January 4, 1900] 



NA TURE, 



229 



THE ECLIPSE EXPEDITION AT VIZIADURG. 

 I. 



SO much of the material acquired to science by the 

 observations of the last total eclipse of the sun in 

 India has now been published by the Royal and other 

 Societies, that I now propose to give in the columns of 

 Nature a connected account of the work done and 

 arrangements adopted at Viziadurg. 



Four of us left London in the R.M.S. Lusitania on 

 December lo, 1897, and that vessel reached Colombo on 

 January 4, 1898. As we steamed into the harbour, about 

 I a.m. on the 4th, the first ship we passed was Her 

 Majesty's ship Melpomene^ many lighted, white painted, 

 her hull appearing phosphorescent in the dark night. 

 Long before the Lusitania was moored, Lieut. Colbeck, 

 R.N., of the Melpomene^ and an officer of the Customs 

 Department were on board, and such complete arrange- 

 ments had been made that a {&\v minutes after the mails 



We left Colombo at 5 p.m. on the same day. On the 

 morning of the 5th (Wednesday) we sighted Cape 

 Comorin, and in the early evening I explained, by means 

 of lantern slides thrown on a screen under the bridge 

 by an eighty-candle glow-lamp, the kind of work done 

 during an eclipse, and how the ship's company of the 

 Volai^e had organised themselves in 1896. When my 

 talk was over. Captain Batten called for volunteers. To 

 my delight and astonishment, and I must say rather 

 alarni, about 120 officers and men at once stepped for- 

 ward. Now that, of course, meant incessant school till 

 the moment of the eclipse. However, we were all quite 

 prepared for it, although it was evident that the Eclipse 

 party of three had their work cut out for them. 



The next delightful thing I found was that three or 

 four of the officers of the ship were just as competent to 

 give instructions on the various lines of work to be at- 

 tempted as my assistants and myself were, so that the 

 teaching was put into a very big commission. 



had been put into one lighter, the instruments, which had 

 been brought on deck the day before, were being delicately 

 handled into another. There was therefore no sleep for 

 any of us that night, and early in the morning Captain 

 ' hisholm-Batten, R.N., of the Melpomene^ came on 



loard. Shortly alterwards the eclipse party, with all their 

 ^ear, were transferred from the mail steamer, after taking 

 leave of Captain V'eale and his officers, to the cruiser. 



It did not require a keen observer to find out, after a 

 very short time on board, that the Melpomenes had made 



ip their minds to emulate the doings of their comrades on 



he Volage, in connection with the Varanger Fjord 

 ■ clipse of August 1896, and also that this was in part due 

 .0 the keen interest taken by Captain Chisholm Batten in 



ill things scientific. He very soon put exactly the same 

 question to me that Captain King- Hall had done two 

 years before on the Volage, and I gave him the same 

 reply. He said, "If you will explain to the ship's 



ompany what is wanted I will call for volunteers, and 

 •Jien we will see what can be done." I did as I was told. 



NO. 1575. VOL. 61] 



This was an intensely interesting day to me, for while 

 arrangements for the eclipse of 1898 were thus advancing, 

 the Melpomene was following the sea-track of the flag- 

 ship Glasg07t>, which carried the expedition of 187 1. 

 Cannamore was first passed, and later on Baikul, where 

 my station was seven-and-twenty years ago. Heigh ho ! 

 Why is one not always young and full of energy, and 

 why should the power of doing dwindle as one knows 

 better what to do ? But that is another story. 



We began our drills the same night. An important 

 part of the work was to get an idea of the outlines of the 

 corona, and for that purpose I had taken out several 

 discs which would hide the more luminous lower parts of 

 it in order to shield the observers' eyes, so that they 

 would be in the best possible position to note the delicate 

 tracery outside. In addition to that, a large party had 

 volunteered for drawing the corona, so we started draw- 

 ing competitions ; we had marks for form and for colour 

 of the corona. For this purpose the ship rigged up a 

 magic-lantern by means of one of the incandescent 



