A. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 57 



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 

 fiicatara reached Cape Town, where the English party had 

 already arrived. On comparing notes it w r as found that 

 both parties were bound for the same part of the island. 

 The most tantalizing part of the result w r as that the station 

 which all the parties avoided w 7 as reported to have enjoyed 

 a beautiful day on the 9th of December. 



The Sicatara 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 Kergue- 

 len ; but when the Swatara arrived there it was found impos- 

 sible 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 Hark- 

 ness 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 get- 

 ting about ninety photographs by taking advantage of 

 openings in the clouds, so that he had no cause to be dissat- 

 isfied with his results. Captain Raymond's party w r as 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 w r ere obtained, but 

 Captain Raymond secured a good observation of internal 

 contact at egress. 



