',:s Mr. J. Everehr.1. 



administrator of the' estate! of the Comte do Perigord, and formerly 

 Professor at Stonyhurst. This gentleman was much interested in our 

 mission, and we are practically indebted to him for giving us a letter 

 to a colonist, M. Alvado, upon whose farm near the sea coast we 

 eventually found an excellent site for our camp. 



It was evident at the outset that the wild hilly region near the 

 village of Maelma would be more difficult of access than the country 

 further west near the coast. Maelma itself we found to l>e poverty- 

 stricken and unpromising. The mayor, whom we found in his mairie 

 busy with the coming elections, was obliging enough to nV our 

 document from the Prefecture ; or rather he got his secretary to do 

 so, being unable himself, apparently, to read or write. Having had 

 our letter duly risAl we abandoned Maelma, and proceeded to the 

 Mazafran River, near the coast, to conclude negotiations already entered 

 into with Alvado. 



These presented no difficulty, for M. Alvado was " un homme tres 

 brave," and offered us his whole territory, vineyards or cornfields, for 

 our camping-ground. We were, however, limited in our choice to a 

 line bearing West and 24 degrees North from Maelma, in order to 

 secure the same duration of totality as had been computed for that 

 place. 



The position finally chosen was near to the mouth of the Mazafran 

 River on the east side, and about 1 kilometre from the sea. 



The position of the Mazafran bridge, about 400 metres distant, was. 

 ascertained from a recent survey to be 



North latitude 36 41' 35" 



East longitude 2 48 30 



The position of the camp, which my brother carefully determined 

 by triangulation from the bridge, was as follows : 



North latitude 36 41' 47" 



East longitude 2 48 41 



It was 17 metres above sea-level, and 6*5 kilometres from the 

 station near Maelma, in a direction bearing West 25 North. 



As the direction of the shadow track in this region was ascertained 

 to be 24 39' North of West, we concluded that the above position 

 would be safe for a duration of 30 seconds of totality. 



Having settled all preliminaries we returned to Algiers to arrange 

 for the transport of the instruments. This was effected without 

 difficulty by means of the light railway recently constructed from 

 Algiers to the Mazafran. 



On May 9th we returned to Alvado's farm, and the next day the 

 work of erection was begun. 



