Royal Antronomical Society, 231 



the southward of the town of Jedburgh, who afforded him every fa- 

 cihty for making the observations. The morning of the 15th of May 

 is described as being remarkably fine and clear ; not a cloud to be 

 seen in any part of the heavens during the whole time of tiie eclipse. 

 The times of the beginning and ending of the eclipse, and of the 

 fortnation and dissolution of the annulus, have already been given 

 in the third volume of the monthly abstracts of the Society's pro- 

 ceedings, page 200. But Mr. Baily does not lay much stress on this 

 part of his observations — more especially those connected with the 

 annulus — since his attention was taken up with other more interest- 

 ing phaenomena. He says he was in expectation of meeting with 

 something extraordinary at the formation of the annulus; but ima- 

 gined that it would be only momentary, and consequently, that it 

 would not interrupt the noting of the time of its occurrence. In 

 this, however, he was deceived, as the following facts will show. 

 For when the cusps of the sun were about 4^° asunder, a row of 

 lucid points, like a string of beads, irregular in size and distance 

 from each other, suddenly formed round that part of the circum- 

 ference of the moon that was about to enter on the sun's disc. This 

 he intended to note as the correct time of the formation of the an- 

 nulus, expecting every moment to see the thread of light completed 

 round the moon ; and attributing this serrated appearance of the 

 moon's limb (as others had done before him) to the lunar moun- 

 tains ; although the remaining portion of the moon's circumference 

 was perfectly smooth and circular, as seen through his telescope. 

 He was somewhat surprised, however, to find that these luminous 

 points, as well as the dark intervening spaces, increased in magni- 

 tude; some of the contiguous ones appearing to run into each other 

 like drops of water. Finally, as the moon pursued her course, these 

 dark intervening spaces were stretched out into long, black, thick, 

 parallel lines, joining the limbs of the sun and moon : when all at 

 once they suddenly gave way, and left the circumferences of the 

 sun and moon in those points, as in all the rest, apparently smooth 

 and circular, and the moon perceptibly advanced on the face of the 

 sun. This moment of time Mr. Baily considers to be that which 

 most persons would assume and record as the formation of the 

 annulus; but he adduces strong reasons afterwards to show that 

 the true formation of the annulus was some seconds prior to that 

 event. 



After the formation of the annulus, as thus described, the moon 

 preserved her circular outline during its progress across the sun's 

 disc, till her opposite limb again approached the border of the sun, 

 and the annulus was about to be dissolved. When, all at once (the 

 limb of the moon being at some distance from the edge of the sun), 

 a number of long, black, thick, parallel lines, exactly similar in ap- 

 pearance to the former ones above mentioned, suddenly darted for - 

 •vaardy and joined the two limbs as before 3 and the same phaenomena 

 were repeated, but in an inverse order. For, as those dark lines 

 got shorter, the intervening bright parts assumed a more circular 

 shape, and at length terminated in a fine, curved line of bright 



