the first month of the year was called after him, when the Roman
year was altered by Numa Pompilius (in the 7th century B. C.,) from ten months begin-
ning in March, to twelve months by adding January and February. In his original
character Janus was the god of the sun, and worshipped as such by the Étruscans and
the Romans. The temple of Janus, (which was really a covered passage or gate at
Rome) was left open in war as a symbol that the god had gone out to assist the Roman
arms, while it was continually shut in time of peace.

On New Year's day, which was the festival of the god Janus, the Romans gave presents
to one another. Thus ancient was the origin of the modern custom of New Year's
presents and first of January festivities.