LVII. Extract of a letter to the Reverend Nevil Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal, from Mr. Benedict Ferner, F. R. S. dated Stockholm, June 9, 1769. Translated from the French

Abstract

Sir, I am more surprized that the times of the contacts of Venus and the Sun's limbs, observed here, by different observers, with different instruments, agree so near together, than I am at their difference; for the nearness to the horizon, and the extraordinary quantity of vapours with which the atmosphere was then loaded, not only caused the limb of the Sun to tremble and undulate, but also give it, if I may so express myself, the form of a large saw, the eminences being luminous and the cavities black, which shifted places like the waves of the tempestuous sea.