6 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
boundary. Although this undertaking was purely a geographi- 
cal one, it was also “ astronomical work,” and if we except what 
was done by Murray, Flinders, and others, on the coastal sur- 
veys, was probably the first done in this colony. 
Up to this time (1839) I think that astronomical work in 
Australasia, if we except geographical determinations carried 
out on the coastal surveys, was confined to the colony of New 
South Wales. ‘In August, 1840, however, Tasmania comes into 
the field, when Sir James Ross’ Antarctic expedition, with the 
ships “ Erebus” and “ Terror,” arrived at Hobart, where, accord- 
ing to his instructions, he erected a magnetic observatory on 
what are now the grounds of the Government House of that 
eity. 
A separate building for an astronomical observatory was also 
erected, in which a transit instrument, an altazimuth and 
astronomical clocks were permanently mounted, as well as an 
invariable pendulum apparatus for the determination of the 
gravity constant. The observations with this latter instrument’ 
were made by Sir John Ross himself, assisted by Sir John 
Franklin, then Governor of Tasmania, while the magnetic and 
astronomical work was entrusted to Lieut. Kay, of H.M.S. 
“Terror,” assisted by two junior officers of the expedition, who 
carried on the work for a period of eight years. Lieut. Kay 
continued astronomical work till 1854, after which he came to 
Victoria, and settled in Melbourne with his brother officer, Lieut. 
Smith, of the “ Erebus,” both of whom were appointed members 
of the Board of Visitors to the Williamstown Observatory in 
1855. Although magnetic observation was the chief aim of this 
first observatory at Hobart, some important astronomical work 
was conducted by Lieut. Kay, including a very elaborate deter- 
mination of the difference of longitude between Hobart and Port 
Macquarie, Sydney, Parramatta and Cape of God Hope. 
After the eight years’ work of this magnetic expedition was 
over, it appears that the regular meteorological observations 
carried out by Lieut. Kay and his assistants during the existence 
of the observatory were continued by a private citizen, Mr. 
Francis Abbott, who about 1855 acquired some excellent astro- 
nomical instrumenis, including a good transit and equatorial 
telescope of about 5 in. aperture; he commenced observations 
for maintenance of local time with his transit, and has recorded 
in the monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and 
in the transactions of the Royal Society of Tasmania many valu- 
able observations of comets, eclipses, and of some of the southern 
nebule. 
Following in Mr. J. Abbott’s footsteps, about 1860, Mr. A. 
B. Biggs, first of Campbelltown, Tasmania, devoted himself to 
astronomical work as a recreation, and has been a most inde- 
fatigable observer up to the present time; he also constructed 
