ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGRESS. 



42 



ular, well-defined curve, but in quite a roughened. 

 serrated outline, indicative of its mountains and 



jS3*before total obscuration occurred, the crescent 

 of the sun gradually and rapidly faded to a delicate 

 thread of silver light My attention was concentrated 

 on this line of fading light, to detect, if possible, what 

 ijtrftmrnir* MJinrtm as Jiatty's beads; that is, the 

 sudden breaking up of this thread of light into a num- 

 ber of segments, or distinct points of light like dis- 

 jointed ilDra beads. I detected no indication what- 

 ever of such separate points of light. The extinc- 

 tion of this thread of light was sudden and instan- 

 taneous. I am inclined to the opinion that one 

 would anticipate naturally, from the serrated char- 

 acter of the moon's disk projected on the sun, that 

 such would bo the case, and, with his mind thus pre- 

 pand to observe such an effect, it would not be dif- 

 ficult to mistake the optical effect, produced by refrac- 

 tion of light through different media, for separate 



potato or 



On the eve of total obscuration, directions were 

 given to tho crowd to be silent, so as to hear the beats 

 of the chronometer. The instant the silver line of 

 fight disappeared, a universal exclamation of amaze- 

 mtnt and wonder burst from the crowd at the superb 

 spectacle of beauty immediately revealed. The disk 

 of the moon projected on a sky of livid hue was 

 plainly seen, of a dark, grayish color, caused by the 

 reflected earth-light, surrounded by a bright halo of 

 Hldnally-fading silver light, extending through a 

 breadth of at least half the sun's diameter. Through 

 the bright halo of light there radiated off from the 

 sun great mountain-peaks of roseate light of exquisite 

 batotj One of the largest was plainly discernible 

 with the naked eye, and pointed toward the horizon. 

 Hi base, resting on the disk of the moon, was of ex- 

 treme brilliance, like a living coal of fire, while its 

 mass appeared radiating off from the sun as a gush- 

 ing fountain of rose-colored light, shading off in in- 

 tensity toward its apex in delicate violet hues. The 

 wonderful beauty or this " solar cloud," which sub- 

 tended an angle of more than three minutes, and con- 

 MOBMitly was nearly a hundred thousand miles in 

 height, was so great that, when I directed the large 

 equatorial toward it, it riveted my attention for a full 

 half-minute, and hence I failed to do all I had marked 

 out in the critical two minutes and a half. At the 

 time of total obscuration, Mercury, Venus, and Arc- 

 turus, were plainly discernible with the naked eye. 

 *** 



After the lapse of two minutes and thirty-three 

 seconds, suddenly an intensely diamond-bright ray 

 of li^ht shot out from near the point of first contact, 

 dazzling in its effect, and immediately dissipating the 

 livid gloom that overshadowed the earth, and giving 

 cheer to the affrighted animals and wondering spec- 

 tators that surrounded us. The thermometer, exposed 

 to the rays of the sun, was observed to fall from 92 

 to fl* during thtime that elapsed from the first con- 

 tact to the total obscuration. The barometer indi- 

 cated a fall of only one-twentieth of an inch. 



The observers appointed to note terrestrial objects 

 reported that the rapid approach of the dark shadow 

 over the western landscape, which spread out before 

 us with its symmetrical hills and shaded valleys, was 

 plainly discernible. Its effect on reaching the ob- 



ver was described as almost like a physical object 

 striking the body, so plainly was its passage marked. 

 In a few seconds (for it travelled at about one mile 

 Pr second) it wrapped in its mantle of gloom the 



igh rulge of the Alleghany Mountains, about fifteen 

 miles distant, which enclosed the southeast view. 

 Hog and cattle, feeding near by, were observed at 



.^ ,_ "- | wgMAt VAAVAJ. 9VVUUUfg OLJHi; 



\ flew around for some moments, and chickens 

 were seen hastening to their roost. 



The eclipse, as seen at New York City ten- 



twelfths of the sun's disk being obscured 

 produced a feeling of disappointment in the 

 observers. It had been supposed that consid- 

 erable darkness would he caused by the phe- 

 nomenon, and also that the temperature of the 

 air would be lowered several degrees. Mr. 

 Daniel Draper, meteorologist of the Central 

 Park, made thorough investigations of the 

 effects of the eclipse at that point, and re- 

 ported upon them fully. He declares corrob- 

 orating the observations of the public generally 

 that, when the eclipse was at its height, the 

 light was still sufficient to enable persons to 

 discern objects at any distance, and there was 

 no special quality to be noticed in the charac- 

 ter of the illumination, though it resembled 

 twilight more than any thing else. During 

 the first half of the eclipse the thermometer 

 indicated a fall of only one and a quarter de- 

 grees, and in the last half only half a degree. 

 From three P. M. to five P. M., about the be- 

 ginning of the eclipse, the fall had been from 

 67.25 to 65.50 ; and after the eclipse, up to ten 

 p. M., there was a further decrease of tempera- 

 ture of 3. In the barometer a rise was going 

 on when the eclipse commenced, and continued 

 while the phenomenon lasted; after which, 

 for about an hour, there was a decline, and 

 then the rise was resumed. 



Speculations upon the Nature of the Corona. 

 At a meeting of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society in April, Major Tennent's account of 

 his observations of the solar eclipse of the pre- 

 ceding August, in which he stated that the 

 corona gave strongly-polarized light thereby 

 indicating that it was simply reflected solar 

 light came up for discussion. Dr. Weiss, who 

 had charge of the Austrian expedition to observe 

 that eclipse, was present on the occasion, and 

 remarked that the spectrum of the corona was 

 found to be pale but perfectly distinct, and de- 

 cidedly continuous, without any lines. Mr. De 

 La Rue and Mr. Lockyer expressed the sur- 

 prise they had felt at this result, and Mr. Hug- 

 gins remarked that when he first heard that 

 the corona gave a continuous spectrum, he 

 understood it to mean that this spectrum did 

 not differ materially from the ordinary solar 

 spectrum, but he now found that it was desti- 

 tute of the dark Fraunhofer lines. He wished 

 to know whether it was possible that the dark 

 lines were merely not visible from the feeble- 

 ness of light of the whole spectrum. Dr. Weiss 

 replied that the paleness was not sufficiently 

 great to lead to such an idea, and suggested 

 that the corona might consist of two parts 

 reflected light, which would account for the 

 polarization, and light proceeding from some 

 self-luminous gas, and that the dark lines of the 

 former coexisting with the bright lines of the 

 latter might mutually neutralize each other. 

 Mr. Huggins said that there was much difficulty 

 in accepting the existence of self-luminous gas 

 beyond the hydrogen, of which it had been 

 proved that the prominences were formed, and 

 which must probably be the extreme boundary 



