202 Reports on Special Researches 



which two were taken to guard against possible accidents. These delicate instruments 

 had to be transported from Washing-ton about 8,000 miles, during which they would be 

 subjected to all kinds of handling and of transportation; they, furthermore, had to be 

 packed in water-tight tin cases, as landings on Manua Island can not always be effected 

 on account of breakers, and so provision had to be made against possible upsets of the 

 landing-boat. 



In like manner was packed a double-barreled, hand-driven, equatorially-mounted 

 camera of about 11.5-foot focus, hastily improvised for me through the kindness of the 

 Director of the Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institution, Mr. C. G. Abbot. 

 The camera-tubes, for convenience, were made in three sections of stove-pipe and the 

 tripod was constructed of gas-pipe. The whole was packed in three water-tight cases. 

 The only valuable portion of the photographic outfit consisted of the two lenses,^ which 

 were to be brought back; the remainder of the apparatus could be left behind, if necessary. 

 Mr. Abbot also kindly furnished the directions and program according to which photo- 

 graphs of the eclipse were to be taken if chance favored. These chances being so uncertain, 

 I did not feel warranted in taking assistants with me, especially as, let it be recalled, my 

 journey was for the purpose of joining the Carnegie at Colombo, Ceylon, and visiting 

 certain institutions en route, and was not, in any sense, a special eclipse expedition. I 

 had decided to make the attempt to observe the eclipse chiefly in order to put in the time 

 profitably while awaiting the New Zealand steamer at Suva, Fiji, and thus to assist, if 

 possible, in securing a desirable distribution of eclipse stations. 



Even after Vancouver was left behind on March 24, it was still uncertain whether it 

 would be my good fortune to observe the eclipse of April 28, now only a month distant. 

 However, during a few hours' stop of my steamer at Honolulu on April 1 , I learned of the 

 possibility of catching a small steamer, the Dorrigo, chartered by the German Government 

 to carry the mail from Suva to Apia. Arriving at Suva, 5 p. m., April 10, I found that the 

 Dorrigo was in the harbor and was to leave within an hour or two for the Samoan Islands 

 just giving me time to post some mail, cable to Washington that connection had been made, 

 and, with the friendly assistance of the Suva harbor-master, to get my numerous cases 

 transhipped from the Canadian Pacific steamer Moana to the Dorrigo. There was one 

 other passenger besides myself who was anxious to make this connection, a Mr. Boling, of 

 Indianapolis, who had been appointed law clerk at the United States Naval Station, Pago 

 Pago, Tutuila. He and I occupied the cabin forward, and the only other cabin the one 

 aft was taken by three copra agents. The Dorrigo is a small steamer originally employed 

 in river-work in Australia and hence not well adapted for ocean service; she proved herself 

 quite a roller during our three days' stay aboard. 



TRIP TO ECLIPSE STATION. 



Apia, the seat of the German Government and the chief place in the Samoan Islands, 

 was reached on the morning of April 13. It was confidently expected that some means 

 would be found to cover the short stretch of about 85 miles from Apia to Pago Pago. The 

 small steamers counted upon were not available, one, the Daum, having left a few days 

 previous, and the Rob Roy having been chartered by the German governor of Samoa. 

 However, a freight steamer of the Weir line of San Francisco was expected in about a week 

 and I was told that it would call at Pago Pago. It was forcibly impressed upon me, not 

 only at this point but elsewhere on my trip, that distance is not to be measured in miles but 

 by connections and the possible modes of travel. In the meanwhile arrangements were 

 made at the Apia Geophysical Observatory for obtaining the corrections of my time-pieces 

 on Greenwich mean time, as also for magnetic observations simultaneous with those to be 



'They were the same as used Ijy Mr. Abbot on Flint Island during the eclipse of 1907. 



