98 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



and Minnesota, of Vancouver's Island, of Canada West, and of the 

 States of Michigan, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, 

 and Massachusetts. 



" A central, or very nearly central, solar eclipse, at any place, is 

 indeed of rare occurrence. At the city of Paris only one takes place 

 in the 133 years between 1767 and 1900, and although in Boston 

 we have been more favored than Paris, the phenomenon in the cen- 

 tury and a quarter between 1775 and 1901, and perhaps many more 

 years, occurs here but four times ; namely, in the annular obscurations 

 of April 2, 1791; May 26, 1854 ; and September 28, 1875; and in 

 that which was total, on June 16, 1806. The eclipse of February 12, 

 1831, was also annular at Nantucket and at Chatham, Cape Cod, but 

 not elsewhere in New England. 



" From computations, the results of which are more particularly 

 given below, it appears that the path of the central eclipse of the 

 26th of May first enters upon the earth in the North Pacific Ocean 

 near the Caroline Islands, in Lat. of about 6|° North, Long. 197° 

 West ; thence taking a northeasterly direction, it touches our con- 

 tinent near Cape Flattery in Washington Territory ; it thence passes 

 over Vancouver's Island, British Oregon, Minnesota, Isle Royale, Lake 

 Superior, Canada West, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and 

 Maine, to the Atlantic, where it leaves the earth in Lat. of about 36°, 

 Long. 52°, having in 3''- 41"- 2P-, the time of its continuance thereon, 

 run over 145| degrees of longitude and 56 of latitude. 



" It, moreover, appears that the duration of the ring, where central, 

 in Washuigton Territory, is four and a half minutes, (which is nearly its 

 longest duration at any place,) and in New York and New England 

 somewhat less than four, although the ring is about ten seconds 

 broader, and the distance between the lines of the northern and south- 

 ern limits of the annular phase about thirty miles greater in the north- 

 eastern than in the northwestern part of the United States. 



" In the Northeastern States, these limits will be well represented by 

 lines drawn on a map, one from the southwestern part of the island of 

 Montreal, over the southern part of the towns of Gardiner and St. George 

 in Maine, to the ocean, and another from Ameliasburg in Canada West, 

 over EUisburg and Saratoga Springs in New York, Bennington, Vt., 

 Leyden, Sterling, Dedham, Marshfield, and Orleans, in Massachusetts. 

 These lines will be nearly parallel, and distant about 145 English miles, 

 and will include between them the northeastern part of New York, 



