ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 383 



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on a great scale. The change which takes place in less than a tenth 

 of a second so entirely alters the scene, that the second which pre- 

 cedes the instant of total obscuration gives one no idea of what is to 

 follow. Some seconds elapsed before I had my thoughts sufficiently 

 about me to remove the screen from the eye-piece. What I then saw, 

 it is utterly beyond my power of language adequately to express. The 

 corona of white light which encircled the dark body of the moon 

 resembled the aureola, or glory, by which painters designate the per- 

 son of the Saviour, its radiations extending from the circumference to a 

 distance equal to about one half of the sun's diameter. I suppose it 

 must be some peculiarity in its light which gives such a strange 

 aspect to all natural objects seen by it. How shall I attempt to 

 describe those other wonders ? The rose-colored flames, which, at the 

 same instant with the corona, appeared on the sun's edge. The sight 

 filled me with unmingled, inexpressible admiration. An arch of light 

 like a rainbow connected two of them, not so bright as they were. 

 The scene was as surpassingly beautiful as it was awful and grand. In 

 a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, it bursts upon the sight the 

 most sublime of all that we are permitted to see of the glory of the 

 material creation. An hour before I should have been as sceptical 

 about all this as many others may now be. Without seeing what I 

 did I should never thoroughly have believed. I had a vague concep- 

 tion, founded on what I had read of the eclipse in 1842, that some- 

 thing unusual would take place at the moment when the sun disappeared. 

 But had a new sun appeared in the heavens, I could scarcely have 

 been more taken by surprise than I was when I saw these flame-like 

 prominences projecting from the inner edge of the corona. My eye 

 was at the telescope, with the exception of a glance or two about me 

 at the landscape shrouded in darkness, the whole time during which 

 the total phase continued. They were seen, however, by many with 

 the naked eye. Before the end of totality, the left hand flame disap- 

 peared entirely ; perhaps was covered by the advancing limb of the 

 moon. Those on the side which the moon was first to leave increased, 

 until the moment before the edge of the sun appeared ; when the rosy 

 light was sufiused over the limb of the moon, near where the sun-light 

 first broke forth, and then all vanished as quickly as it had first 

 appeared. The light of day had no sooner returned than I went to my 

 room to record all I had seen. I only stopped to notice the shadow of 

 the moon to the south-east, where the sky was black as night, while 

 we were already in the sunbeams. I had scarcely reached my lodg- 

 ings, long before the last contact, when the sun entered the bank of 

 clouds in the west, and was soon concealed from our sight ; but all 

 that we could desire was secured already. It was noticed that during 

 the eclipse the flowers of the ' Hesperis matinalis^ which give forth 

 their perfume only at evening, smelled sweetly during the period of 

 darkness. Some of the cows and horses were stupid enough to feed 

 quietly through the whole. Of the birds, the swallows were most 

 affected, seeking to hide themselves in great numbers in the bushes, 

 and under the eaves of the houses." 



