562 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



other coronas the writer had seen in 1900, and 1901, with their long 

 fish-tail extensions along the sun's equator and short-curved steamers 

 near the sun's poles. In the upper left-hand quadrant huge red flames 

 sixty thousand miles high could be seen with the naked eye, which with 

 a closer view with the telescope resolved themselves into a forest-like 

 structure. These we know are great jets of burning hydrogen gas. 

 Close to the sun the corona was very bright, in fact so bright that the 

 eye was not readily able to take in all the details of the faint streamers. 

 As a pictorial effect without the long equatorial extensions, this corona 

 was much inferior to the two last ones seen. Still it was a magnificent 

 sight, and we were more than thankful for having clear skies to make 

 our observations. 



When totality first started we were each and all of us much too 

 busy to take much notice of our immediate surroundings or even the 

 corona itself. We could not help becoming aware that our Spanish 

 onlookers outside the ropes were appreciating the show in the skies 

 provided for them without expense. From the noise made each one 

 seemed to be telling his neighbor at the top of his voice just how it 

 happened and what there was worth seeing, and this in spite of the 

 fact that the mayor of Daroca had generously provided half a dozen 

 members of the civil guard to preserve order and keep quiet. For the 

 first half minute the din was so great that it was impossible to hear 

 the seconds counted, or to know exactly when to begin and end the 

 exposures of the photographs, for at present-day eclipses all important 

 observations are made by photography. The impressions received by 

 the eye are so fleeting, coming to the observer when he is not in his 

 usual calm, calculating mood, but aroused by excitement and novelty, 

 so that it would be no wonder if in the past mistakes have been made 

 in interpreting the celestial phenomenon. At present-day eclipses, with 

 the aid of the photographic plate, the astronomer devotes his attention 

 to getting a good series of photographs, and after the few minutes of the 

 eclipse are over the plates can be developed and permanent records 

 obtained which can be studied at leisure through weeks, months and 

 perhaps years. When the Spaniards had quieted down, after their first 

 outburst, all that was heard in the eclipse camp was the steady count 

 of the observer calling out the seconds as they passed, the quiet words 

 of the observers giving commands to their assistants and the click, 

 click of the apparatus as exposures were made and plate holders moved. 

 Everything passed off without a hitch, and with the first reappearance 

 of the sun our work was over and we could take a long breath. 



We had been favored with clear skies, how many others were equally 

 fortunate? It did not take us long to find out, for the Spanish gov- 

 ernment had installed right in our camp a telegraph office, and for 

 fifteen days no less than three operators were at our service to send and 



