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LONGITUDE OF ALEXANDRIA. 



EXTRACT from a LETTER from MR. S. HUNTER to the ASTRONOMER ROYAL. 



My work in Egypt in connection with the Transit of Venus may be divided 

 into three periods : 



First, at Cairo, assisting" Captain Browne in transporting material, &c., to 

 Mokattam, erecting huts, &c., from the 15th to 26th October 1874. 



Second, at Alexandria in connection with the determination of longitude, 

 October 27 to November 25. 



Third, at Suez (where I observed the Transit), from November 26 to 

 December 24. 



The instruments with which I was furnished were the property of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society, and consisted of 



(1.) An equatorial of 4'6 inches aperture, by T. Cooke and Sons, of York, 

 driven by clockwork, and furnished with Solar eye-piece and divided eye- 

 glass double-image micrometer. This instrument on landing in Egypt was 

 stored in Suez until my return there. 



(2.) A Transit instrument (Sheepshanks No. 1) with aperture of 

 2'6 inches, mounted on a portable metal stand, which was fastened by 

 two screws to a stone slab, resting on a brick pier. The wire frame carried 

 nine fixed vertical wires and two horizontal ones ; there were also two 

 movable vertical wires connected with the micrometer screw. Power used 

 = 77 diameters. 



I had the box, 2-day chronometers Loseby 102, regulated to sidereal time, 

 beating half seconds, and the solar chronometer Hewitt 890, also beating half 

 seconds. 



The work in Cairo requires no further observation. At Alexandria the 

 first duty was the selection of a site as convenient to the Telegraph Office as 

 possible. Having examined several places, I decided on using the roof of 

 the Hotel de FEurope, as it appeared most suitable. It is distant five minutes 

 walk from the Telegraph Office. The walls of the Hotel de FEurope are 

 2 feet 3 inches thick, and just over the intersection of two partition walls of 

 the same thickness the transit pier was erected. 



On October 30 I commenced observing with the transit instrument in 

 order to determine the wire intervals, value of micrometer screw, and pivot 



