94 The Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society 
all the divisions of Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Paarl, Piquetberg, 
Tulbagh, Malmesbury, Hopetown, Philipstown, and Colesberg, as also 
nearly all Pondoland, Barkly East, Riversdale, Robertson, and Worcester, 
lie outside the track of total and annular eclipses. 
While, on the other hand, Mashonaland, and a strip of country about 
130 miles long and 20 miles wide, right in the centre of the Colony, in 
which, however, there are no towns of any importance, will be visited 
by no less than three central eclipses during the twentieth century. 
The Eastern Provinces, it will be noticed, are more favoured than the 
Western. Thus, through the lozenge-shaped district, of which the 
points are Algoa Bay, Beaufort West, Burghersdorp, and Umtata River 
mouth, all the four central eclipses visible in the Colony pass. 
A look at the map will also yield the following particulars concerning 
some of the principal towns in South Africa. Cape Town, Kimberley, 
Bloemfontein, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, and 
Vryburg, lie out of the central track of all the eclipses. At these towns, 
accordingly, all the eclipses of the twentieth century will be partial. 
At Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth there will be one annular eclipse, 
that of December 25, 1954. The people of Grahamstown, however, 
may witness the total eclipse of October 1, 1940, by going out along the 
Fort Beaufort road about ten miles, as the southern limit of totality 
passes about five or six miles to the north of Grahamstown. 
The people of East London, King William’s Town, Fort Beaufort, 
Somerset East, Graaff-Reinet, Victoria West, Fraserburg, and Calvinia, 
and many other central towns, will have two eclipses, one total, one 
annular. 
Three central eclipses, all annular, will pass over Fort Victoria. 
These are some of the general facts to be gathered from a brief 
examination of the map. It has been already said that fourteen eclipses 
will be well seen in South Africa. 
The central paths of eight of these cross the continent ; of the other 
six, four pass the continent away to the south, and therefore are 
visible in the Colony as partial eclipses, the amount of eclipse being 
greatest near the south coast. The remaining two eclipses—May 18, 
1901, May 9, 1929—lie to the east of South Africa, and, accordingly, 
these eclipses are nearly over before sunrise in the Colony. 
It remains to be said that of the four eclipses whose central line 
passes Africa out at sea, two come very near the coast, those of June 30, 
1992, and November 3, 1994. These two eclipses, together with those 
central in the Colony, are the only striking eclipses as far as the Colony 
is concerned, during the next century. 
Taking up all the fourteen eclipses, however, more in detail, the 
following particulars concerning them may not be lacking in interest : 
