VENUS ON THE SUN'S FACE. 87 



peg-top figure seemed just to touch the edge of the 

 sun ? This seemed unlikely, because a moment after 

 the planet was seen well removed from the sun's edge. 

 "Was it when the rotund part of the planet belonged 

 to a figure which would have touched the sun's edge 

 if the rotundity had been perfect elsewhere ? This, 

 again, seemed unlikely, because at this moment the 

 black band connecting Yenus and the sun was quite 

 wide. And, besides, if this were the true moment of 

 contact, what eye could be trusted to determine the 

 occurrence of a relation so peculiar ? Yet the interval 

 between this phase and the final or peg-top phase 

 lasted several seconds as many as twenty-two in one 

 instance in 1769 and the whole success of the obser- 

 vation depended on exactness within three or four sec- 

 onds at the outside. 



"We know that Yenus will act in precisely the same 

 manner in 1874. If we had been induced -to hope that 

 improvements in our telescopes would diminish the 

 peculiarity, the observations of the transit of Mercury 

 in November, 1868, would have sufficed to destroy that 

 hope, for, even with the all but perfect instruments of 

 the Greenwich Observatory, Mercury assumed the peg- 

 top disguise in the most unpleasing manner. 



It may be asked, then, What do astronomers pro- 

 pose to do in 1874 to prevent Yenus from misleading 

 them again as she did in 1769 ? Much has already 

 been done toward this end. Mr. Stone undertook a 



