May, 1906.] 97 



of total eclipse drew near, more attention was paid by passers by to 

 tlie netsman tban to celestial affairs. To justify tbe sanity of his 

 occupation, occasional peep-shows had to be accorded, through a lens, 

 of the contents of collecting bottles, with explanations — one per cent, 

 verbal to 99 per cent, dumb show. This encroached upon the time 

 available for collecting, because when family parties made a stand, 

 mothers and grandmothers always wanted Thk Baby to see everything. 

 But there could not have been more agreeable people ; and a Hymen- 

 opterist among them was interested in the species secured. Even 

 sentries strolled aside for a peep, and saluting returned to their posts, 

 greatly gratified. 



Within twenty minutes, or thereabouts, of totality, Bombus and 

 hive bees ceased to be seen. Ants went to sleep on shoots of a yellow 

 flowered Ononis, when it grew darker. 



Dciylight by this time was rapidly failing. The night had been 

 clear ; but clouds in the early morning had begun to form over the 

 northern mountains, stra/tts, moving slowly southwards beneath far- 

 reaching streamers of lofty cirrJius. And now large portions of the 

 sky were overcast with broken cloud, and showers here and there 

 began to fall. 



The heights above Burgos, through a field glass, look black with 

 spectators : the royal family is there. The sun is clouded over, and 

 the rain has arrived. The light is like that of an arctic midnight in 

 the shadow of mountains in July. A large break in the clouds is ap- 

 proaching ; will it arrive in time ? 



Balloons, now set free, float slowly eastwards from the town. 

 The glass shows their occupants discharging ballast in all haste, hoping 

 to rise above the drifting scud ; but the falling temperature lessens 

 their buoyancy and retards their ascent. 



It grows darker. The lucky break in the clouds is reaching the 

 sun. Beautiful and delicate colouring of remarkable transparency 

 lights up the edges of the clouds and pervades the sky, like tints of 

 sunset amidst broken clouds in the west after rain. Near the northern 

 and north-westward horizon black-purple stratus floats in a sky of 

 yellow amber. 



There, at last, comes the shadow of totality, darkening the dis- 

 tance in that direction, overspreading the landscape and mounting 

 upwards like the shade of night pursuing the afterglow of sunset. It 

 reaches the city. The sun is gone out, but his dwindling light still 

 lingers on the distant mountains south-eastwards, till the shadow 

 sweeps onwards and over them. 



