GREAT SOLAR ECLIPSES. 9 



Grant considers that ' this last remark is a manifest 

 exaggeration.' Be this as it may, there can be no 

 doubt that the eclipse was one of unusual extent, for 

 the mathematician Maclaurin found that ' at the time 

 of its occurrence the sun was only two degrees from 

 apogee, the moon not more than thirteen degrees 

 from perigee.' But neither in this eclipse nor in that 

 of Thales did the totality last so long as during the 

 eclipse of 1868. 



^In 1598 another total eclipse occurred which was 

 visible in the British Isles. The day of the eclipse 

 was remembered for a long time afterwards as * Black 

 Saturday.' In a similar way the day of the total 

 eclipse of 1652 was named * Mirk Monday ' by the 

 people of Scotland, and although the eclipse has long 

 since been forgotten, the expression is still used in 

 many parts of that country. 



It is singular that none of the eclipses I have re- 

 corded had led to any observations of any value to the 

 physical inquirer. Modern eclipses, on the contrary, 

 derive their chief interest from observations of this sort. 

 In the total eclipse of 1706, which was observed at 

 Montpelier, and a variety of other places in Western 

 and Central Europe, the bright stars Aldebaran and 

 Capella, and the planets Venus, Mercury, and Saturn, 

 were visible to the naked eye. 'Bats flew about as 

 they do at dusk. Fowls and pigeons flew hastily to 

 their roosts. Cage-birds were silent, and hid their 

 heads under their wings. Animals at labour in the 

 fields stood still.' Duillier relates that at Geneva 



