64 



A brush from Japan, made of the fibres of the cocoa-nut. — From the 

 same. 



The Committee on the solar eclipse of the 18th of Septem- 

 ber, made a further Report in part, comprising the following 

 observations, received through the attentions of their corres- 

 pondent, Prof. S. Alexander, of Princeton College, New Jer- 

 sey:— 



No. 32, by Prof. Augustus A. Smith, of the Wesleyan University, 

 Middletown, Con. Latitude 41° 33' 8"; longitude, as deduced by 

 himself from this observation, by the method of Woolhouse, in the 

 Nautical Almanac for 1837, 4A 50«i 2s. 



h m s 

 Beginning, - - 3 22 0.81 Mean time. 

 End, - - - 5 52 1.46 Mean time. 



His telescope was a Herschelian, by Holcomb, seven feet in length, six 

 inches in aperture, with a deep red screen glass, power 150. " There 

 was nothing unusual in the appearance, except, perhaps, about the 

 time of greatest obscuration. At first were seen two or three brushes 

 or pencils of light, streaming out from that border of the moon, which 

 was not projected on the sun's disc, about equidistant from each 

 other, and from the higher cusp of the sun. These soon disappeared, 

 and were succeeded by a faint diffuse light, bordering two-thirds of 

 the lower part of the sun's limb. The duration of this appearance 

 was not noted." 



Prof. Smith also noticed an indentation in the sun's limb, which he 

 attributes to the protrusion of a lunar mountain, before any other 

 portion of the moon was visible on the sun's disc. The Committee 

 are of opinion that this appearance should be referred to that class of 

 phenomena which usually precede and follow a central eclipse, and 

 which are to be ascribed to some optical cause rather than to the 

 protrusion of lunar mountains. 



No. 33, by Mr. I. N. Z. Blaney, at New Castle, Del., latitude 

 39° 40', longitude 5h 2m 8s, W.; observation of the duration of the 

 ring with a spy-glass, with smoked glass screen. 



m s 

 From the appearance of the drops to the rupture of the ring, 4 47 

 From the perfect formation of the ring to the perfect rupture, 4 45 



Prof. Alexander remarks that the luminous arch round the moon's 



