of 1900, May 28, made at Santa Pola, Spain. 389 



gave the signal " Start the clock " to McPherson, who was in the dark 

 room of the 40-foot. At this moment Mr. Franklin- Adams gave a few 

 strokes on a large bell, and called out " Silencio ! " I must here say 

 that this call was immediately obeyed in the most courteous way by 

 the assembled crowds, who maintained a perfect silence until the 

 important phase was over. 



One minute before totality, at the signal " Chronograph," McPherson 

 registered the position of the moving plate-holder. Sixteen seconds 

 before totality, when, according to Mr. Fowler's computation, the 

 diminishing crescent should subtend an arc of 90, I gave the -signal 

 " Stand by ; " five seconds before totality, corresponding to 55 of a 

 crescent, the signal " Ready " was called, and at the disappearance of 

 the last glimpse of sunlight I gave the final signal of " Go ! " 



From this moment the sailor in charge of the metronome announced 

 every fifth second during the first minute, and then every second until 

 the seventy-fifth, when he called " Stop ! " 



One minute and twenty-four seconds after the signal, I gave to 

 McPherson the final signal " Chronograph," which he again recorded 

 on the moving plate-holder, assuring himself at the same time that it 

 was still moving at the regular speed. While I was giving the earlier 

 signals just mentioned, I noticed a very interesting feature in the 

 diminishing crescent. When the luminous crescent was reduced to a 

 mere line, an exceptionally brilliant bead of light became detached 

 from the rest, continuing to shine like a bright star for perhaps four or 

 five seconds, and probably disappearing nearly at the same time as the 

 rest of the crescent. It was doubtless due either to the passage of the 

 sunlight through a very deep valley on the moon's limb or to the inter- 

 ruption of the crescent by a high range of lunar mountains. What- 

 ever its origin it presented an extreme case of the well-known phe- 

 nomenon of " Baily's Beads." 



What struck me most, both in the late eclipse and in that of 1898, 

 was the sudden transition from the swiftly changing phenomena 

 attendant on the disappearance of sunlight to the steady unvarying 

 aspect of the corona. During the last few minutes of the partial phase 

 all the phenomena are in a state of rapid change the light decreases 

 in a swift geometrical ratio, the last shred of the sun's limb disappears, 

 the prominences burst into view, and all at once the corona stands 

 before one fixed and relatively unchanging during the whole of 

 totality. 



The corona, as seen with the naked eye, presented a striking 

 resemblance to the pictures of the corona of 1878. Below was a broad 

 double streamer, like the outspread tail of a dove, symmetrical to the 

 sun's equator, while opposite to this was a single large .pointed streamer 

 involved in a much fainter dove-tail symmetrical to the one below. 

 The spectrum shown by an excellent direct-vision prism about mid- 



VOL. LXVII. 2 F 



