Proceedings. elxi 
Allusion was made to the chemical composition, and com- 
parisons were drawn showing the mercantile value of the various 
qualities. 
On May 14th a small party accompanied Mr. Lincoln from 
Byfleet, along the Wey Navigation Canal to Pyrford. Newark 
Abbey, a ruin which stands on the banks of the river Wey, near 
Ripley, was then visited. Several photographs were obtained. 
On May 14th Mr. H. Keatley Moore read a paper by himself 
and Mr. Ernest W. Johnson on ‘Kclipse Observations” by 
themselves and other members of the British Astronomical 
Society in India in January last. The paper was copiously 
illustrated by lantern-slides. The path of the moon’s shadow 
across India, 7. e. the area of total eclipse in that portion of the 
earth, stretching from the coast on the south-west to the north- 
eastern frontier, was shown as a broad band across the map. 
The special observation of Mr. Moore and three of his com- 
panions was the making of a sketch of the corona during the 
ninety seconds of totality, each of the four giving his or her 
attention to one quadrant. Mr. Johnson was to observe the 
‘‘ shadow-bands,” and also the degree of light was to be gauged 
by the use of photographic plates exposed behind varying thick- 
nesses of tissue paper. The same observation was afterwards 
made with the full moon in this country, and the relative effect 
noted. This showed very considerable advantage on the side of 
the corona. By long practice, the four sketchers were able to 
produce a very accurate picture of the shape and relative size of 
the corona. The light was noted to be of a bluish tinge. A 
series of photographs of the corona at different total eclipses 
was shown. The shape and magnitude of these were seen to be 
very various, the largest corone appearing to be associated with 
minimum periods of sun-spots. The present corona coincided 
in time with comparatively few sun-spots. The photograph of 
the corona this year, taken by Mr. Maunder, was by far the best 
ever taken, and bore out the accuracy of the drawings, only the 
long streamer to the south-west, which was shown by the latter 
method as three times the sun’s diameter, appeared on the 
photograph twice as long as in the drawing. Mr. Maunder also 
succeeded in getting a photograph of the sun’s corona shortly 
after the period of totality. Mr. Johnson himself described the 
phenomenon of shadow-bands already mentioned. These occurred 
shortly before totality, and consisted of the passing along the 
ground of groups of alternate light and dark bands about two to 
three inches wide, the groups being about one foot apart. No ex- 
planation could be offered of these appearances. Incidentally, 
it was observed that the oval patches of light, a well-known 
