1883.] of Venus across the San. 315 



can have resulted from my doing so, as I habitually observe in this 

 way; the time on my watch I compared with my best chronometer 

 directly after each contact. 



The first external contact -I unfortunately missed in a way 

 which can be easily explained. Though constantly observing the 

 Sun for altitude I have seldom examined its features ; and thus 

 failed to notice that a point on its disk, 145° E. of N. the predicted 

 point of contact, would at 9 a.m. be slightly to the right and not to 

 the left of the lowest point of the Sun's limb. Having for the 

 three days previously been rather indisposed and unwilling to 

 expose myself in observing, I had put my preparatory work some- 

 what aside ; and thus failed to look through the question as I 

 might perhaps have done, had I been quite ready for any kind of 

 work. 



When I saw Venus first she had intruded about one-third of 

 her sphere on the Sun's disk ; I watched her carefully until the 

 two limbs were very nearly in contact, from which time I did not 

 remove my eye until the Sun's light appeared to surround the 

 planet ; the moment of this phenomenon I fixed at 



9h. 16 m. 26s.a.m. L. M. T., 



or perhaps two or three seconds later. 



I noticed no kind of black drop, or sympathetic attraction, or 

 assimilation between the limb of the planet and that of the Sun or 

 rather the edge of the atmosphere enclosing the Sun. If the slight 

 want of definition from which my vision suffered, be it due to my 

 own eyes or my eye-piece or my object-glass, allows me to give any 

 formulated description of the first internal contact, I should say 

 that when the planet was actually projected on the Sun's disk, say 

 20 s. before the time I assign for actual contact, the black surface 

 of the planet adjoining the atmosphere seemed to begin to be 

 picked out with little white dots commencing very probably from 

 either side ; but as the phenomenon was new to me, I cannot say 

 whether the white spots began at the two ends of the incomplete 

 segment of the planet's disk, or whether they began throughout at 

 once. I cannot say that I actually saw two horns of light gradually 

 advancing until their points touched; but rather, as I have said, 

 the segment of the planet nearest the atmosphere and still obscure 

 began to be speckled with white dots which in not more than 20 

 seconds, or 25 at the outside, developed into a white line. 



When the planet was a little way advanced on the Sun's disk, 

 she was well denned in her outline : and no remarkable difference 

 presented itself at 1052 a.m. when I took a measure of the 

 distance of her limb from the Sun's edge. But at noon, when the 

 distance of the centres of the Sun and Venus was least, the 

 irregularity of her disk, from the boiling of the surrounding solar 



VOL. IV. PT. VI. 23 



