94 THE INDIAN ECLIPSE, 1898. 



very carefully protected, and are still uninjured. They have, of 

 course, never been touched since. 



The reproduction of the composite drawing, given on p. 90, 

 should be turned so as to bring the word " vertex " to the top, 

 in order to view the corona as seen. 



Three of the four sketchers (all used to sketch in colours) 

 agreed that the corona was very nearly white in colour, with a 

 faintly amethystine bluish tinge such as an arc light often gives. 

 The fourth observer is the one referred to above as having 

 fatigued his eyes. He considered the light to be pure white. 



Two other members of the Association, Mr. T. W. Backhouse 

 and Mr. J. Willoughby Meares, were present at Buxar, and 

 made outline sketches. 



MR. BACKHOUSE'S KEPORT. 



FOR a short time before totality I covered my eyes with my 

 hands, keeping them mostly shut. I did not notice either the 

 time or the duration of the totality. A gentleman says he 

 found it 1 minute 32 seconds. I observed the totality mostly 

 with field-glasses. I directed my attention specially to the 

 outer parts of the corona. The figure shows as much as I could 

 distinctly notice with field-glasses in the short time. I could 

 not see any alteration in it during totality, except, I believe, a 

 slight increase in the apparent lengths of the rays, due evidently 

 to increasing power to detect them through continued observa- 

 tion, rather than to increasing sensitiveness of the eye to faint 

 light. The main features were, however, extremely conspicuous 

 and very striking. There were several rays five more con- 

 spicuous than the rest and to these five alone I paid special 

 attention. A was the most conspicuous; next B and C; 

 next, I think, D. Either D or E was very much narrower than 

 the others, and not nearly so tapering ; I believe this applies to 

 both, especially E, but am not sure as to this. The narrow one, 

 whether D or E, was perhaps intrinsically as bright as any, but 

 less conspicuous because of its narrowness. All were colourless 

 as far as I could j udge. I should call them pearly white, at any 

 rate the three chief. I could see no striations nor structure of 

 any kind in them. Their outline was almost quite definite ; 

 they did not fade away gradually at the edges nor materially at 

 the points, though their brightest portion was certainly that 

 nearest the moon. I carefully estimated their lengths in 

 diameters of the moon, as follows : A, 2f ; B and C, 1} ; D, 1 J. 

 I am not sure that I have drawn the widths at the base correctly. 

 I looked very carefully for anything beyond these- rays, both 



