26 



THE INDIAN ECLIPSE, 1898. 



very solitary camp at Goghli. At Cawnpore. where we arrived 

 early on Sunday, January 30th, we found that the native mind 

 had been greatly exercised on the previous day by the prediction 

 of some Brahmin that there would be a great earthquake 

 exactly a week after the eclipse. Curiously enough, though there 

 was no earthquake at Cawnpore, yet we learnt later that there 

 actually was one on that morning at Nowshera, and here the 

 patients, native soldiers invalided from the frontier, had such 

 great faith in the prophecy that they had refused to sleep the 

 previous night in hospital. 



At Lucknow, at the Imperial Hotel, we met a traveller who 

 was not averse to telling a tale against himself. He had 

 reached the hotel on the eventful morning, January 22nd, and 



THE GENTUR MUNTUR, DELHI. 



had been shown to his room, with which, for the moment, he 

 felt quite contented. Shortly after he came out in search of 

 the manager, and denounced him in no measured terms for 

 having given him a room that was as dark as a coal cellar. 

 The manager stared at him for a moment, and then " Why, 

 man, it's the eclipse ! " 



Agra is memorable to us as the " ascending node " of our 

 orbit with those of several members of the Egypt party. Mr. 

 Bacon and ourselves had made many attempts to communicate 

 since his telegram, already referred to, but without success, 

 until our midnight meeting at Agra station, when he entered 

 the railway carriage which we left. This was the first of several 

 such meetings with other members of our expeditions, and five 

 of the Buxar party stayed in the same hotel as we did in Agra. 



At Delhi, we. of course, visited the Gentur Muntur or Royal 



