10 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



ciety guarantees the expenses, 500, and as many observa- 

 tories will join in the fixing of the star-places, etc. It con- 

 trasts with the unfortunate expedition of Gilliss in 1849-52, 

 who, on li is return to the United States from Chili, found 

 that his brilliant labors in the same field, although by a dif- 

 ferent and less independent method, had been practically in 

 vain, through the feeble support given by Northern observ- 

 ers. Mr. Gill will also observe three of the asteroids for the 

 determination of the solar parallax. 



The photographs of the transit of Ve?uts obtained by the 

 United States parties have been examined, and all those 

 which were capable of measurement have been read off. 

 They are as follows : 



Northern Stations. 



"Wladiwostok 13 plates. 



Nagasaki 50 " 



Peking 2G " 



Total 89 " 



Southern Stations. 



Kerguelen Island 8 plates. 



Hobart Town 38 " 



Campbell Town 32 " 



Queen stown 47 " 



Chatham Island 7 " 



Total 132 " 



The grand total for both hemispheres is 221 plates. Ow- 

 ing to the great variability of the photographic diameters 

 of the sun tm&Venus, it was found impossible to make use 

 of any pictures which did not show a complete image of the 

 sun. This excluded several hundred small photographs taken 

 near the times of contact between the limbs of Venus and 

 the sun. 



The above-mentioned measurements of the photographs 

 have been so far reduced that the position-angles of Venus, 

 relatively to the centre of the sun's image, and the positions 

 of the sun's image relatively to the centres of the plates, 

 have been tabulated. 



Their further reduction is under way, and it is expected 

 that the reduction of all the observations of the transit itself 

 will be brought to a close by the coming spring. It is also 



