gasaki. The southern parties were distributed among the stations by the U. S. steamer Swatara, Captain R. Chandler, which sailed from New York June 7, 1874, and visited the five southern stations in succession.

The northernmost station was Vladivostok, a new seaport of Siberia on the Sea of Japan, lat. 43° N., long. 132° E. of Greenwich. The chief of the party was Professor A. Hall, of the Naval Observatory, Mr. O. B. Wheeler, of the Lake Survey, being assistant astronomer. The party sailed from San Francisco in the Alaska on July 28, and finally reached Nagasaki on August 30. Here they went on board the U. S. steamer Kearsarge, which conveyed them to Vladivostok. This port was established by the Russian government about 1868, more to strengthen its position in this quarter than on account of any commercial advantages. It was therefore made into a military post, with a military government. The violent winds and intense cold which prevail at this port during the winter rendered much exertion necessary to prevent the light portable observatories which the party had carried from home from being blown away entirely, and to keep the photographic house warm enough to be used. Some difficulty was found in making the instruments work well at so low a temperature as sometimes prevailed, but they were all overcome before the day of the transit. When this eventful time arrived, instead of the perfectly clear weather they had every reason to expect, the sky was covered with a thin haze, which continued during the entire four hours of the transit. In consequence it was found exceedingly difficult to obtain good photographs. Thirteen were taken; but the image of Venus is so faint that great pains will be required to determine its position with the necessary accuracy. The haziness did not interfere so much with telescopic observations as with the photographs, so that the astronomers succeeded in observing three out of the four contacts.

Pekin.-At this station Professor James C. Watson, of Ann Arbor, was the chief of the party, and Professor C. A. Young, of Dartmouth College, assistant astronomer. The record of the weather at Pekin during the month of December for a number of years showed a remarkable freedom from clouds, an entirely cloudy day being almost unknown.

The night before the transit was beautifully clear. At 4 A.M. Professor Watson went to the observatory, observed for some time, and made a final inspection to see that all was right. Every man was in his place long before the appointed time. But just as the party were taking the preliminary photographs a bank of clouds came up from the southeast and covered the sun, so that the prospect seemed almost hopeless. Fortunately openings in the clouds permitted the first two contacts to be observed, and by watching for other openings the party succeeded in securing forty-four photographs. Then it clouded up completely for a period. At one o'clock it partially cleared away, so that more photographs could be taken. But one of the most annoying peculiarities of the Pekin climate, a storm of dust, was approaching, so that the photographs were very faint, owing to the yellow tint of the sun. Still the observers succeeded in observing the two last contacts, so that all four contacts were successfully observed. This was the only American station which had this good fortune.

Nagasaki.-This was the remaining northern station occupied by the American parties. Mr. George Davidson, of the Coast Survey, was chief of the party, and Mr. Titman, of the same establishment, assistant astronomer. The weather here was much the same as at Pekin, the photographs being taken through occasional openings in the clouds. Three out of the four contacts were observed, one being somewhat doubtful. About sixty photographs were taken, most of them very thin, owing to the haziness of the atmosphere. It was somewhat tantalizing to learn that, while all three of the American stations in Asia suffered from clouds and haze during the critical hours of the transit, the German station at Tchifu, near the centre of the triangle formed by the three American stations, enjoyed a perfectly clear day.

In the southern hemisphere our commission established one station at Kerguelen Island, two in Tasmania, one in New Zealand, and one on Chatham Island. Kerguelen Island is a barren and most inhospitable mass of volcanic rocks, about 2500 miles southeast of the Cape of Good Hope. It is almost totally devoid of the higher forms of vegetable life, the most conspicuous plants being certain mosses and a socalled cabbage discovered by Captain Cook. The party

which spent three months on this barren spot was headed by Lieutenant-commander George P. Ryan, U. S. N., with Lieutenant-commander Charles J. Train as assistant astronomer. The region is one of the stormiest on the globe, and although the transit occurred at the finest season of the year, an entirely clear day is almost unknown. But on most of the days there are openings in the flying clouds driven past by the western storms, and as the station was, astronomically, the most favorable in the southern hemisphere, the chance of getting a good collection of photographs between the clouds was judged sufficiently good to justify its occupation. Although the result justified this opinion, it was perhaps a simple piece of good fortune, for storms succeeded each other in such rapid succession that the party had the greatest difficulty in keeping their tents and houses from being blown away. The Swatara actually lost her steamlaunch in one of these storms.

