ON THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, MAY 28, 1900. 
383 
To the Mayor of Santa Pola the whole expedition owes a delM of gratitude for his 
unwearying kindness. He was accessible at all times, always ready to afford us 
assistance, and spared no trouble to make things easy and pleasant for all. He 
was kind enough to open an eclipse account, and all payments to be made locally 
were made through him, and so useful was this that the stores for the ship were 
afterwards obtained in the same way ; it was found to be not only a check upon the 
jjrices, but on the qualities and quantity of the goods. This alone involved consider¬ 
able labour to him, but it v/as of the greatest assistance to us. One of our 
pleasantest recollections of Santa Pola will be the kindness and hospitality of 
Hon Fuancisco Bonmati. I may add, the Civil Governor of the Province of 
Alicante, Sehor Don Hipoldo Cahas y Gomez de Andino, visited the camp to 
assure himself that all the assistance the Spanish authorities could give had been 
rendered. 
Part H.—Obseryatioxs made by the Officers axd Men of H.M.S. “ Theseus.” 
{Forwarded hy Captain V. A. Tisdale, P.N.) 
Preliminary Work. 
' The Chaplain of the “ Theseus,” the Rev. G. Brooke-Robinson', who undertook to 
give jireparatory courses of instruction to the men, has prepared the fbllowdng 
statement :— 
“ On learning that H.M.S. ‘ Theseus ’ was ordered to take a party of astronomers 
to Santa Pola for the purpose of observing the total eclipse of the sun, May 28, 1900, 
arrangements ^vere made for the delivery of preliminary lectures on board, previous to 
the arrival of the eclipse party. 
“ Lectures were given on the 6th, 7th, and 13th May. The blackboard was used 
with great advantage on all three occasions. The duration of each lecture ^vas about 
an hour and a half. 
“ When Sir Norman Lockyer arrived, he desired that the lectures should 
continue, giving instructions as to the sort of work to be done preparatory to the 
eclipse. Three parties of observers were to be trained, a magic lantern, slides, and 
star charts being provided by the astronomical party. The three sets to be trained 
were divided as follows :— 
Set A. The disc party. 
,, B. The corona sketching party. 
,, C. The star chart party. 
“ Set A began their preliminary training on board after erecting the disc poles on 
shore. They joined the corona sketching party already at work-in the submerged 
torpedo flat where the magic lantern slides were being shown. 
