INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1871. cciii 



NOTE TO ASTRONOMY. 



(Added January 20, 1875.) 



Since the preceding pages were electrotyped, the two fol- 

 lowing discoveries have been announced as having occurred 

 prior to the end of the year 1874 : 



ASTEKOID. 



No. 139. Discovered October 10, by Professor J. C.Wat- 

 son, at Pekin, China. 



COMET. 



1874. VI. Dircovered December 6, by Borelly, at Mar- 

 seilles. 



OBSERVATIONS OF THE TRANSIT OF VENUS. 



From the telegraphic and other reports that have reached 

 us concerning the success of the observations on the event- 

 ful 9th of December (the evening of the 8th at Washington), 

 we gather that although the weather was in general not all 

 that could be desired in fact, rather unfavorable yet there 

 have been secured observations abundantly sufficient to ma- 

 terially advance our knowledge of the solar parallax. It 

 may be fairly inferred from the meagre telegrams that have 

 reached us that the phenomena of the black drop or ligament, 

 that so sorely annoyed the observers of the last century, has 

 in the present case caused comparatively no annoyance 

 that, in fact, it has only rarely been observed, and its disap- 

 pearance is undoubtedly in great part due to the more per- 

 fect defining power of our modern telescopes. If we, for 

 brevity, classify the stations into two orders, the successful 

 and the unsuccessful, we shall have the following record. We 

 consider as a successful station one that obtained observa- 

 tions that could be of any value in deducing the final result. 



United States : Successful at Hobart Town, Nagasaki, 

 Campbell Town, Pekin, Vladivostock, Bluff Harbor. 



England : Successful, Cairo, Suez, Thebes, Alexandria, Hono- 

 lulu, Atooi, Malta, Roorkee, Rodriguez. 

 Unsuccessful, New Zealand, Owhyhee. 



