Feb. 29, 1872J 



NATURE 



353 



" On Monday afternoon, the nth of December, for the first time 

 since leaving Melbourne, the sky became seiiously overcast. The 

 clouds had been gathered in dense dark masses all the earlier part 

 of the evening, and at ten o'clock at night there was an awful 

 thunderstorm, which lasted over an hour. The glow of the 

 lightning, which came down in sheets of flame, and the rattle and 

 crash of the thunder which followed the flash instantly, were in- 

 expressibly grand. It was something quite beyond the experience 

 of any one on board. A portion of the astronomical party re- 

 turned from the shore in the middle of the stotm. While they 

 were ascending the ship's side the lightning struck the iron 

 rigging, leaped across from stanchion to stanchion in balls of fire, 

 and broke off at the ropes depending from the dead-eyes with 

 loud crackling noises before it reached the sea. The vessel was 

 lit up from stem to stem with a blinding light, and those on deck 

 could see nothing for some seconds after each flash. The party 

 in the boat were so much affected in this way that some alarm 

 prevailed at first. Each one thought he had been deprived of 

 sight, and asked his neighbour how it was with him. Had we 

 been in a wooden ship the consequences would in all probability 

 have been serious. This storm unfortunately did not clear the 

 atmosphere. Next morning, the day of the eclipse, every eye 

 was turned heavenward. To our dismay there was not a speck 

 of sky to be seen. At ten o'clock there were several breaks in the 

 clouds, and the sun showed himself for a few seconds, but an hour 

 and a half later all was densecloud again. Things looked brightest 

 at mid-day, when there seemed to be a possibility of a fine after- 

 noon. Then dark clouds swept up from the horizon, and extin- 

 guished almost every hope. At two o'clock there was yet another 

 chance, though a faint one. This was tantalising. Every in- 

 terest centred in a few patches of sky and their relations to the 

 neighbouring clouds. They were aggravating clouds of every 

 imaginable form and variety — cirrus, stratus, cumulus, nimbus — 

 all were there at various times of the day, assuming the most 

 distressing shapes, but giving no promise of dissolving. 



" The computation of the duration of the eclipse was found to 

 be very accurate, the eclipse occurring, as near as could be 

 judged, three or four seconds before the predicted time. The 

 computation was as follows : — First contact, ih. 15m. 6s. ; 

 commencement of totality, 2h. 42ni. 23s. ; end of totality, 

 2h. 45m. 49!. ; last contact, 4h. Im. 6s. At the time of the 

 first contact there was scarcely a rift in the canopy of clouds. 

 The sun was wholly obscured. A few seconds later a passing 

 glimpse was obtained, showing that the encroachment of the 

 dark body of the moon on the bottom edge of the sun's disc had 

 begun. Then all was dark again, excepting a faint luminous spot 

 indicating the radiant body's position. A sharp shower fell at 

 this time, and the instruments exposed had to be covered up. A 

 drizzling rain continued during the remainder of the afternoon. 

