200 Total Eclipse of August 7, 1869. 



me it seemed as mucli so as the corona or the protube- 

 rances. -The accompanying sketch will convey a better 

 idea of its appearance than a loug description. 



At first I thought the upper edge of the moon had 

 dropped down about a minute of arc below the upper edge 

 of the sun, but instantly seeing that that was impossible I 

 thought it might be caused by some false reflection on the 

 inside of the telescope. But shaking the telescope and 

 finding its relative position unchanged, I concluded it was 

 a bona fide phenomenon and observed it as such. It was 

 visible during the entire period of totality. 



The limb of the pseudo-moon was faintly illuminated, 

 and between a and 6, somewhat strongly, and a soft 

 mellow light was faintly reflected downwards as repre- 

 sented. The protuberance a, was plainly seen with the 

 naked eye, looking as several expressed it, like a ship on 

 fire. 



Directly under it was a strong light visible on the moon 

 extending downwards, as far as the protuberance did 

 upwards, and was seen by the naked eye as plainly as the 

 protuberance itself. After the total phase of the eclipse 

 was over, the first question asked by the hundreds of 

 visitors was: "What is the cause of the notch in the 

 moon?" they thinking the light was a part of the sun seen 

 through an open space in the moon. 



The protuberance d, I have no recollection of seeing, 

 but I find it recorded, or rather an attempt to record one. 



Owing to the time lost by the mishap, I did not observe 

 the corona very minutely, though I noticed it was very 

 unequal in outline and deeply striated. 



Once only did I take my eye from the telescope, and 

 then merely to observe the general appearance of the 

 phenomena ; but finding from long continued exposure 

 to the sun, my eye unfitted to do so, and knowing that 

 the time for the reappearance of Bailey's beads was nearly 



