142 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



VI. 



VOYAGE TO ALGERIA TO OBSERVE THE 

 ECLIPSE. 



1870. 



THE opening of the Eclipse Expedition was not pro- 

 pitious. Portsmouth, on Monday, December 5. 

 1 870, was swathed by fog, which was intensified by smoke, 

 and traversed by a drizzle of fine rain. At six P.M. I 

 was on board the ' Urgent.' On Tuesday morning the 

 weather was too thick to permit of the ship's being 

 swung and her compasses calibrated. The Admiral of 

 the port, a man of very noble presence, came on board. 

 Under his stimulus the energy which the weather had 

 damped appeared to become more active, and soon after 

 his departure we steamed down to Spithead. Here the 

 fog had so far lightened as to enable the officers to swing 

 the ship. 



At three P.M. on Tuesday, December 6, we got away, 

 gliding successively past Whitecliff Bay, Bembridge, 

 Sandown, Shanklin, Ventnor, and St. Catherine's Light- 

 house. On Wednesday morning we sighted the Isle of 

 Ushant, on the French side of the Channel. The 

 northern end of the island has been fretted by the 

 waves into detached tower-like masses of rock of very 

 remarkable appearance. In the Channel the sea was 

 green, and opposite Ushant it was a brighter green. On 

 Wednesday evening we committed ourselves to the Bay 

 of Biscay. The roll of the Atlantic was full, but not 



