166 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



uresque still, and of all shades of complexion — tlie ne- 

 groes, the Spaniards, the French, all grouped together, 

 each race preserving its own individuality, formed a pict- 

 ure intensely interesting to me. 



On Tuesday, the 20th, I was early at the bastionet. 

 The night had been very squally. The sergeant of the 

 sappers had taken charge of our kej^ and on Tuesday 

 morning Elliot went for it. He brought back the intel- 

 ligence that the tents had been blown down and the 

 instruments overturned. Among these was a large and 

 valuable equatorial from the Eoyal Observatory, Green- 

 wich. It seemed hardly possible that this instrument, 

 with its wheels and verniers and delicate adjustments, 

 could have escaped uninjured from such a fall. This, 

 however, was the case; and during the day all the over- 

 turned instruments were restored to their places, and 

 found to be in practical working order. This and the 

 following day were devoted to incessant schooling. I had 

 come out as a general star-gazer, and not with the inten- 

 tion of devoting myself to the observation of any par- 

 ticular phenomenon. I wished to see the whole — the first 

 contact, the advance of the moon, the successive swallow- 

 ing up of the solar spots, the breaking of the last line 

 of crescent by the lunar mountains into Bailey's beads, 

 the advance of the shadow through the air, the appear- 

 ance of the corona and prominences at the moment of 

 totality, the radiant streamers of the corona, the internal 

 structure of the flames, a glance through a polariscope, 

 a sweep round the landscape with the naked eye, the 

 reappearance of the solar limb through Bailey's beads, 

 and, finally, the retreat of the lunar shadow through the 

 air. 



