230 



NATURE 



[January 4, 1900 



lights. We found a capital screen on deck in the shape 

 of one of the casings ; drawings and photographs 

 (coloured) of the corona were thrown on the screen and 

 copied under eclipse conditions. What do I mean by 

 eclipse conditions ? I mean this : experience shows that 

 when the eclipse begins you must tell everybody how 

 many seconds are left, otherwise they will lose time by 

 trying to find out for themselves ; if the eclipse is going 

 to last 170 seconds, at the instant of totality we tell them 

 so. After lo seconds we say, "You have i6o seconds 

 more"; after 20 seconds we tell them they have 150 

 seconds more, and so on, in as encouraging a way as we 

 can. We adopted this plan in our practising. 



The next thing which delighted me was, that not only 

 was every rating in the ship represented two or three 

 times over in the volunteers, but that almost all the men 

 who volunteered to make these drawings had colour- 

 boxes. Where they get them from I do not know, but 

 colour-boxes they had. In the examination we gave 10 

 marks for colour and 10 for form ; several of them got 

 18 out of a possible 20 marks. I mention that because 

 it gives an idea of the thoroughness with which every 

 part of the work was done. 



It was a little over a day's run from Baikul to Vizia- 

 durg, where, on the 7th, Captain Batten, after a fine 

 sweep into the bay, chose his station at 3 p.m. navy 

 fashion, that is, pilotless, over the anchor shown on the 

 chart. Soon after this the native pilot, in a boat which 

 had hugged the southern shore, and had, perhaps, for 

 this reason been unnoticed in spite of a tattered blue 

 ensign with a lion in one of the corners, came on board, 

 and after him a boat full of gorgeously-apparelled native 

 officials accompanying Mr. Bomanji, Collector of the 

 district of Ratnagiri, in which Viziadurg is situated, 

 among them an overseer of the Public Works Depart- 

 ment, who was on the spot in charge of some most 

 excellent masons and carpenters, picked men from 

 Ratnagiri as we later ascertained, and plenty of material for 

 the construction of the necessary concrete bases and huts. 



Mr. Bomanji came on board to report the arrangements 

 which had been made for the expedition by the Govern- 

 ment of India. As these were not quite completed, it 

 was necessary for the first few days to return to the ship 

 every evening, but afterwards Mr. Fowler, Dr. Lockyer, 

 and myself took up our quarters at the Dak bungalow 

 inside the fort, close to the instruments. Meals were 

 provided at the Collector's camp, which was also inside 

 the fort. 



A party was landed at the fort on the afternoon of our 

 arrival, Saturday, January 8, to inspect the site suggested 

 by Mr. Bomanji, and it was at once evident that it 

 would satisfy all requirements, provided the fluctuations 

 of temperature of the great masses of masonry composing 

 the fort had no disturbing influence on the steadiness of 

 the air. In order to investigate this point a 3|-inch 

 telescope was set up, and observations of the surround- 

 ing landscape, and, at dusk, of various stars, were made, 

 from which it appeared that the atmosphere was suffi- 

 ciently steady for the observations. 



We found a considerable number of coolies was also 

 present to do such work as carrying packing cases, saw- 

 ing wood, clearing the camp, &c. 



In the fort was also a police guard sent from Ratnagiri. 

 The camp was watched both by day and night so effec- 

 tively by them that no damage to any instrument was 

 reported. 



Description of Viziadurg. 



Viziadurg, we found, is practically concentrated in its 

 fort. A former collector of the district, Mr. Sinclair, had 

 been good enough to send me a photograph of it. On 

 landing, after the collector's visit, we found that the real 

 thing is certainly far more extensive than the photograph 

 suggested, and more than this, the building and its 

 NO. 1575, VOL. 61] 



history are both of very high interest. The fort dates 

 from the fourteenth century, but it was much strengthened 

 in the sixteenth, when the towers and triple walls, the 

 well-preserved ruins of which now encircle it, were added. 

 These towers number twenty-seven ; they rise to 100 

 feet, and, like the massive walls, are built of large blocks 

 of stone, now coloured dark red, and almost black in 

 places. The walls enclose about twenty acres, and within 

 this space are habitable buildings, two wells, and a water 

 reservoir, formerly lined with lead at the bottom and to 

 about 10 feet up the sides, larger than the largest of the 

 celebrated tanks at Aden. From the beginning of the 

 sixteenth century the fort was the headquarters of piracy 

 in the Indian seas. Kanhoji Angria, the admiral of the 

 Maratha fleet, became a renowned corsair, and at his 

 death was ably succeeded by his son, Julaji Angria. 

 These gentlemen seemed to have had it all their own 

 way. They respected no flag, captured many ships, 

 sacked the coast towns, and, worst of all, repelled several 

 expeditions sent against ,them by the English, Portu- 

 guese and Dutch. Julaji only finally surrendered in 1755 

 to a force of twelve men-of-war with some forty small 

 native armed vessels, commanded by Admiral Watson, 

 supported on land by an army of eight hundred European 

 and six hundred native troops, under Lieut. -Colonel 

 (afterwards Lord) Clive. Angria's fleet was destroyed, 

 fifteen hundred prisoners were taken, and eight Euro- 

 peans rescued. Two hundred and fifty cannon and 

 eight brass mortars were found, and besides, stores and 

 valuables worth 125,000/. After this the fort came under 

 the Peshwa's government, and his admiral, Anandrav 

 Dhulop, establishing himself therein, commenced a suc- 

 cessful career, enriched himself, and added much to 

 piratical science, until finally the British took possession 

 of the district in 18 18. 



If the final cause of the pirates of Viziadurg was, as it 

 seems to have been, the formation of an Eclipse camp, 

 even to providing unexpended bombs for clock weights, 

 the fact that they built the fort exactly where it is, com- 

 manding a harbour finer than that familiar to their-to-be 

 confreres of Penzance, was evidently also connected with the 

 present visit of the Melpomene. Equally sheltered from the 

 fiercest blasts of both the south-west and north-east mon- 

 soons, the anchorage is as safe as it is convenient ; but 

 it must not at once be taken for granted that under these 

 conditions the water surface is always smooth. The 

 goddesses of meteorology have their smaller as well as 

 their greater festivals, so that what the monsoons are to 

 the year the land and sea breezes are to the day. The 

 sea breeze sets in about noon with marvellous regularity, 

 and is at its height about sun-down; as the night ad- 

 vances everything becomes calm, and at ten o'clock even 

 the rattle of the jalousies in the windows of the fort has 

 entirely ceased. 



Precautions and Preparations. 



While considering the desirability of establishing a 

 station at Viziadurg, a friend of great Indian experience 

 was loud in his praises of the Konkan as a health resort. 

 He expressed his astonishment that yachtsmen, who 

 generally know what is good for them, so constantly 

 neglect to spend some winter months on a coast so de- 

 lightful in many ways. Our experiences entirely justified 

 my friend's views. Of course, great precautions have to 

 be taken when so much work has to be done in the sun ; 

 but my Baikul experience told me the conditions are 

 much better at Viziadurg than they are in South Canara. 

 The sun's rays were almost always tempered by a breeze ; 

 the temperature at 8 a.m. was often about 70 degrees, 

 and on shore 85 degrees was reached later on in the 

 day. 



Next morning, Sunday, January 9, the instruments were 

 landed absolutely without the slightest difficulty. With 

 reference to this a few words may be said concerning the 



