356 Mr. William J. S. Loclyer [March 1, 



station, about a mile and a half up the harbour. The next day this 

 was inspected, and it seemed so admirable in every way that it was 

 at once decided to utilize it and start work. 



H.M.S. " Encounter " changed her position and anchored off the 

 site the same afternoon. 



I may add here that Father Cortie and his party had intended to 

 set up their instruments at the Roman Catholic mission grounds, but 

 he finally decided to camp alongside us and utilize our time signals. 



Work was commenced at once to clear the ground for the eclipse 

 and living camps, to cut paths and to erect landing-stages and steps. 

 The various groups of volunteers confined themselves to their several 

 duties, and general working parties were formed for fetching dead 

 coral, sand and water for the concrete pillars, for building the pillars 

 and putting together and covering the instrument-huts and dark room. 



The rest of my party, which consisted of Messrs. Brooks, Winkel- 

 mann, and Raymond arrived by the s.s. " Atua " from Sydney on 

 April 4, so that the camp became a locus of great activity. 



The weather experienced for the first week was all that could be 

 desired in the way of absence of rain, but the high humidity, coupled 

 with a high temperature and the presence of millions of flies and 

 thousands of mosquitoes, rendered the work of the camp formation 

 extremely arduous. In the water we had other enemies in the form 

 of sharks and sea-snakes. 



At a later stage a rainy type of weather set in, and it was the 

 exception to have a day free from it. Tropical downpours were very 

 frequent, and special precautions had to be taken to have efficient 

 coverings for every instrument and to trench the small compounds 

 in which each instrument was enclosed. 



By April 20, arrangements were sufficiently advanced to warrant 

 the commencement of rehearsals, and on six days before the eclipse 

 these rehearsals took place (Fig. 2). 



It is not necessary here to give in detail either the dimensions of 

 the different instruments or the various programmes of work which 

 were intended to be carried out. These can be obtained, if desired, 

 from a report which is in progress of publication by the Board of 

 Education. Fig. 3 shows the general arrangement of one of the 

 instruments, namely the 6-inch prismatic camera and staff. 



During the period occupied in preparing the instruments for the 

 eclipse, transit observations were being conducted for time and posi- 

 tion, meteorological observations were being made at fixed times, 

 and continuous records were being secured by a barograph, thermo- 

 graph, and hygrograph. 



In order to eliminate any doubt as to the possible inaccuracy of 

 the computed times of the contacts of the limbs of the sun and moon, 

 and also to give certain prescribed signals to those observers whose 

 programmes necessitated them, a special telescope was set up (in 

 conjunction with the siderostat of the six-inch prismatic camera) to 



