398 



NA TURE 



[August 27, 1896 



materials, a sail being used for the covering ; the tent 

 served its purpose well, and withstood, like the others, :i 

 heavy blow from the east. 



The two wet days were followed by two very fine ones, 

 and great advance was made. 



The foregoing accoimt will give an idea of the kind of 

 work done up to the end of August, the day of my arrival 

 at Kii). It was impossible for me to join the advanced 

 party, so I subsequently proceeded direct to Kio in the 

 Orient liner Garonne. After a delightful voyage through 

 the most wonderful of the Norwegian fjords under perfect 

 travelling conditions. Captain Veale was good enough to 

 slightly alter his course so as to drop me on the day 

 named at a point about two miles north of the island, where 

 I was met by the boats of H.M.S. f'i5/«<,v, which soon 

 transferred the rest of the instruments and myself to the 

 Eclipse camp. 



It will have been gathered that when I arrived at Kio, 



the services of other volunteers would be of any help to 

 us. I replied that there was so much to be done that I 

 thought I could usefully occupy all possible volunteers if 

 the detail of duty on board left any time for instruction 

 and training. I was at once taken at my word, and was 

 requested to give, in lecture form, in the forecastle that 

 evening a statement of what was required, and why it 

 was useful to try to do it. This w-as done by the help of 

 the magic lantern, which had been kindly lent me by the 

 Gaj-on/ic, the deck being darkened by sails laid over 

 booms. After it was over the Captain called for 

 volunteers. Many at once responded to the call, and, to 

 make a long story short, I may say that at present the 

 number of volunteers, including officers and men, is 

 over 70. 



The first thing to be done ne.\t morning with this 

 wealth of help was to set to and compose a programme 

 of eclipse work beyond all precedent. 



Fig. 3.— The Volunteers. 



all the fixed instruments brought out had been erected 

 and adjusted as far as possible. I put in this qualification 

 because, of course, all star observations were out of the 

 question, as the sun at midnight was only 4° below the 

 horizon. 



Furthermore, profiting by the good will and keenness 

 to assist on the part of the officers, full complements of 

 assistants had been secured for the various manojuvres 

 requisite to obtain the greatest amount of results in the 

 restricted time covered by the totality. 



But Captain King Hall was not satisfied with this 

 contribution to our endeavours. He inquired whether 



NO. 1400, VOL. 54] 



It was at once determined to form groups to sketch the 

 corona, to note the stars visible during totality, to note 

 the changes of colour of the landscape, discrimination 

 being made between cloud, sky, and land and sea 

 surfaces ; to erect several discs cutting off the lower 

 corona to different heights ; and the swoop of the shadow 

 of the moon was not neglected. 



Further, as I had brought small polariscopes, prisms, 

 and slit spectroscopes with me, other groups evidently 

 had to be formed to use these instruments. 



Two things then obviously had to be done at once — to 

 select the artists and to start some spectroscopic demon- 



