24 



cent, only would mn up to six hundred thousand millionf of milo3 in the 

 distance of the nearest tbced star. This enormous amount will ai^pear clear 

 when we consider that the base line applied is the diameter of the earth's orbit 

 aa computed by Encke, from the last transit of Venus, at 190,000,000 of miles, 

 which is something utterly insignificant— a mere point which only produces a 

 parallax on the star Sirius of 0"2;30. 



Seeing, then, that a revision of the problem of the sun's distance is required, 

 and that the colony of Tasmania is well situated for one of these stations, it 

 might be advisable for either the Colonial Government, or the Council of the 

 Royal Society supported by the Government, to make known to aU those 

 nations who are likely to send out expeditions the means by which the geogra- 

 phical position of Hobart Town has been arrived at, the result drawn from the 

 mean of those observations, and the favorable position of the place for both 

 transits. 



Private Observatory, Hobart Town, 

 March 8th, 1864. 



