CO, Abbe—Total Eclipse of the Sun of 1869. 265 
The whole interval of totality was unfortunately not at my 
disposal, owing partly to the very rough and faulty stand sup- 
re the telescope (everything had to be transported an hun- 
red miles by mules into a wilderness), and partly to an inter- 
ruption by one of the members of the party ; but there seemed 
to me to be no doubt of the facts as recorded, nor was I con- 
scious of the least undue emotion that might have interfered 
with my reliability as a witness, although it was the first total 
eclipse I have ever had the pleasure of observing. 
As seen through my inverting telescope, the structure of the 
largest protuberance on the right hand lower limb was well 
made out. The neighborhood of the sun was examined to a 
distance of its own diameter (a radius of possibly one degree 
from the sun’s center), but no trace of the coronal rays as 
they were seen by others of my party. The evidence as to the 
existence, shape and positions of these streamers as given by 
my six assistants, was conclusive as to their actual appearance, 
with the usual variations as to details. That they were not 
zenith, further to the right, ps epee to 
. rise up three, and posst 
-- background of the field of view, 
and there was every evidence that 
they had an identical structure 
and cause. The outline of each 
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of the cones were quite sharp 
down to within a few minutes of 
~~ sun's limb, when all three appeared to begin to lose their 
distinctive characteristics. : ; 
‘he height of the apices above the limb varied between one 
half and two thirds of the solar radius: the diameters of the 
