OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 363 



where the duration of totality is two minutes and thirty seconds. It 

 then follows approximately the course of the Russian overland tele- 

 graphic line, and crosses Lake Baikal, where the duration of totality is 

 three minutes and thirty-eight seconds. This eclipse will, therefore, 

 be even more favorable than that of 1882 for the application of the 

 telegraphic method. 



e. — The total eclipse of 1889, December 22, The track of this 

 eclipse is similar to that of 1886. At Bridgetown, Barbadoes, totality 

 lasts one minute and forty-eight seconds. On the west coast of Africa 

 (latitude 10° south), three minutes and thirty-four seconds. It seems 

 probable that the method will not be applicable to this eclipse. 



An acknowledgment is due the editor of the astronomical notes in 

 Nature for the greater part of the data relating to the eclipses which 

 I have cited. 



Washington, January 8, 1881. 



