134 Observations 07i the Annular Solar Eclipse. 



its ball-formed flowers. But these phenomena continued only 

 for a moment. The eclipse completed, and the sun's light and 

 heat radiating once more on universal nature, every object seem- 

 ed to participate in the cheering change. The flowers which 

 had closed, soon yielded to the reviving influence, and expand- 

 ed dieir flowers and leaves ; while those whose natural time of 

 bloom is only during darkness, closed them until the approach 

 of the natural evening. The feathered tribes, as if released from 

 some mysterious thraldom, were again immediately on the wing, 

 and pursuing their wonted and busy occupations ; the whole 

 machinery of nature, in short, which for a few minutes seemed to 

 stop, or at least to be retarded in its movements, again resumed 

 its working, and was beheld in the possession of its wonted 

 energies. 



Observations made with Leslies Photometer during the Annular 

 Eclipse. By Edward Sang, Esq^ 



The predictions of great darkness which were current before 

 the eclipse were not at all warranted by the computations ; du- 

 ring the continuance of the ring, about one-eighth part of the 

 sun's disc was to be exposed, an extent quite sufficient to afford 

 light equal to the ordinary illumination about sunset. A bright 

 sun at noon of a summer day gives an indication of about 150° 

 of Leslie's photometer, and at three o'clock we might expect 

 nearly as much ; the eighth part of that is 17° — eight or ten 

 times the illumination of a well-lighted room. If the sky had 

 been covered with thick clouds, the light, during the greatest 

 obscuration, might have been reduced to a single degree, which 

 still, however, would have been sufficient to allow of reading a 

 small print. 



The observations made on the roof of the New Buildings, 

 North Bridge, fully bore out these expectations. There the in- 

 dications of an excellent photometer were noted every five mi- 

 nutes. Just before the eclipse began the light was 141° ; at 

 the time of the greatest obscuration it fell to 12J° ; just before 

 the eclipse terminated some thin clouds disturbed the observa- 

 tions ; just before they appeared the photometer shewed 117°; 

 after that it sunk to 86°, and rose six minutes after the eclipse 

 terminated to 120|°. 



