425 



beats of the clock and chronometers. It wis almost a solemn moment. 

 The sua broke forth with one gleam— I was almost startled to my feet 

 with the shout of " Commence,''^ given by my husband, as warning to the 

 Photographers as the instant was about to arrive. In a few seconds he 

 gave an exclamation of delight and the first contact was accomplished 

 and duly recorded. After giving us an instantaneous peep, observations 

 were kept up till the next critical moment of the secood contact ; the sun 

 growing less bright, but still bright enough for observations, the second 

 contact was seen and further observations as the body was passing over 

 the sun— growing thicker and thicker and leaving scarcely a hope for the 

 third contact and also for the fourth which were not visible and then the 

 whole thing was over, not wholly successfal, but by no means unsuccess 

 ful, and I think my husband is pretty well satisfied ; he certainly feels 

 that they made the most of the situation, everything working well and 

 only failed on account of the weather. 



One thing strikes me as very wonderful — of course the exact spot on, 

 the sun's limb where the contact should appear was only known by com- 

 putation from our previous data, and under such large magnifying 

 power, which took in only about 5*^ diameters of Venus, one minute of an 

 arc would have been fatal. Mr. D. had gone over his calculations several 

 times and that same morbing had gone over them to satisfy himself,, and 

 then pointed his instrument and sure enough there came Venus, right in 

 the centre of his pointing, Z^ minutes later than the English computed 

 time, and Ih earlier than the American time. 



I hope the Society will think this account worthy of an early publi- 

 cation. Respectfully, 



DANIEL B. SMITH. 



Oermantoicn, 1st mo., 29tJi, 1875. 



The letter of Mrs. Davidson was ordered to be published 

 as soon as possible. 



The Secretary presented a communication, entitled "Notes 

 on the Geology of West Virginia," No. II., by Jno. J. 

 StevensoQ, Prof, of Geology, University of JST. Y., and ex- 

 plained the author's work in that region, in connection with 

 the proposed occupation of a new district in Southwestern 

 Pennsylvania by the Geological Survey of Pennsylvania.. 

 (See page 370.) 



Mr. Fraley reported the receipts, and payment to the 

 Treasurer, of $152.79, being the last quarterly payment of the 

 interest on the Michaux Legacy. 



The following report of the Trustees of the Building 

 Fund of the A. P. S. was read by its Treasurer, Mr. Marsh 



A. p. S. — VOL. XI Y 3c 



