250 Annals of the Philosophical Club 



having been made of two pairs, which had copulated in the 

 hot pond of the Zoological Society's Gardens. The female, 

 when spawning, extruded from her cloaca a long bag-like 

 organ, no doubt a prolongation of its lower part. This was 

 bent over on her back, and the male, when in copula, pressed 

 on it, squeezing out the eggs, one by one, and arranging 

 them on her back fecundating them, as was supposed, 

 while doing this. Oviposition ended, the male left the 

 female, and the extruded part of the cloaca returned into her 

 body. Much more, however, remained to be discovered, 

 for these were the first observations that had ever been 

 made. 



Nov. igth, 444th meeting. Dr. Frankland related the 

 experiences of a party sent to observe the total eclipse of 

 the sun on August gth from an island on the western side of 

 Vadso (Norway) . After the necessary preparations had been 

 made, their party, twenty in number, was landed there about 

 2.30 a.m. The sun shone at intervals through banks of 

 clouds, but was invisible when a bugle note indicated the 

 first contact. Another sounded five minutes before totality. 

 A general gloom had already set in, the fleecy clouds had 

 become yellow, the sea and distant hills deep indigo-blue. A 

 rifle shot announced the beginning of totality, and now a dark 

 shadow swept over the heavens and the earth at the rate 

 of about two miles a second. It came on in great waves, 

 blackening every fleecy cloud and appearing to bring down 

 the sky and the clouds upon their heads. An observer called 

 the time from a chronometer, every ten seconds, to 104 

 seconds, when totality ceased ; the sky and landscape 

 j-apidly resuming their ordinary aspect. The darkness 

 during totality was not great enough to prevent one from 

 reading a book, for much light was reflected from masses 

 of cloud near the horizon and outside the range of totality. 

 It would doubtless have been more intense had the sky 

 been clear. 



1897. Jan. 2ist, 446th meeting. Sir F. Bramwell 

 described the roller boat of M. Baxin, on which a paper had 

 been read the previous evening at the Society of Arts. It 



