56 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



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 astrono- 

 mer. 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, astro- 

 nomically, the most favorable in the southern hemisphere, 

 the chance of getting a good collection of photographs be- 

 tween 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 steam- 

 launch 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 suc- 

 ceeded 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 suc- 

 ceeded in getting twenty-six good photographs of Venus on 

 the sun, so that their operations were on the whole suc- 

 cessful. 



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 seal- 

 ing station by the ships of Messrs. Williams, Haven, <fc 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 II. M. S. Challenger, which ex- 



