NO. 8 SAMUEL PIERPONT LANGLEY — ABBOT 7 



ing the canvas which covered it was frozen and loaded with hail. A 

 little later the sun shone out suddenly and with surprising warmth, 

 turning the hail to water. I commenced unwrapping the canvas, and 

 was lifting it off, when the sun disappeared as suddenly as it came 

 out, and, before I could put the cover on again, it was hailing once 

 more, and we were involved in dense cloud. This cloud was continu- 

 ous, except for several brief moments of sunshine, during which I 

 uncovered the instrument several times to no purpose. I may say 

 briefly that this was nearly the history of the weather for the ensuing 

 week, during which we had several clear sunrises and sunsets, but in 

 the course of which neither Professor Abbe nor myself got so much 

 as the requisite observations for adjusting our equatorials, which re- 

 mained on the day of the eclipse in the position in which they were 

 first set up. During the first days, our illness increased, and, with a 

 great difficulty of breathing and greatly increased action of the heart, 

 we felt constant and severe headache, and nearly every symptom 

 which attends sea-sickness. Exertion was extremely difficult, and that 

 of building the stone piers for the heliostat, photometer, and other 

 instruments for which we had at first no assistance, was carried on 

 only by a very strong effort of will as well as of strength. 



" Not to enlarge on the personal discomforts of a week which we 

 all had reason to wish over, I nay add that towards its close Pro- 

 fessor Abbe's condition gave us cause for alarm. His symptoms were 

 the same as my brother's and my own, but much aggravated, and while 

 we grew rather better, he grew worse, and upon Sunday morning he 

 was unable to rise. At this time the tents were not the place for an 

 invalid. The snow, which had blown into one during the night and 

 spread thickly over one of the sleepers, I remember finding ten inches 

 deep beside me when I woke. Professor Abbe's own resolution to stay, 

 if possible, was unaltered ; but one of our party, a physician, pro- 

 nouncing his life endangered by another day, he was, on the evening 

 of the 28th, put into a litter and carried down to a lower altitude, 

 where his recovery was rapid. 



" The morning of the 29th was clear, and the whole of the impor- 

 tant day was a complete contrast to its predecessors, the sky being 

 almost cloudless and of a deep and transparent blue never seen near 

 the Atlantic coast 



" I pass over phenomena preceding totality, observed by myself, as 

 of little value, with a reference to the letters of Messrs. Shields and 

 Manning, given below. At the moment of totality I removed the dark 

 glass. 



