at the total solar Eclipse in 1882 361 



cloudless sky and the inhabitants of Sohag had already begun 

 to collect on the banks of the Nile where they remained until 

 the eclipse was over. The temperature recorded as at 8.30 a.m. 

 was really observed 50 seconds after totality began, and I had 

 no difficulty in reading the thermometer although all the 

 principal stars were shining brightly, along with an unsus- 

 pected comet which appeared with totality, between two and 

 three sun's diameters from the darkened disc and with a 

 slightly curved tail quite as long as the sun's diameter. This 

 comet had not been detected before and I understand that it 

 was never seen afterwards. It was a very striking feature 

 of the eclipse to those whose occupations enabled them to 

 look at it. I made a sketch immediately totality was over. 

 Perhaps the most impressive period of the eclipse is during 

 the two or three minutes that precede the total phase. Until 

 a very large proportion of the sun's disc has been obscured 

 the decrease of light causes no remark, especially from people 

 who are accustomed to climates where clouds are more common 

 than sunshine. But when the time comes that every minute 

 and indeed every second alters by many per cent, the visible 

 radiating area of the sun and when at last this area is halved 

 in one second and becomes nothing in the next, the effect 

 which this sudden extinction of the sun produces is a very 

 profound one. And this not on man only, but also on the 

 beasts. There were some turkeys in the camp, and they 

 went about as usual until the final phase above indicated 

 began, when they showed every symptom of alarm. When 

 the sun reappears his light increases as rapidly as it dis- 

 appeared, and five minutes after totality all interest in the 

 eclipse has gone. What struck me most besides the comet, 

 were two so-called protuberances. I say so-called because to 

 the naked eye they look much more like indentations or 

 notches in the moon's disc and coloured red. This is a sub- 

 jective effect and due to the same cause as the " black drop " 

 in the case of the transit of Venus. 



Of all the natural phenomena which I have had the 

 opportunity of witnessing there is none which produces so 

 powerful an impression as a total eclipse of the sun. In 



