And there I sat, with
feelings which no one in this audience can realize. It was my first
effort. All had been done by myself. After remaining there for what
seemed to be long hours, I inquired of my assistant how much longer I
would have to wait. I was answered _four minutes_. I kept my place for
what seemed an age, and again inquired as before. He told me that but
one minute had rolled by. It seemed as if time had folded his wings, so
slowly did the moments crawl on. I watched on till I was told that but
one minute remained; and, within sixteen seconds of the time, I had the
almost bewildering gratification of seeing the planet break the
contact, and slowly move on till it buried itself round and deep and
sharp in the sun.
"I refer to this fact for two reasons,--first, to verify Leverrier;
and, second, to impress upon your minds the desirableness of locating
our observatories in different parts of the earth. No European
astronomer could have made this observation, because in their
longitudes the sun would have set previous to the contact of the planet
with its disk. I had the gratification of furnishing these observations
to Leverrier himself, who reported upon them to the Academy of
Sciences.
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