396 



NA TURE 



[August 27, 1896 



Let us get photographic representations of this by all 

 means ; indeed amateurs arc sure to provide them ; but 

 my own opinion is that a large telescope suited for ob- 

 taining such photographs would be much better employed 

 with a prism in front of it. 



I have no photographic telescope available, so I am 

 forced to rely on drawings, which experience show^s are 

 better than photographs for feeble extensions. It is the 

 fashion to ridicule these drawings, and I am free to 

 confess that often there has been no resemblance between 

 such drawings taken at the same place ; still, all the 

 eclipses I have seen have had coronas of very different 

 forms ; and further, the special features I recorded during 

 the eclipse of 187S were confirmed by the photographs. 



On my way to Kio, therefore, I determined to make an 

 experiment, by the kind help of several of my shipmates 

 on the Orient liner Garonne, to see how much the 

 uncertainty of the result depended upon the absence 



Fir,. I.— The landing of the Exploring Party. 



•of special training, and to what extent it could be 

 eliminated. 



With this object in view, by means of a capital magic 

 lantern which we had fortunately on board, I threw on the 

 screen about a dozen photographs and drawings, coloured 

 and otherwise, of various eclipses observed since 1869, 

 describing the main points to be noted at the sun's poles, 

 ■equator, &c. P'inally, I threw a previously unseen corona 

 •on the screen, marking the time — I took 105 seconds — as 

 during an eclipse. 



1 1 was amply proved that after a rehearsal or two such 

 as this all the drawings were wonderfully similar. 



This new bit of experience therefore showed that when 

 made under good conditions such drawings become of the 

 utmost value. 



The enormous difference between the shape and 

 brilliancy of the corona at the periods of maximum 

 an d minimum sun-spot activity was one of the revela- 

 tions — the unanticipated revelations — of the eclipse of 

 1878. In that year the appearances of the corona in 



NO. 1400, VOL. 54] 



1 87 1, a year of sun-spot maximum, were fresh in my 

 mind, and fortunately the eclipse of 1878 occurred at the 

 period of minimum. The difference was marked in 

 every way, and I said so. For a time the statement was 

 disputed, nay, ridiculed, but I think everybody accepts it 

 now. The conclusion was further intensified during the 

 eclipse of 1886, which also took place near a minimum. 

 In that year the eclipse happened in the morning, the 

 observation place was Green Island in the West Indies 

 in the middle of the rainy season, and the only thing I 

 saw was first a cloud which formed and began to obscure 

 the sun soon after the first contact, and grew till after 

 totality ; and next, some patches of sky away from the 

 cloud-eclipsed eclipse. These patches swarmed with 

 stars as on a darkish night ; full moonlight was never 

 suggested. 



The sun now occupies a position in the constellation 

 Leo, such that besides planets many stars of the first, 

 second, third, and fourth 

 magnitudes are conven- 

 iently situated for observa- 

 tion. It is obvious then 

 that we have here, if it be 

 properly utilised, a method 

 of photometry easily ap- 

 plied, and I propose if 

 possible to utilise it, since 

 where doubt exists the more 

 methods of observation we 

 employ the better. 



Such, then, are some of 

 the points to which I attach 

 the first order of import- 

 ance. I next pass on to deal 

 with the station selected for 

 the observations. 



The longer totality and 

 higher sun in Japan seemed 

 to make a station in that 

 country most desirable, but a 

 careful inquiry into the wea- 

 ther conditions show'ed the 

 hopelessness of any attempt 

 there. I was then driven 

 to Norway, and although 

 it was true that the totality 

 here was short, it had to be 

 borne in mind that a short 

 totality in the case of a 

 prismatic camera is really 

 more advantageous than a 

 long one, for the reason 

 that the rings are more 

 complete ; the longer the totality the shorter the arc 

 impressed on each photographic plate. 



Since Dr. Common and many others had determined 

 to observe on the north side of the Varanger Fjord, it 

 seemed a duty to go to the south side, where the weather 

 chances were bound to be about the same. In this case, 

 however, a man-of-war was necessary as a base. This 

 was a matter of utmost congratulation, for I knew how 

 surely help could be depended upon, even in extending 

 the area of observations. 



Thanks to the intervention of the Royal Society, H.M.S. 

 Volage, commanded by Captain King Hall, was ultimately 

 detached for this duty, and my story will be very badly 

 told if I fail to show what a debt of gratitude science 

 owes to him and his ship's company for what they have 

 done to secure such a record of an eclipse as has never 

 been attempted before at a single station, and I may add 

 that the gratitude will be none the less even if the eclipse 

 is as efficiently clouded out as it was ten years ago. 

 On July 23 H.M.S. Volage, coming from Iceland with 



