THE LICK OBSERVATORY-CROCKER ECLIPSE EXPEDITION TO EGYPT. By W. J. HUSSEY. To be charged with the conduct of an eclipse expedition is a duty always prized by the astronomer, not only for the opportunity it gives to see and study a rare and beautiful phenomenon, but also for the advantages which come from voyages to far parts of the Earth, the experience of new and varied conditions, and the meeting with others who likewise journey to an unique errand. It therefore afforded me great pleasure to be intrusted with the expedition sent out by the Lick Observatory to Egypt, a country full of interest in and for itself, and with a background of history the most remarkable known to the world. Accompanied by Mrs. HUSSEY, I left California early in June for a short holiday season in Switzerland and Italy. The equipment for the Egyptian expedition was brought later with that of the expedition to Spain, by Professor PERRINE, from New York to Naples, where I met him on the arrival of the steamship "Romanic," on the 19th of July. The Egyptian freight was transferred by lighter to the custom-house, where it remained for a week in bond, until the next sailing for Alexandria. A distinctive endeavor of the Lick Observatory at the recent eclipse was, in addition to an extensive programme of photographic, spectrographic, and polarigraphic work to be carried on at the central station in Spain, to secure comparative data respecting coronal changes and possible intramercurial planets by the establishment of terminal stations in Egypt and the Labrador. This fact gave triple interest to our undertaking, keeping constantly in mind the thought of our colleagues at the other stations, and especially the contrast between our conditions on the tropical borders with those of the Labrador under the Arctic Circle. There were no icebergs to skirt our path as our fruit-laden ship steamed through the Strait of Messina and down the blue Mediterranean, four days to the south from Naples. No snow lay in gullies, nor heavy mists hid the headlands when we again sighted land. The yellow shores of Africa stretched long and low in the face of a cloudless dawn. The yellow bluffs at the right were penciled with thin palms, erect, campanulate, like the wands that Cleopatra's women held before her when, in these very waters, she came down to meet the Roman galleys. But the lantern of the Pharos on the left, far less kin to the ancient world, brought us sharply back to the present day and the modern city of Alexandria before us, Oriental only in its thronging street-life and in all the costumes and colors of the East. The floating dock was adjusted by brown men in baggy trousers and various headgears, whose contrasting features betrayed a dozen different tribes or nationalities. Scarcely was the ship moored when there appeared on the deck two Englishmen, who came to us as directly as old acquaintances, Captain H. G. LYONS, R. E., Director-General of the Survey Department, Egypt, and one of his Inspectors, Mr. B. F. E. KEELING, now the Acting Director of the Helwan Observatory. Thereupon began the pleasantest experience of being personally conducted" we have known, an experience lasting to the day of our leaving this delightful land. The numberless courtesies afforded us by Captain LYONS and his staff were, he assured us, "by order of the Egyptian Government." Certainly we wish that the powers responsible might know how thoroughly all the visiting expeditions appreciated the favors of which they were the recipients during their stay in the country of the Nile. 66 In Cairo we passed some days, during which Professor TURNER arrived from Oxford, and later Mr. BELLAMY with the British expedition freight. Our colleague-to-be, Professor ROBERT H. WEST, of the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, here joined us, and we perfected our plans and arrangements for the station work at Aswan. The American expedition was favored with some delightful courtesies, notably from Mr. FREDERICK GRINNELL MORGAN, Consul-Gerant of the United States, and from the Bureau of Antiquities, the Railway Administration, and various members of the Survey Department staff. We were taken by Government launch to the great Delta and Aswan Barrages, and in seeing the Pyramids and the most interesting points in and about Cairo, at Luxor and Aswan, were never left to the mercy of the dragoman. Professor WEST, as well as Captain LYONS and his engineers, spoke Arabic fluently, with the result that our impression of the Egyptians throughout our stay was of quite a different nature from that of the ordinary traveler. Three expeditions, Russian, British, and American, were expected to arrive in Cairo during the first week of August, and Captain LYONS had arranged that all should go together by the through train of the evening of Monday, the 7th, arriving at Aswan the following afternoon. The Russians, however, were delayed, and leaving Mr. DICKINSON to meet and escort them later, Captain LYONS, with Mr. KEELING, accompanied the others as planned. The train which awaited us was well equipped, and the night passed in comfort, with only the regret that in our rapid travel we were missing the sight of the vastly interesting country of the Lower Nile Basin. In the morning we passed Sohag, reminiscent of the eclipse of 1882, when the first photographic comet was found on the plates obtained by the British expedition. Our journey was hot and dusty, of course, for this was Egypt and the month was August. But we had suffered worse in New York from humid heat, and on the Western plains from alkaline dust. However, our impressions here were not what they might have been but for Captain LYONS's thoughtfulness. He knew Upper Egypt and the "Soudan thirst." Therefore, we were especially supplied with fruit and drink for the last stages of the desert from Luxor. Here the railway changes from standard to narrow-gauge. The dining-car and the comfortable sleeper are left behind, and we have instead a queer-looking train of double-sided and double-roofed cars, those of the first class having two compartments, equipped with easy leather-bottomed chairs, movable, but ranged along the outer walls, facing each other. Half the car was assigned to our party, and, with our ice-boxes, provision-baskets, and pith helmets, we filled it, just. All the afternoon we were thinking of the work ahead of us in the heat, the full force of which we were only now beginning to realize. The desert ran to the river's edge, shimmering in the sun, or melting back toward the distant cliffs into a blue mirage of false lakes and lagoons. Interest grew as we approached Kom Ombo, where the edge of the eclipse shadow would pass. It was the height of the afternoon, and we went out to dicker with the Arabs for white grapes. A "bolis (policeman) stood patron to each bargain, signaling the passenger what was fair and compelling the Arab to give full weight. We returned to the relief of the blue-windowed car, putting our grapes to cool in the ice-water. Later came Khatara, where the Russian expedition expected to stop, as it was on the central line of the eclipse. We looked at the little sun-dried town and predicted that the Russians would follow us to Aswan, wondering meanwhile what we should find there. What we did find was a shining city,dried mud and Arab shacks in the rear, to be sure, but twoand three-storied in front and white-painted by Kitchener's decree, with such a water-front as no other Upper Egyptian town can boast, though little they like him for it. Directly in front of Aswan lies Elephantine, the long island. at the foot of the First Cataract, with the Savoy Hotel conspicuous on its north point. Arrangements had been made by Captain LYONS for the accommodation of the several expeditions at this hotel, which is usually closed at this season. Thither we were at once transferred by sail-boats which were waiting just below the station. Here indeed was no Khatara, but a European hostelry, in pleasant gardens, past which the river swept on either side in strong current, for the time of flood was approaching. Our first desire was to prospect for sites for our stations. In the sunset Captain LYONS, Professor TURNER, Professor WEST, and the writer took a brisk walk through the native villages and the dhurra-fields to the upper end of the island, where the remains of ancient Elephantine rise in mounds of stratified débris, formed as one century built upon the crumbling ruins of the preceding. Here there are Roman fragments, too, of TRAJAN'S time. Perchance besides these very columns. JUVENAL may have watched that Sun go down, reflecting upon the clever irony of his honorable exile. But no less to him than to us the Pharaohs were dead and Yebu forgotten, and the princes of Elephantine slumbered in their rock-hewn tombs. As a result of our tour of inspection we came to the con |