THE SOLAR ECLIPSE OF MAY 6TH, 1883. 243 
from the other. Accustomed to look at maps drawn on a small scale, where dots, 
shading, and names are crowded together, we do not rightly judge how infinitely 
small the proportion of dry land is to the water of this vast expanse." 
It must be remembered that we knew absolutely nothing of Caroline Island, 
except that it had been inhabited in 1874 by at least one white man and some 
thirty natives. The boat landing was known to be somewhere on the south- 
western side, and an "entrance to the lagoon" was spoken of on the eastern 
side. The Hartford approached the island from this side, and from end to end 
there was nothing to be seen but a line of heavy breakers, then a strip of white 
beach, and above this a growth of trees, the highest of which were cocoa palms. 
Finally in among these was seen the gable roof of a European house, but no 
inhabitants. Coasting round the island, everywhere surrounded by high surf, the 
Hartford came opposite the place where the boat-landing was reported, and the 
whaleboat was lowered, and Lieut. Qualtrough sent in her to land, if possible. 
It seems all very simple now, after Caroline Island, its reefs, its lagoon, and its 
landing are as familiar to us as the beaches of New England ; but at the time it 
was all quite strange and new. The advent of a man and dog on the reef was 
an event. It seemed to settle one thing at least, and that was that we should find 
some assistance in landing. But the native disappeared and Lieut. Qualtrough 
was left to find his own way among the breakers, which he did in a capital man- 
ner. The ocean reef forms a solid wall all round the island, except at one nar- 
row and crooked entrance, just wide enough for a boat and oars, and through 
this entrance each boat must come, or be broken into bits against the steep face 
of the coral wall. The whaleboat returned shortly with the news that there were 
four native men, one woman and two children on the island, that two frame 
houses were standing, and that we could land at once. 
At high water this ocean reef was covered to a depth of about thirty inches, 
and at low water to about ten inches. The boxes were then hfted from the boat 
and transported by carrying parties to the high-water mark, a distance of 1,400 
feet. This transport had to be made over the ragged surface of the ocean reef, 
and through water of a depth varying from one to three feet, as I have said. 
From high water-mark, other carrying parties transported the boxes along the 
beach of the lagoon and across the island to the site of our observatories (some 
1,300 feet further) which had been selected by Dr. Hastings and myself. On 
board the Hartford I had prepared a plan of the proposed camp ; the position of 
each observatory was fixed on the ground by a stake, and to this stake all the 
boxes of each instrument were brought. In this way all proceeded in an orderly 
manner. By the evening of the twenty-first all the boxes and baggage of the- 
expedition were landed, as well as bricks, cement, lumber, etc., for the obser- 
vatories. 
The entire party slept on shore also ; and I shall never forget the quiet rest 
of that cool night after the intensely hot day of active work. Our hammocks were 
swung on the wide veranda of one of the houses, close to the beach of the mirror- 
like lagoon. The wind was cool and fresh as it blew through a break between. 
