[ 349 ] 
Read Dec. 20, i-6 t,r“ g ' H E following obfervations 
and ja.i 20,176 . were taken with a reflecting 
telefcope, of two teet focal length, made by Mr. 
Short (of a fimilar (ize and conftrudtion to thofe ufed 
in the obfervaiion of the Tranfit of Venus, by him- 
felf at Saville Houfe, by Mr. Green at Greenwich, 
and by Melf. Mafon and Dixon at the Cape of Good 
Hope), with an equal altitude inftrument made by 
M r , Bird, and a clock, with a gridiron pendulum, 
made by Mr. Shelton, an account of whofe going, 
at Greenwich, before my departure for St. Helena, 
and immediately upon my arrival there, is contained 
in Phil.Tranf. Vol. LII. Part II. Page 434. and the 
difference of gravity between thofe two places thence 
deduced. 
The almoff continual cloudinefs of the fkies, at the 
Ifland of St. Helena, renders it a very inconvenient 
place for the making of affronomical obfervations, 
which I had the mortification to experience in lofing 
the fight of the exit of the planet Venus, from the 
fun’s difc, on the 6th of June 1761, to obferve which 
was the primary motive of my going thither. I 
fhould have thought myfelf, in a great meafure, 
compenfated for this mifchance, if I had been enabled, 
by the help of the ten foot fedlor, provided me at 
the expence of the Royal Society, either to prove or 
difprove the exiftence of a fenfible annual parallax 
of the ftar Sirius, fome reafons for the probability of 
which I laid before the Royal Society, in a paper fince 
publiflied in Phil. Tranf. Vol. LI. P. II. p. 889, and, at 
the 
