Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 69.djvu/264

248 tion and were conveyed by rail, free of cost, up to Pamplemousses, and back again after the eclipse was over. Free passes on all the railways of the island were also issued to me, and to Mrs. Maunder, who had accompanied me with a special instrumental equipment of her own. The military authorities also rendered great assistance. Lieutenant-Colonel H. J. Lyster, R.G.A., gave permission to nine non-commissioned officers of the garrison, who had volunteered for the purpose, to come down to assist in the eclipse observations. Of these, five also helped in the unpacking and erection of the instru- ments, and one, Staff-Sergeant R. M. Smith, A.O.C., gave great assistance in the cleaning, repair, and rating of the several driving- clocks. The expedition was also indebted to the Hon. Hamilton Stein, who undertook the re-shipping of the instruments for the home- ward voyage; to Mr. G. Ireland, who supplied tarpaulins for covering the skeleton huts erected to shelter the instruments; to Captain A. W. de Wilton, Inspector-General of Police, who sent constables to keep the Observatory grounds from intrusion on the morning of the eclipse, and to Mr. D. P. Garrioch, Superintendent of Inland Revenue, who arranged for the greater part of the provisioning of the eclipse party during their stay at the Observatory.

Itinerary. The instruments for the Mauritius expedition were despatched from the Royal Observatory on March 6, with the excep- tion of the prisms and object-glass of the prismatic camera lent by Mr. John Evershed, F.R.A.S., which I took to Marseilles with my personal baggage. The instruments were embarked at the Royal Albert Docks on the ss. " Bagdad " of the Messageries Maritimes line, and tran- shipped from that vessel to the ss. " Melbourne " of the same line at Marseilles. I left London on March 23, and proceeded overland through France to Marseilles. Owing to the great dock strike then prevailing at Marseilles, the ss. " Melbourne " was not able to leave until the evening of March 26. The delay was, however, made up for by greater speed on the voyage, and Mauritius was reached on April 20, as had been originally expected. The return voyage was unexpectedly delayed, as the Messageries line quarantined the island on account of the plague there, and the Union-Castle steamers having ceased to run to Mauritius, in consequence of the South African war, the British India line rid Colombo was the sole remaining homeward route, and even on this line the steamers only ran once a month. It was not possible, therefore, to leave Mauritius again until July 12, when I embarked on the ss. " Warbra " ; reaching Colombo on July 22. Here I had to wait until July 25, when I left by the ss. " Mombassa," also of the British India line, and reached London August 25. The instruments left Mauritius in the ss. " Slingsby " on July 12, and were received at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, on September 10.

Station. The station occupied was the Royal Alfred Observatory,