202 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



Asia. — The work in China during the year has been confined to that of 

 Magnetic Observer C. K. Edmunds, who occupied about fifteen stations in 

 the provinces of Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Kiangsi, Anhwei, and Kiangsu ; sev- 

 eral of these were secular variation stations. He has also carried out inter- 

 comparison observations at the Hongkong and Lu-kia-pang (near Shanghai) 

 observatories and returned to Canton in the latter part of September. He 

 initiated, October i, a campaign, which it is planned will further extend the 

 magnetic survey of China into the provinces of Kwangsi and Yunnan, and 

 into Indo-China. At the end of October he had occupied about ten stations 

 of this work. Dr. Edmunds is accompanied by Observer Ngaan Yen Kwong. 



Magnetic Observer W. H. Sligh at the end of the last fiscal year was 

 engaged in work in Asia Minor. This he continued, completing observations 

 at nineteen stations in the vilayets of Erzerum, Bitlis, Van, Diarbekir, Mosul, 

 and Bagdad. He also occupied two stations in India, one of these being for 

 intercomparison of observatory standards at the Bombay Observatory (Ali- 

 bag), and four stations in Arabia, one of which was a secular variation 

 station. Concluding his work at Helwan, Egypt, he then, just before taking 

 up his work in Turkey in Europe, determined the magnetic elements at the 

 secular variation station at Constantinople. 



Australasia. — Magnetic Observer E. Kidson was relieved from sea duty 

 on board the Carnegie in June and proceeded immediately to take charge of 

 magnetic-survey work in Australia. At the end of the year he had secured 

 observations at about thirty-five stations in Victoria, South Australia, and 

 New South Wales. These include observatory comparisons at Melbourne 

 and reoccupations suitable for secular variation data. 



Europe. — Magnetic Observer W. H. Sligh occupied nine stations in Tur- 

 key in Europe and four stations in Greece, securing valuable secular varia- 

 tion data. At the end of the fiscal year he was in Italy securing instrumental 

 comparisons with the outfit of Prof. Luigi Palazzo. Of the stations in 

 Greece, one was at Athens, where intercomparisons between the standards 

 of the National Observatory and those of the Department were carried out. 



Polynesia. — In the course of his inspection work the Director took advan- 

 tage of an occasion presented for obtaining special magnetic observations at 

 Tau Island, of the Samoan group, on April 28, 1911 ; photographs of the 

 sun during the eclipse were also obtained with an eclipse camera supplied 

 through the courtesy of Dr. C. G. Abbot, of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 Through the courtesy of the governor of Tutuila (American Samoa), Com- 

 mander Crose, U. S. Navy, the Director was transported with his outfit on 

 the U. S. cruiser Annapolis from Pago Pago to Tau Island and return, and 

 also back to Apia, Samoa. Furthermore, several of Commander Grose's best 

 naval officers and men were assigned to the expedition. Mention should also 

 be made of the valuable aid rendered in the furtherance of the work by the 

 acting governor of German Samoa, Dr. Erich Schultz, and by the American 

 consul, Hon. Mason Mitchell, stationed at Apia. The native Samoans likewise 

 rendered every possible assistance. It was these various courtesies which 



