ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, NEAR OLMOS, PERU. 3 



interview that day with this officer it was arranged that he should proceed with 

 the Megere to Punta de la Aguja, at the southern side of Sechura Bay, and some 

 60 miles south from Payta, where the central line of the shadow would first touch 

 the continent. M. de la Pinelais, one of the officers of the INIegere, was selected 

 by his commander to make the physical observations, and the zenith telescope and 

 a chronometer lent by Professor Bache were furnished him, after having fully 

 explained the mode of using the former during the eclipse. 



Dispatching the Fitz telescope, with the essential smaller instruments, our tent, 

 and provisions on the same afternoon, in company with Mr. Raymond I left Payta 

 before daylight of the 29th, taking with me the barometers and pocket chrono- 

 meters. We reached Piura, a town of some 10,000 inhabitants, and 45 miles 

 distant from Payta, about 5 P. M. The country between the two places is a desert 

 of sand, which is so drifted by the strong daily Avinds that the mule paths are 

 obliterated almost as soon as made, and the traveller finds his way by the tall stakes 

 that have been planted and the skeletons of animals that have died on the road 

 from heat and thirst. 



Letters of introduction to residents of Piura, most likely to afford reliable 

 information, had been kindly furnished to me, and expectations had been formed 

 that an officer of the Peruvian navy, thoroughly acquainted with the climate of 

 the Andes, and himself an amateur astronomer, would most cheerfully accompany 

 us. He was, unfortunately, absent, and the information derived from others, like 

 that imparted at Payta, was of so contradictory a character as only to have the 

 effect of discouraging. 



Ascertaining from a recently published map that Olmos, a town within the outer 

 Andes range, would certainly be included by the limits of the moon's shadow, and, 

 possibly, be very near to its central line, preparations were made for a journey 

 tliither, and we departed from Piura before daylight on the morning of September 

 1st. Our train comprised myself, Mr. Raymond, two muleteers, one of whom was 

 guide, and eight animals, two of which carried provisions for their subsistence. 



In order that a supply of water might be obtained for the animals at the end of 

 each day's journey, we took the direction of Vicuz, a cattle estate 50 miles E. N. E. 

 from Piura, and lying on both banks of the river of the latter name. At tliat time 

 the water of the river had ceased to flow 10 miles above the estate, though supplies 

 were still obtained by digging shallow cavities in the dry bed. That for our own 

 use — strongly impregnated with both nitre and lime — was carried by the muleteers 

 in calabashes. 



The second day's journey was more fatiguing than that from Payta to Piura. 

 The country is all deep and loose sand on an undulating surface, and though there 

 are occasional isolated trees, as the wind is cut off in the hollows, the heat there is 

 most oppressive. We encamped after night, in a grove of majestic Algarrobos, 

 near the dry bed of the Piura. 



Before daylight of 2d September we were in the saddle again. The distance be- 

 fore reaching water was nearly 60 miles in a S. S. E. direction, the character of the 

 country very similar to that between Piura and Vicuz, thougli with an increasing 

 number of dwarf trees as we gradually approached the foot of the Andes. Before 



