ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, NEAR OLMOS, PERU. 9 



diifered from Baily's beads as seen by me during the annular eclipse of September, 

 1838, by the darker spaces which separated them from one another. 



When the total obscuration took place at 1^ 30"° 42^5, four masses of luminous 

 clouds became immediately visible at as many positions of the lunar circumference. 

 Perhaps that to the left on the drawing was the first one seen, because my attention 

 was directed there in watching the disappearance of Baily's beads, but I cannot 

 say that they were not all simultaneously perceptible. The screen of glass was 

 hurriedly removed, and in the brief instant of doing so I found, to my surprise, that 

 all the phenomena were distinctly visible to the unassisted eye. Every effort has 

 been made by the artist to represent in the accompanying lithograph — drawn from 

 the sketch and notes — the scene then before me, and which still remains strongly 

 impressed upon my memory. 



Of the four cloud-masses which had become visible, that on the upper border 

 was much the most extended and serrated. It was more than 30° in extent, with 

 an altitude, in the highest part, of about 30". All of them were of as nearly the 

 form, and at the relative positions given in the plate which the most careful estima- 

 tions enabled me to assign to them, and sketch roughly in the note-book, whilst 

 they were still in sight. Neither of them exceeded 1' or 1' 10" in height. I could 

 not discern any rose or pink color on either of them, but they all resembled irregular 

 masses of illuminated clouds of leaden hue fringed with bright light, more especially 

 at the edges farthest from the sun. Surprised at the absence of red — a color I 

 fully expected to witness — and for the moment supposing my physical condition 

 might have some influence, Mr. Raymond was requested to note the colors carefully. 



A corona light flashed out at the instant of totality. It extended farthest from 

 the sun, in lines drawn from the centre through the solar clouds, but was nowhere 

 traceable more than 15' or 16' beyond the lunar disk. There were no radial 

 streamers, or bundles of rays, but only a uniformly diminishing, and slightly 

 orange-tinted light, whose brightness and extent were apparently influenced by 

 the mist-film, as the color of the clouds also may have been. Beyond the corona 

 light, the color of the sky was of a grayish-black. 



It was a far more imposing sight without than with the telescope, and long as 

 has been my experience in the observation of celestial phenomena, and calm and 

 unimpassioned, at such times, as my temperament has become, the sublime majesty 

 of the scene thrilled me with excitement and humble reverence. Nor was it less 

 efi"ective upon others. Two citizens of Olmos stood within a few feet of me, watch- 

 ing in silence, and with anxious countenances, the rapid and fearful decrease of 

 light. They were wholly ignorant that any sudden effect would follow the total 

 obscuration of the sun. At that instant, one exclaimed, in terror — " La Gloria .'" 

 and both, I believe, fell to their knees, filled with awe. They appreciated the 

 resemblance of the corona to the halos with which the old masters have encircled 

 their ideals of the heads of our Saviour and the Madonna, and devoutly regarded 

 this as a manifestation of the Divine presence. 



Every second of the time during which the total obscuration continued — onli/ 

 sixty and a /«a//— was fully occupied in storing my memory with facts, and in 

 tracing outlines of the solar clouds and corona. They did not permit me to turn 

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