PAST AND COMING TRANSITS AND ARCTIC EXPLORATION. 275 
charts, because of the absence of any known islands in that part 
of the South Pacific Ocean. 
And there will be this further difficulty in 1882. On the 
occasion of the late transit the Americans, finding that no part 
of the transit would be visible from their own territory, appear 
to have considered it their natural and obvious duty to occupy 
stations in Siberia, Japan, the sub-antarctic ocean, and other 
places, where we in England were assured that no stations 
would be, and that no stations could be occupied. But in 1882 
the whole transit being most favourably observable from the 
whole of the United States, it seems not unlikely that our 
Transatlantic cousins will consider it their part to keep their 
astronomers at home, leaving to other nations the task of find- 
ing suitable southern stations. I hesitate to say that this 
will be their view of the matter, for it is difficult to reckon on 
considerations of that kind where Americans' are concerned. 
One might have thought, that after observing the eclipse of 
1869 at a hundred stations in the United States, American 
astronomers would have been content to leave the observations 
of the Mediterranean eclipse of 1870 to European astronomers. 
But, in point of fact, they did nothing of the kind ; but, with 
a perversity which cannot be too strongly reprehended (at least 
by all who admire our laisser aller system), they insisted not 
only on sending over astronomers, but on positively inviting 
English astronomers (finding we had made no arrangements for 
observing the eclipse) to sail with their expedition to inac- 
cessible Mediterranean regions. However, supposing that in 
1882 the attractions of the transit, as observable at home, 
should prevent Americans from visiting the southern hemi- 
sphere in great strength, the duty will fall on European 
nations. Germany and France may then, as last December, 
occupy three or four southern myths. But three or four will 
not be enough. England will be almost bound to share in the 
work. 
Then arises the question, Where is England to send her 
observers in those southern seas ? Unless new islands can be 
discovered there, no positions worthy of her ancient fame will 
remain for her to occupy, save precisely those antarctic islands 
which were described, in 1868, by one naval authority after 
another, as accessible, tenable, and suitable, but, unfortunately, 
by the same authorities, in 1873, as inaccessible, untenable, 
and unsuitable. Assuming, as we may not unreasonably do, 
that the later description meant only that it would cost more 
time, trouble, and money to occupy these regions than any 
conceivable astronomical result could repay, we are brought 
back to the considerations which were urged by the Astronomer 
Royal as long ago as 1865, in order to bring schemes of ant- 
