556 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Catholic Spanish since that time. There is one tower of special inter- 

 est, and still in good state of preservation, which is said to have been 

 built by the Eomans before Saguntum was founded, and it is, there- 

 fore, more than two thousand years old. (The railroad from Valencia 

 passes through Saguntum where Hannibal and the Eomans had their 

 memorable fight in B.C. 238.) 



The Spaniards received us with open arms and did everything in 

 their power to assist in our work and to make our stay in their midst 

 as pleasant as possible. As no one in the place could speak English, 

 it was necessary to make ourselves understood in their language. They 

 did not laugh at our mistakes in grammar or pronunciation, as we 

 might have done in their places, but were always and at all times the 

 souls of politeness and courtesy. 



To help in the erection of the observatory, six sailors were sent in 

 from the Minneapolis, and all hands, astronomers and sailors, worked 

 each day from early morning till late at night, building piers, erecting 

 telescopes with houses to shelter them, mounting spectroscopes, and fix- 

 ing up a meteorological observatory. After the carpenters and ma- 

 chinists had finished their work of construction, it was necessary for 

 the scientists to focus and adjust, to see that everything was in good 

 working order, and to make trial photographs. A few days before the 

 eclipse the party increased in size to thirty-five, officers and sailors hav- 

 ing come up from the ship for the purpose of assisting in the observa- 

 tions. Frequent drills were held in order to familiarize each one with 

 his part and thus to be sure that everything would go right and that no 

 precious seconds would be wasted at the time of the eclipse. 



There are certain things about the sun of which we still know very 

 little: for instance, our information of the corona does not go very far. 

 This wonderful halo, without doubt the most beautiful of all natural 

 phenomena, can be seen only when the sun's light is totally eclipsed. 

 As long as there is a slight trace of the sun's disc to be seen, its light 

 is so overpowering that the corona is obliterated; but the instant the 

 moon completely covers it up, there flashes out instantaneously the 

 gorgeous crown of light to view which is well worth traveling thou- 

 sands of miles. At this eclipse the corona lasted for three minutes and 

 forty-five seconds, and almost with the first reappearance of the sun it 

 was gone. Although this crown must be at all times around the sun, 

 astronomers have not yet become expert enough to make it visible 

 without an eclipse. The shape of the corona, too, is peculiar in that 

 it is in some manner connected with the number of spots on the sun. 

 When there are very few spots, the corona is winged out on either side 

 along the sun's equator, while in the years that the spots are many, 

 the streamers run out at all angles and the corona is more or less square 

 in shape. We have known for more than fifty years that there is some 

 close bond between the number of spots and the amount of magnetism 



