244 REPORTS FROM THE SECTIONS. 
four Victorian observers, only one gets double weight, and Adelaide, 
with four observers, two are struck out by the weighting, 
and one gets double weight. So that Australia, if we include 
Mr. Tebbutt’s observations, furnishes seven out of the twenty 
in both cases more than one-third, and this is no small honor for 
Australia: one-third of the observations obtained by the whole 
British nation. 
The resulting mean solar parallax at ingress is 8’°845, and by 
those at egress 8’'846, or a mean of 88455, equal a distance of: 
92,400,000 
aptain Tupman remarks that the observations at Sydney by 
Russell, Lenehan, Wright, and Allerding have great weight in 
lowering the parallax or increasing the sun’s distance ; but he sees 
“no reason for rejecting them, on the contrary he has given double 
weight to Russell, and his is one of the most detailed observations 
made”; and Dr. Wright’s and Mr. Russell’s agree exactly ; Mr. 
Lenehan is only 3s., and Mr, Allerding 5s. from the two first. It 
is obvious that four such observations could not be rejected, and 
although they have had much to do with making the sun’s dis- 
tance half a million of miles greater, they have been retained. 
But this fact really opens up a most important question, viz., how 
far that distance in such observations is affected by atmospheric 
conditions? It is well known that, at the moment of egress, the 
atmosphere at Sydney was wonderfully steady, and all four 
others late un atmospheric conditions, is that which 
has , namely, taking a mean of e results; includ- 
id ce 
