SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



319 



THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE. 



By Frank C. Dennett. 



■nPHE eclipse of August 9th, 1896, had been 

 looked forward to by British astronomers 

 as visible nigh to hand, and therefore as one 

 which gave a considerable amount of possibility 

 for observation, seeing that the line of totality 

 crossed over such a holiday-resort as the North of 

 Norway. As a whole, the British party may be 



Hither also had gone another, a Russian, party, 

 sent by the Imperial Academy of Sciences, com- 

 posed of M. Nicolas O. A. Backlund (Director of 

 the Observatory of Poulkova), accompanied by 

 MM, S. Kostinsky and A. Hansky, also Prince 

 Galitzine, and, as zoologist, M. Jacobson. Most 

 interesting reports of this expedition, together 



Fig. I. — Diagram of Total Eclipse ok Sun, August qth, iSgS. 



said to have taken up their quarters at Vadso, on 

 the banks of the Varanger Fiord, and the story of 

 their disappointment is well known. There was a 

 little more success at BodiJ, but the only real good 

 work by our countrymen was that by Messrs. E. 

 J. Stone (of the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford) 

 and Shackleton (Assistant to Professor Norman 

 Lockyer), who had been taken by Sir G. Baden- 

 Powell in his yacht, the Otaria, to the desolate 

 shores of Nova Zembla. 



May, 1897.— No. 36, Vol. III. 



with photographs and a resultant drawing, are 

 given in the "Bulletin de I'Academie Imperiale 

 des Sciences de St. Petersbourg," for January, and 

 from which the substance of this paper has been 

 drawn, as also the accompanying plates. 



The expedition embarked from Archangel on 

 July 22nd, on board the marine transport Samocde, 

 and, thanks to its captain, M. Lilie, and his officers, 

 had a most enjoyable voyage to Nova Zembla, 

 arriving on July 35th. Malya Karmakouly was the 



