14 THE INDIAN ECLIPSE, I 



wisp of cloud ever dimmed their glory by day or night. Nor 

 .was it only the appearance in the south of stranger constella- 

 tions, attractive both by their brightness and their novelty. 

 The groups that had been familiar to us in England wore, 

 many of them, a new aspect. The thin evasive Gegenschein 

 could be detected between Pollux, Procyon, and Prsesepe ; 

 whilst here and there were hints and suggestions of broad 

 sheets of faintest luminosity, evanescent outshoots and streamers 

 from the galaxy, or independent structures, ghost-like in their 

 elusive faintness, but yet continually asserting the reality of 

 their presence. To go back to childish fancy, or to mediaeval 

 thought, which looked upon the unfathomed sky as the inner 

 side of a vast vault, the upper and outer side of which was the 

 floor of heaven, we might have expressed what we saw by saying 

 that " the floor of heaven was wearing thin." 



If the heavens were brilliant, the earth was dark enough, though 

 a few lights broke,the gloom. Close at hand an occasional flash 

 marked when a ray from the observer's lantern fell on the drawn 

 sword of our police guard as he paced to and fro before our little 

 observatories. In the distance burned the fires by which the 

 coolies stretched themselves to sleep ; and farther to the south 

 we could see one or two of the street lamps of our little canvas 

 village. And for the most part it was intensely still. The 

 undercurrent of sound, which was hardly ever lost in our night 

 watches at Greenwich, was not detected here ; and such sounds 

 as came the official cough of the " chowkidar," which greatly 

 excited our sympathy until we learned its significance, the howl 

 of a wandering jackal, and the much execrated lamentations of 

 the pariah dog from the distant village were each distinct, 

 clear, and sharp. 



Such was the general current of our lives during the fort- 

 night before the eclipse. There was much to do, and we had 

 no time to feel bored or dull. The incidents which diversified 

 our life were few, and can soon be recounted. 



Mr. Thwaites, our pioneer, reached Talni on Tuesday, January 

 4th. The rest of us followed on Thursday, January 6th. The 

 next day our instruments arrived, and the work of unpacking 

 was at once commenced. Early the following morning a small 

 partial eclipse of the moon was due, and we observed it to the 

 best of our ability, my wife securing a series of photographs of 

 it with her little camera, which served to test its focus. As 

 none of the mountings were up by this time, it was simply fixed 

 to a board and tilted up towards the moon by means of a chair. 

 A week later the only accident which befel any of our party 

 happened to Mr. Thwaites, who, eagerly chasing a pretty lizard, 

 was struck in the face by a falling bamboo. Fortunately the 

 frontal bone received the chief weight of the blow, which was 

 a very severe one : a fraction of an inch lower down, and the 



