THE ENGLISH ECLIPSE EXPEDITION, 1871

(continued).

III-A LETTER FROM OОOTACAMUND.

SURELY if eclipse expeditions had their mottoes, that CH XXII. of the expedition of this year should be per mare per terram; for it has been per mare per terram in our case with a vengeance! Probably when we return, the curious individuals who total up in the Times the aggregate number of years those people have lived whose deaths are there recorded, will, in asking us for our autographs, beg also a detailed statement of the number of miles each of us has travelled in the performance of our duty. I fear it will be very difficult to give the information; and if the temperature in the shade be wanted too, the thing will be perfectly hopeless: for, thank goodness, we took the precaution to bring no thermometers; had we done so and looked at them, it might have been all over with us. Let me point my remarks. A week ago I was at Bekul, having travelled I know not how many thousand miles by sea, and having scarcely set foot on land for a month. We were in the jungle, the heat was burning, some of us had fever, and it was opium which enabled me at all events to get through the day of the eclipse, for it was that memorable day just a week ago. Since then, by night and by day, Indian Dr. Thomson, Captain Maclear, and myself have been- travelling.

CH. XXII.

General

success.

I seek a word; wafted is too weak, jolted is too strong, for some parts of our journey, though ridiculously lacking in expression for others-well, conveyed from Bekul, now in men-carried conveyances, the cunning bearers with their plaintive, by no means unmelodious moaning, keeping step, giving us an idea of the tremendous labour they were undergoing, and reminding us of a certain journey which we must all make once; now on men's shoulders; now in bullock bandy, speed about two miles an hour, thanks to a brutal breach of contract, which has upset my plans terribly; now in Indian railway carriages, average speed ten miles an hour, temperature of carriage at noon unknown; and lastly in the horse transit of the Madras Carrying Company. Oh that their carriages were as good as their arrangements and the speed of their horses! And now, here I am shivering, surrounded by hoar-frost, with a soupçon of a difficulty of breathing in this higher air after the dense atmosphere of the jungles, but all the same in an earthly paradise with hedges of roses, although it is mid-winter, the whole place a perfect garden. I am at Ootacamund, at an elevation of some 7,000 feet, with an Australian fauna around me; and within a few hours I hope to see Janssen, who is still here; Tennant, Herschel, and Hennessy I have unfortunately missed, owing to the breach of contract already referred to.

We can all of us, or nearly all of us, afford to laugh now at any inconveniences we have suffered; for of the eleven who landed at Galle nine have seen the eclipse, some of us perhaps as an eclipse has never been seen before. Unfortunately, to the regret of all, Mr. Abbay and Mr. Friswell, who were among the best prepared for doing good work, and were at a station at which everybody said cloudless weather was certain, found themselves on the 12th in a storm of cloud and mist, which obscured the sun for, I believe, the whole day. With this exception the telegrams from all the English parties have been sent regularly; while we have all been thankful to learn from the telegrams

which Dr. Janssen and Colonel Tennant have had the CH. XXII. great courtesy to send me, that they too saw the eclipse well, as also did Mr. Pogson, as I gather from the newspapers; but of course the details of their observations are still unknown to me. Hence, I can only give the facts observed by the party at Bekul and Poodocottah; Prof. Respighi, who observed at that station, having joined me at Pothanore, the station on the Madras Railway, at the foot of the hills which we ascended yesterday from 4.30 A.M. till I P.M.

But before I say a word about the observations themselves, it is incumbent upon me to express our deep obligations to the Supreme, Madras, and Ceylon Governments for the magnificent manner in which they have aided us. Noble aid. Nothing could be more complete than the arrangements at Bekul made by the Collector, Mr. Webster, and his assistant, Mr. McIvor, both for the work to be done and the comfort of those who had to do it. The same must be said for the Poodocottah party, where not only the Collector, Mr. Whiteside, but the Rajah did everything in their power, the latter loading the observers with presents when they left. We have at present heard only of the discomforts of the Manantoddy party, and it is clear that here the local arrangements were in strong contrast to those elsewhere. The Ceylon parties, who parted from the main body at Galle, have doubtless been well looked after: as Captain Fyers, the Surveyor-General of the island, accompanied and aided them in their observations.

