rly
beautiful. The telescopic effect of a snowstorm with the sun as a
background I had never before seen. It reminded me of the golden rain
which is sometimes seen falling from a flight of sky-rockets during
pyrotechnic displays; I would gladly have dispensed with the spectacle,
for it necessarily followed that the sun and Venus again disappeared
from view. The clouds gathered, the snowstorm descended as heavily as
ever, and we hardly dared to hope that we should see anything more; 1
hr. 57 min. came and passed, the first internal contact was over, and
Venus had fully entered on the sun. We had only obtained a brief view,
and we had not yet been able to make any measurements or other
observations that could be of service. Still, to have seen even a part
of a transit of Venus is an event to remember for a lifetime, and we
felt more delight than can be easily expressed at even this slight gleam
of success.

But better things were in store. My assistant came over with the report
that he had also been successful in seeing Venus in the same phase as I
had. We both resumed our posts, and at half-past two the clouds began to
disperse, and the prospect of seeing the sun began to improve. It was
now no question of the observations of contact. Venus by this time was
well on the sun, and we therefore prepared to make observations with the
micrometer attached to the eye-piece. The clouds at length dispersed,
and at this time Venus had so completely entered on the sun that the
distance from the edge of the planet to the edge of the sun was about
twice the diameter of the planet. We measured the distance of the inner
edge of Venus from the nearest limb of the sun. These observations were
repeated as frequently as possible, but it should be added that they
were only made with very considerable difficulty. The sun was now very
low, and the edges of the sun and of Venus were by no means of that
steady character which is suitable for micrometrical measurement. The
margin of the luminary was quivering, and Venus, though no doubt it was
sometimes circular, was very often distorted to such a degree as to make
the measures very uncertain.

We succeeded in obtaining sixteen measures altogether; but the sun was
now getting low, the clouds began again to interfere, and we saw that
the pursuit of the transit must be left to the thousands of astronomers
in happier climes who had been eagerly awaiting it. But before the
phenomena had ceased I sp