56 



luxuries of camp life. A magnificent telescope, which 

 at home would be securely mounted on a pier of masonry 

 and shielded by a revolving dome, was here perched upon 

 a wooden framework which was sunk several feet into 

 the o^round and filled with sand to secure orreater steadi- 

 ness. It was, however, the proud possessor of a house 

 which could be rolled over it for its protection, while its 

 less fortunate companions were summarily taken off their 

 mountings and carried to a place of shelter when the 

 daily thunder storms were seen approaching. The party 

 sent out by the U. S. government in charge of Prof. 

 Stone of the Cincinnati Observafory, to which I was 

 attached, located upon a ranch on the plains east of Den- 

 ver. We were fortunate in finding a cattle shed, which 

 we transformed into a temporary observatory. In this 

 lonely spot, for the nearest village consisted of a railroad 

 shed and a dug-out, we were obliged to adapt ourselves to 

 a variety of situations. We were masons, carpenters, 

 architects. We were survej'ors, electricians, chronome- 

 ter repairers. On the day of the eclipse, seated upon 

 empty boxes with recording implements and spare eye- 

 pieces on a neighboring plank, we made our observations 

 as comfortably as one could wish. 



The observations connected with an eclipse begin seve- 

 ral days before the expected event. For besides the 

 adjusting of instruments and practice in using them, it 

 is necessary to determine the geographical position of 

 the observing station and the errors of the time-pieces 

 used. For one use of eclipses is to correct the places 

 of the moon given in the lunar tables. It is a mistake to 

 suppose, as many do, that the motions of the heavenly 

 bodies are so well determined that an eclipse can be pre- 

 dicted with absolute certainty for a century in advance. 

 As Prof. Newcomb has remarked, "it is an extraordinary 



