178 The Late Transit of Venus. (April, 
arrangements made there for securing observations directly 
comparable with those made by the Government parties 
in Egypt. 
Turning next to the region around E, where retarded 
egress was to be observed, we have to consider results of a 
mixed character. At all the best stations, viz., those occu- 
pied by the Russians, bad weather prevailed. The Russian 
Delislean observing parties were spread over Western Si- 
beria, and included such important stations as Erivan, 
Tiflis, Taschkent, Astrakhan, Ornsk, Blagowestchensk, &c. 
At some of these stations the retardation would have been 
fully twelve minutes, whereas, at the English stations in 
Egypt and North India, the retardation amounted only to 
ten minutes. At Ispahan, where a German party was sta- 
tioned, there would have been a retardation of Io} minutes; 
and as the results wouid have been directly comparable 
with those obtained at the Auckland Isles, a very valuable 
Delislean success would have been obtained had good 
weather prevailed at Ispahan. Unfortunately, though some 
good mid-transit photographs were secured, the contact at 
egress was missed through clouds. A Russian party, but 
not provided with first-class instruments, were successful at 
Teheran. But the chief success, so far as retarded egress 
was concerned, was obtained in Egypt and in North India, 
a circumstance which makes the ill-success of Palmer in 
New Zealand the more unfortunate, as it was with his ob- 
servations that the Egyptian results were to have been 
compared. In Egypt thick haze prevailed on the important 
morning, until within a few minutes of the moment of con- 
tact. Then, however, the sun passed clear of the low-lying 
haze, and the contact was well observed. It was at first 
announced that Captain Abney had succeeded in getting a 
photograph of the contact by the Janssen instrument, but this 
news turned out to be incorrect. He just missed the actual 
contact; though it would appear that the moment of contact 
can be approximately determined from the photographs.* 
The German observers stationed in Egypt also made very 
satisfactory observations. At Roorkee, in North India, 
egress was well observed (as also the whole transit). 
On the whole, the Delislean observations for egress have 
been fairly provided for. The special English plans have 
been defeated by bad weather in New Zealand; but the 
observations at Melbourne and Sydney will combine tolerably 
*It seems tolerably clear that in future applications of the Janssen ar- 
rangement provision must be made for a longer interval than one minute. 
