H Cloufrg ccultatton 183 



the face of such a bombardment by besieging depres- 

 sions ? To ignominiously capitulate was its only 

 course. Then in rushed the cyclonic invaders from 

 over the broad bosom of the Atlantic Ocean ; the 

 clouds gathered, the winds blew, showers hurtled over 

 the parched land, and a rare phenomenon, an occulta- 

 tion of Mars, was but let me tell the sad story in 

 detail. 



How we had looked forward to the event ! for to us, 

 at least, it was unique. And with what care had we 

 thought out the several points to be noted at immersion 

 and emersion ! Indeed, the only point that we seemed 

 to have overlooked was the weather, and all because 

 that Easter anticyclone had been so long with us from 

 the middle of March that we took it for granted that 

 a further stay of a few weeks more or less would make 

 no difference to the stupendous sunshine-bringer. The 

 disillusionment was brutal. 



The evening of the occultation arrived, the evening 

 of the 13th (ominous day) of April. The day had been 

 sunless, but at a quarter-past six we caught a fleeting 

 glimpse of the crescent moon high in the sou 5 -west, 

 with the scud flying past it from south'ard. At that 

 hour the light was much too strong for Mars to be seen. 

 Then a spell of cloudy obscurity until 7.35, when in the 

 deep dusk and the streaming vapour the ill-defined 

 moon again appeared, and the next instant so did the 

 planet, looking a pale yellowish colour, like an elevated 

 and much chastened Mercury. 'Twas but a moment's 

 glance that they cast from out turbulent cloud-land. 

 Again obscurity, that left us wondering how the moon 

 in its eastward course could possibly reach the planet by 

 about half-past ten, so far away from it did Mars appear. 



