AN ACCOUNT OF THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OE THE SUN, 



ON SEPTEMBER 7, 1858, AS OBSERVED NEAR OLMOS, PERU. 



THE JOURNEY TO OLMOS. 



An announcement having been made that observers would leave England, and 

 probably France also, for the purpose of observing, in Brazil, the total eclipse of 

 the sun, which would take place on the 7th September, 1858, as no one was 

 mentioned who contemplated visiting the rainless region on the west coast of 

 South America, for that object, on the 8th June last I addressed a letter to Professor 

 Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, offering to undertake the 

 journey, if no astronomer more competent to the task to be accomplished should 

 volunteer his services. 



Through the zeal for the advancement of science which has marked the admi- 

 nistration of the affairs of this Institution under that eminent physicist, the propo- 

 sition was promptly accepted, and arrangements for departure from the U. States 

 were speedily made. 



Prof A. D. Bache, Superintendent of the U. S. Coast Survey, very liberally con- 

 tributed the necessary instruments for accurate determination of the geographical 

 position and time at the station which might be selected, and a tent for our 

 shelter at night; Commander M. F. Maury, Superintendent of the U. S. Naval 

 Observatory, furnished two excellent pocket chronometers ; and Mr. Henry Fitz, 

 of New York, who had made the object-glass for the equatorial of the U. S. Naval 

 Astronomical Expedition, with great liberality specially completed and loaned 

 a 4i inches achromatic telescope, mounted on an equatorial stand, suitable for all 

 latitudes. 



Accompanied by a young friend from New York— Mr. C. H. Eaymond— I left 

 that city on the 5th of August for Payta, in Peru ; and traversing the isthmus of 

 Panama on the 14th, we reached Payta on the morning of the 21st of the same 

 month. 



On landing at the latter place, most unfavorable accounts were given me of the 

 condition of the atmosphere near the coast, about the hour of sunrise; and the 

 contradictory opinions concerning that of the interior at the same period of the 

 day — more especially at that season of the year — were very discouraging. All 

 were agreed, however, that a land journey from Payta to a point on or near the 

 Andes, which Avould be traversed by the central line of the moon's shadow, must be 

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