Notes

Abstract

NEWS concerning three of the Transit Expeditions is to hand. Advices from Capetown of Oct. 6 state that the German screw Corvette Gazelle, bound to Kerguelen on the Transit Expedition, arrived in Table Bay and left on Oct. 4. The Gazelle will visit the Crozette Islands, and proceed from thence to Kerguelen. If circumstances are favourable she will search for a warm current, supposed to exist between 60 and 80 east, and endeavour to reach Wilkes Land. She will then visit the north and west coast of Australia, the coast of Guinea, and several island groups of the Pacific. Lord Lindsay had arrived out and left for Mauritius in his yacht, there to watch the transit of Venus. A Cairo correspondent of the Daily News, writing under date Oct. 20, sends a long account of the preparations made by the Egyptian party. General Stanton, the Consul-General, has taken the greatest interest in the expedition, and put himself to considerable trouble to make everything smooth for the party and enable them to make all the necessary arrangements. All the instruments have arrived safely, and Capt. Browne, the chief of the party, has determined to erect his observatories on the top of the Moquattam Hills, a distance of about three miles in a direct line from Shepheard's hotel. They are about 600 feet in height and overlook the whole country. Capt. Browne, who has been carefully observing the atmosphere, finds it free of moisture, at least about sunrise; which is most important, as the maximum altitude that will be observed will be only 15°. It is at present the intention to form a camp on the top of the hill, the tents having been furnished by the Egyptian Government. Mr. Dixon, a civil engineer in Cairo, has been of great assistance in the matter of transit. Capt. Abney was expected to leave for Thebes on the 26th. Admiral Ommaney had arrived at Alexandria, but to what party he would be attached was not known.