Jan. i8, 1872] 



NA TURE 



221 



painted round a saint's head, extending to a diameter 

 and a half. Looked through the finder, and saw the same 

 firm, but very much reduced in size and brilliancy ; then 

 examined wiih the 6in. and eye-piece, and saw nothing 

 but a bright glow round the moon, not much more than 

 the height of the big prominence plainly visible in the 

 S.E. quarter. The last thirty seconds had now arrived, 

 and, as previously arranged, Mr. Lockyer took my place at 

 the 6in., while I again looked through the 6. prism spectro- 

 scope to record anything that might be visible, but I saw 

 nothing. As the spectroscope was not on the sun's limb 

 at the re appearance of the light, I cmnot state what took 

 place. 



During the remainder of the partial eclipse I watched 

 the northern cusp as the moon uncovered the sun, and 

 several times I saw distinctly the four bright lines near C ; 

 but saw nothing else worth recording. 



The colour of the corona appeared to m2 alight pinkish 

 white, very brilliant. I saw no streamers. The rest of the 

 sky and everything around had a bluish tinge. 



I will now give an extract from Mr. Pringle's report. 

 He was observing with the direct-vision spectroscope 

 attached to the other 6-inch telescope, and with myself 

 watching the northern cusp, slit radial : 



" Until 6h. 47m. (mean time) bright lines C, near D, and 

 F, of uniform brightness, and varying but slightly from 

 normal height. At that time F brightened, C remained 

 bright, line near D very faint. At 6h. S4m. all the lines 

 lengthened to some four or five times their normal height, 

 showing a prominence at the cusp. For the next ten 

 minutes lines varying but little. At yh. 4m. a large 

 prominence at cusp ; bright lines lengthening some 

 eight or nine times their normal height. At 7h. 4m. 305. 

 a bright line appeared on the more refrangible side of F, 

 and close to it, F lengthening considerably, and bending 

 towards the rtd. All the before- mentioned lines were 

 now bright, F longer than the rest, and remaining bent, 

 the line near it being one-thii-d its length. At yh. 13m. 

 observed three bright lines at b, visible only at the extreme 

 point of the cusp. Half a minute before totality, turned 

 the slit tangential ; but the slit not being exactly at the 

 same place as that of Commander Maclear's, both re- 

 fractors working by the same slow-motion screw [this 

 was owing to the sway of the bars carrying the spec- 

 troscope when it was being turned. — J. P. M.] I failed 

 to obtain any results at the moment of totality. I 

 then observed at the 6-prism just quitted by Com- 

 mander Maclear, whilst that gentleman, observing at 

 the direct-vision spectroscope, swept out from the sun 

 on one side, then brought the finder on the dark moon, 

 and thence swept out from the sun on the opposite side. 

 During this time nothing whatever was visible in the 

 spectroscope. I next observed with the naked eye : 

 corona appeared radial, of a purplish white colour, 

 brightest near the body of the moon ; no very long rays 

 perceptible. On holding the head sideways, rays of 

 corona remained permanent, showing none to be due to 

 defect of vision. Next observed corona through 2.V' finder 

 of refractor. Structure well-defined, wavy, nebulous, 

 permanent. Remarked a curiously-curved portion of 

 corona, divided by a partial rife from an oblique ray. 

 I should imagine the corona to extend about 7' beyond 

 the sun, but did not accurately estimate the distance 



whilst observing. When thirty seconds of totality re- 

 mained, I went to finder of equatorial reflector ; struc- 

 ture of corona not so apparent with higher power. 

 Several prominences visible ; one of large size, structure 

 similar to that of corona. At about twelve seconds 

 before end of totality, a perceptible brightening along 

 the edge of the moon on the side of appearance ; a 

 few seconds before end of totality, I went to one prism 

 corona spectroscope attached to 7}" reflector. At the 

 end of totality a considerable number of bright lines 

 flashed in (what proportion of the whole I cannot say, 

 perhaps a third}. The line near D noticeably bright ; 

 continuous spectrum faintly visible a moment before 

 the sun's limb showed. After totality observed at finder, 

 the summit of a large prominence opposite the point 

 of sun's re-appearance visible for several seconds after 

 totality." 



During the afternoon I tried to make an accurate 

 sketch of the prominences on the sun's disc, but clouds 

 came on, and I was prevented. It was not worth while 

 keeping the instruments up another day for the purpose, 

 so we commenced, and in two days they were safely 

 packed for Bombay. 



The rumours that our presence gave rise to among the 

 natives were very amusing. First we heard that part of 

 the sun was about to fall, and the wise men had come to 

 the East to prevent it. Then when the formidable-look- 

 ing instruments were seen mounted on the fort, they 

 thought there was a war, and we were engineers going to 

 put the fort in order to prevent a landing. This was 

 strengthened by the fact that the Glasgoiu practised at a 

 target before returning to Ceylon. This gave place to a 

 flood about to descend, and all the Europeans were 

 coming to the high ground to escape it. 



When the eclipse commenced the usual shouting and 

 beating of tom-toms went on, but a cordon of police pre- 

 vented an invasion of the Observatory, and only a con- 

 fused noise from below reached us. 



J. P. Maclear 



S.S. Indus, January 6, 1872 



MORSE ON TEREBRA TULINA 



The Early Stages of Terebratulina septentrioiialis. By 

 Edward S.Morse, Ph. D. (Boston Society of Natural 

 History, vol. ii.) 



NT R. MORSE is one of the band of New England 

 1 naturalists who have lately been making them- 

 selves known to us through that excellent periodical the 

 American Naturalist, and who have shown themselves 

 determned to take advantage of the opportunities offered 

 to them by the presence on their sea-board of such 

 zoological treasures as Limulus and Lingula. Mr. Morse 

 obtained Terebratulina in abundance in the harbour of 

 Eastport, Maine, and gives in this paper an account of 

 the change in the form of the shell and the "arms" 

 during development of this Brachiopod from a scarcely 

 visible speck onwards. The changes are illustrated in 

 two plates containing outline figures, and as far as Mr. 

 Morse has observed consist firstly in the passage of the 

 shell from a flat and shorter form to the elongated and 

 convex shape with which we are familiar. Further, the 



