Report on tlie Solar Eclipse Expedition to Viziadrug. 27 



" Total Eclipse of the Sun, January 22, 1898. Preliminary 

 Account of the Observations made by the Eclipse Expedi- 

 tion and the Officers and Men of H.M.S. ' Melpomene,' at 

 Viziadrug." By Sir NORMAN LocKYER, K.C.B., F.R.S* 

 Received March 28, 1898. 



LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS. 



After various inquiries which I had made respecting the suitability 

 of Viziadrug for observations of the total eclipse, I informed the 

 Eclipse Committee that I was prepared to take charge of an expedi- 

 tion to that locality, and it was agreed that the observations at this 

 station should be placed in my charge. 



The latitude and longitude of the part of the fort at Yiziadrug 

 finally occupied were 16 33' 26" 1ST. and 73 18' 58" E. respectively, 

 and the duration of totality was estimated at 127 seconds. 



In connection with the work at this station the Admiralty was- 

 asked for a ship of war to convey the observers from Colombo to 

 Viziadrug, and to permit the use of the ship, if possible, as a base, ta 

 enable me to repeat the observations attempted in Norway in 1896 

 with the assistance of H.M.S. " Volage," which ship supplied twenty- 

 four assistants during the eclipse and fifty volunteers for general 

 observations.* As a result of the Royal Society's application, 

 H.M.S. '"Melpomene," in command of Captain Chisholm Batten, R.N. r 

 was told off to join the expedition. 



The expedition, which left England on December 10, consisted of 

 Mr. A. Fowler, Dr. W. J. S. Lockyer, and myself, together with the 

 Marquis of Graham, who joined as a volunteer. Some little time 

 after reaching Viziadrug Professor Pedler, F.R.S., joined the party 

 from Calcutta, and shortly before the eclipse Mr. John Eliot, Meteo- 

 rological Reporter to the Government of India, joined from Simla. 

 On arrival at Colombo we found H.M.S. " Melpomene " waiting 

 there, and at once proceeded to the selected spot of observation 

 Viziadrug. 



During the three days' voyage to our station a call for volunteers- 

 was made by Captain Batten, and 120 came forward. Lectures and 

 demonstrations were therefore at once commenced by Lieutenants 

 Blackett, Colbeck, and Dugmore, second engineer Mountfield, and 

 myself to the several parties of men who had undertaken to perform 

 special pieces of work. Twenty-two separate groups of observers 

 were formed. On our arrival at Viziadrug we were received very 

 kindly by Mr. Bomanji, the collector of Ratnagiri, and an Overseer 

 of the Public Works Department, who was on the spot in charge of 



* 'Phil. Trans./ A, vol. 190 (1897), pp. 121. 



