15] ON THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, JULY, 1851. 85 



" The first appearance I noted was the formation of a halo round the 

 Sun soon after the eclipse commenced ; light clouds were at the same time 

 flitting across the sky. When the totality approached, the passage of the 

 shadow was not so rapid but that I could see the clouds to the north- 

 west grow dark before the last direct beam of the Sun was extinguished. 

 And at the reappearance of the Sun it was still more remarkable ; the 

 clouds to the north-west lightened up, making it much lighter where I 

 stood ; and I had time to exclaim that the Sun was going to appear, and 

 to turn my eyes towards him, an appreciable interval before he actually 

 shewed himself. The first appearance was a single point of light, like a 

 very bright star, increasing in size, of course, very rapidly. 



" I did not observe that the landscape was peculiarly livid ; it had a 

 cold appearance, but much such as it often has after sunset ; and the only 

 clear part of the sky, towards the south-east horizon, had quite an orange 

 hue, also such as is not unusual after sunset ; and it remained nearly the 

 same colour the whole time of darkness. 



"I looked for colour in the corona, but could see none; neither did 

 it appear to me divided by a dark ring, or to be regular or well-defined 

 on the outside ; in four points it certainly appeared to project to a greater 

 distance than at the intermediate points, and these four points were at 

 unequal intervals ; but I did not watch it long enough to observe how 

 far this might be due to the clouds which covered it, and which had now 

 become much thicker than at first. As I did not expect to be able to 

 observe it, I had no means of exactly measuring the intensity of the light ; 

 but I could not distinguish the features of people about four yards from 

 me ; and a candle at about the same distance threw a well-defined shadow. 



" A crow was the only animal near me ; it seemed quite bewildered, 

 croaking and flying backwards and forwards near the ground in an uncertain 

 manner." 



I have also been favoured with the following interesting account by 

 another friend, who observed the eclipse in company with several other 

 persons, from an elevated point about thirty-three miles west of Christiania, 

 which commands an extensive view of the surrounding country. 



"We observed the eclipse from the Skuderud Sseters, about nine miles 

 north-east of Fossum, and nearly on the same parallel as Christiania. We 

 had smoked glasses, and also a small telescope smoked. The eclipse appeared 



