of 1900, May 28, made at Santa Pola, Spain. 391 



of brightness took place on the moon's limb white light seeming to 

 curl over the edge of the moon's disc. Immediately concluding that 

 the total phase was all but over, he let go the cord and closed the 

 shutter. When working with the prism the exposures were far too 

 short to permit of seeing the images. 



The spar camera was in charge of William Slaughter, petty officer 

 of the " Theseus " ; it could not possibly have been in better hands, for 

 in spite of the lightness of the 3-inch equatorial mounting and the 

 delicate clock movement by which it was carried, he exposed all his 

 plates without deranging the instrument in the slightest degree. Six 

 spectrograms were obtained in all, several of which contain many 

 ultra-violet lines belonging to the chromosphere, or possibly to the 

 lower layers of the corona. 



Pending the presentation of the report on the shadow-bands which 

 is in my hands, but which I should like to supplement by a short com- 

 putation, I may say that the two officers of the " Theseus," Mr. Green 

 and Mr. Alexander, succeeded in marking the course of the shadow- 

 bands on the vertical wall both at the beginning and at the end of the 

 total phase. As totality came on, the faint rippling bands moved to 

 the right upwards, the direction of motion making an angle of 20 J to 

 30 with the vertical ; at the end of the dark phase the motion was in 

 the opposite direction to the left downwards the motion in both 

 cases being at right angles to the lines. The lines appeared in short 

 wavy fragments. Quite at the last, a little after the main body of the 

 lines had disappeared,' there came a solitary thicker line, more distinct 

 than the rest, and moving less rapidly in a direction inclined 47 to the 

 vertical, but otherwise in the same general direction as the rest of the 

 lines. The wall was photographed, but although the negative shows 

 the red lines distinctly enough, the full blue colour used at the 

 beginning of totality, can scarcely be seen in the photograph. No 

 bands were satisfactorily made out on either of the two other planes. 



The warmest thanks of our party are due to the Admiralty for all 

 the assistance given to us ; to the officers and crew of H.M.S. 

 " Theseus " for their hearty co-operation, which contributed so largely 

 to the success of our endeavours ; to the British Vice-Consul at 

 Alicante ; to the Spanish authorities and to our Santa Pola friends 

 for their untiring courtesy and kindness ; and to the " Orient " Steam- 

 ship Company for their very liberal concession in carrying our bulky 

 impedimenta practically free of cost. 



