210 Mr. H. F. NewalL 



Department at Batavia, with reference to a possible site for a camp at 

 or near Solok (a station about 40 miles inland on the State Railway), 

 or still further eastwards near the Oembilien coalfields ; for it seemed 

 that a station on the east side of the Barisan Mountains would be more 

 likely to have favourable conditions of weather -in May than stations 

 on the west side, an opinion based on careful study of both Dr. van der 

 Stok's large work on 'Wind, Weather, &c., in the Indian Archipelago ' 

 (Batavia, 1897), and also of the summary published by the Dutch 

 Indies Scientific Society over the names of Major Muller and Dr. Figee, 

 for the information of observers. I may say at once that the reality 

 proved that this opinion, based on averages, was not worth much, for 

 the local conditions seemed, at any rate in 1901, to play a comparatively 

 small part in the determination of weather. 



The route chosen for getting to Sumatra was that via Genoa, and 

 thence by Dutch Royal Mail steamship vid Red Sea direct to Padang, 

 and we are indebted to the Nederland Steamship Company for con- 

 siderable reduction in fares in consideration of the scientific object of 

 the journey. Mr. Dyson and I and my wife left Charing Cross on 

 March 12, and travelled across the Continent together, and were joined 

 at Genoa by Mr. J. J. Atkinson, who had generously volunteered to go 

 with the expedition to Sumatra to assist in the observations and 

 preparations, as he had done in the previous year with the Astronomer 

 Royal's party in Portugal. We went on board the Dutch mail-steamer 

 " Koningin Regentes," and sailed from Genoa on March 14. The 

 advantages of the route were that it took us in the shortest possible 

 time direct to our port, Padang, lying on the track of the moon's 

 shadow, and gave us the opportunity of making the acquaintance of 

 the Dutch astronomers, who, as we had learnt from Professor Bakhuysen, 

 the President of the Committee charged with organising the Dutch 

 expedition, were going out on the " Koningin Regentes "; and, further- 

 more, as the boat called at Southampton, it was possible to take the 

 instruments, huts, &c., on the same boat as we ourselves travelled by, 

 without transhipment. 



Mr. Dyson and I had seen to sending our cases to Southampton, and 

 had personally put some of the more delicate instruments on board the 

 " Koningin Regentes " on March 4. The large 4-prism spectrograph, 

 which I was to use at the eclipse, was kept in use at Cambridge for 

 observations of the Nova Persei until the day of my departure from 

 Cambridge, March 11, when it was dismounted and packed; it was 

 then taken across the Continent, and put on board the " Koningin 

 Regentes " at Genoa. The Dutch observers, Professor W. H. Julius, 

 Professor A. A. Nyland, and Mr. Wilterdinck, also joined the boat at 

 Genoa, as well as a party from the Massachussetts Institute of Tech- 

 nology, Boston, consisting of Professor A. E. Burton, Professor Hosmer, 

 Professor Harrison W. Smith, and Mr. Matthes. 



