November 22, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



803 



The members crossed the continent by 

 various routes, meeting together for the 

 first time in San Francisco. Transporta- 

 tion was furnished by government steam- 

 ers, and on February 16, on board the 

 army transport Sheridan, the expedition 

 started to demonstrate that the earth is 

 round by sailing west in order to reach the 

 East Indies. The Army was to care for the 

 party as far as Manila, and from there to 

 Sumatra the Navy Department was to at- 

 tend to us. Life on board the transport 

 was very pleasant, many entertainments 

 being provided by the officers, soldiers — 

 and astronomers, too — to while away the 

 hours. 



Honolulu was reached the morning of 

 February 25. A three days' stay there en- 

 abled the party to see most of the sights of 

 the island of Oahu, making a most pleasant 

 break in our voyage of thirty days to Manila. 

 The Social Science Club of the Hawaiian 

 Islands was exceedingly kind to the as- 

 tronomers. Among the courtesies shown 

 was a drive up the historic Pali, a huge 

 precipice with a sheer drop of 500 feet, over 

 which one of the old kings is said to have 

 driven his enemies to their death. In the 

 evening a meeting of the club was held at 

 which Professor Barnard gave one of his 

 interesting illustrated talks. The three 

 days' stay was exceedingly interesting, giv- 

 ing an excellent opportunity of seeing how 

 the United States was progressing in the 

 government of his new outside dependencies. 



The 180th meridian was crossed at 11:40 

 on the night of March 4, and as a result our 

 day of March 5 was of only twenty minutes' 

 duration. On crossing the line, Father Nep- 

 tune and his court paid the ship a visit, the 

 celebration of which was greatly enjoyed 

 by soldiers, sailors and passengers. 



Manila was reached on March 18, and a 

 stop of eight days was made while arrange- 

 ments were made with the Navy Depart- 

 ment to carry us the remaining 2,200 miles 



to Sumatra. The Manila observatory, which 

 was visited several times, is doing an ex- 

 ceedingly important work, the value of 

 which is recognized by the United States 

 authorities. The predictions for typhoons 

 come from the observatory, and in view of 

 the enormous shipping of the port, this 

 service is invaluable. A time service and 

 weather bureau with 76 stations are about 

 to be instituted by the observatory author- 

 ities. Of course, the most interesting sights 

 to Americans were the Spanish wrecks at 

 Cavite, monuments to the valor of Admiral 

 Dewey. 



The U. S. S. General Alava, a former 

 Spanish ship, was put at the disposal of the 

 expedition, and on March 26 we set sail for 

 Sumatra. Pleasant weather was experi- 

 enced through the China and Java Seas. 

 The equator was crossed on March 31, and 

 ' Neptunus Eex ' was celebrated in true 

 man-of-war style. 



On April 2, the ship passed within half 

 a mile of Krakatau, excellent opportunity 

 thus being given to see this historic vol- 

 cano. Where, before the eruption of 1883, 

 had been a hill of perhaps 1,000 feet, bot- 

 tom is now not reached at the depth of 164 

 fathoms. 



On April 4, the General Alava steamed 

 into the beautiful harbor of Emma Haven, 

 the port of Padang, the capital of the 

 island of Sumatra, and a first glimpse was 

 obtained of the Malay, with whom the 

 next two months were to make us so well 

 acquainted. We were the first astronom- 

 ical expedition to arrive, ours being, in fact, 

 the first American ship which ever entered 

 port there. But in a few days Professor 

 Perrine and the astronomers from the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology ar- 

 rived, to be soon followed by parties from 

 England, Holland, France, Russia, Japan 

 and India. 



It took some time to get accustomed to 

 the East Indian ways, particularly the cus- 



