ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 817 



sun's bright disc and tliese rose-colored prominences was very- 

 distinct, and of surpassing beauty, resembling the strontium light 

 of fireworks. A collodion plate was submitted to the sun, moved 

 forward every five minutes, and also a strip of paper prepared by 

 the chromotype process, with good resuhs, shovvin<^ the action of 

 the sun's light in producing photographs. No distortion of the 

 cusps was apparent; they appeared at all times sharp and well 

 defined, and no coruscations across the moon were apparent. Of 

 two polariscopes placed one due north and the other south, the 

 latter showed a want of sky polarization during part of the time ; 

 the former gave the usual appearance. There was a perceptible 

 increase of moisture in the atmosphere, and ozone was much in 

 excess. The barometer and thermometer both fell during the 

 eclipse, rising afterwards. There were veiy slight indications of 

 atmospheric electricity; the inclination magnet showed a very 

 slight decrease in dip. 



Trof. David Murray, of Rutgers College, N. J., gave the result 

 of the observations of the party at Mattoon, Illinois, on the gen- 

 ei-al phenomena of the eclipse, and a diagram of the corona and 

 protuberances. Of the red protuberances seven were seen, two 

 of them of remarkable size and brilliancy. The largest of these 

 showed large black masses in its centre, arising either from the 

 cloudy mass being open through so as to disclose the space 

 beyond, or from the presence of a dense core or nucleus. The 

 corona was of a soft, bright consistency, and at five points 

 extended out into long rays. The inner part of the corona was 

 bright, but not striated, the projecting prongs, however, being dis- 

 tinctly radiated. There was a curved petal in the corona at one 

 point, near the largest protuberance, and some observers noticed 

 other curved portions of the corona. 



Mr. T. Bassnett gave a paper from his observations made at Des 

 Moines. The shape of the corona, as represented by all, was 

 generally of a rhomboidal character. His theory was that there 

 is a physical medium filling all interstellar space, which is driven 

 off by centrifugal force at the equator of the solar system, and 

 drawn in again at the pole. 



Professor Pcirce gave the results of the observations made by- 

 parties connected with the Coast Survey. With these parties 

 precision in nothig the times was the great object \ all else was 

 only accidental, and will be handed over to the physicists. There 

 were five parties, all of which have made their reports except the 

 one at Sitka. Two of these parties made great use of the photo- 

 graph, and the professor felt confident that these observations, 

 with those of the spectrum which had been brouglit to notice 

 to-day, would be the only ones from which we could got observa- 

 tions at all worthy of confidence, surpassing in value the transit 

 of Venus, which must bo observed photographically to bring it up 

 to the observations on the eclipse, These photographs will bear 

 to be magnified up to a high power, so that they can l)e nioasurod 

 up to one-tenth of a secoiid of arc. The })hot()graph will give 

 time more accurately than the chronograph. The measurements 

 for these photographs will be made from the negatives direct, by 

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