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always a friend of science and scientific men-and it would be simply ungrateful not to acknowledge here his kindness in preparing the way for us, by writing on

tor's house, and conversation, music, and the dance fill up the remainder of the evening, until midnight sends them to rest. The few days I spent there remain in

The Russian Government Observatory at Pulkowa.

our behalf to the Foreign Office at St. Petersburg.

The observatory circle is a pretty large one, comprising not only the families of the director and the four astronomers, but also of several adjunct astronomers and aids of various kinds, who all live within the walls. Many of them are connected by intermarriage or relationship with Struve himself, and isolated as they are to some extent from the rest of the world, they form a little world of their own, with their own intimate and delightful social life.

During the long summer evening a merry group of young folks-and some of the older ones with them-engage in various games in the open air, ringspiel, barlauf (or prisoner's base) and croquet (which is still in vogue there) being especial favorites-tennis does not yet seem to have arrived in Russia. Then, when the darkness slowly gathers and the dew begins to fall, they all collect in the spacious parlor of the direc

my memory as among the pleasantest of my life: it was with a real sense of loss and pain that I bade farewell-Auf Wiedersehen -to the little group, the pretty children, the brighteyed girls, the refined and gracious ladies, the cordial, thoughtful, scholarly fathers, and the energetic young men who

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are coming up to make good the fathers' places. On Thursday Mr. Turner, of Greenwich, and our German friends from Potsdam, were at the observatory, as well as a number of other foreign astronomers, all bound for the eclipse. We were seventeen at the dinner table, speaking seven different languages, Russian, German, French, English, Italian, and Spanish, with now and then a little Latin to help things out. To Struve had been confided by the Academy of Sciences the office of assigning stations to the different visiting astronomers, and arranging matters so as to secure the greatest convenience and efficiency. It must have been a very laborious and delicate task, and of course involved an enormous amount of correspondence as well as personal intercourse with the hundred or more foreigners who gathered themselves, for their disappointment, all along the track of the shadows.

I have not spoken of the many inter

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esting things to be seen in the Pulkowa
Observatory itself. It is full of them.
The library alone is enough to occupy
one for a long time, rich as it is in old
astronomical manuscripts, and among
them a great number by Tycho Brahe
and Kepler-largely astrological. We
were shown the horoscope of Wallen-
stein, with the elaborate and detailed

try by the Clarks; but the mounting of the instrument is the chef-d'œuvre of the Repsolds, and is a miracle of ingenuity and accurate workmanship. In its main features it resembles the Strassburg instrument, but with some important modifications. Unlike any other in existence, it can be managed and directed, not only from the eye end, as is

now the case with all large equatorials, but also from a platform on the pier which supports the mounting. An assistant here, at the lower extremity of the polar axis, with his note-book and chronometer before him, without stirring from his seat, can read both the Right Ascension and Declination of the instrument, or direct it to any given object -and that without interfering in any way with the ability of the observer at the eye end to control the instrument for himself if he wishes to do so. Though much larger than the great Vienna telescope, or that at Washington, it is certainly much handier than either of them. The immense dome, or rather drum, in which it is mounted, is over 60 feet in diameter, and is operated with perfect ease-by electricity. A storage battery of 50 cells is charged from time to time by a dynamo, and the machinery of the dome is driven by an electric motor, controlled by means of a switchboard.

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Great Dome of the Pulkowa Observatory.

discussion of its significance, and Wal-
lenstein's own notes, written upon it
here and there and commenting upon
the fulfilment or the reverse of its pre-
dictions. There is a museum of old
astronomical instruments, and in the
rotunda an extensive series of authen-
tic portraits of great astronomers and
patrons of the science. We were glad
to see in an honorable place among the
newer pictures the likeness of our own
Professor Newcomb, thus far the only
American, I believe, in the august as-
semblage.

For the most part the instruments of
the observatory have been in place since
its foundation, and are so well known,
from figures and descriptions, that they
seemed like old acquaintances. But the
great 30-inch telescope has only been
mounted some two years, and was natu-
rally an object of extreme interest to

us.

The object-glass, as every American proudly knows, was made in this coun

Our week in St. Petersburg was an extremely interesting one, but our pleasure was marred by anxieties. Up to our arrival there, we had had almost uninterrupted fine weather; but now there were signs of a breaking up. Showers became frequent and violent, and the sky was lowering most of the time. Leaving the ladies of the party to follow

later with a courier, the gentlemen started on Monday evening (August 15) in company with Dr. Struve, who was to occupy a station not very far from us. The place he had selected for our observations was at Ustpenskoïe, a country seat some eight miles east of Rschew, a city of about 20,000 inhabitants, situated on the upper (but still navigable) Volga, at the terminus of a railway which branches off to the southwest from the main line between St. Petersburg and Moscow, leaving it at Ostaschkowo, a point about 130 miles northwest from Moscow.

