SOLAR ECLIPSE OF JULY 2<p, 1878. 269 



threatening and cloudy, but cleared up at 3 o'clock and stayed clear till all was 

 over. All four contacts were successfully observed. The first contact occurred 

 at eleven mimutes after 3 and the last contact at nineteen minutes after 5, local 

 mean time. The duration of totality was 2 minutes and 30 seconds. The 

 corona was seen in its lower layers entirely surrounding the sun and extending in 

 two great flashes or tufts of auroral light from the east and west limbs. Wilson 

 observed three large prominences, not pink or red, but of a mother-of-pearl tint, and 

 of vast magnitude. The contacts were observed with the spectroscope, and seen 

 sharply at that. Mr. Pulsifer witnessed the reversal of the Fraunhofer lines, 

 and Seegrave saw line 1,474 and measured its thickness. Five photographs of 

 unmistakable excellence were secured, and it is believed those taken with the 

 polariscope will settle some important points as to the constitution of the corona. 

 The spectroscopic observations confirmed those of Young and Harkness as to the 

 continuous spectrum of the corona. Observations as to limit of shadow and 

 duration of totality were taken by assistant observers at McKinney, Dallas and 

 Bresmond. The whole expedition is considered an entire success in point of 

 observations, pictures and sketches. 



We are indebted to Prof. Lewis Swift, of Rochester, New York, one of the 

 most distinguished astronomers in the country, who was with the Chicago Tribune 

 party to visit the line of totality in the eclipse of Monday, for the following personal 

 information in regard to that most remarkable phenomenon : The eclipse in many 

 respects was not equal to that of 1869, owing to the fact that there was almost a 

 total absence of protuberances. But as far as the corona was concerned it 

 surpassed all modern eclipses. Some idea may be formed of the immense length 

 of the coronal streamers, when told that the sun's diameter is equal to 850,000 

 miles and the length of the pencils of light that go to form the corona must, if 

 they extend that distance, be each equal in length to 850,000 miles. The party 

 sent out to Denver by the Chicago Tribune, consisting of Profs. Colbert, Hough 

 and Swift, of Rochester, N. Y,, inaugurated a class whose special duty it was to 

 draw the corona as it appeared to the naked eye. Over one dozen were drawn, 

 and some drew them to the unheard-of length of over three times the sun's diam- 

 eter, or equal to 2,550,000 miles. Prof. Watson claims to have discovered Vul- 

 can, and Prof. Swift also saw the same object, but he makes the distance (by es- 

 timation) one half a degree greater and its brightness half a magnitude less. 

 There can be but little doubt but that this hypothetical world has at length 

 been found, thanks to the total eclipse and the zeal of our American astronomers. 

 Two protuberances were seen, and those only near the end of totality. They were 

 of the usual pink color, but very unique in shape, one resembling a hook, which 

 must have projected 50,000 miles from the sun, and the other resembled the ant- 

 lers of a deer. Bailey's Beads were distinctly seen and also the chromosphere, at 

 that part of the sun which the moon uncovered three or four seconds before the 

 end of totality. It is a layer of red-hot hydrogen, some two thousand miles in 

 thickness, extending over the entire surface of the sun. It is from this layer that 

 the protuberances are formed, which the spectroscope decides to be incandescent 

 hydrogen. 



