237 
1899-1900.] Mr Heath on the Total Solar Eclipse. 
the problem. The Indian Eclipse of 1898 must have held the 
record for the number of men and the extent of instrumental 
equipment taking part in the work ; but I should think it more 
than probable, without presuming to say that I have made any 
estimate of numbers, that the eclipse of 1900 has beaten the 
record once more. The path of totality, crossing, as it did, both 
the Hew and Old worlds in regions easily accessible both to 
the traveller and to his heaviest baggage, rendered the various 
expeditions more like pleasant holiday tours than serious scien- 
tific undertakings. The whole line, from its commencement on 
the shores of the Pacific Ocean to its termination in Egypt, was 
more or less thickly studded with astronomical parties, armed 
with telescopes, spectroscopes, cameras, etc. The western part 
of the path of totality, where the line crosses from the Pacific 
coast of Mexico to the States of Louisiana and Yirginia, was 
manned almost entirely by American astronomers, ever keen 
in the pursuit of science. So far as I am aware only one English 
party — that under the leadership of the Kev. Mr Bacon — ventured 
to cross the Atlantic to assist our American cousins. On the 
other hand, a large number of English expeditions stationed 
themselves on the line where it crossed the peninsula of Spain and 
Portugal. The Astronomer-Royal and assistants from Greenwich 
were at Ovar, some twenty miles south of Oporto, where the 
shadow track first enters European soil. The interior of Spain was 
occupied by at least three English parties — at Placencia, Hoval 
Moval, and Manzanares — while the Scotch party found a resting- 
place at Santa Pola on the south-east coast, twelve miles south 
of the port of Alicante. At this station Sir Horman Lockyer 
also organised a camp, manned by three scientific assistants and 
a large body of officers and sailors belonging to H.M.S. Theseus. 
Inland from Santa Pola about ten miles, the old Moorish town of 
Elche was taken possession of for the time by a numerous con- 
tingent of French astronomers and one or two Englishmen. 
After passing Santa Pola the shadow crossed the Mediterranean 
Sea and struck land again at Algiers. Here quite a large number 
of astronomers were stationed, including many members of the 
British Astronomical Association: representing Oxford and Cam- 
bridge Universities were Professor Turner and Mr Eewall ; while 
