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



chirping of insects would commence, at first by a few here and tliere, 

 and then in about 20 seconds by their whole population, the noise 

 gradually crescendoing until they were all in full song : this chirping 

 continued all night. In fact, I beUeve that if one were blindfolded 

 a good determination of the time of sunset could be made. 



On eclipse day all was silent, even close up to the time of second 

 contact, when suddenly, and I suppose this must have occurred at the 

 moment of totahty, this chirping burst forth in all its vigour from 

 the whole region around, and continued until totality was over. The 

 noise, in contrast with the absolute stillness of the camp, where every 

 man was more or less strung up with the excitement of the eclipse, 

 was most impressive, and will remain in my memory as a marked 

 feature of that occasion. 



While my party, together with that of Father Cortie, fared 

 very badly, the Australian observers were more fortunate, and Mr. 

 Worthington and his staff more fortunate still. With regard to the 

 results secured by these parties I can only show you, in the case of 

 the Australian observers, a combined sketch carefully made from 

 Mr. Dodwell's negatives and visual observations. This shows clearly 

 the extensive equatorial streamers and the open spaces at the solar 

 poles filled with the beautiful forms of the polar plumes. This 

 corona is undoubtedly one of the " minimum " type, representing the 

 wind- vane form. When this was compared with the sketch I made 

 at the time of the eclipse, it was seen that both were in fair agree- 

 ment in most of the main features. 



Through the kindness of Mr. Worthington, I have been allowed 

 to show you some of the beautiful results which he secured. Unfor- 

 tunately, like us, he did not obtain any spectra, although he was 

 equipped with a very fine instrument, specially adapted for the ultra- 

 violet region of the spectrum, but unlike us he was compensated by 

 success on other lines. Both the long and short exposures with 

 his coronagraphs met with success. Beautiful structure is displayed 

 in the regions of the solar poles, and the equatorial streamers are 

 extensive and full of detail. These photographs also exhibit a 

 " minimum " type of corona, corroborating the observations of the 

 other parties ; they are of considerable value as records and for 

 future study, and form the main contribution to solar physics which 

 this eclipse has afforded. 



While the astronomical results of my party were chiefly negative, 

 we managed to get together at odd moments a collection of speci- 

 mens for the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, the 

 Botanical Gardens at Kew, and the Physic Garden at Chelsea. Captain 

 Colomb set the good example of undertaking the butterfly, moth and 

 beetle department, and the other oflicers eagerly took up the other 

 branches. All the collections have been handed over to the Institu- 

 tions above mentioned, and the acknowledgments received have shown 

 that the work was not done in vain. 