This brings us to another part of the arrangements. The Ceylon party had the unreserved use of the Government steamer the Serendib, to take them from Galle to their places of observation, Jaffna and Trincomalee, both on the coast, and the accommodation on board was perfect. The Indian parties proceeded to their various destinations, or the ports on the coast nearest to them, in the Admiral's flag-ship the Glasgow, which, however, could not remain to bring them back- a circumstance which has given rise to

CH. XXII. very considerable inconvenience and great risk for the instruments, which are now scattered all along the line, to be sent to the coast and from the coast to Bombay or Galle, as circumstances may determine. This of course was not to be helped, and we must hope for the best, especially as all the parties have done their utmost in superintending their repacking, and handing them over in perfect condition to the different Government officers who accompanied each party. Still, although it was not to be avoided, the withdrawal of the ship has been the unfortunate circumstance in the arrangements. Nothing could exceed the kindness of the Admiral, who vacated his own. quarters to give us room; of Captain Jones, who took the warmest interest in our proceedings, and helped the arrangements greatly; and of the officers of the ship generally. Without the equal kindness of Mr. Webster at Bekul, the step from the Admiral's cabin into the jungle hut would have been a seven-league one.

Stations

and personnel of the parties.

I will at once state the general arrangements of the parties, and what I at present know of the observations. The stations and observers as finally arranged were as follows:— Bekul-Analysing Spectroscope, Captain Maclear and Mr. Pringle. Polariscope, Dr. Thomson. Photography,

Mr. Davis.

Manantoddy-Analysing Spectroscope, Mr. Friswell. Integrating Spectroscope, Mr. Abbay.

Poodocottah-Spectroscope, Professor Respighi. Sketches of Corona, Mr. Holiday.

Jaffna-Integrating Spectroscope, Capt. Fyers. Polariscope, Captain Tupman and Mr. Lewis.

Captain Hogg.

Trincomalee

Ferguson.

Photography,

Spectroscope, Mr. Moseley and Mr.

Besides these observers, we had at Bekul the valuable. assistance of General Selby, commanding the troops in Canara and Malabar (for whose help in supplying guards' tents, &c., the friends of Science cannot be too thankful),

Colonel Farewell, Judge Walhouse, and others, in sketch- CH. XXII. ing the corona. At all stations, of course, most precious help in various ways was given by all present who volunteered for the various duties, though some of them lost a sight of the eclipse in consequence. Among those who helped in this way at Bekul were Mr. M'Ivor, Mr. Pringle, Captain Bailey, who timed the eclipse, Mr. Cherry, and Capt. Christie, the Superintendent of Police, whose presence there turned out to be of the most serious value; for the natives, seeing in the eclipse the great monster Rahoo devouring one of their most sacred divinities, not only howled and moaned in the most tremendous manner, but set fire to the grass between our telescopes and the sun, to propitiate the representative of the infernal gods. Captain Christie with his posse of police stopped this sacrifice at the right moment, and no harm was done.

observa

tions.

Now for the observations. Perhaps I may be permitted Detail of to begin with my own, as at the present moment I know most about them. I determined to limit my spectroscopic observations to the spectrum of a streamer and to Young's stratum, thereby liberating a number of seconds which would enable me to determine the structure of the undoubted corona with a large refractor; to observe the whole phenomena with the naked eye, and through a train of prisms with neither telescope nor collimator; and finally with a Savart and biquartz. I found the 120 seconds gave me ample time for all this, but owing to a defect in the counterpoising of my large reflector, which disturbed the rate of my clock, I missed the observation of the bright line stratum (assuming its existence) at the first contact. At the last contact Mr. Pringle watched for it and saw some lines.

Having missed this, I next took my look at the corona. It was as beautiful as it is possible to imagine anything to be. Strangely weird and unearthly did it look-that strange sign in the heavens! What impressed me most about it, in my momentary glance, was its serenity. I don't know why