The place had been offered to Dr. Struve for the use of the American party by its owners, two wealthy young married ladies, Madame Olga Nieskowski, and Madame Vera Tchernicheff, to whom I desire here to offer our most hearty and respectful thanks for their liberal kindness in the matter. They were not there themselves during our stay, as they reside with their husbands (who are officers in the Government service), one of them at Warsaw and the other at Torschok, and only occasionally visit the homestead for a summer outing. But they placed the whole establishment at our service, and arranged with M. Nieskowski, of Rschew, a connection by marriage, to come to the house, and do the honors as host. To him we owe more than we can well express for the hearty cordiality with which he welcomed and entertained us. A young officer of engineers, Captain Witkowski, had also been detailed by the War Department, at his own request, though at Struve's suggestion, to come to our station with his orderly, to assist us in our preparations, and to take upon himself the labor of the time-determinations; which was no small matter, involving as it did three or four night journeys over a roadless country to the telegraph office at Rschew, through rain and storm. We have much to be grateful for to many other Russians, but toward Captain Witkowski our feelings go deeper. We admired him for his ability and manly energy, his elevated character, and his remarkable accomplishments as a cultivated gentleman, but we learned to love him sincerely as the kindest and most unselfish of friends.

We reached our station on Tuesday noon, having dropped Struve at Torschok. The Captain, who arrived the day before, had had our boxes brought over from the railway, and had engaged the necessary laborers, so that after lunch we proceeded at once to unpack. We found everything, with few and very slight exceptions, in perfect order, and in spite of the lowering sky we had our apparatus mostly in position before it was dark. We placed our instruments in the yard north of the house, only a few rods away, so that in case of rain we could bring the delicate pieces quickly under shelter.

The house itself is a large modern brick structure, as the illustration shows. The lower floor is mostly devoted to the servants and the housekeeping department, while the upper floor contains a library and a number of plainly furnished sleeping-rooms, where we made our own quarters. The middle floor, however, containing the great hall, the parlors, the dining-room and the ladies' boudoir, is elegantly furnished. To the south the windows look out upon a large park and garden, at present perhaps a little less trimly kept than when the house was the house of the family, but still very beautiful. To the north is the kitchen garden and the yard I have spoken of, and a large open space of six or eight acres, around which are arranged the houses of the steward and some of the workmen, as well as the granaries and stables. Not far away, in a hollow, are seen the roofs of the little village in which most of the peasants of the estate have their houses; beyond, a mile and a half or so distant, lies the railway track. I do not know the size and value of the estate. It is certainly large, for the Captain said that the ladies were "schrecklich reich."

We were very anxious to have pleasant weather before the eclipse in order to adjust our instruments and make some preliminary trials and observations. But Wednesday was dull and threatening all day, so that we could do nothing more than to complete the erection of our instruments. Thursday morning was clear for a short time just after sunrise, and I obtained a few sextant readings; but before the sun was

high enough to allow any spectroscopic or photographic work, it had clouded again, and the rest of the day was a repetition of Wednesday, enlivened only by the arrival of our ladies about noon.

In the evening some friends of M. Nieskowski came over from Rschew to see our instruments and operations, and about ten o'clock the clouds broke and the stars appeared. Naturally our spirits rose. The Captain put out his instrument and began a series of observations, while our party gathered in one of the lower rooms, and the ladies went through their drill with the instrument which they were to operate. But our exultation was short-lived: in less than

progress, though the sun was still invisible. The gloom began to thicken, and as totality approached, became more and more oppressive. A few minutes before the totality the increase of the darkness was somewhat rapid, and to appearance not steady, but pulsatory. At the moment when the sun was finally covered, there was not that sudden fall of darkness which is usually so impressive, and we could not be sure of the critical instant, within a quarter of a minute; at the close of the totality, some two minutes later, the access of light was on the other hand so sudden that the three observers agreed upon that instant within a fraction of a second. The obscurity at the

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count their beads and cross themselves when the darkness was most intense, and there was an audible expression of relief when the light suddenly increased again. We learned afterward that the priests along the line of the eclipse had been telling the people some very queer stories. One of them was that "Anti-Christ had come over from America to darken the sun, and that this would be followed immediately by the resurrection of the dead and the end of the world." Captain Witkowski told us that he had taken pains to explain matters to the people about our station; his position as an officer of the Czar enabling him to counteract the influence of the priests, as no private person could have done.

After the totality was over, we still remained at our posts in the forlorn hope that possibly the clouds might clear away enough to give us a chance to observe the last contact. In fact, about 7 o'clock there was a momentary opening, through which for a minute or two we dimly saw the watery disk of the sun still half covered by the receding

eclipse was all over by half-past seven, and nothing remained to us but to send some telegrams announcing our defeat, to repack our instruments, and get away as soon as possible. Before night the work was nearly done; the next morning our boxes were started off for Rschew, and about three o'clock we took leave of our kind host and the Captain at the little railway station. And here let me say that everything that could be done was done by the Russians to aid our plans. Our instruments were admitted duty free, and without customs-examination, they were transshipped in St. Petersburg, and transported to our station without our agency and at very reasonable rates, and from there retransported to St. Petersburg; our station was selected for us and all arrangements were made for our free entertainment; and an officer of Engineers was detailed to go down to our station with his orderly, to aid us and look after our comfort.

I may add that, with a few partial exceptions, all the other visiting astrono

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