OF tHE 



OPERATIONS OF AMERICAN EXPEDITION TO OBSERVE THE TOTAL 

 ECLIPSE, 188;i, MAY 6, AT CAROLINE ISLAND, SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 



To Prof. C. A. Young, 



Chairman of the Eclipse Committee of the National Academy of Sciences : 



My Dear Professor Young : It gives me great pleasure to address to you my report of the 

 Total Solar Eclipse of May 6, 1883, together with the reports of the other members of the Ameri- 

 can expedition and with a memorandum from the chief of the English photographic party which 

 accompanied us. We had all hoped and expected to have you for our director in this expedition, 

 and you will allow me to express my regret that unforeseen circumstauces prevented this. 



My first official connection with the expedition dates from my reception of the following letter 



of instructions, under which I acted: 



Washington, D. C, February 28, 1883. 

 Prof. E. S. HOLDEN : 



Dear Sir : The Committee of the National Academy of Sciences on the Solar Eclipse of May 

 6, 1883, has selected you as the Chief and Scientific Director of the party organized under its direc- 

 tion for observations of the various ijuenomena on that occasion ; to prescribe and arrange the 

 work of each member, except so far as it may have been laid down by the committee in special 

 instructions to any one, or may have been assigned to the representative of the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey. The names of the party and the letter of instructions to each have 

 been communicated to you. This leaves the eclipse work iu your hands, but the committee desires 

 that every facility which can be obtained, be afforded Mr. Preston for his gravity determinations. 



As for your own special work, the search for intra-mercurial jjlanets, the programme sketched 



ERRATA. 



Page Hi, line 11. — The stateiiieut in liuo 11 is derived fruiii a letter of Mr. Arundell, and is uudoubtedly correct. 

 The fifty or cue hundred people spoken of on pajje il, line 25, were probably imported workmen. 



Page "24, Pig. 6. — By an error, which was discovered too late to be corrected, the shadow.s of the foliage in Fig. 6 

 are those of a northern forest. They should be fir less marked and regnlar, and the trunks of the trees should all be 

 brilliantly lighted. With thi.s exception, the cut shows the character of the growth admirably. 



Page :U, line '> fw)m bottom. — For "27 AS read 'iTSit. 



Page 33, line 10 from bottom. — For di.scordancies raiil discordances. 



Page 43, title of cut. — For Fig. 15 read Fig. 13. 



Page .50, title of cut.— For Fig. 16 read Fig. 14. 



Page .57, title of cut. — For Fig. 17 read Fig. 15. 



Page 58, title of cut.— For Fig. 1« read Fig. Ifi. 



Page 67, title of cut.— for Fig. 10 rend Fig. 17. 



Page 80, title of cut.— For Fig. 13 read Fig. 18. 



Page 86, title of cut.— For Fig. 14 read Fig. 19. 



Page 113, line 11. — For Jasskx read Jansskn. 



