On the Funciions of the Moon, deduced from Ohserva- 

 made on the total Eclipse of the Sun, on the I6th day of 

 , 1806, by Simeon De Witt, 1st Vice President. 



As I am persuaded that the public has never been presented, 

 with a correct representation of a total eclipse of the sun, and as 

 the appearances, exhibited by this rare phenomenon, may furnish 

 matter for some interesting reflections and reasonings, I now do 

 myself the pleasure to present to the Institute a delineation of the 

 eclipse which occurred on the 16th June, 1806. It is an exact 

 copy of one which I sent to the American Philosophical Society, 

 with a letter addressed to Dr. Rush, then its vice president, of 

 which the following is a copy. 



" Albany, Bee. \st 1806. 



"Dear Sir, 



"With this I send you, for the American Philosophical Socie- 

 ty, a painting, intended to represent the central eclipse of the sun, 

 on the 16th June last. It is executed by Mr. Ezra Ames, an emi- 

 nent portrait painter of this place, and gives, I believe, as true a 

 representation of that grand and beautiful phenomenon, as can be 

 artificially expressed. * The edge of the moon was strongly illu- 

 minated and had the brilliancy of polished silver. No common 

 colours could express this. I therefore directed it to be attempt- 

 ed, as you will see, by a raised silver rim, which in a proper 

 light, produces tolerably well the intended effect. As no verbal 

 description can give any thing like a true idea of this sublime 

 spectacle, with which man is so rarely gratified, I thought this 

 would not be an unwelcome present to the society, or an improper 

 article to be preserved among its collection of subjects for philo- 

 sophical speculation. But in order to have a proper conception 

 of what is intended to be represented, you must transfer your ideas 

 to the heavens and imagine, at the departure of the last ray of the 

 sun in his retreat behind the moon, an awful gloom in an instant 

 diffused over the face of nature, and round a dark circle near the 

 zenith, an immense radiated glory, like a new creation, bursting 

 on the sight, and for some minutes fixing the gaze of man in silent 



' A copy of this drawing is given in Plate 3. 



