;40 



NATURE 



[May 19, 1910 



THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OF MAY 9, 1910. 



IT was reported in last week's Nature that, owing 

 to very unfavourable weather conditions, the 

 eclipse of the sun, visible from Tasmania, could not be 

 observed at all. In spite of the fact that the weather 

 conditions in that month were not considered to be 

 very favourable, the parties that set out from England 

 and Australia did not expect to have to contend with 

 the very abnormal weather that they actually experi- 

 enced. Indeed, the southern part of Australia has, 

 according to recent mails, been suffering also from 

 weather frolics, so that -these exceptional conditions 

 were not limited to the eclipse stations. 



Those who have been out on eclipse expeditions 

 can quite understand the amount of work involved 

 in the erection and adjustment of several high-powered 

 instruments. Under such conditions as " only two 

 fine days in the last fortnight ; terrific gales and 

 thunder frequent," as Mr. Frank K. McClean reports 

 from his station, an idea will be gathered of the 

 difficulties under which he and his party had to 

 labour. 



Although the results of the eclipse are negative, it 

 is nevertheless of interest to place on record the 

 elaborate instrumental equipment which Mr. McClean 

 took out with him to use. They consisted in the 

 main of two spectrographs for obtaining photographs 

 of the spectra of the chromosphere and corona, and 

 three coronagraphs of difTerent powers for securing 



Brooks, Sydney; J. Worthington, England.; H. 

 Winkelmann, Auckland; .\llan Young, England; 

 S. G. Dowsett, .\uckland ; and Ernest Jeffs (steward), 

 Auckland; Arthur Wilson (assistant steward and car- 

 penter), Hobart. 



April 4, 1910. 

 On arriving at Hobart on March 24 I found that Mr. 

 Brooks and Mr. Worthington had already obtained much 

 information about the possible localities for the Eclipse 

 Camp. Mr. Worthington had also examined the east coast 

 to the south of Hobart, and from him I learnt that there 

 was no really good site to be obtained. Later we three 

 made a short excursion south, and found that the whole 

 of the country was mountainous and covered with bush, 

 while, except for the road, which never went far from the 

 sea, there was no possible means of communication. At 

 Dover, on Port Esperance, there was a gap running 

 through these mountains, and from Hope Island in the 

 harbour a fair view could be obtained, giving for some 

 20° in azimuth a horizon not rising more than 3° above 

 the horizontal. This was a possible place, but owing to 

 the presence of Adamson Peak, 4000 •fe©#> high, in the field 

 of view, there was a great probability of clouds even with 

 the rest of the sky clear. We did not visit Bruni Island 

 as the Australian expedition had chosen their site there, 

 and also because the altitude of the sun was only 65° 

 at eclipse. Having found that the east coast offered no 

 reasonable site for observation, the south-west coast was 

 next visited. To do this it was necessary to take the train 

 to Launceston and Burnie on the north coast, and the 

 following day travel by Zeehan tg Strahan, also by rail. 

 Mr. Hughes, the manager of the Union Steamship Co. 



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records of the form of the corona. In connection with 

 these instruments he took with him a large 21-inch 

 siderostat and a 16-inch coelostat, to feed the above 

 instruments with light from the eclipsed sun.. In 

 addition to these, he' had several instruments of minor 

 importance. With such a fine equipment and such 

 willing helpers it is a pity that it w^as not possible 

 to make an attack on the eclipsed sun. 



It will be remembered that the eclipse track 

 traversed the southern part of Tasmania. As the 

 Australian partv occupied Bruni Island, Mr. McClean, 

 in order to obviate any local bad weather condition, 

 set himself the task of selecting another site. This 

 scattering of eclipse parties along the path of the 

 moon's shadow on the earth is usually done when 

 possible ; but sometimes, as in this case, very con- 

 siderable extra labour and difficulties are met with, 

 as it necessitates the additional equipment of the 

 expedition with all the requirements for camp, food, 

 extra help, ^c. Such impediments were not likely to 

 deter Mr. McClean from roughing it in some lonely 

 spot away from all civilisation. In order to give the 

 reader some idea of the trouble he took in selecting 

 a site and some details of the spot he finally deter- 

 mined upon, the following communication I have 

 received from him will serve this purpose. I may, 

 however, preface this account by stating the names of 

 the members, up to the date of his letter, which 

 formed his partv: — F. K. McClean. England; Joseph 



NO. 2 II 6, VOL. 83] 



at Hobart, had communicated through to arrange for 

 their steamer, the Wainui, to call in at Port Davey after 

 leaving Strahan on its way to Hobart, and we were met 

 by Mr. Eva, the local manager of the company, who did 

 everything possible to assist in the arrangement. Accord- 

 ingly, on the next day we started on the Wainui under 

 Captain Livingstone, and early the following morning 

 found ourselves in Port Davey, and were on shore before 

 sunrise. 



We first ascended the hills south of Bathurst Channel 

 to get a general view of the country. In every direction 

 rose hills and mountains from 600 feet to 2000 feet high, 

 and between them were stretches of land-locked water 

 leading out into Port Davey proper and the Southern 

 Ocean. Some of the mountains were masses of almost 

 bare rock, while others looked as though covered with 

 smooth grass, which, however, when traversed, were found 

 to be mostly scrub growth of i or 2 feet depth. The 

 more distant mountains and those on the west side of the 

 harbour were heavily timbered. In the valleys were 

 patches of bush and small streams of water, brownish in 

 colour. The place was without population, there being no 

 food except that placed in a refuge for shipwrecked persons, 

 and the country to the back being so mountainous and so 

 thickly wooded that only a few persons have ever broken 

 their way through to the east and north. There are said 

 to be wallaby, wombats, and wolves (Tasmanian devil) 

 in the neighbourhood, and also snakes, but we saw none, 

 and fish are reported to be plentiful. We climbed to the 

 top of Morning Hill and Mount O'Brien, and found that 

 ground overlooking Davey Harbour and a sea horizon 

 across the flat ground by Kelly Basin ; but the slope of 



