YET A YEAR LATER. 83 



the place where this will happen lies very far south in 

 the Pacific Ocean, it is not likely that any observer 

 will witness this eclipse. It is, however, the most con- 

 siderable solar eclipse of the year 1872. The last 

 eclipse of the series occurs on November 19, 1873, and, 

 like the last of the former series, it is altogether un- 

 important. The moon, as supposed to be seen from 

 the sun, will just graze the most southerly part of the 

 earth's disc. * The circumstances of the eclipse are 

 suchj~.says the Nautical Almanac, ' that a map has not 

 been considered requisite.' There will be no total 

 solar eclipse at all in 1873. 



Not until April 16, 1874, will any total eclipse 

 worth observing take place, after the eclipse of the 

 present month. Nor are the circumstances oi the 

 eclipse of 1874 such as to encourage favourable hopes 

 that much will be learned during its progress. On 

 April 6, 1875, there will be, I believe, a much more 

 important. eclipse visible (as I judge from a rough cal- 

 culation) in Africa ; but I shall probably be excused 

 from entering into an exact calculation of its circum- 

 stances, more especially as the Nautical Almanac for 

 1875 will, I believe, be published before this essay 

 appears. 



It will be inferred that a considerable degree of 

 interest is attached by astronomers to the eclipse of 

 the present month, followed as it will be by two years 

 and four months during which there will be no solar 

 eclipses worthy of special observation. 



Although the eclipse of December 12 is not nearly 

 o 2 



