REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 23 



of the eclipse, if an appropriation could be made sufficient to pay at 

 least a portion of his expenses and his free passage procured. In 

 accordance with this proposition letters were addressed to the British 

 Pacific Steam Navigation Company, to the United States Mail Steam- 

 ship Company, to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and to the 

 Panama Railroad Company, setting forth the objects of the expe- 

 dition, and asking for free transportation for Lieutenant Gilliss and 

 his instruments, and for such other facilities as it might be in their 

 power to bestow. This request was generously complied with ; not 

 only were free passages granted to himself and his companion, but 

 every other facility was proffered which it was in the power of the 

 officers of the companies to afford. 



The British Pacific Steam Navigation Company not only furnished 

 with great cordiality free transport, but so instructed their agents on 

 the coast, that when an accident on the Panama railroad separated 

 Lieutenant Gilliss from his instruments, and caused a delay in their 

 arrival, the steamer bound to Payta waited in port several hours for 

 them. When returning home, the commander of another steamer of 

 the same line was instructed to make all possible speed in reaching 

 Panama, so as to save Lieutenant Gilliss the detention of two weeks 

 which passengers coming to the United States from the South Pacific 

 frequently experience. For the acts of enlightened liberality on the 

 the part of the above-mentioned companies in facilitating the advance 

 of science, special acknowledgment by resolution immediately from the 

 Board of Regents is due. 



The necessary meteorological instruments were furnished by the 

 Institution ; the astronomical by the National Observatory, the Coast 

 Survey, and Mr. Henry Fitz, of New York. 



Lieutenant Gilliss, though highly favored with the necessary means 

 of accomplishing the desired result, encountered many difficulties in 

 reaching the proper spot at which to make the observations. Accom- 

 panied by Mr. C. H. Raymond, of New York, he arrived at Payta } 

 Peru, on the 21st of August, 1858. The French admiral command- 

 ing in the Pacific placed the war steamer Megere at his disposition? 

 should it be desirable to proceed to any other point on the coast* 

 Information, however, obtained from residents, and his own experience 

 during the ensuing eight days, convinced him that there was little 

 probability of a clear sky in the morning near the sea. But, in 

 order to obtain observations from a second party, should clear weather 

 occur there, he arranged with the commandant of the Megere to pro- 



