250 
NAT 

At Augusta, through the kindness of Prof. Cacciatore 
and Father Denza, I was able to obtain the latitude and 
longitude, as well as the local times of the different phases 
of the Eclipse :— 
Latitude of Fort Augusta 
Longitude ,, Pca eee 
Local time of beginning of totality.. .. 
middle 4 
N. 
E. of Greenwich, 
” 

3 end + 
Making the duration of totality ‘i 
The barometer fell from the morning of the 2oth 
to the morning of the 22nd, then rose a little, and 
again began to fall about 12 o'clock, and was lowest 
about the time of totality. On the evening of the 21st 
the Italian astronomers reported to us the bad state of 
the weather throughout Italy and Sicily, the wind being 
westerly, and that a sirocco was expected everywhere. 
From about 2 o’clock in the night there was a heavy 
storm of wind and rain, with thunder and lightning, and 
our tents were in danger of being blown away. By 6 
o’clock the rain had ceased, and the wind moderated, 
but there were still frequent flashes of lightning on the 
eastern horizon ; inhalf an hour thick clouds had again 
covered the sky, and we had rain. The wind again 
became violent, and swept away the clouds, but the 
weather did not look promising. 
According to previous arrangement, Mr. Ranyard started 
in a carriage to go up to the hills, and Mr. Samuelson 
accompanied him, and they took two sappers with them. 
When the moon had entered about one-third of her 
diameter Mr. Brett, with his 8°5 inch reflector, observed 
the corona round the limb of the sun as a hazy light most 
brilliant nearest the sun’s limb, and the limb of the moon 
could be traced on this corona for about 2’ from the cusps. 
On these points Mr. Burton confirmed Mr. Brett’s obser- 
vations. Soon after a sudden chill was felt, and there 
was a sudden change in the light. About three minutes 
before totality there were brilliant and very remarkable 
patches of red and yellow light on the cloud to the 
right of and below the sun. Mr, Burton describes 
them as bows, apparently concentric with the sun. 
During the morning Mr. Burton had been able to in- 
dicate the positions of some of the most remarkable 
prominences, but the stormy wind prevented him from 
mapping themaccurately. Father Secchi had also kindly 
sent us the positions of those which he had observed. 
Just before totality, Mr. Burton saw and made a 
diagram of a prominence at the lower horn, and saw 
several lines inthe spectrum of the chromosphere between 
DandE. Using his large telescope Mr. Brett was able 
to make a sketch of the corona during the totality. 
On account of the cloud, Mr. Burton was able to make 
only one of the four observations he had hoped to make 
on the Corona with his five-inch equatorial and spectro- 
scope. At the beginning of totality, placing his slit 
tangential and very near to the east limb, but not ona 
prominence, a bright line was distinctly seen in the spec- 
trum, very near E, and a little less refrangible. The line 
was less defined than the hydrogen lines of the pro- 
minence. No dark lines were seen on the Corona. 
At the end of totality, Mr. Burton had a momentary 
glimpse of the Corona, but had no time to get the telescope 
on it before the totality was over. With regard to the 
amount of light, he says that it was sufficient to see a 
pencil diagram at a distance of two feet from the eye. I 
can confirm him in the view that the darkness was not 
intense, and have no doubt that the diffusion of light by 
the cloud gave us more light than we should otherwise 
have had. Venus and some stars were seen. 
Colonel Porter had kindly volunteered to make a sketch 
of the Coron, but the cloud prevented him fron obtaining | 
any satisfactory result 
I didnot see the Corona at the beginning of totality 
with my telescope. As the band of sunlight became ex- 
ceedingly thin, and at the instant of its disappearance 



ry, 
ORE | Fan. 26, 1871 
broke up into sections, I could not decide whether the 
lunar mountains had pierced the rim of light, or whether 
the dense cloud coming over the moon had cut out certain 
portions of the rim before obscuring the whole. 
After this, I could detect nothing of the disc of the 
moon for a full minute, then the cloud became thinner, 
and I found that by slowly moving the telescope I had 
kept the moon in the centre of the field. At the top and 
bottom, the limb was visible, but no light was seen out- 
side it at these points. I saw light of the Corona near 
the point of beginning of totality covering some 20° of the 
limb, and also a trace of light near the point of emergence. 
I could not perceive any colour on these portions of the 
Corona, nor could I detect any difference of colour on the 
two plates of my bi-quartz, the line of division of which 
was at right angles to the sun’s path, ze. inclined at 
15° to the vertical. The moon was again observed, 
and again I detected light near the point of emergence, 
and placed the line of division of my bi-quartz radial to 
the moon, having the light in the centre of the field, but I 
could detect no trace of colour on the two parts of the 
crystal, showing that the bi-quartz was not sufficiently 
delicate to detect the polarisation under such unfavourable 
circumstances. The rim then became continuous, and the 
totality was over. 
Mr. Clifford observed polarisation on the cloud to the 
right and left and over the moon, in a horizontal plane 
through the moon’s centre, and found the plane of polari- 
sation to be inclined at from 15° to 20° to the vertical 
towards the west. At his last observation, which was 
on the moon, when it could be seen near the end of 
totality, he determined the plane of polarisation to be 
vertical. 
The comparisons made at Catania, as well as a com- 
parison of my observations with Mr. Clifford’s, seem to 
show that bands, rather than a difference of shades of 
colour, should be employed to detect delicate polarisation. 
Mr. Ranyard had a very clear view at Villasmunda, 
although it was raining during the totality,’and made 
three observations, two of which he described to me as 
agreeing with what should be observed in the case of 
radial polarisation. 
Mr. Samuelson and the two sappers made independent 
rough drawings of what they saw, and their drawings 
agree well as to the Corona and the positions of the rays. 
Mr. Samuelson also used a Nicol’s prism, with Savart’s 
bands, to determine the polarisation on the sky at three 
points, and at two of these points found the plane of 
polarisation vertical. 
I have not yet seen the details of Mr. Ranyard’s or of 
Mr. Samuelson’s reports. 
Although the other successful observers of the Eclipse 
in Sicily were not attached to the Augusta expedition, of 
which Mr. Lockyer had put me in charge, I may add that 
at Syracuse the weather was favourable, and Mr. Griffiths 
was able to determine the plane and amount of polarisa- 
tion at different points of the Corona ; also, that Messrs. 
Brothers and Fryer were able to take some good photo- 
graphs of the Corona, one of which is very remarkable 
for its clear definition of the Corona and of the rays ex- 
tending out to a distance of two diameters from the 
inoon’s limb. This photograph and a careful sketch of 
the Corona by Mr. Watson, one of the American observers, 
show a very remarkable agreement, and prove the exist- 
ence of the remarkable dark cusps on the Corona. . 
At Augusta, two bright lines were s~en in the spectrum 
of the Corona by Father Denzi, one of the Italian astro- 
nomers, but no dark lines have been seen. 
We experienced every kindness from the Italian astro- 
nomers at Augusta and from the authorities ; and, oa 
the day after the Eclipse, we were invited by the Syndic 
of the City to meet the Italian Astronomers at a grand 
public dinner given by the City in honour of our visit. 
King’s College, Jan. 16 W. G, ADAMS 
