A. MATHEMATICS AKD ASTRONOMY. 55 



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 photo- 

 graphs a bank of clouds came up from the southeast and 

 covered the sun, so that the prospect seemed almost hope- 

 less. 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 photo- 

 graphs. Then it clouded up completely for a period. At 

 one o'clock it partially cleared away, so that more photo- 

 graphs could be taken. But one of the most annoying pecul- 

 iarities of the Pekin climate, a storm of dust, was approach- 

 ing, so that the photographs were very faint, owing to the 

 yellow tint of the sun. Still the observers succeeded in ob- 

 serving the two last contacts, so that all four contacts were 

 successfully observed. This was the only American station 

 which had this 2;ood fortune. 



CD 



Nagasaki. This was the remaining northern station oc- 

 cupied 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 

 Xew Zealand, and one on Chatham Island. Kerguelen Isl- 

 and 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 so- 

 called cabbage discovered by Captain Cook. The party 



