804 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 360, 



toms of eating and bathing, and many 

 amusing incidents were the result. In the 

 East Indian hotels the bath rooms are away 

 out in the yard, a hundred yards or more 

 from your bedroom. There is no bath-tub 

 like ours— in fact, plumbing of any sort is 

 unknown there — and the bath is taken by 

 dipping water from a cistern by means of a 

 bucket and throwing it over yourself — and 

 a very good bath it gives, too. One of our 

 English friends mistook the cistern for his 

 tub, and got in, greatly to the consternation 

 of the Malays. 



The Dutch did everything in their power 

 to make our stay in the island pleasant, 

 with the result that everything was accom- 

 plished with remarkably little trouble and 

 difl&culty. Free passes were furnished to 

 all astronomers, all freight was transported 

 without charge, and laborers, consisting 

 mainly of convict coolies, were furnished 

 in as large numbers as were wished. In 

 fact, too much cannot be said in praise of 

 the courtesy and kindness of the Hollanders 

 to all the foreign astronomers. The scien- 

 tists became known so quickly to the Dutch 

 and Malays, that ' Zoneclips ' soon became 

 the talisman that made all things work to- 

 gether for our good. 



Before reaching Sumatra it had been 

 decided to divide the expedition into two 

 parts, the main portion going to Solok, near 

 the central line of totality, and a smaller 

 number to Fort de Koch, near the northern 

 limit of the path ; both stations being on the 

 line of the ' Staatsspoorweg op Sumatra,' 

 the government railroad running about 100 

 miles inland. After two weeks' stay in the 

 island, and in view of the fact that so 

 much cloudy weather was experienced each 

 day at the time of totality, it was decided 

 best to still further divide the expedition. 

 Consequently, another station was estab- 

 lished at Sawah Loento, the terminus of the 

 government railroad, twenty miles beyond 

 Solok. 



The American governmental party was 

 thus divided into three. Everybody was 

 hard at work by the middle of April, but as 

 we had to depend on Malay bricklayers 

 and carpenters, work did not progress as 

 rapidly as^was desired. These orang tuhang 

 are frightfully slow, always squatting down 

 to work, and using tools of the most primi- 

 tive sort. It was a sore trial, indeed, see- 

 ing everything proceed at such a snail's 

 pace, but by dint of hard labor, and much 

 talking of Malay on our part, with several 

 English expletives thrown in, everything 

 was all up and adjusted in good time. 



At Solok, where the main part of the ex- 

 pedition was located, an almost ideal spot 

 was found for an eclipse camp. This was 

 an old fort recently evacuated by the Dutch, 

 the buildings serving as most excellent 

 sheds for storing the instruments. Profess- 

 or Barnard had with him the 61|^-foot lens 

 with which he obtained such good results 

 at the 1900 eclipse at Wadesboro. This 

 was used in connection with a coelostat, the 

 telescope tube being horizontal, and ending 

 in a dark room where the plates, in holders, 

 were to be placed on a sliding carrier at 

 eclipse time. One plate used by him, 

 measuring 40x40 inches, was to be ex- 

 posed at the middle of totality for two 

 minutes and a half. The other plates were 

 30x30 and 11x14, but notwithstanding 

 their great weight, so carefully was the con- 

 struction looked after that the plates were 

 changed remarkably quickly. True, totality 

 lasted 5 min. 51 sec. at Solok, but the 

 seconds are valuable, even with such a 

 great duration. 



Professor Abbot was prosecuting his re- 

 searches along two lines. With a highly 

 sensitive bolometer, which has been brought 

 to such a high degree of excellency at the 

 Smithsonian Institution, he was investi- 

 gating the heat of the moon and the corona ; 

 and with four photographic lenses of 11 feet 

 focus, searching for intra-Mercurial plan- 



