116 Professor T. E. Thorpe [June 9, 



cry of a tethered goat near the administrator's house. There was a 

 great hush as the last gleam of sunlight died away. The corona 

 seemed almost to flash into existence, so suddenly did its light grow 

 in intensity. Faint indications of its appearance could, indeed, be 

 perceived on the photometer screen some seconds before the last trace 

 of the yellow crescent disappeared. The phenomenon known as 

 " Baily's beads " was plainly visible. The lower corona was wonder- 

 fully bright, and a whole row of prominences started into view. The 

 panaches, sheafs, and other evidences of " structure " were distinctly 

 marked on the white screen. The general sky illumination was so 

 great that only some five or six stars were visible. The gloom, 

 indeed, was nothing like so intense as I had seen in previous eclipses, 

 and there would have been little difficulty in reading the second- 

 hand of the chronometer or the scales of the ammeters without the 

 aid of the lighted lanterns. And now the oft-repeated programme 

 was being gone through for the last time, with a quickened sense and 

 a concentrated earnestness springing from the consciousness that 

 the veritable four minutes — the 240 and odd seconds — on which 

 our thoughts for months past had been dwelling, were now 

 speeding away, and that, with the first rush of sunlight on 

 the other side of the black disc of the moon, our opportunities 

 would be gone for ever. The silence was most impressive ; it was 

 broken by the stentorian voice of the quartermaster as he told us at 

 intervals, by the aid of his log-glass, the number of seconds that 

 still remained to us. Now and again, too, one heard from the 

 adjoining huts the command to expose, and the sharp click of the 

 carriers as slide after slide was inserted and withdrawn. Thanks 

 to the repeated drills, everything went with the smoothness and 

 regularity of clockwork. There was no hitch or stoppage, and no 

 undue haste on the part of anybody. Sergeant Kearney secured 

 ten out of the twelve corona pictures that he had been instructed to 

 make. Mr. Fowler, in all, made thirty exposures in the prismatic 

 camera, including a number taken during the five minutes before 

 and after totality ; and Captain Hills obtained both his slit-spectro- 

 scope photographs. Mr. Gray and I made twenty photometric 

 measurements of the light from different parts of the corona, and 

 Mr. Forbes obtained eleven concordant observations of its total 

 intensity. The full measure of our success was not yet known to us, 

 but every man had the certain knowledge that he had secured enough 

 to make the eclipse of April 16, 1893, take its place as one of the 

 best observed eclipses of recent times, and that his work, done at the 

 sacrifice of much personal comfort, and under the trying circum- 

 stances of a fierce temperature and an unhealthy climate, would 

 contribute towards the solution of one of the most profoundly inte- 

 resting of all physical problems. 



After a short rest the command, " Down huts," was given, and in 

 a few hours the Alecto, with all our cases once more packed and 



