152.

ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.

TOWNS.

Sodus in Wayne county not Westchester.

NEWSPAPERS. &c.

The Morning Chronicle, discontinued.

153. The Sunday Morning News by Edward Barnett.
The New-York Evangelist, by Johnson & Hunt.
The Corsair, new paper, by J. G. Wilson & Co.

347.

The Planet, (daily and weekly) by Kellogg, Sherman & Co.
S Seamen's Fund and Retreat; by Act of May, 1840, the Trustees
are now appointed by the Governor and Senate. (See page 460.)
449. City of New-York-D. T. Valentine, Ass't Clerk of Com. Council.
450. City of Troy-Annual Election 2d Tuesday in May.

468. Congress-Blair & Rives, Printers to the House of Representatives.

CONSULS, &c.

Page 481. Marcus Dekkheim, Consul, Bremen.

H. G. Rogers, Charge d'Affaires, Genoa.

483. Charles S. Wallach, Consul, Matagorda.
Gregory Coursault, Consul, Truxillo.

Seth Driggs, Consul, Cumana, Venezuela.
Thomas B. Nulle, Consul, Angostura.

484. Woodbridge Odlin, Consul, Bahia de San Salvador.

PART I.

ALMANAC FOR THE YEAR 1840.

WITH ASTRONOMICAL, CHRONOLOGICAL, AND
OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION.

EARLY ALMANACS.

(From the Companion to the British Almanac.)

The early history of almanacs is involved in much obscurity. The Egyptians, indeed, possessed instruments answering most of the same purposes: but the log calendars are the most ancient almapacs, properly so called. Verstegan derives their name from a Saxon origin, viz., al-mon-aght, or the observation of all the moons, that being the purpose for which they were originally made: an eastern origin would appear to me to be more probable. They are doubtless of high antiquity, and, if we can be guided by the errors of the more modern ones in their ecclesiastical computation, we might refer them to the second or third century. Gruter has de. lineated one at Rome, and which is said to have been used by the Goths and Vandals: this was cut in elm, though most are in box, and some few in fir, brass, horn, &c. Each of these calendars contains four sides, for the four quarters of the year, and gives the golden numbers, epacts, dominical letter, &c. The numerical no- . tation is imperfect but curious; dots are put for the first four digits, a mark similar to the Roman numeral V, for five; this mark, and additional dots for the next four, and the algebraical sign for ten. Specimens of these logs may be seen in the British Museum; and, as they are not uncommon, it is unnecessary to enter into further detail.

Before I commence with written almanacs, it will be necessary to remark the distinction between astronomical and ecclesiastical calendars, the first of which contain astronomical computations, and the other lists of saints' days, and other matters relative to the church; sometimes, indeed, both are found united, although the latter claim a higher antiquity, being prefixed to most ancient Latin manuscripts of the Scriptures.

The folding calendars were, perhaps, the most ancient forms of them, and merit particular attention. Several of these are in the British Museum, and at Oxford; one of them was written in the year 1430, and is in English; but the writer confesses his inability to find suitable expressions for the technical terms which were derived for the most part from the Arabic, "for defawte of terms convenyent in our moder langage." In the Pepysian library at