GREAT SOLAR ECLIPSES. 21 



heavily clouded, still the upper atmosphere is brilliantly 

 illuminated, and the diffused light which comes from 

 it is agreeable to the eye. But when the sun is 

 partially eclipsed, the illumination of the atmosphere 

 for many miles round is also diminished, and the eye 

 is oppressed by the absence of the light which usually 

 comes from it. ... I had a wax-candle lighted in a 

 lantern, as I have had at preceding total eclipses. 

 Correcting the appreciations of my eye by reference to 

 this, I found that the darkness of the approaching 

 totality was much less striking than in the eclipses of 

 1842 and 1851. In my anxiety to lose nothing at the 

 telescope, I did not see the approach of the dark shadow 

 through the air ; but, from what I afterwards saw of 

 its retreat, I am sure it must have been very awful.' 

 ' About the middle of the totality I ceased my measures 

 for awhile, in order to view the prospect with the 

 naked eye. The general light appeared to me much 

 greater than in the eclipses of 1842 and 1851 (one 

 cloudy, the other hazy) perhaps ten times as great ; 

 I believe I could have read a chronometer at the 

 distance of twelve inches ; nevertheless, it was not easy 

 to walk where the ground was in the least uneven, and 

 much attention to the footing was necessary. The 

 outlines of the mountains were clear, but all distances 

 were totally lost ; they were, in fact, in an undivided 

 mass of black to within a small distance of the spectator. 

 Above these, to the height perhaps of six or eight 

 degrees, and especially remarkable on the north side, 

 was a brilliant yellow, or orange, sky, without any trace 



