390 



NATURE 



[August 27, 1896 



we may take Raper's as a type, consists of excellent 

 practical examples and methods, but is so deficient in 

 explanation and theory that a student could not obtain 

 any grasp of the principles involved without the assistance 

 of some friendly tutor. This is a serious objection if wc 

 consider the need of amended methods to meet the pre- 

 sent increased speed of ocean transit and the consequent 

 emergencies. 



The other group, following on French lines, is so lum- 

 bered with investigations of a high mathematical order 

 as to be quite beyond the comprehension of the average 

 sailor. 



Jean, who made an attempt to combine the two, pro- 

 duced two volumes of good matter, but ill-arranged and 

 cumbersome. He has, in addition to the versine method, 

 five difficult and different ways of "clearing the lunar 

 distance." 



We are glad to see that Mr. Stebbing has taken to 

 heart the fable of the cat and the fox, and in every astro- 

 nomical problem has selected the method in general use 

 among the advanced school, and has explained and 

 solved his problem by that method, and that only. His 

 book is therefore of modest dimensions, and any student 

 of average intelligence can read it and comprehend 

 it unaided. 



The comparatively small number of first-class navigat- 

 ing officers is in itself a conclusive proof that the art of 

 navigation is much more intricate than a casual run 

 through the subject would lead us to suppose. Long 

 experience and special advantages are necessary to 

 graduate as an instructor in this branch of science, 

 and we therefore all the more welcome Mr. Stebbing, 

 who happens to possess these special requirements, as a 

 guide to our sailors of the present and the future. 



The Distribution of Rain over the British Isles during 

 the Year 1895. Compiled by G. J. Symons, F.R.S., 

 and H. .Sowerby Wallis. Pp. 237. (London : Edward 

 Stanford, 1896.) 



Mr. SymONS's staff of voluntary observers now numbers 

 3084, having grown from 168 in the year i860. Of these 

 observers, 2304 have their stations in England, and only 

 398 in Scotland — a disproportion which is to be regretted. 

 The large number of private stations where good records 

 of rainfall are kept, is a striking testimony to the interest 

 taken in local meteorology. 



The present report contains an interesting article on 

 Seathwaite as a rainfall station. The first systematic 

 records of the rainfall at that place were made in iS45,so 

 the station attained its jubilee in 1894. The following 

 conclusions concerning this very wet spot are stated by 

 Mr. Symons: (i) The rainfall at Seathwaite is on the 

 average 135 inches a year. (2) In the wettest year it 

 has exceeded 182 inches, and may possibly reach 190 

 inches. (3) In the driest year it has fallen to 88 inches, 

 and will probably never be less. (4) In one month 

 (November 1861) more than 35 inches fell. (5) In 

 September 1894, very little more than half an inch fell. 

 (6) There are nine recorded cases of more than six 

 inches falling on one day — probably there have been 

 about a dozen — the heaviest recorded was 7'52 inches on 

 November 26, 1861. 



Several plates illustrating Seathwaite, and the positions 

 and patterns of the ram gauges, accompany the article. 



In another article in the present volume systematic 

 percolation experiments carried on at Apsley Mills, 

 Hemel Hempstead, arc described and discussed. Gauges 

 were sunk in sand, chalk and earth, to measure the 

 percolation at depths of 3 feet and 5 feet in each 

 case. The result of the whole of the obsen'ations is, 

 with a probable error of less than 2 per cent., "that with 

 a rainfall of 26 inches, 16 inches percolate through 5 feet 

 of sand, and 10 inches are evaporated from it ; and that 

 12 inches soak through 5 feet of chalk or earth, and 



NO. 1400, VOL. 54] 



the other 1 4 inches either evaporate or run off the surface. 

 The differences between the results obtained by tlu 

 gauges at 3 feet and 5 feet were very small. The In 

 by evaporation is found by Mr. Symons to follow vet 

 nearly the same monthly vatiation as that from a watr 

 surface, but is decidedly less. 



There are several other articles on various branchr 

 of rainfall work, and they help to make the new issue n 

 " British Rainfall" an interesting volume. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



{The Editor does not liold Itimsetf responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by ins correspondents. Neil/ier can /le underlain 

 to 7-etiirn, or to correspond with the -writers of rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous co)nmunications.'\ 



The Total Solar Eclipse of August 9, i8g6, as observed 

 in a Cloudless Sky at Bodo. 



As Bodo was considered as offering conditions not favourable 

 for serious work, this pretty town, so easily accessible for the 

 greater number of European astronomers, was left unpro- 

 vided with any astronomical instrument. And yet that town 

 was, during the eclipse, favoured by a cloudless sky, which 

 could have given magnificent results. I had the good fortune 

 to observe there the wonderful phenomenon, and to make (what 

 was chiefly my purpose) a sketch of the general outline and the 

 rays of the corona. I do not think that among the thousands 

 of Norwegians who witnessed that grand spectacle there were 

 more than twenty foreigners, almost all English and American 

 ladies and gentlemen. 



The place we selected was on a hill at Brevig on the Salten- 

 fjord, near Bodo, which hill had been found on May 3, when 

 the sun was as high as on August 9, to be well situated for the 

 eclipse observation. The weather on the previous days had 

 been fine and very promising, and on the night of August 9 was 

 even more splendid than before. On seeing the sun rise wholly 

 clear from behind the mountains, no trace of the smallest cloud 

 spoiling the clearness of the sky, an enthusia.stic "hurrah 1" 

 arose from the numerous gathering on the hill. 



Two minutes past 4 o'clock we first saw that the sun's edge, 

 in the northern hemisphere and on the right-hand side, was 

 hidden by the moon. Little by little the sun's disc was 

 covered more and more, but the amount of light did not 

 sensibly diminish until more than three-fourths of the disc were 

 obscured. The darkness gradually increased, for the moment of 

 the total eclipse was approaching. How slowly the seconds 

 seemed now to pass, and how quickly after the first moment of 

 totality! Thatimpressivemonientoccurred.it 4.54. Then at 

 once we saw the moon of almost Inky darkness encircled by the 

 white corona. The corona was not at all regular. Its most 

 peculiar feature was the total absence of any r.iy or streamer in 

 the vicinity (+ 25° W. and E.) of the sun's North Pole. Over 

 the South Pole the corona was also a little less extensive than 

 in the middle latitudes, where the greatest accumulations were 

 to be seen in two enormous wings on both sides of the dark, 

 empty space over the North Pole. The only colour I observed 

 was the pink colour of the chromosphere around the edge of 

 the moon (and less, also, at the sun's North Pole). In 

 the chromosphere a few points (especially one at the left- 

 hand, a little south from the equator) were blazing with 

 dazzling brightness. Although the sudden apparition of 

 Jupiter, Venus and Mercury, and, according to some observers, 

 also of a star in the constellation Gemini, was very im- 

 pres.sive, the darkness was not so great as I had expected, 

 and did not hinder me in the lea.st in beginning the sketch, 

 which — not for want of light, but for want of the necessary calm 

 of mind — I could only finish when all totality was over. The 

 moments weie too short and precious. I looked also an in.stant 

 at the water in the fjord, and the snow-mountains on my left 

 hand. The fjord was dull grey, the mountains pink at the 

 bottom, and more yellowish at the top. The grass on our hill 

 was dark olive-green. 



At 4.554 the sudden blazing up of a white point, quickly 

 growing to a crescent at the right-hand side of the sun, proved 

 that totality was over. At the first glimpse of sunhght, corona, 

 chromosphere, and planets ceased to be visible to me. 



