NATURE 



217 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 1872 



THE SOLAR ECLIPSE 



SURELY if eclipse expeditions had their mottoes, that 

 of the expedition of this year should hupcr mare per 

 terram; for it has been/t-/- mare per terrain in our case 

 with a vengeance ! Probably when we return, the curious 

 individuals who total up in the Times the aggregate 

 number of years those people have lived whose deaths 

 are there recorded, will, in asking us for our autographs, 

 beg also a detailed statement of the number of miles 

 each of us has travelled in the performance of our duty. 

 I fear it will be very difficult to give the information ; and 

 if the temperature in the shade be wanted too, the thing 

 will be perfectly hopeless ; for, thank goodness, we took the 

 precaution to bring no thermometers ; had we done so and 

 looked at them, it might have been all over with us. Let 

 me point my remarks. A week ago I was at Bekul, 

 having travelled I know not how many thousand miles by 

 sea, and having scarcely set foot on land for a month. 

 We were in the jungle, the heat was burning, some of us 

 had fever, and it was opium which enabled me at all 

 events to get through the eclipse, for it was that memorable 

 day just a week ago. Since then, by night and by day, 

 Dr. Thomson, Captain Maclear, and myself, have been — 

 I seek a word, wafted is too weak, jolted is too strong, for 

 some parts of our journey, though ridiculously lacking in 

 expression for others — well, conveyed from Bekul, now in 

 men-carried conveyances, the cunning bearers with their 

 plaintive moaning, by no means unmelodious, keeping step, 

 giving us an idea of the tremendous labour they were 

 undergoing, and reminding us of a certain journey which 

 we must all make once ; now on men's shoulders, now 

 in bullock bandy, speed about two miles an hour, thanks 

 to a brutal breach of contract, which has upset my plans 

 terribly, now in Indian railway carriages, average speed 

 ten miles an hour, temperature of carriage at noon un- 

 known, and lastly in the horse transit of the Madras 

 Carrying Company. Oh ! that their carriages were as 

 good as their arrangements and the speed of their horses ; 

 and, now, here I am shivering, surrounded by hoar frost, 

 with a soupcjon of a difficulty of breathing in this higher 

 air after the dense atmosphere of the jungles, but all the 

 same in an earthly paradise with hedges of roses although 

 it is mid-winter, the whole place a perfect garden. I am at 

 Ootacamund, at an elevation of some 7,000 feet with an 

 Australian fauna ; and within a few hours I hope to see 

 Janssen, who is still here ; Tennant, Herschel, and 

 Hennessy I have unfortunately missed, owing to the 

 breach of contract already referred to. 



We can all of us, or nearly all of us, afford to laugh now 

 at any inconveniences we have suffered; for of the eleven 

 who landed at Galle nine have seen the eclipse, some of 

 us perhaps as an eclipse has never been seen before. 

 Unfortunately, to the regret of all, Mr. Abbay and Mr. 

 Friswell, who were among the best prepared for doing 

 good work, and were at a station at which everybody said 

 cloudless weather was certain, found themselves on the 

 1 2th in a storm of cloud and mist, which obscured the 

 sun for, I believe, the whole day. With this exception 



VOL. V. 



the telegrams from all the English parties have been sent 

 regularly, while we have all been thankful to learn from 

 the telegrams which Dr. Janssen and Colonel Tennant 

 have had the great courtesy to send me, that they too saw 

 the eclipse well, as also did Mr. Pogson, as I gather from 

 the newspapers, but of course the details of their observa- 

 tions arc still unknown to me. Hence, 1 can only give 

 the facts observed by the party at Bekul and Poodocottah ; 

 Prof. Respighi, who observed at that station, hiving 

 joined me at Pothanore, the station on the Madras 

 Railway, at the foot of the hills which we ascended 

 yesterday from 4 ^o A.M. till I P.M. 



But before I say a word about the observations them- 

 selves, it is incumbent upon me to express our deep 

 obligations to the supreme Madras and Ceylon Govern- 

 ments for the magnificent manner in which they have 

 aided us. Nothing could be more complete than the 

 arrangements at Bekul made by the collector, Mr. 

 Webster, and his assistant, Mr. Mclvor, both for the 

 work to be done and the comfort of those who had to do 

 it. The same must be said for the Poodocottah party, 

 where not only the collector, Mr. Whiteside, but the 

 Rajah did everything in their power, the latter loading the 

 observers with presents when they left. We have at 

 present heard only of the discomforts of the Manantoddy 

 party, and it is clear that here the local arrangements 

 were in strong contrast to those elsewhere. The Ceylon 

 parties, who parted from the main body at Galle, have 

 doubtless been well looked after ; as Captain Fyers, the 

 Surveyor-General of the island, accompanied and aided 

 them in their observations. 



This brings us to another part of the arrangements. 

 The Ceylon party had the unreserved use of the Govern- 

 ment steamer the Serendib, to take them from Galle to 

 their places of observation, Jaffna and Trincomalee, both 

 on the coast, and the accommodation on board was 

 perfect. The Indian parties proceeded to their various 

 destinations, or the ports on the coast nearest to them, in 

 the Admiral's flag-ship the Glasgow, which, however, 

 could not remain to bring them back, a circumstance 

 which has given rise to very considerable inconvenience 

 and great risk for the instruments, which are now scattered 

 all along the line, to be sent to the coast and from the 

 coast to Bombay or Galle, as circumstances may deter- 

 mine. This of course was not to be helped, and we must 

 hope for the best, especially as all the parties have done 

 their utmost in superintending their repacking, and hand- 

 ing them over in perfect condition to the different Govern- 

 ment officers who accompanied each party. Still, although 

 it was not to be avoided, the withdrawal of the ship has 

 been the unfortunate circumstance in the arrangements. 

 Nothing could exceed the kindness of the Admiral, who 

 vacated his own quarters to give us room, of Captain 

 Jones, who took the warmest interest in our proceedings, 

 and helped the arrangements greatly, and by the officers 

 of the ship generally. Without the equal kindness 

 of Mr. Webster at Bekul, the step from the Admiral's 

 cabin into the jungle hut would have been a seven- 

 league one. 



As the mail, the first available one after the eclipse, 

 leaves this place to-day, I must lose no more time in 

 recording preliminaries. I will therefore at once state 

 the general arrangements of the parties, and what I at 



