215 



or less free of clouds, and yet all were enveloped by cloud before 

 noon. 



The following features were very apparent : The wind, although 

 brisk before arid during the progress of the eclipse, considerably 

 moderated at the time of greatest obscuration, becoming brisk again 

 afterwards. The darkness, although felt, was by no means so great 

 as had been expected ; yet this was in a great measure owing to the 

 overcast sky. The pupil of the eye was not contracted by strong light, 

 consequently it was able to take in the diminished light over a larger 

 surface, diminishing the effect of darkness to our senses. Practically 

 it was dark ; the impossibility of reading the instruments at Isham, 

 Towcester, and Grantham, was a certain measure. I have seen greater 

 apparent darkness produced by a storm, and yet the darkness was 

 not such as to prevent instruments being read. The contracted land- 

 scape was well shown at Isham and Highfield House. The change 

 in the colour of the landscape was almost universally remarked, as 

 well as the great stillness at the time of greatest obscuration. A 

 solar halo occurred in the Orkney Islands during the time of greatest 

 obscuration. Rooks everywhere returned to their rookeries ; fowls 

 prepared to go to roost ; peafowl actually went to roost ; turkies 

 hastened home ; cocks crowed ; sparrows appeared frightened ; song- 

 birds sang as in early morning, and kept up their song all afternoon. 

 Bees returned to their hives. Cows seemed to have imagined that milk- 

 ing-time had arrived. The crocus and hepatica closed their flowers. 

 An effect on sea animals was not observable ; the Actinia crassicornis, 

 which always expands in the evening, did not open during the eclipse. 



II. "On the Structure and Functions of the Hairs of the Crus- 

 tacea." By CAMPBELL DE MORGAN, Esq. Communicated 

 by GEORGE BUSK, Esq. Received March 13, 1858. 



(Abstract.) 



The object of this communication is to determine, by the observa- 

 tion of their anatomical relations, the uses of the hairs and similar 

 appendages to the shell of the Crustacea. The author mentions the 

 observations of those who have of late specially investigated this sub- 

 ject. M. Lavalle noticed the connexion at times of the canals of the 



