1015] Total Solar Eclipse of 1914 857 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, February 26, 1015. 



J. H. Balfour Browne, Esq., K.C. D.L. J.P. LL.D., 

 Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The Rev. A. L. Cortie, S.J. F.R.A.S. 



Total Solar Eclipse of 1914. 



The path of the shadow of the moon during the total solar eclipse 

 of August 21, 1014, entered Europe by the Scandinavian peninsula, 

 crossing from Mosjoen, on the west coast of Norway, to Hernosand 

 on the east coast of Sweden. Thence it passed over the Aland 

 Islands in the Baltic Sea, and penetrated Russia near the city of 

 Riga. Pursuing its course in that Empire it traversed the cities of 

 Minsk, Kiev, and Theodosia in the Crimea, and, crossing the Black 

 Sea, reached Asia Minor near the city of Trebizond. The expedition 

 from the Stonyhurst College Observatory,- dispatched under the 

 auspices of the Joint Permanent Eclipse Committee of the Royal 

 and Royal Astronomical Societies, was stationed at Hernosand. An 

 expedition for observing a total solar eclipse has a three-fold character, 

 for it is an adventure, an experience, and an experiment. The un- 

 certainty of the weather conclitions that will be experienced on the 

 eventful day, which may render the work of months of preparation 

 abortive, always make an expedition an adventure. From past ex- 

 perience prognostications founded on average meterolcgical results 

 for any given station are generally useless. With regard to the 

 present eclipse, one distinguished Russian astronomer declared that 

 he would wait until all other observers had selected the stations 

 which would presumably enjoy fine weather conditions, and then 

 would take a sporting chance at whatever station was left. Of the 

 seven expeditions that have been dispatched from Stonyhurst to 

 observe total echpses, two only have enjoyed good weather conditions. 

 Father Perry observed the eclipse of 1870, at Cadiz, in thin clouds : 

 at Carriacou in the West Indies, in 1886, between drenching showers 

 of rain ; while that of 1887, when he went to Moscow, was altogether 

 blotted out by thick clouds. In 1880 he went to the Salut Islands, 

 French Guiana, but though the weather was fine, his devotion to 

 duty cost him his life. The story of how he was supported from a 

 sick bed to his instruments by British sailors, and then was almost 

 carried back to H.M.S. " Conaus " to die, is a pathetic page in the 

 history of eclipse expeditions. Under my own direction the eclipse 

 of 1005 at Vinaroz, in Spain, was observed through thin clouds ; that 



