The Winter Night. 385 



the watch. \Ye remained thus full two hours without 

 anything occurring. The exciting- moment was now at 

 hand, when, according to calculation, the shadow should 

 first be apparent. Hansen was sitting by the large tele- 

 scope, when he thought he could discern a quivering in 

 the sun's rim ; 33 seconds afterwards he cried out, ' Now ! ' 

 95 did Johansen simultaneously. The watch was then at 

 12 hrs. 56 m. 7'5 s. A dark body advanced over the 

 border of the sun 7^ seconds later than we had cal- 

 culated on. It was an immense satisfaction for us all, 

 especially for Hansen, for it proved our chronometers 

 to be in excellent order. Little by little the sunlight 

 sensibly faded away, while we went below to dinner. 

 At 2 o'clock the eclipse w r as at its height, and we 

 could notice even clown in the saloon how the daylight 

 had diminished. After dinner we observed the moment 

 when the eclipse ended, and the moon's dark disc cleared 

 the rim of the sun. 



" Sunday, April 8th. I was lying awake yesterday 

 morning thinking about getting up, when all at once I 

 heard the hurried footsteps of some one running over the 

 half-deck above me, and then another followed. There 

 was something in those footsteps that involuntarily 

 made me think of bears, and I had a hazy sort of an 

 idea that I ought to jump up out of bed, but I lay 

 still listening for the report of a gun. I heard nothing, 

 however, and soon fell a-dreaming again. Presently 

 Johansen came tearing down into the saloon, crying out 



2 C 



