Burton — On the Agosia Expedition. 
115 
command of the Sappers stationed at Agosta. The telescope had been 
sent out without a finder or declination clamp, and both these wants 
had to be supplied on the spot. 
I occupied myself, in part, during the early stages of the eclipse, 
in correcting the relative adjustments of the finder and telescope, on 
the horns of the dying solar crescent, which were admirably adapted for 
the purpose. 
About two minutes before the totality,^' while engaged in this opera- 
tion at the southern horn, moving the instrument to and fro in right 
ascension only, I believe, I was astounded to observe that the ordinary 
chromosphere lines had received an enormous addition to their num- 
ber, there being at least twenty-five lines visible between the exterior 
line of the group h and D. Two of the magnesium lines, at least, were 
seen reversed. I began to count, but a remark from the Sergeant that 
he could see the protuberance — at or near which I was looking — 
in the finder through his sunshade, which was compounded of a red 
and blue glass superposed, warned me that I must set on the point 
first to be observed during totality. Accordingly, after an instant's 
glance through the finder with the unused eye, I sat down again at the 
spectroscope to wait during the few remaining seconds of sunshine. 
The lines above mentioned were all bent toward the less refrangible 
end of the spectrum, and the longest, the hydrogen lines, were 
branched at the extremities furthest from the moon's limb, presenting 
a tree-like form. The new lines were simply bent without being 
much, if at all, branched. This, of course, indicated a violent rushing 
of the middle and upper portions of the mass of hydrogen under exami- 
nation away from the observer, the deflection being greater than the 
extreme breadth of the slit. The observations, so far as they go, appear 
to me strongly in favour of the theory of the distribution of the gases 
and vapours of the sun's atmosphere, ably advocated by Mr. Stoney. 
The first few seconds of totality were lost on account of my eye not 
having become accustomed to the darkness of the field, but upon taking 
precautions to shut out the glare of the southern horizon, which was 
very strong, I perceived towards the left hand side of the field of view 
a faint positivef line which seemed to rise out of a faint continuous 
spectrum as a background. The eyepiece of the spectroscope had been 
fitted with a sort of comb which was intended to serve as a means of 
referring the bright lines which might become visible during totality 
to their proper place in the solar spectrum, but the unexpected dark- 
ness of the field prevented the determination being made in this way. 
Thus, I was forced to compare the place in the field of the positive 
line just mentioned with the place of the E line recollected from the ob- 
servations made a few seconds before. I had devoted several hours on 
* I am not quite certain of the order in time here. 
t The word positive is here used to distinguish the line, which was by no means 
bright, from the negative or absorption lines, which were being looked for at the 
same time. 
