1920 .] Adams and Marsden.—The Samoan Observatory. 
157 
THE SAMOAN OBSERVATORY. 
By C. E. Adams, D.Sc., F.R.A.S., Government Astronomer and Seismologist, 
and Professor E. Marsden, D.Sc., F.R.A.S. 
The recent acceptance of the mandate over Samoa by New Zealand has 
raised the question of the continuance of the Geophysical Observatory 
which was maintained there by the Germans for the thirteen years 
preceding the British occupation. The authors, who have both spent 
a brief period at this observatory, feel, therefore, that a description of 
its instruments and activities will be of general interest to the readers of 
this Journal . 
The Observatory was established in 1902 by the Society of Sciences of 
Gottingen (Royal Society of Hanover). It was originally established for a 
period of three years to obtain special observations to compare with those of 
British and German South Polar Expeditions of 1902-3. The geographical 
Fig. 1. — Map of the Pacific Ocean, showing the position of Samoa. 
position was found so suitable and the results so promising that the period 
was extended for another four years, and later the observatory was esta¬ 
blished on a permanent basis. 
The observatory (latitude 13° 48' S., longitude 171° 46' W. of Greenwich, 
and practically at sea-level) is situated at the extremity of the Mulinuu 
Peninsula, which juts out towards the north about a mile west of Apia, the 
seat of Government of British Samoa. Apia is on the northern shore of 
IJpolu, the chief of the Samoan Islands. The map (fig. 1) shows the 
general position of Samoa in the Pacific. It will be seen that Apia is some 
130 miles north of Tonga and 450 miles north-east of Fiji. The various 
