ASTROXOMT AND METEOROLOGY. 315 



had a feelius; that we were seeinsf half-a-dozen stars burstinof into 

 sight at once, but we could only liud the two. 



" The approach of the deep violet shadow in the air from the 

 W.N.W., a little to the right of the sun, and its receding in the 

 opposite quarter, was much slower and more majestic and beau- 

 tiful than we had been led to expect. The gradual diminution of 

 light during the eclipse had revealed the presence of faint cirro- 

 stratus clouds in the horizon of what appeared, both before and 

 after the ecliiDse, a cloudless sk}-. The transition from penumbra 

 to umbra, although rapid, did not seem absolutely instantaneous. 

 It was a sweeping upward and eastward of the dense violet 

 shadow. This shadow then stretched from the W.N.W. to the 

 E.S. Eastern horizon, while in the transverse direction it did not 

 reach the horizon by 6 or 8 degrees, and the low arch be- 

 neath was full of a deep orange twilight. No difference was ob- 

 served between the height of these arches. The transition from 

 the orange-yellow of the northern and southern horizon to the 

 dusky violet of the zenith during the total phase was at an altitude 

 of 12 or 15 degrees, and then the violet seemed darker than in the 

 zenith; as though two broad dark arches ran one on each side 

 the zenith from west north-west to east south-east. 



*' The corona appeared to us a white ring of 4 or 5 min. breadth, 

 with white rings oO to 35 min. in length, one of which on the right 

 hand upper limb was curved. No change was observed in the corona 

 during the total phase, except that one of us thought there was a 

 tremulous flashingatthe instant before the reappearance of the sun. 



"A crimson cloud on the lower limb was particularly brilliant. 

 One on the left limb was brilliant at the beginning, and one on the 

 right limb at the end of the total phase." 



OBSERVATIONS ON TUE ECLIPSE. BY PROF. C. A. YOUNG. 



Professor C. A. Young, of Dartmouth College, gave papers on 

 his new method of observing contacts by the spectroscope, and 

 also on the spectrum of the solar prominences and corona, etc. 

 The spectroscope furnis^hes the means of a very accurate obser- 

 vation of the instant of first contact in the following manner : Let 

 an image of the sun, about two inches in diameter, be thrown 

 upon the slit. Bring to the centre of the slit, and perpendicidar 

 to it, the point of the limb where the contact is to take place. 

 The spectrum will then be half bright and half dusky, divided by 

 a longitudinal line of demarcation ; most of the dark lines will 

 extend clear across both portions of the spectrum alike, but the 

 spectrum of the chromos])h(?re will fie seen in the C line as a 

 needle of scarlet light extending a little way into the dusky spec- 

 trum from the extremity of the dark line in the brilliant portion. 

 As the moon approaches, this red needle will be gradually short- 

 ened, and will finally disappear at the instant of contact, the C 

 line then becoming exactly like its neighbors. The same method 

 of observation of course might be used with the F line, or any 

 oilier line of the chromosphere spectrum, but the C line is by far 



