August 3, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



183 



sudden flash, and I think I have the time 

 of that contact photographed pretty closely. 

 In addition to my work, Professor Fuller- 

 ton, who was within a few feet of my ob- 

 servatory, made visual observations ; and 

 I think we can work up some successful 

 results. Instead of the collection of as- 

 tronomers they had at Waynesborough, we 

 enjoyed isolation, and the eclipse was an 

 old story with us before they could do any- 

 thing in Georgia or North Carolina. There 

 was one little thing I should like to note, to 

 which my attention was called by Mr. 

 Brashear. It is that one large prominence 

 which on my plates is distinctly turned 

 over, half an hour later in Georgia was 

 standing straight up. This shows the 

 change which had taken place after my ob- 

 servations at New Orleans. We had beau- 

 tiful weather until the eclipse was over, 

 when it immediately clouded up. We took 

 over 50 photographs ; and although we had 

 no astronomers with us, unless we count 

 Professor Fullarton as one, I think we did 

 our best. 



Win slow Upton presented a report of 

 shadow bands observed by John Ritchie 

 Jr. of Boston, and also those observed by 

 Edwin F. Sawyer. 



W. J. Humphreys. Mr. Ayers states 

 that just as the exposure closed, at the sec- 

 ond contact, he looked up and saw the last 

 of the sunlight go ; that the totality had 

 not quite begun when this exposure was 

 made. The plates shows not only no dark 

 line spectrum at all, but there were bright 

 lines. This seems to show a very remark- 

 able phenomenon. At the second and third 

 contacts there was a slight depth of solar 

 photosphere and a great deal of halation ; 

 but immediately after the third contact 

 there is no halation whatever, and the lines 

 are extremely bright, showing the crescent 

 due to the plate and the chromosphere. I 

 noticed something that seemed to be of the 

 same character. It was 2i to 3 minutes 



before the second contact. I was observing 

 with a telescope made up of a field glass 

 and a small reflector, using no slit, and when 

 I began observing I saw the narrow crescent 

 of the sun as a dark crescent in the spec- 

 troscope. The form of the lines, instead 

 of being straight, was crescent. Then the 

 bright lines began to encroach upon the 

 dark crescent, and the dark crescent began to 

 shorten and broke up into a number of short 

 crescents, and these came down to a narrow 

 line, not a dark line but a bright line, which 

 continued for nearly a second and then sud- 

 denly disappeared, when the whole field 

 was filled with bright lines. The F line, 

 at the time of totality, extended around al- 

 most the complete circle, perhaps three- 

 quarters of the way round, and at that time 

 there were only a few other lines observable. 

 The magnesium lines showed somewhat. 

 One thing I wish to call attention to is that 

 the photograph shows that at the second 

 exposure there were only bright lines and 

 no dark lines at all. Mr. Gilbert was un- 

 der the impression that the photosphere had 

 not quite gone. The base of the chromo- 

 sphere was intensely bright, and this is re- 

 quired for the reversal of the small lines 

 which are produced very close to the photo- 

 sphere. I also call attention to the fact 

 that where the spectrum was almost contin- 

 uous there was a very decided difference be- 

 tween the brightness of the bright lines and 

 the dark lines. Very many of the dark 

 lines were reversed, and there was no such 

 phenomenon connected with the bright 

 lines. 



W. W. Campbell. This layer which is 

 spoken of is shown in one photograph 

 which was taken before the totality was 

 ended, absolutely that and nothing else, 

 and it extends over 150° on the western 

 side of the sun. Another point that I wish 

 to emphasize is our appreciation of the 

 kindness of the Weather Bureau in sending 

 us bulletins. The Weather Bureau obser- 



