156 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



air, the appearance of the corona and prominences at 

 the moment of totality, the radiant streamers of the 

 corona, the internal structure of the flames, a glance 

 through a polariscope, a sweep round the landscape 

 with the naked eye, the reappearance of the solar limb 

 through Bailey's beads, and, finally, the retreat of the 

 lunar shadow through the air. 



I was provided with a telescope of admirable defini- 

 tion, mounted, adjusted, packed, and most liberally 

 placed at my disposal by Mr. Warren De La Eue. The 

 telescope grasped the whole of the sun, and a consider- 

 able portion of the space surrounding it. But it would 

 not take in the extreme limits of the corona. For this 

 I had lashed on to the large telescope a light but pow- 

 erful instrument, constructed by Eoss, and lent to me 

 by Mr. Huggins. I was also furnished with an excellent 

 binocular by Mr. Dallmeyer. In fact, no man could 

 have been more efficiently supported. It required a 

 strict parcelling out of the interval of totality to em- 

 brace in it the entire series of observations. These, 

 while the sun remained visible, were to be made with 

 an unsilvered diagonal eye-piece, which reflected but a 

 small fraction of the sun's light, this fraction being 

 still further toned down by a dark glass. At the mo- 

 ment of totality the dark glass was to be removed, and 

 a silver reflector pushed in, so as to get the maximum 

 of light from the corona and prominences. The time 

 of totality was distributed as follows: 



1. Observe approach of shadow through the air: totality. 



2. Telescope 30 seconds. 



3. Finder 30 seconds. 



4. Double image prism . . . .15 seconds. 



5. Naked eye . .... . .10 seconds. 



6. Finder or binocular . . . .20 seconds. 



7. Telescope 20 seconds. 



8. Observe retreat of shadow. 



