248 Mr. E. W. Maunder. 



tion and were conveyed by rail, free of cost, up to Pamplemousses, 

 and back again after the eclipse was over. Free passes on all the 

 railways of the island were also issued to me, and to Mrs. Maunder, 

 who had accompanied me with a special instrumental equipment of 

 her own. The military authorities also rendered great assistance. 

 Lieutenant-Colonel H. J. Lyster, R.G.A., gave permission to nine 

 non-commissioned officers of the garrison, who had volunteered for 

 the purpose, to come down to assist in the eclipse observations. Of 

 these, five also helped in the unpacking and erection of the instru- 

 ments, and one, Staff-Sergeant R. M. Smith, A.O.C., gave great 

 assistance in the cleaning, repair, and rating of the several driving- 

 clocks. The expedition was also indebted to the Hon. Hamilton 

 Stein, who undertook the re-shipping of the instruments for the home- 

 ward voyage; to Mr. G. Ireland, who supplied tarpaulins for 

 covering the skeleton huts erected to shelter the instruments; to 

 Captain A. W. de Wilton, Inspector-General of Police, who sent 

 constables to keep the Observatory grounds from intrusion on the 

 morning of the eclipse, and to Mr. D. P. Garrioch, Superintendent of 

 Inland Revenue, who arranged for the greater part of the provisioning 

 of the eclipse party during their stay at the Observatory. 



Itinerary. The instruments for the Mauritius expedition were 

 despatched from the Royal Observatory on March 6, with the excep- 

 tion of the prisms and object-glass of the prismatic camera lent by Mr. 

 John Evershed, F.R.A.S., which I took to Marseilles with my personal 

 baggage. The instruments were embarked at the Royal Albert Docks 

 on the ss. " Bagdad " of the Messageries Maritimes line, and tran- 

 shipped from that vessel to the ss. " Melbourne " of the same line at 

 Marseilles. I left London on March 23, and proceeded overland 

 through France to Marseilles. Owing to the great dock strike then 

 prevailing at Marseilles, the ss. " Melbourne " was not able to leave 

 until the evening of March 26. The delay was, however, made up 

 for by greater speed on the voyage, and Mauritius was reached on 

 April 20, as had been originally expected. The return voyage was 

 unexpectedly delayed, as the Messageries line quarantined the island 

 on account of the plague there, and the Union-Castle steamers having 

 ceased to run to Mauritius, in consequence of the South African war, 

 the British India line rid Colombo was the sole remaining homeward 

 route, and even on this line the steamers only ran once a month. It was 

 not possible, therefore, to leave Mauritius again until July 12, when I 

 embarked on the ss. " Warbra " ; reaching Colombo on July 22. 

 Here I had to wait until July 25, when I left by the ss. " Mombassa," 

 also of the British India line, and reached London August 25. The 

 instruments left Mauritius in the ss. " Slingsby " on July 12, and were 

 received at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, on September 10. 



Station. The station occupied was the Royal Alfred Observatory, 



