M.-P.— Vol. I.] DAVIDSON— APPARENT PROJECTION, ETC. 91 



disappeared it was instantaneous, and gone forever. The 

 moving dots of the " Baily's beads' were absolutely- 

 wanting. At the last contact of the eclipse the atmospheric 

 conditions were wholly changed. The atmosphere was in 

 a remarkable state of undulation and the limbs of the Moon 

 and Sun were moving in great rapid waves, and the obser- 

 vation was unsatisfactory. The Sun set below the ocean 

 horizon about ten minutes later and we should have ex- 

 pected a quiet atmosphere, but the warm Sun rays heating 

 the air upon the steep, snow-covered ocean-side of the 

 mountain mass caused rapid evaporation of the snow, and 

 irregularly heated currents of air to flow over the station. 

 At this eclipse we called attention to the less darkness of the 

 sky adjacent to the advancing body of the Moon, due to 

 contrast with coronal effects. 



At the solar eclipse of October 30, 1883, we projected 

 the images of the Sun and Moon upon a sheet of white 

 paper, and studied the disturbed outline of both objects. 

 The greatest obscuration occurred just before sunset, when 

 the Moon was half way over the Sun's disc. Owing to the 

 extreme refraction at this zenith distance, and the "exceed- 

 ingly great boiling" of the borders of the two images, the 

 "distortion of the cusps was striking and peculiar." 



In contrast with these two exhibitions of great atmospheric 

 unsteadiness, we introduce an experience approaching that 

 of Professor Schaeberle's above mentioned. 



We observed the total solar eclipse of August 7, 1879, on 

 the Chilkaht River in Alaska, near the end of heavy, cloudy 

 weather, when the atmosphere had become clear and steady. 

 At the first contact "the limb of the Moon was very sharply 

 defined, and the outline of the Sun was very steady and 

 sharp." Just before totality "the crescent was very beauti- 

 ful to the unassisted eye, and in the telescope." In the 

 three-inch Fraunhofer, with moderate power, the " borders 

 of the Sun and Moon were remarkably steady and very 

 sharply defined. In twenty-four years of practice in observ- 

 ing we have rarely, if ever, seen them under such favor- 

 able circumstances. We observed them without any shade , 



