
TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 1851. 505 
done nothing, it had been too much for him. In fact, the general scene of a total 
eclipse, is a potent Siren’s song, which no human mind can withstand: and the 
only way in which its witcheries can be guarded against, is that by which 
Utysses passed the fatal shore in safety. Let, then, those who on a future occa- 
sion have to make the more accurate telescopic observations, surround themselves 
by some high wall, which shall prevent their seeing anything but a very small 
portion of the sky round about the sun and moon. And let those to whom the 
observation of the general effects may have been confided, be competent and pre- 
pared to put whatever they see, pictorially on paper, so that others may after- 
wards profit by their opportunity. 
First, as to this latter department, viz., the recording of the general effect. 
The result of my partial experience is, that during the progress of the earlier part 
of the eclipse, the observer may be sketching in a something of the general forms 
of the landscape, on six separate boards, giving 60° of azimuth to each, so as to 
include the whole panorama; or one long board properly supported may be 
better still, as there is no knowing beforehand where the most effective displays 
will take place. Moist water-colours in tin tubes and rough drawing-paper, I am 
disposed to consider, after much practice with all the varieties of water-colours, 
crayons, and oils, to be the most effective and convenient medium, all things con- 
sidered, for general field-work. Being seated then in an open place, with abundant 
paper-surface before him, the observer should have a powerful lamp, to throw its 
light on his work and the colours, which should all be mixed up beforehand, and 
arranged on a large pallet. 
Then on the instant that the total obscuration begins, and it is complete almost 
the instant that it begins, so well-defined is the shadow of the moon,—he should 
immediately put in the colours, shadows, and forms, at once and boldly, with 
a large brush; every stroke of which at the time, will enable his memory after- 
wards, to add multitudes of those little indescribable details, which together form 
the impression made on the eye; whose power was confessed at the time, but 
which are nevertheless easily and completely forgotten, unless actually seen again. 
But to be able to put in even the groundwork of these six pictures in so short 
a space of time as the total obscuration lasts, hardly three minutes, requires 
something more than the mere wish to be able to do them, though this is unhap- 
pily all that astronomers have generally taken with them to this most difficult 
problem in art. So difficult is it to paint a tolerable picture, even under the most 
favourable circumstances, that it has been a matter of frequent remark, that no 
amateurs have ever produced works capable of standing side by side with those 
of professional painters ; but when there is further the excessive difficulty caused 
_ by the almost instantaneous disappearance of the scene, so as to necessitate its 
_ being painted from the memory rather than the fact,—it is not to be wondered at 
that none of our scientific books yet contain a tolerable representation of the 
