58 



The Great Solar Eclipse 



[Jan., 



Fm. 3. 



border of the lunar disc, rising to a considerable height almost 

 perpendicularly. Its appearance was nearly that of a finger bent 

 in the middle. The third only appeared towards the end of totality 

 in the form of a small conical elevation almost diametrically oppo- 

 site the first. All these protuberances were of a clear carmine tint 

 and sharply defined. 



Dr. T. Oppolzer, one of the observers at Aden, reports that 

 the prominences appeared as if detached from the sun. At the 

 final moment of totality, there was noticed at the spot where the 

 sun was about to reappear, a red border, separated at the last 

 moment from the lunar disc by an intensely luminous space, which 

 formed, as it were, a bridge between the disc and the red border. 



Captain Tanner, K.E., who in conjunction with Captain Haig 

 and Mr. Kero Laxuman, observed the eclipse at Beejapoor, has given 

 the following account of his observations. This gentleman is an 

 expert delineator, and occupied himself in making rapid sketches of 

 what he saw. The accompanying dmwing (Fig. 3) is copied from 



Captain Tanner's sketch, 

 who gives the following 

 description of it : — " I at 

 first saw three promi- 

 nences — one long, curved, 

 pointed tongue, and two 

 close together,straight but 

 flat - topped, about tw; - 

 thirds the height of the 

 former. They were of a 

 rose-madder colour, and 

 were decidedly more like 

 flames than anything else, 

 not only in their general 

 appearance and colour, 

 but by their being com- 

 posed of smaller tongues 

 of flame parallel (or nearly 

 so) to the general axis of the flame, so thut they had a streaky 

 appearance and a ragged edge. At the first glance, when the 

 sun was somewhat obscured by clouds, I thought they were 

 homogeneous and had hard edges ; but this idea was at once dis- 

 pelled when the clouds cleared ofi". The two protuberances, 

 which were close together, were not, as far as I could see, joined 

 by any smaller shots of flame. I afterwards observed one small 

 protuberance, and marked the position i)f it in my sketch. I 

 did not observe that it was streaky, as the others were — perhaps 

 on account of its being so small, and perhaps because I liad not 

 sufficient time to examine it properly. As regards the corona 



