The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1937-04-28
NOW
GrOSUeHOrs Off
For Adventure
TRAVEL PLUS!
By HELEN EsSARY


The adventures of DR.. and Mrs.
Gilbert Grosvenor make simple
home life seem simpler still. And
very dull. -.
Now they are about to start off
on another voyage around the
world.
On Saturday morning, DR.. Gros-
venor, who is president of the Ma
, tional Geographic Society, and his
wife-companion on all his long
journeys-will take the train for
San Francisco.
There they will step into the
China Clipper and be whisked
away on this modern Magic Car
pet to far-away fields.
Their first stop will be Homo
lulu. Arriving in the nick OF time
to say Bon voyage" and our
Blessing" to the National Geo
graphic U. S. Navy Solar Eclipse
Expedition leaving that night for
South Pacific islands.
Next stop will be the Midway
Islands and next, Wake Island.
Then Guam, where the Interna-
tional Date Line crosses the Pa
cific. Going west at this point
travellers lose day. Coming east
they gain one.
Manila, Hong Kong, will be the
Grosvenors' next ports Of call.
Then steamer to Shanghai, where
DR.. and Mrs. Grosvenor'S daughter,
Mrs. Cabot Coville, will be waiting.
Mr.. Coville is second secretary at
the American embassy at Tokyo.
Mrs. Coville will fly with her
parents to the head of the Yangtze
River and come down by steamer
to Chung King Gall the names
sound like fairy tale spots to mel.
A few days in Marking and Peip-
ing and DR.. and Mrs. GrosVenor
will start for Manchuria, Korea
and South Japan. In Japan they
will remain until July l, and then
turn home undoubtedly refreshed
and cheered by their wanderlngs.
Both DR.. and Mrs. GroSvenor
will start for the other end of the
remotest continent at the droy of
the hat. They are experienced and
wise travellers.
Mrs. Grosvenor has climbed to
the summit of great mountains,
among them Fujiyama, 10000 feet
high, and Mauna Loa, $4,000 feet
high.
Mauna Loa is the biggest, fier-
cest volcano in the world. It was
sweet tempered when DR.. and Mrs.
Grosvenor rode muleback up its
sides. Even at their most placid,
volcanoes are no temptation to
me.
Mrs. GroSvenor crossed Siberia
when it was harder going than it
is nowadays. She's been through
Arabia and Palestine and South
America. Five times has she flown
across the continent and back.
DR.. Grosvenor confeSSeS to only
three tranScontinental flights. In
deed, he says this next journey is
Mrs. GroSvenor's trip. She likes
flying so much that he is taking
the Clipper just to please her.
The Eclipse Expedition of the
National Geographic and the U.
S. Navy is prepared for assorted
thrills. In the converted Navy mine
sweeper, Avocet, the scientists, di-
rected by DR.. Lyman j. Briggs of
the National Geographic, DR.. S. A.
Mitchell of the Leander McCor-
mick Observatory at the Univer
sity of Virginia. and Captain j.
HellWeg, Superintendent of the
u. S. Naval Observatory will go ID
one of the Phoenix Islands to
await June and the longest
eclipse( seven minutes) of the sun
visible from the earth in 1000
years.
The eclipse will "end the day
before it starts" It's path will cross
the International Date Line in the
midi Pacific, so that it will begin
on June 8, but end on June 8. =
Charles Bittinger, member of
the expedition, will do the fastest
and most furious job of picture
making in his long career when he
undertakes to paint the eclipse.
The eclipse will last for seven min
utes when viewed from the ocean
but only four minutes from the
Phoenix Islands.
Mr.. Bittinger will paint four
partially-complete pictures in ad-
vance, one with a purple sky, an
other with blue sky, another
blue-green and fourth gray. He
believes the sky is certain to be one
of these four colors.
Each of the preliminary pictures
also will have, in its center, the
black disk of the moon already
painted in, four inches in diameter.
Around the moon in each picture,
Mr.. Bittinger will paint a tenta-
tive representation of the corona,
the pearly halo surrounding the
sun which is visible only during
O. total eclipse. Then when the &C.
tual eclipse comes, he will hastily
select the proper sketch to begin
on.
Ende1oury and Canton, islands
of the Phoenix group, two tiny
coral atolls, are the only bits of
land in the entire 8,800-mile path
of the eclipse on which the phe-
nomenon can be seen.
Personally, I AM as childlike
about eclipses and other such
eccentricities of the heavens as
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