PHYSIOGRAPHY OF AUSTR. II.ASI. 1. ,3,7 



the coast the tides become rapidly smaller, and at the extreme western point, Freydnct 

 Reach, the rise is only 4 feet, and the time rah. Thence to Swan River the tides 

 are small and uncertain. 



The moon in the course of her revolutions round the earth during 18 years and 10 

 days, is eclipsed wholly or in part 29 times, and intervenes between the earth and the sun 

 41 times, making as many eclipses of the sun, partial or complete. The best points 

 from which to observe the phenomena of these eclipses are scattered evenly over the 

 Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and hence Australia often affords the local as well 

 as the foreign observer convenient vantage ground for observation ; ' so also the favour- 

 able localities on the eastern coast for observing the transit of Venus, in 1874 and 1882, 

 were taken advantage of by many observers, and their successful observations could not 

 be used until the exact longitude of Australia was known, and this led to its final 

 determination by means of electric signals. 



The history of the Sydney Observatory is inseparably connected with that of 

 Parramatta, the first public observatory ever erected in the Southern Hemisphere. Sir 

 Thomas Brisbane arrived at Parramatta in November, 1821, and by the end of April, 1822, 

 the building for the Observatory was finished, and the instruments mounted ; work was 

 begun on the 2nd day of May, and the work done there was rewarded with four gold 

 medals and other smaller honours. In 1848, the Observatory was dismantled, and the 

 instruments stored in Sydney. After a long correspondence with the Home Government, 

 it was finally decided to give the Parramatta instruments to the colony, upon condition 

 that the colony established an observatory, and gave regular time-signals for the use of 

 the shipping. Just at this time, Sir William Denison arrived in the colony, and he, 

 being an enthusiastic astronomer, took the matter up, and induced the Government to 

 vote ,7,000 for the building and instruments, and to obtain an astronomer from 

 England, leaving the selection to the Astronomer Royal. The Parramatta instruments 

 given by the Home Government, cost them ,1,650. Some of these were sent to England 

 for repairs, and in 1856, the present buildings, excepting only the north wing, were 

 begun, the site being chosen from its suitability for a time-ball. The same year, the 

 Rev. William Scott arrived, and spent the time which was occupied in putting up the 

 building in travelling over the country and establishing twelve first-class meteorological 

 stations. In the end of 1858, Mr. Scott came into residence, and work was begun; by the 

 end of 1862 he found that the work would be too much for his health, and he resigned. 

 Mr. H. C. Russell, the present Astronomer, had charge for eighteen months, and the 

 second Astronomer, Mr. George Roberts Smalley, arrived in the colony from England in 

 1864. He induced the Government to begin a trigonometrical survey of the colony, but 

 died in 1870, before any progress had been made with the work, and Mr. Russell was then 

 appointed Astronomer. Mr. Scott was a vigorous observer, and published several volumes 

 of astronomical and meteorological works. Mr. Smalley's publications were confined to a 

 few meteorological papers. 



Mr. Russell has published a number of astronomical works, and the Annual 

 Meteorological Reports, and since 1878 a special report every year upon the rain-fall. 

 Since 1871, the Observatory has been entirely remodelled, and new and larger instru- 

 ments introduced; the equatorial refractor has an aperture of i\ l / 2 inches, and is the 



