REPORTS FROM THE SECTIONS. 243 
Abstract of the Results of Transit of Venus. 
By H. C. Russzxt, B.A., F.R.A.S., Observatory. 
[Read before the Astronomical Section, 4 October, 1878.] j 
I rHoveut that it would be interesting to the members of the 
Astronomical Section, if a short abstract of the results of the 
Transit of Venus observations as published by Captain Tupman - 
in the June number of the Royal Astronomical Society’s Notices 
were made. It would be impossible without destroying the value 
of it to make an abstract of the whole paper; it was prepared to 
show how the various observations used in de rminin he 
parallax have been combined, and it is as short as possible, but 
we may extract just such portions as indicate the value of the 
work done in this colony. 
Captain Tupman discusses only those observations made by the 
British nation, and from all the preparations and parties sent out 
to observe it, in ot, South Seas, New Z dia, and 
Australia, there were only thirty- observers whose reports 
re ree ; ; 
double weight ;'so that for parallax at ingress the Observatories 
us remember, taught us to record what we did see, and not 
loo for what we could not see. There are forty-eight observa- 
tions of egress, and again New South Wales furnishes eight, age 
