of Tasmania, whilst the northern edge of the totaHty would 

 hardly extend to Launceston. Tasmania would have, therefore, 

 on the occasion a unique importance in the eyeis of astrono- 

 mers, who would be attracted from distant parts of the world. 

 There had been one astronomical expedition to Tasmania 

 which led to important results, namely, the American expedi- 

 tion for observing the transit of Venus in 1874. The object of 

 that expedition was to obtain data for a more accurate deter- 

 mination of the distance of the sun from the earth, which is 

 the largest base line we have for astronomical meiasurements. 

 Incidental to that expedition was the accurate determination 

 of the latitude and longitude of a station in the Hobart Bar- 

 racks, which was done by means of simultaneous observations 

 taken at the Melbourne Observatory and by the American 

 astronomers at Hobart. The Agent-General had forwarded 

 letters from General Tennant asking for information as to 

 eligible sites for the observation of the eclipse. Mr. Kingsmill 

 explained and illustrated by lantern slides total eclipses of the 

 sun with the corona in each case extending far beyond the sun 

 as obscured by the moon. But for this a total eclipse would 

 mean for the time being absolute and total darkness. It was 

 found that when a profuse crop of sun spots showed the sun 

 to be in exuberant activity, the action of this exceptional ex- 

 citement produced a corresponding influence on the magnetic 

 state of the earth. There was a large and valuable body of 

 evidence available to demonstrate that there did exist some 

 sympathy between periods of solar agitation and periods of 

 excited terrestrial magnetism. 



The Chairman thought there were three places which stood 

 out as eligible for the purposes Mr. Kingsmill had mentioned: 

 I. Near lighthouse on Bruni Head (South Bruni), 335ft. above 

 high-water mark. Access from Great Taylor's Bay. 2. South- 

 port Bluff, nearly oppo'site lighthouse. Access from a jetty on 

 the south side of Southport, with deep water near at hand, and 

 good anchorage; thence two or three miles' cartage to the 

 Blufif. Depth of water at the entrance to Southport, 10 to 17 

 fathoms. 3. Between Point Arthur and second look-out on 

 south side of Recherche Bay, and about six miles south of 

 Southport Blufif. Entrance to Recherche Bay has depth of 

 from 8 to 16 fathoms, with good anchorage inside. 



Mr. R. M. Johnston referred to the importance of the ex- 

 pedition to Tasmania, and hoped institutions on the mainland 

 would join in the reception of such an important body of 



visitors. 



Dr. Noetling enlarged on the grandeur of the total eclipse 

 of the sun, which he had witnessed in India, and said that 

 scientists were very keen on observations at such a time to 

 try to discover another planet believed to exist nearer to the 

 sun than the planet Mercury. At the forthcoming observations 

 in Tasmania he feared the sun would be rather low down in 

 the heavens at the hour at which the total eclipse would take 

 place, namely, 4 p.m. Would not the top of Mount Wellington 

 be the most suitable situation for the observations? 



