THE ISSUES OF THE LATE ECLIPSE. 
131 
sketch, the polariser was to study points precisely indicated., 
the spectroscopist the same, and the photographer was to expose 
his plates so as to seize upon critical appearances. These were 
the duties of principals ; subordinate labours were as definitely 
arranged. Never before had there been so extensive and de- 
terminate an organisation ; and it is quite conceivable that, 
had the weather favoured the observers, the one outstanding 
enigma of eclipse phenomena would have been so nearly solved 
that future eclipses would have possessed little interest for 
astronomers — a measure of success the desirability of which may 
perhaps be questioned. 
But this was not to be. Ill fortune met the observers at 
every turn. Deaf ears were turned to their prayers for Govern- 
ment aid ; delays were forced upon them ; one party was ship- 
wrecked, and another nearly so ; one detachment, of which 
the present writer was a member, had their observing tents 
and telescopes blown down by a gale, and their most valuable 
instruments saved from utter ruin as it were by a miracle ; and, 
worst of all, the heavens frowned upon most of the expeditionists 
on the eventful day. And it is a curious, though an insignifi- 
cant circumstance, that the weather misfortunes which befell 
the English observers scarcely affected their American confede- 
rates. But the few French and German astronomers who 
attempted observations were all unsuccessful. M. Janssen 
indeed deserves a martyr’s fame. He escaped from Paris in a 
balloon, taking with him a silvered glass reflector of 13 
inches aperture, and a small spectroscope, and landed at Savernay, 
whence he pushed on to Oran, arriving there some ten days 
before the eclipse and living like a hermit the while at his 
observing station, nine miles from the town, in a desolate and 
uncomfortable barrack : and all to no effect. 
The distribution of observing parties along the line of 
totality and their measures of success were as follows : — 
At Cadiz 
In Spain. 
Lord Lindsay’s party 
. . . successful 
San Antonio | En f s ^ expedition detachment 
( the Rev. S. J. Perry) . . j 
American party (under Professor Winlock) successful 
Xeres 
Gibraltar 
Estepona 
(English expedition detachments (under f? 0 . suc ° ess 
Captain Parsons) . . . 
' 1 ' ' SURPASS! 
In Africa. 
At Oran 
Tunis 
{ English expedition detachment (under \ 
Dr. Huggins). French observers, Jans- 1 no success 
sen and Bulard .... j 
Vienna observers (Drs. Weiss and Oppolzer) no success 
