1868.] 



Total Eclipse of the Sun. 



83 



To complete the negative results of our magnetic observations, I have 

 only to add that the officers who had been directed to watch the ship's 

 compasses report that they could not detect the slightest movement of 

 any kind. 



I now proceed to describe the general phenomena of the eclipse ; and 

 in doing so I confine myself to copying from the rough notes I took at 

 Barram Point, and from the note-books of Capt. Reed and his officers, 

 also taken on the spot. As the mail closes for Singapore to-morrow 

 morning, I have not time to arrange the materials before me in anything 

 like scientific order ; and the absence of any works of reference (we have 

 not even this year's supplement to the Nautical Almanac) renders me still 

 less able to do justice to the facts we collected. 



We were very fortunate in the weather. The day was bright and clear; 

 not a cloud was near the sun. A few round white clouds that lay on 

 the horizon hardly moved. There was a slight breeze from W.S.W. 



The sea was breaking heavily on the shore, and it had a slight brownish 

 bluish tinge all over, except where the white breakers approached the land. 



The grove of Casuarina trees behind us had the same deep-green colour 

 which they always exhibit on a fine day in the tropics. 



A few swallows were skimming about high in the air. We also noticed 

 some dragonflies, butterflies, and a good many specimens of a large heavy 

 fly like a drone-bee. 



When we left the ship at 10 o'clock the barometer was 30*00 ; the 

 mean of the two thermometers in the deck chart-room (in the shade) was 

 85° ; the dry thermometer exposed to the sun was 91°, and the wet ther- 

 mometer exposed to the sun was 83 0, 5. 



During the progress of the eclipse the barometer fell steadily. At 12 h 

 m 15 s , first contact, it was 29 "98. 



At 12 h 26 m s it fell to 29" 96 in. 



Total 

 eclipse. 



)i 



12 



44 



15 it was 



29-96 



>i 



1 







„ 



29-94 



>} 



1 



15 



„ 



29-93 



)» 



1 



27 



22 „ 



29-92 



5 J 



1 



33 



35 „ 



29-92 





2 







„ 



29*91 



>J 



2 



30 



„ 



29-91 



>y 



2 



39 



48 „ 



29-91 





2 



52 



39-8 „ 



29-91 



The mean of the two thermometers in the shade was 85°, without any 

 change whatever from 10 o'clock till the close of the eclipse. At the close 

 of the eclipse, 2 h 52 m 39 s> 8, it rose to 86°. 



The dry-bulb thermometer, hung in the sunlight, stood at 91° at the 

 first contact. 



g 2 



