SECTION III., 1883. SES TRANS. Roy. Soc. CANADA. 
Preparations at McGill College, Montreal, for observing the Transit of Venus, 
December 6th, 1882. By AurxanveR Jounson, M.A., LL.D., Dublin, Professor of 
Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. 
(Abstract. ) 
At the time of the transit of 1874 McGill College was very poorly supplied with 
astronomical instruments. It had a refracting telescope of 2? inches aperture, which 
together with a small transit instrument and a chronometer for taking time observations, 
constituted practically its whole equipment. In order to call public attentton to our 
wants, I wrote a letter, therefore, to one of the daily papers, pointing out the importance of 
the coming transit of 1882 and the need of proper instruments to observe it, but this had 
no immediate effect. About the end of the year 1878 some of the citizens of Montreal who 
felt an interest in astronomy held two or three private meetings to consider the possibility 
of establishing a public Astronomical Observatory as an independent institution, governed 
by trustees. In accordance with a request from them, I wrote a letter on the subject which 
was inserted in the newspapers in January, 1879, and in this I again directed attention to 
the approach of the great astronomical event. 
In September, 1879, Mr. Blackman, B.A., of Yale College, US, then a resident of 
Montreal, made a very handsome donation to the College of astronomical instruments, 
including a 6} inch equatorial of 7 feet focal length, a large transit instrument, an excellent 
mean time clock, a sidereal clock and chronometer. ; 
Subsequently, two good but smaller telescopes of 4} and 4 inches aperture were placed 
in the College, one left to the Trafalgar Institute by the late Donald Ross, and committed for 
safe-keeping to McGill College, and one lent by G. A. Drummond, Esq. As far as instru- 
ments sufficient for Transit observations were concerned, the College was now well supplied ; 
for, with no very great addition, it could have equipped two or three observing stations, 
besides Montreal. But these other stations would have involved considerable expense, and 
it was necessary to provide for this. To allow so much “observing plant” to lie unused 
would not have been creditable to the city. In February, 1880, I read a paper before the 
Athenzeum Club of Montreal explaining the state of the case, and afterwards another paper 
on the same subject in May, 1881. Snbsequently the question was taken up by the 
Corporation of the College and a committee was appointed to consider the means of 
providing for the expenses and other matters. In their name I wrote to the Astronomer 
Royal, explaining our situation and asking for information as to the expenses of stations in 
1874, and advice and instructions generally The letter was submitted by him to the Com- 
mittee of the Royal Society who had charge of the arrangements for all the British Transit 
of Venus expeditions ; and in his reply he gave ample information, which was of great 
service, in addition to sending the report of the British Observations of 1874, which had not 
long been published, together with the “ Instructions to Observers” in that year. At a later 
period, five copies of the “ Instructions ” for 1882 were sent Out. Questions of expense were 
