On the Solar Eclipse of 9th September, 1885. 891 



and direction the centrifugal force, the other the centripetal. 

 How, however, does the heavenly body comply with these forces, 

 or, rather, acquire the direction of their resultant, except by a series 

 of steps, so to speak, down or up a ladder — i.e., by alternately 

 giving way to one force and then to the other, each movement 

 representing an atom of time as well as an atom of space ? 

 Granted that the atom of motion thus conceived of had real 

 existence, the effect in light and shade, considering the magni- 

 fying effect of the great distance, might be possibly such bands of 

 light as those we saw on the morning of the 9th September. 



" This, however, you must understand, is only an attempt — 

 and a bad one — to put another's crude suggestion into something 

 like philosophical form. My own opinion is that the bands of 

 light, in some way, were produced by the coronal rays, perhaps 

 aided by something exceptional intervening in the space between 

 them and the surface of the earth. But then, the non-appear- 

 ance of the bands during totality seems a difficulty. I shall 

 be very curious to hear what interpretation the astronomers 

 in the old world put upon this phenomenon : and, by the way, 

 I have not noticed that the observers in Wellington District 

 observed it at all, though I can scarcely believe but that they did. 

 If it were confined to the Nelson Provincial District, that surely 

 would be a strong argument for thinking that the bands were 

 simply produced by some local and temporary peculiarity in our 

 atmosphere. 



" Just one personal word in conclusion. I make no pretension 

 whatever to astronomical knowledge or acumen. Carlyle is 

 quoted as having said somewhere : ' Why did not somebody teach 

 me the constellations, and .make me at home in the starry heavens, 

 which are always overhead, and which I don't half know to this 

 day ?' That was my feeling the other morning. With a hand 

 trained for telescopic and other instrumental work, and an eye 

 trained for the observation of heavenly objects, and a mind 

 stored with astronomical principles and facts, the chance we 

 have just had of observing and recording wonderful, rare, and 

 mysterious phenomena was one which could have been used to 

 grand advantage. Such a chance will probably never again fall 

 to the lot of any of us." 



The Bishop of Nelson states in his paper: "I am told by 

 those at Collingwood that on the snow-covered hills above the 

 Aorere there were broad belts of colour of all shades, and that the 

 lighthouse and the Spit looked from Collingwood as if they were 

 close at hand, within walking distance." 



Mr. Atkinson writes : " As the sun was just disappearing, the 

 most striking phenomenon I witnessed, looking straight at it, 

 was a strongly-marked ' pulsation ' in its light ; those who were 

 looking away from it saw waves of shadow passing rather rapidly 

 along the ground, just after as well as just before totality. This, 



