ECLIPSES. 



darkness nearly equal in both cases), or from whatever cause, the 

 suddenness of the darkness in 1851 appeared to me much more 

 striking than in 1842. My friends who were on the upper rock, 

 to which the path was very good, had great difficulty in de- 

 scending. A candle had been lighted in a lantern about a quarter 

 of an hour before the totality ; Mr. Haselgren was unable to 

 read the minutes of the chronometer-face without having the 

 lantern held close to the chronometer. 



" The corona was far broader than that which I saw in 1842 : 

 roughly speaking, its breadth was little less than the moon's 

 diameter ; but its outline was very irregular. I did not remark 

 any beams projecting from it which deserved notice as much more 

 conspicuous than the others ; but the whole was beamy, radiated 

 in structure, and terminated (though very indefinitely) in a way 

 which reminded me of the ornament frequently placed round a 

 mariner's compass. Its colour was white, or resembling that of 

 Venus. I saw no nickering or unsteadiness of light. It was not 

 separated from the moon by any dark ring, nor had it any 

 annular structure ; it looked like a radiating luminous cloud 

 behind the moon. 



" The form of the prominences was most remarkable. That 

 which I have marked a reminded me of a bomerang. Its colour 

 for at least two-thirds of its breadth, from the convexity towards 

 the concavity, was full lake-red, the remainder was nearly white. 

 The most brilliant part of it was the swell farthest from the 

 moon's limb ; this was distinctly seen by my friends and myself 

 with the naked eye. I did not measure its height; but judging 

 generally by its proportion to the moon's diameter, it must have 

 been 3'. This estimation perhaps belongs to a later period of the 

 eclipse. The prominence b was a pale white semi-circle based on 

 the moon's limb. That marked c was a red detached cloud, or 

 balloon, of nearly circular form, separated from the moon's limb 

 by a space (differing in no way from the rest of the corona) of 

 nearly its own breadth. That marked d was a small triangular 

 or conical red mountain, perhaps a little white in the interior. 

 These were the appearances seen instantly after the formation of 

 the totality. 



" I employed myself in an attempt to delineate roughly the 

 appearances on the western limb, and I took a hasty view of the 

 country ; and I then examined the moon a second time. I 

 believe (but I did not carefully remark) that the prominences 

 a b c had increased in height ; but d had now disappeared, and a 

 new one e had risen up. It was impossible to see this change 

 without feeling the conviction that the prominences belonged to 

 the sun and not to the moon. 

 172 



