the army engineers, one of the navy, and a
photographer. The former were Lieutenant Thomas L. Casey, Jr., Corps
of Engineers, U. S. A., and Lieutenant J. H. L. Holcombe, U. S. N.
We took a Cunard steamer for Liverpool about the middle of September,
1882, and transported our instruments by rail to Southampton, there
to have them put on the Cape steamship. At Liverpool I was guilty
of a remissness which might have caused much trouble. Our apparatus
and supplies, in a large number of boxes, were all gathered and
piled in one place. I sent one of my assistants to the point to
see that it was so collected that there should be no possibility
of mistake in getting it into the freight car designed to carry it
to Southampton, but did not require him to stay there and see that
all was put on board. When the cases reached Southampton it was
found that one was missing. It was one of the heaviest of the lot,
containing the cast-iron pier on which the photoheliograph was to
be mounted. While it was possible to replace this by something else,
such a course would have been inconvenient and perhaps prejudicial.
The steamer was about to sail, but would touch at Plymouth next day.
Only one resource was possible. I telegraphed the mistake to
Liverpool and asked that the missing box be sent immediately by
express to Plymouth. We had the satisfaction of seeing it come on
board with the mail just as the steamer was about to set sail.

We touched first at Madeira, and then at Ascension Island, the latter
during the night. One of the odd things in nomenclature is that this
island, a British naval station, was not called such officially,
but was a "tender to Her Majesty's ship Flora," I believe. It had
become astronomically famous a few years before by Gill's observations
of the position of Mars to determine the solar parallax.

We touched six hours at St. Helena, enough to see the place, but
scarcely enough to make a visit to the residence of Napoleon, even had
we desired to see it. The little town is beautifully situated, and
the rocks around are very imposing. My most vivid recollection is,
however, of running down from the top of a rock some six hundred or
eight hundred feet high, by a steep flight of steps, without stopping,
or rather of the consequences of this imprudent gymnastic performance.
I could scarcely move for the next three days.

Cape Town was then suffering from an epidemic of smallpox, mostly
confined to the M