THE EXPEDITION AT TALNI. 17 



eye would inevitably have been destroyed. As it was, no 

 })ermanent injury resulted, and Mr. Thwaites was sufficiently 

 recovered to carry out his full programme at the eclipse. 



The following Sunday, January 16th, saw our party com- 

 pleted by the arrival from Ceylon of Captain P. B. Molesworth, 

 K.E., who had most kindly promised to help us in any way 

 that he could in our work on the eclipse, and who redeemed 

 his promise to the full. 



The next morning Mr. Evershed, Captain Molesworth, and 

 ourselves paid a visit to our " next-door neighbours," Captain 

 Hills and Mr. Newall, who were encamped at Pulgaon, six 

 miles farther along the line, and just across the frontier of 

 the Central Provinces. We went by rail, but not by train, 

 as there was none which could possibly serve us. So a couple 

 of trolleys were put at our disposal, each of which was pro- 

 pelled by a couple of coolies, who ran along the actual metals 

 at a speed of about seven miles an hour without ever missing 

 their footing. This mode of progression was new to us all, and 

 we found it the pleasantest that we had experienced in India, 

 except perhaps whilst we were running across the bridge over 

 the river \Vardha ; for, as the bridge was not planked between 

 the rails, we looked down from our seat on the front of the 

 trolley and saw a clear drop before us of nearly one hundred 

 feet to the bed of the river below. 



At Pulgaon we received a very hospitable welcome from the 

 official party, -and were shown their instruments and other 

 preparations. Amongst these I think we most admired the 

 ingenious mounting which Mr. Newall had devised for his 

 double-slit spectroscope, in which the collimator was arranged 

 so as to be parallel to the polar axis. We envied our friends 

 also their possession of a wooden dark-room clean, roomy, 

 comfortable, light and light-tight. Our own dark-room at 

 Talni was of the quaintest form and appearance. It was a 

 structure of wattle and daub, and its dun walls bowed and bent 

 in all kinds of fantastic curves. The photograph on p. 18 

 >lio\vs the great earthen vessel which formed our water cistern, 

 and the brick platform that the coolie mounted in order to fill 

 it. Still, though queer-looking and unsymmetrical, the little 

 hut served our turn for such photography as we were obliged 

 to carry on during the day. At night we found our tents more 

 comfortable for developing or plate-changing. 



One other feature of the Pulgaon camp caught our fancy. 

 This was the pretty flag made by Mrs. Hills, which floated over 

 their chief tent, and bore " a corona argent, with prominences 

 gules proper, round a sun effaced sable, in a field azure." 

 Otherwise we were obliged to confess, when we returned to Talni, 

 and our host, Mr. Morris, anxiously questioned us as to whether 

 there was anything in the Pulgaon camp which we lacked, that. 



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