58 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



The chief of the New Zealand party "was Professor C. II. 

 F. Peters, of Hamilton College, with Lieutenant E.W. Bass, 

 of the Corps of Engineers, as assistant astronomer. The 

 station originally designed for him was Bluff* Harbor, at the 

 extreme southern end of the southernmost lar^e island. 

 But on reconnoitring the ground, it was found that the 

 chances of clear weather were better on the high lands of 

 the interior; the station was therefore finally chosen near 

 Queenstown. The change proved to be very fortunate. 

 Both at Bluff Harbor, in the south, and at the English sta- 

 tion at Christ Church, it was cloudy or raining during the 

 whole of the transit, so that the English observers did not 

 catch a glimpse of it, while Dr. Peters had so much clear 

 weather as to obtain a very fine collection of photographs. 

 But it was cloudy both at the beginning and end of the 

 transit, so that he got only one of the four contacts. 



The easternmost of the southern parties was that of Mr. 

 Edwin Smith, of the Coast Survey, with Mr. Scott as first 

 assistant, and was stationed at Chatham Island. This party 

 suffered the worst of all from unfavorable weather on the 

 day of the transit; only a few glimpses of the sun were 

 obtained, by utilizing which the party took six or eight suc- 

 cessful photographs. 



It will be seen that the weather at the American stations 

 was very remarkable in one point : at not a single station 

 did the operations entirely fail through cloudiness, while 

 they suffered, more or less, from this cause at every station. 

 That it should have been partly cloudy at all three northern 

 stations was a great disappointment, yet the number of 

 available photographs in the two hemispheres is very nearly 

 equal. The eccentricity of the weather seemed to show it- 

 self in a playful manner by favoring those places where the 

 chances of fine weather had been found to be the least. Mr. 

 Janssen, the celebrated French spectroscopist, who went to 

 Japan to observe the transit, had fixed upon Yokohama as 

 his station. On arriving there he learned that the American 

 commission had for two years caused meteorological observa- 

 tions to be made at Yokohama and Nagasaki, which showed 

 the latter to be the most favorable station. He therefore 

 moved thither with his instruments, occupying a station two 

 or three miles distant from Mr. Davidson's. When the dav 



