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arctic explorations favourably before the notice of geographers 
and naval authorities. With these considerations I shall con- 
clude ; merely remarking, that whatever force his views had 
when presented, they have greatly increased force now that an 
arctic expedition is in progress, the value of the results obtained 
by which would be far more than doubled by a successful ant- 
arctic expedition following close upon the successful issue of 
that which has lately set forth. 44 I have learned,” he wrote to 
the President of the Geographical Society, 44 through the public 
papers, the tenor of late discussions at the Royal Geographical 
Society in reference to a proposal for an expedition towards the 
North Pole. I gather from these that the object proposed, as 
bearing on science, is not so much specific as general ; that 
there is no single point of very great importance to be obtained, 
but a number of co-ordinate objects whose aggregate would be 
valuable. And I conclude that the field is still open for another 
proposal, which would give opportunity for the determination 
of various results, corresponding in kind and importance to 
those of the proposed Northern Expedition, though in a different 
locality, and would also give information on a point of great 
importance to astronomy, which must be sought within a few 
years, and which it is desirable to obtain as early as- possible. 
In the year 1882, on December 6, a transit of Venus over the 
sun’s disc will occur — the most favourable of all phenomena for 
solution of the noble problem of determining the sun’s distance 
from the earth, provided that proper stations for the observa- 
tion can be found. (It will be remembered that it was for the 
same purpose that the most celebrated of all the British scien- 
tific expeditions, namely, that of Captain Cook to Otaheite in 
1769, was undertaken.) For the northern stations there will 
be no difficulty ; they will be on the Atlantic seaboard of 
North America, or at Bermuda ; all very favourable and very 
accessible. For the southern stations the selection is not so 
easy ; the observation must be made on the Antarctic Continent ; 
if proper localities can be found there ; and if the circumstances 
of weather, &c., are favourable, the determination will be excel- 
lent; if those favourable circumstances do not hold, no use 
whatever can be made of the transit. The astronomical object 
of a southern expedition is, I trust, sufficiently explained. In 
the event of such an expedition being undertaken, the precise 
determinations which I have indicated as bearing on the astro- 
nomical question must (from the nature of the case) take 
precedence of all others. But there would be no difficulty in 
combining with them any other inquiries, of geography, geology, 
hydrography, magnetism, meteorology, natural history, or any 
other subject for which the localities are suitable. And I have 
now to request that you will have the kindness to communicate 
