The Astronomer Royal promptly replied as follows:—
“Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London, S.E.
“1868—June 18.
“My dear Sir,—I will duly bring before Mr. Pritchard the substance of your note of yesterday.
“The two clauses which you have cited are, on the face of them, erroneous; and in the first the fault clearly is in the word longer. In the second, the fault may be in the word nearer. For, during the period through which the great eccentricity prevails, the semi-revolution in the precession of the equinoxes may have reversed the seasons.
“It would seem that Mr. Pritchard has had in view the table in ‘Lyell’s Principles of Geology,’ Vol. I., p. 293. In the notes continued on p. 294, the references are to the case of winter in aphelion.
“The subject is a thorny one, but well worth your attention.
“I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly,
“G. B. Airy
“Sir Rowland Hill, K.C.B., &c., &c., &c.”
I am not aware how the passage in question stands in the Society’s Transactions.[374]