330 - JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
Burnham mean time was F. 22°5, and the hourly rate was ‘025 
gaining, all the above times are subject to a correction of 
—22"87. This makes the Burnham mean time of External 
Contact 7h. 50° 32”°63. 
JAMES HECTOR. 
Clyde, 7th December, 1882. 
WELLINGTON. 
; The actual observation of the transit being a record of 
the instant of the apparent meeting or contact of the limb of Venus 
with that of the sum, it’ becomes of the utmost importance to 
have the true sidereal or mean time determined with the greatest 
accuracy, and that the observers at different stations. either all 
keep the same time or have the means of knowing their differ- 
ences from one standard clock. With the view of securing this 
concert among the New Zealand observers, the greater number 
of them had their stations placed in telegraphic circuit. Time 
signals were distributed from Col. Tupman’s station, at Burn- 
ham to observers in the Middle Island ; and from survey obser- 
vatory, Mount Cook, Wellington, to observers in the North 
Island and in Nelson. Another essential is the correct know- 
ledge of the longitude of the stations. . Exchange of signals for 
this purpose were made between Burnham and Auckland, Burn- 
ham and Wellington, Wellington and New Plymouth, Wellington 
and Bidwell’s, Wairarapa. These New Zealand stations are 
therefore well connected together. And as Col. Tupman has 
had exchange of time signals through the cable with Sydney 
and arrangements have been entered into for exchange of time 
signals over the gaps between Sydney and Greenwich, where 
this had not previously been done, there will on completion of 
this work be an unbroken line of longitude determination bind- 
ing the various stations together. 
The observations of internal contact at the stations enumerated — 
hereafter were not attended with any phenomena of black-drop 
or pear-shaped appearance of planet, or other perplexing phases 
such as were anticipated from the records of some of the ob- 
servers of former transits. The first decided appearance, as seen 
through the fine-inch equatorial telescope at Boulcott street, 
Wellington, was a rapidly-forming haze between the limbs of 
Venus and the sun, through which, as the planet made its way, 
there seemed a disturbance on the limb of the sun. This lasted 
for nine seconds previous to the geometrical contact by the 
apparent touch of the two black edges, which phenomenon was 
instantaneous ; there could be no doubt about it. From that 
instant a broadening band kept forming as the planet overlapped 
the edge of the sun. The external contact was also very well 
defined ; there was no clinging to the edge of the sun at parting. 
The planet went off quite uniformly. The only difficulty in the 
observation was to name the exact second that the blunt cusps 
