58 ROUGH WAYS MADE SMOOTH. 



RESULTS OF THE BRITISH TRANSIT 

 EXPEDITIONS. 



ANOTHER noteworthy attempt has been made to estimate the 

 distance which separates our earth from the mighty central 

 orb round which she travels with her fellow- worlds the planets. 

 In other words, the solar system itself has been remeasured ; 

 for the measurement of any part of the system is in fact the 

 measurement of the entire system, the proportions of which, 

 as distinguished from its actual dimensions, have long been 

 accurately known. 



I propose briefly to describe the results which have been 

 obtained (after some three years of careful examination) from 

 the observations made by the British parties sent north, 

 south, east, and west to observe the transit of Venus on 

 December 9, 1874 ; and then to consider how these results 

 compare with those which had before been obtained. First, 

 however, it may be well to remind the reader of the unfavour- 

 able conditions under which the task of measuring our 

 distance from the remote sun must of necessity be attacked. 



Not unfrequently we hear the measurement of the sun's 

 distance, and the various errors which astronomers have had 

 to correct during the progress of their efforts to deal with the 

 problem, referred to in terms which would imply that astro- 

 nomy had some reason to be ashamed of labours which are 

 in reality among the most noteworthy achievements of their 

 science. Because, some twenty years ago, the estimate of 

 95 million miles, which had for half a century held its 



