On the Solar Eclipse of 9th September, 1885. 

 II. — The Temperature. 



381 



Mr. Meeson says, concerning the temperature : — " To get 

 the variations in temperature during the continuation of the 

 eclipse, I made use of two self-registering thermometers, which I 

 inspected every quarter of an hour. One of these was fixed in 

 its usual place, 6 feet above the ground, well in the shade, and 

 protected from the wind ; the other hung on the outside of a 

 conservatory, 2 feet above the ground, and fully exposed to the 

 sun. The following table gives the successive changes which 

 took place : — 



"From this table it will be seen that my thermometers did 

 not register such a great fall in the temperature as some 

 observers report. In the shade there was a fall of four degrees, 

 sufficient to carry the indicator below freezing point ; and in the 

 thermometer exposed to the sun, which more readily responded 

 to the thermal changes, the fall was a clear six degrees. The 

 coldest point of time seems to have been 8 o'clock, and not at 

 the moment of totality — just as the coldest time during night is 

 not at midnight, but two or three hours after, and the hottest 

 part of the day not at noon, but about 2 p.m. If the early 

 morning of 9th September had not been somewhat colder than 

 usual — as a matter of fact the temperature then descended to 

 28° F. — perhaps the fall during the eclipse would have been more 

 perceptible than it actually was ; there was certainly a sudden 

 fall at the moment of totality, for, though it was a minute of 

 much excitement, everybody became sensible of the difference of 

 temperature. The descent, however, recorded by the sunshine 

 tbermometer was, as we should have expected, greater and more 

 sudden than that recorded by the instrument in the shade. I am 

 quite prepared to believe that the actual fall during and imme- 

 diately after totality was, as some observers say, even greater 

 than that which I have recorded ; but I find, in confirmation of 

 my figures, that in Wellington the fall recorded was 5-|°, and 

 that the loss of temperature there was not recovered till nearly 

 9 a.m." 



The Bishop of Nelson states that the thermometer stood at 

 38° immediately before sunrise, and that during the eclipse it 

 went down to 31°, the whole ground being covered with hoar- 

 frost immediately after totality. The reduction of temperature 

 was very evident, as also the getting up of a strong south cold 

 wind. 



The temperatures observed by Mr. T. W. Kirk, in Wel- 

 lington, on behalf of the Government Observatory, are embodied 



