114 THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 
Exposed to unusually tempestuous weather, and precluded from some 
of the most important observations by the intervention of a thin veil 
of cloud between them and the sun just previous to its total immer- 
sion, the expedition to the Coast of Labrador has not contributed any 
novel truths to science. The intervening cloud, though but a fleecy 
veil, of utmost insignificance at any other moment, was sufliciently 
dense to almost entirely preclude the observation of the corona 
usually seen surrounding the moon during the period of total eclipse. 
It was the good fortune of Lieutenant Ashe alone, of all the observers, 
to catch a single point of brightness and fix its position in the corona ; 
and thus to supply one precise observation for comparison with those 
simultaneously made in other parts of the globe. But it is of interest 
to us to know that our New World of the West bore its part, and our 
own young Province had its representative among those devotees of 
science who were engaged at widely separate stations: at Herena, near 
Miranda de Ebro, and at Tarazona, in Spain, as well as at other 
favourable points along the line traversed by the great shadow; in 
watching the phases of this beautiful and rare phenomenon. Among 
the most striking results hitherto communicated to the scientific 
world, are the observations made under the direction of Le Verrier, at 
Tarazona; though in one respect an interesting correspondence is 
noticeable between the phenomena noted by the members of the 
French Astronomical expedition, and those which attracted the atten- 
tion of the observers on our own Labrador Coast. At the period of 
total obscuration alike at Cape Chudleigh, and at Tarazona, the 
general illumination of the atmosphere proved much greater than the 
relations of former observers had led either party to anticipate. But 
the more important phenomena recorded by Le Verrier, are: first, 
the observation of three lofty peaks, 30° below the horizontal diameter 
on the eastern edge of the solar disc,—of the reality of the toothed 
form of which the French Astronomer entertains no doubt,—with their 
upper sides tinged with rosy and violet light, while the lower sides 
were brilliant white; and secondly, but of more importance, that as 
the moment of reappearance of the sun approached, and while 
watching for its first rays, the previously white margin of the disc 
appeared tinged with a delicate filiet of unappreciable thickness, of a 
purplish red, which enlarged by degrees until it formed around the 
black disc of the moon, over a breadth of about 309, a red border per- 
fectly defined in thickness, crescent shaped, and with an irregular outline 
