6o8 



The National Geographic Magazine 



drawn by mules with drivers who had no 

 conception of time, and who between the 

 lashing of their teams to keep them mov- 

 ing - at all and an occasional stop to pick 

 the grapes that lined the road, sang with 

 the contentment of their race. 



And now the party is at its destination, 

 the men with their hammocks and camp 

 outfit to spend weeks in such an outing 

 that but few of them will forget. 



The building construction soon begins, 

 and the dark room is put up for the large 

 new 65-foot photoheliograph fitted with 

 the thousand-dollar lens from which we 

 expect valuable results in photographing 

 the corona if all goes well. 



Also the coelostat is set in place with 

 its two mirrors, the one 'to reflect the 

 sun rays to its lens of the photohelio- 

 graph and the other to throw light into 

 the spectrograph. It may be stated in 

 passing that the principal object of locat- 

 ing the large photoheliograph of 65 feet 

 of focal length, which will produce a 

 picture of 7^2 inches in diameter, here is 

 to make observations of the inner corona, 

 and for this purpose a station is selected 

 only 10 miles inside the edge of the 

 moon's shadow. Thus we compromise 

 between Daroca, where we have 3 min- 

 utes and 42 seconds of totality, and a 

 station on the edge of totality, where the 

 period is but an instant. 



Of course we cannot take as many 

 photographs here, where the eclipse lasts 

 only 1 minute and 46 seconds, as at 

 Daroca; but, as the lower edge of the 

 moon's disk barely covers that of the sun, 

 we can better observe the protuberances 

 and corona near the polar region. A yy 2 - 

 inch photograph may not seem colossal in 

 size, but when you realize that it is about 

 200 times as large as a picture of the sun 

 taken with an ordinary kodak, its size 

 may be appreciated. 



And now visitors come to camp, and a 

 native of Porto Rico, the one sailor who 

 is at home with the Spanish language, 

 sits at the feet of the senoritas ; but before 

 the party finally leaves the place he be- 

 comes so popular that they are willing to 

 sit at his feet — notwithstanding by this 



time a number of men had also become 

 more or less proficient with the language, 

 under the teachings of the young ladies, 

 so that Garrion has rivals in their affec- 

 tions. 



A frequent and interested visitor comes 

 to camp. He is said to be the wealthiest 

 man living in the vicinity. The trouba- 

 dors also put in an appearance and play 

 the Spanish fandango for the benefit of 

 the eclipse party. 



Another picture shows our native 

 guard, the mountain rangers. 



A charming young lady, who is about 

 to become an American citizen by mar- 

 rying a gentleman from Porto Rico, visits 

 our officers and captivates them as she 

 has her fiance. 



The last contingent from the Minne- 

 apolis reaches the station on August 28, 

 under charge of Lieutenant Commander 

 Hayden. With the party now augmented 

 to nearly 60 members, he took charge of 

 the drills and prepared them for the 

 eventful occasion to come later. 



CORDIAL COOPERATION BY THE SPANISH 

 AUTHORITIES 



The three principal stations of the 

 American party for observing the eclipse 

 were prepared for the eventful 30th of 

 August with the greatest care, and the in- 

 struments adjusted to the exact location 

 of the point occupied with refined accu- 

 racy. The determination of latitude was 

 easy, but as the stations selected were 

 necessarily well away from centers of 

 activity, the proper means for determin- 

 ing longitude were wanting. Here the 

 government officials in Spain and the 

 telegraph companies in Algeria came to 

 our rescue and not only extended the tele- 

 graph lines to our camps, but detailed 

 operators to assist us in the work. We 

 were thus connected at Guelma with the 

 fine astronomical observatory at Algiers, 

 and the Daroca and Porta Coeli stations 

 were given, at stated intervals, the tick 

 of the clock of the Royal Observatory at 

 Madrid. The extension line from Valencia 

 to Porta Coeli alone was nearly 18 miles 

 in length and was put up at very con- 