 At the faintest indication of a break in the clouds the astronomers 

 ran out of their tents, and endeavoured to take observations, but 

 without any result. Seven minutes before the commencement of 

 totality there was a gleam of light from the sun, but the phase 

 of the eclipse could not be discerned. We caught a momentary 

 glimpse of the silver sickle of the sun at the top, just before the full 

 obscuration. Then darkness fell suddenly like a pall on the sur- 

 rounding objects, and we knew that totality had begun. It was 

 a strange weird light at first. The large billowy clouds assumed 

 olive and purple tints, and then changed to an ashen hue. These 

 colours were reflected in the sea with some variations of light 

 green and copper. Men looked livid in the light, and every- 

 thing around had a most unearthly appearance. The steamer at 

 anchor showed with a wonderful distinctness ; every line, spar, 

 and bit of cordage stood out against the horizon with the sharp- 

 ness of a highly-magnified stereoscopic picture. There was no 

 total darkness, owing, probably, to the amount of light diffused 

 in the clouds. During totality, newspaper print could be read 

 without much difficulty. Nor was there any perceptible diminu- 

 tion in the temperature. The three minutes and a half seemed 

 exceedingly short. We saw nothing of the corona beyond a 

 brief ghmpse of a luminous mark shining faintly through the 

 vapours. Some said they detected a decided red tinge. The 

 clouds turned black, the tints disappeared from the sea, and 

 utter darkness seemed coming upon us, when a few rays of light 

 played upon the edges of a great bank of clouds in the N. W., 

 some of the grey tints of dawm appeared, and daylight came 

 back with a rush, as from the lifting of a veil. A hawk which 

 had been sailing about swept down into a bush on the island to 

 roost as soon as totality began. When daylight returned, he was 

 astonished to find himself within a few feet of forty or fifty men, 



and flew off in wild alarm. Though daylight had returned, the 

 sun was still hidden by the clouds. A minute later we faintly 

 saw the re-appearance of the solar limb at the bottom like a fine 

 luminous thread, when more clouds interposed and shut out the 

 great luminary for the remainder of the afternoon. This was all 

 that was vouchsafed to us of the grand phenomena of a total solar 

 eclipse. Never was Nature more assiduously wooed to reveal her 

 treasures to science. But it was all to no purpose. Of the up- 

 ward and onward march of the moon, the successive dis- 

 appearance of the solar spots, the brilliant breaking into view of 

 Bailey's Beads, the passage of the shadow through the air, the 

 rose-coloured prominences and coronal radiations during totality, 

 the reappearance of the soiar crescent, and the final retreat of 

 the lunar shadow into space, we had seen nothing. No observa- 

 tion could be taken by instrument. Mr. Russell exposed a 

 photographic plate for twenty seconds during totality, but got no 

 result. 



" Nothing remained but to pack up and head the ship for 

 home. The work was commenced before the eclipse was over, 

 the rain falling dismally all the time, and was completed in less 

 than three hours. The disappointment to all was very great. 

 It was especially felt by the astronomical party, but they bore it 

 br ivcly, as became men who had faithfully performed their duty. 

 When over dessert that evening Mr. Ellery proposed in the 

 interests of science, " Success to the Other Eclipse Expeditions," 

 there was not one who did not cordially wish that all the other 

 observers might have presented to their view the radiant globe 

 projected on an azure sky, instead of the mountains of dull cloud 

 that desolated our hopes. 



"Later in the evening the schooner MalilJa, bound for Syd- 

 ney, from Torres Strait, with twelve tons of pearl shell, came 

 alongside. The master and first officer reported having seen the 

 eclipse very distinctly while near Night Island, in lat. 13° 9' S., 

 long. 143° 39' E., about 15 miles from No. VI. island. They 

 were not aware that the eclipse was going to occur, and at first 

 took the darkness for approaching bad weather, until one of 

 them happening to look under the mainsail, observed the pheno- 

 menon. Though wholly unprepared for the eclipse, they gave a 

 very intelligent account of it, on being carefully examined by 

 Prof Wilson. Mr. Walton, master of the Malilda, stated that 

 he had just ordered some clothes that were drying to be taken 

 down, as bad weather seemed to be coming on, when he 

 happened to look up and see the eclipse. It was so dark that 

 he had to light the binnacle lamp. On a diagram being handed 

 to him, he correctly indicated the points of disappearance and 

 first reappearance of the sun. He drew on a black disc a line 

 showing the boundary of the ring of light round the dark body 

 of the moon, narrower in the right-hand bottom quadrant, and 

 wider, with a projection, in the left-hand top quadrant. The 

 colour of the light, he said, was whitish, like ordinary sun- 

 light. He was particularly asked if he saw any pink light, 

 and said no. He described the boundary as being sharp, 

 and clear towards the moon, but rough and irregular 

 outwards. The breadth of the annulus which he drew was 

 about l-l6th of the diameter of the black disc. He said he 

 and the other oflicers differed as to the duration of the darkness. 

 The time was variously guessed at from five to ten minutes. His 

 own opinion was that it was seven or eight minutes. There were 

 no clouds on the sun at the time, and the blue sky was visible. 

 Some of the South Sea Islanders on board were very much 

 alarmed, and wept plenteously. Mr. Horc, first officer of the 

 Mali/da, stated that on his attention being directed to the eclipse, 

 he went below to fetch his sextant in order to use the dark glasses. 

 The captain called to him to make haste, as he was losing the 

 best of it. On coming on deck he saw the dark body of the 

 moon, surrounded by a fine ring of red light, outside of which 

 was a broader ring of paler red light ; while all outside of that 

 was as black as night. His drawing on the card showed the 

 breadth of the inner ring to be one-eighth the diameter of the 

 moon, and the breadth of the outer on to be seven-six- 

 teenths of the diameter of the moon. On being pressed 

 as to the colour, he said it was not like fire itself, but 

 like the glow of fire when the fire is concealed. The 

 illustration he used was the glow of a house on fire seen 

 from behind another house. Only one cloud passed over the sun 

 during the eclipse, and that was a very small one. Peter R. 

 Cooper, carpenter on board the Mntilda, drew a line showing the 

 boundaries of the inner and outer annuli, the inner one extending 

 rather more than half round, the point of first reappearance 

 being the middle of it, the outer one extending less than a 



