CHAPTER IV. 



THE CAMP AT JEUR* 



AMONG the many convenient sites for observation of the 

 total solar eclipse of January 22nd last which lay along 

 tin* central line of the belt of totality, Jem-, a station on the 

 Great Indian Peninsular Railway, presented many points of 

 advantage. The more favourable sites as regards the length of 

 the period of totality, in the Satara district, being within the 

 area of plague infection, had very reluctantly to be abandoned. 

 Indapur, though south-west of Jeur, was but twelve to thirteen 

 miles distant, and the very small difference that would have 

 been gained in the period of totality would have been so small 

 as to make the great disadvantage of the distance of the former 

 place from the nearest railway station thirteen miles, with an 

 indifferent road and a river to cross outweigh it entirely. But 

 even Jeur, owing to the bad name the plague had got, was 

 given a wide berth by the great majority of observers. A few 

 only of the more daring spirits ran the risk, which was prac- 

 tically nil, and were rewarded by an appreciably longer series 

 of observations than those in the Central Provinces and farther 

 north. 



The first to arrive on the ground, six or seven weeks ahead, 

 was Professor Campbell and party, from the Lick Observatory, 

 who. after searching the country in vain for some distance 

 around for a hillock to rest his long telescope against, settled 

 down upon a spot of high ground about four miles south of 

 Jeur station. Next came Professor Naegamvala, from the 

 College of Science, Poona ; and a Japanese party from Tokio 

 I 'niversity under Professor Terao, the former discarding his 

 previously reserved areas north of Jeur station for a plot close 

 beside the Lick party. Lastly came Professor Burckhalter, from 

 the Chabot I'niver>it v. Oakland, California, with the Pearson 

 telescope. With some of the professors from the College of 

 Science, Poona, to help Mr. Naegamvala, Dr. Arthur Thomson, 

 and an amateur or two, the eclipse camp was complete, and 

 the time from the arrival of the various parties up to the 

 morning of the eclipse was fully occupied in unpacking and 



* By Henry Cousens, Superintendent of the Archaeological Survey of India. 

 Communicated by E. Walter Maunder. F.R.A.S. 



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