Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/296

 entific dircclor. IVettj- full accouals of the expedition, its objects, methods, and results, have already been published ia Science, vol. i., at pp. 29!j and 5M, and vol. ii. p. 237.

Some idea of the magnitude of the under- tnking may be gained nhen it is known, that, in addition to the elaliorate home preparations of the instruments and apparatus for special- ized iDvestigatiODs, the observers were absent from the t'nited States more than three months, during the moat of which they wej'e travelling (some fifteen thousand milea, in all), and that ten full week.'* were piisswi m sea.

Th..■^ ■.. ■ ■■■■■ ■■' . ■... ■, ■■ ,'

���NCM. [Vol. v.. 31

wisely devoted themselves to the study of the island in everj- particular ; and their researches, although secondary to the main purpose of the

exiwdition, have quite as much of interest as, if they are not of e^jual imjxirtance with, the results |>ertainiQg purely to the eclipse. First, Professor Holdcn gives iis the history of the island ; from which we learn that it was first seen in 1 795, that it was once known as Thorn- ton Island, and that in ISfiS Capt. Nares, R.N.. took possession of it for the British. Ten years later guano was exported from the island. — !iii item of intiTest when connected with the ■ '. ■ I ■ lor the deposits, the for-

���BOmewhere on a sm.iU group of Islands, about which nothing of importance could i>e ascer- tiiined boiorehttud, save the bare fact of their existence at a known spot in mid-ocean. The whole undertaking, however, was accomplished without a mishap of any kind occurring to in- terfere with the success of the work.

On the morning of the eclipse there were three rain -showers, and several persistent banks of clonds. The critical moments of tj>tality. however, were passed with an un- clouded sky ; and the observations of the par- ties were successful, owing to the apparent accident of the dissipation of a local cloud.

So little was known of Caroline Island, that Professor Ilolden and the members of his party

��mer owners of the island came u[>on native laaraia, or burial-places, numbering altogether fiftj', in which they found stone axes and relics of various sorts.

The island, as it was in 1883, is well described by Professor Ilolden and Lieut. Qualtrough, the former quoting from Dana's 'Coral uid coral islands,' and Darwin's • Voyage of the Beagle,' their accounts of typical coral atolls. By supplementing these descriptions with Uie statement that Caroline Island is in general ft pear-shaped ring of islets encircling a lagoon, the characteristic features of the islands be- come iwrfeclly understood. A few facts from Lieut. Qualtrough's paper will be of interest : that there are, in all, twenty-five islets, well

��I

��� �