ii Beginnings of Scientific Travel 79 



lecture, I will pass from the subject for the present, for the 

 purpose of calling attention to one of the most interesting 

 features of the scientific life of the closing decades of last 

 century the rise of the spirit of scientific travel. 



Of all the physical events that happened in the latter 

 half of the eighteenth century, there was probably none so 

 fruitful in fostering, among the civilized countries of the 

 world, an emulation in discovery and research, as the transit 

 of Venus, which occurred in the summer of 1769. To that 

 event we owe the voyages of Cook, and all the rich harvest 

 of results which they added to our knowledge of the geo- 

 graphy of the globe. What England did on the ocean, it 

 was reserved for Kussia to rival on the land. The Empress 

 Catherine II. had been irritated by the sarcastic remarks 

 made by a French astronomer who had travelled to Eussia to 

 observe the previous transit of Venus in 1763, and she is 

 even said to have been at the trouble of refuting them 

 herself. At all events, she resolved to do without foreign 

 assistance for the second transit. Determined that the work 

 should be done thoroughly, and in such a way as to 

 redound to the glory of her reign, she commissioned the 

 Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg to organize the 

 expedition. This undertaking was conceived in a truly 

 imperial spirit. Not only were astronomers sent out for 

 the more immediate objects of the research, but advantage 

 was taken of the occasion to despatch a competent band 

 of observers for the purpose of penetrating into every 

 region of the vast empire, and making known its condi- 

 tion and resources. 



The instructions drawn up for the guidance of the 