On the morning of December 9 the sun rose clear, and as the entire transit was to take place in the forenoon, great hopes of success were entertained. Commander Ryan succeeded in obtaining a fine observation of the first contact of the planet with the sun's disk. But clouds then arose, and continued to fly across the sun during the remainder of the transit. By watching their chances, the photographers succeeded in getting twenty-six good photographs of Venus on the sun, so that their operations were on the whole successful.

The Germans and English also had quarters on Kerguelen Island. By an unfortunate combination of circumstances the three parties were all on the east end of the island, and so near together that they all had the same kind of weather. A year or two before the transit the English authorities had selected as their station Christmas Harbor, on the northern side of the island, which had several times been visited by their ships. The American Commission had selected Three Island Harbor, in the extreme southwestern portion of the island, principally on account of its being occupied as a sealing station by the ships of Messrs. Williams, Haven, & Co., of New London, Conn., and being as far from the English station as it was convenient to get. During the summer of 1874 the island was visited by H. M. S. Challenger, which ex

amined both stations, and reported to her government that Three Island Harbor offered the best chances of fine weather, on account of being on the leeward end of the island. The change was not known to the American party until the Swatara reached Cape Town, where the English party had already arrived. On comparing notes it was found that both parties were bound for the same part of the island. The most tantalizing part of the result was that the station which all the parties avoided was reported to have enjoyed a beautiful day on the 9th of December.

The Swatara proceeded from Kerguelen to Hobart Town, Tasmania, or Van Diemen's Land, as it used to be called, and there landed two parties. One of these was in charge of Professor William Harkness, of the Naval Observatory, and the other in charge of Captain C. W. Raymond, of the Corps of Engineers, U.S.A. The latter party was designed for Crozet's Islands, a group some distance west of Kerguclen; but when the Swatara arrived there it was found impossible to effect a landing, owing to a sudden storm which blew the ship so far away that she could not return to the island and land the party without spending so much time as to endanger her reaching the other stations in season for the observations.

The meteorological reports from Hobart Town for the month of December in previous years had been so favorable that this was regarded as the best station in the southern hemisphere. But the whole season proved stormy in the extreme, so that it was with the greatest difficulty that the astronomers could get observations enough to rate their clocks and chronometers. At Hobart Town Professor Harkness had very bad weather on the day of the transit; indeed, there was heavy rain during a considerable portion of the time that Venus was in transit. But he succeeded in getting about ninety photographs by taking advantage of openings in the clouds, so that he had no cause to be dissatisfied with his results. Captain Raymond's party was at Campbell Town, about a hundred miles north of Hobart Town, where both the weather and the results were very much the same. Fewer photographs were obtained, but Captain Raymond secured a good observation of internal

contact at egress.

The chief of the New Zealand party was Professor C. H. F. Peters, of Hamilton College, with Lieutenant E. W. Bass, of the Corps of Engineers, as assistant astronomer. The station originally designed for him was Bluff Harbor, at the extreme southern end of the southernmost large island. But on reconnoitring the ground, it was found that the chances of clear weather were better on the high lands of the interior; the station was therefore finally chosen near Queenstown. The change proved to be very fortunate. Both at Bluff Harbor, in the south, and at the English station at Christ Church, it was cloudy or raining during the whole of the transit, so that the English observers did not catch a glimpse of it, while Dr. Peters had so much clear weather as to obtain a very fine collection of photographs. But it was cloudy both at the beginning and end of the transit, so that he got only one of the four contacts.

The easternmost of the southern parties was that of Mr. Edwin Smith, of the Coast Survey, with Mr. Scott as first assistant, and was stationed at Chatham Island. This party suffered the worst of all from unfavorable weather on the day of the transit; only a few glimpses of the sun were obtained, by utilizing which the party took six or eight suc cessful photographs.

It will be seen that the weather at the American stations was very remarkable in one point: at not a single station did the operations entirely fail through cloudiness, while they suffered, more or less, from this cause at every station. That it should have been partly cloudy at all three northern stations was a great disappointment, yet the number of available photographs in the two hemispheres is very nearly equal. The eccentricity of the weather seemed to show it self in a playful manner by favoring those places where the chances of fine weather had been found to be the least. Janssen, the celebrated French spectroscopist, who went to Japan to observe the transit, had fixed upon Yokohama as his station. On arriving there he learned that the American commission had for two years caused meteorological observations to be made at Yokohama and Nagasaki, which showed the latter to be the most favorable station. He therefore moved thither with his instruments, occupying a station two or three miles distant from Mr. Davidson's. When the day

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