24 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



ceed with the vessel to a point south, of Payta, where the eclipse would 

 be total, and furnished him with a telescope and a special chronometer 

 for the use of the officers selected to make the observations on shore. 

 The accounts of these gentlemen are embraced in the report of Lieu- 

 tenant Gilliss to the Institution. 



Leaving Payta, on the morning of August 29, with such instruments 

 as it was possible to transport on mules across the desert in the northern 

 part of Peru^ Lieutenant Gilliss proceeded to Olmos, a small town 

 within the outer range of the Andes^ and in approximate latitude 6° 

 south, longitude 80° 10' west. Illness prevented his reaching the 

 summit of the Andes, as he intended, and on the 5th of September he 

 encamped on an eminence one mile southeast from Olmos, and almost 

 on the central line traversed by the moon's shadow. From August 

 21 until the day of the eclipse, there had been but two clear mornings. 

 On all the other days the sky was obscured until after 9 a. m., 

 before which time the eclipse terminated. It was also cloudy at sun- 

 rise of the 7th, and until after the eclipse had commenced ; but as it 

 progressed the thin masses of vapor rapidly rolled from a portion 

 of the sky, and for some time before and after total obscuration only 

 a delicate film of mist intervened between the observer and the moon. 

 The observations, though unpromising at the beginning, were highly 

 successful. 



The different astronomical phases of the eclipse were determined 

 with accuracy, and thus afford data for the improvement of the solar 

 and lunar tables. Interesting facts were also obtained in regard 

 to a phenomenon which has attracted much attention during later 

 eclipses, and is known under the name of the pink-colored protu- 

 berances or flame-like appearances projecting from the sun beyond 

 the limb of the moon. Simultaneously with the total obscuration of 

 the sun. Lieutenant Gilliss observed four marked protuberances of this 

 character beyond the lunar disk, one of them being more than 30° of 

 the sun's circumference in extent. Their elevation did not exceed V 

 or 1' 10" of the celestial arc, the largest one being scarcely half that 

 altitude. They resembled clouds, the thinner portions of which trans- 

 mitted the sunlight, but were wholly destitute of the rose color hith- 

 erto observed in total solar eclipses, and seen on this occasion by 

 the French officers at Sechura bay. Those to the west and north 

 continued visible for one or two seconds after the sun's limb was 

 uncovered. These prominences were plainly visible to the unassisted 

 eye, and their proximate position and the absence of expected red color 



