494 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
peeped out at the time of first contact, but unfortunately it was 
not the edge on which the moon was at that moment entering. 
Hence nothing was seen of the first contact. This was the begin- 
ning of our troubles. From this moment until the end of the total 
phase we alternated between hope and fear as we caught occasional 
glimpses of the sun’s diminishing crescent, but barely long enough 
to verify the setting of the equatorial instruments. As the time 
of totality drew near the darkness increased rapidly, until at the 
very last it seemed to fall from the sky, as indeed it really did, the 
moon’s shadow first darkening the air above our heads and then 
reaching the earth’s surface. Forty-five seconds before totality I 
gave Mr Ramsay the signal to start his driving-clock, but at that 
time the sky was completely clouded. At the beginning of totality 
he exposed the first plate, but seeing no image on the moving plate 
he continued the exposure for 36 seconds, in the hope that the sky 
might clear. He then tried two other plates, giving 34 and 7 
seconds respectively, by which time the total phase was over, with- 
out any trace of the sun’s image being seen on the film. On the 
next plate, however, he had the satisfaction of seeing a slender line 
of light, whereupon he steadily exposed plate after plate until he 
had secured five pictures of the crescent sun, with exposures of 
9, 9, 5, 5, and 9 seconds respectively. [Three of these were shown.] 
Nothing whatever being seen of the total phase, no exposures were 
made at that time with the other instruments, except with the 
whole-plate camera. Immediately afterwards, however, when the 
thin crescent was seen, exposures were at once made. The nega- 
tives taken with the prismatic cameras showed nothing, the clouds 
near the sun being so bright as to overpower the spectra. Several 
photographs secured at this time by my son with the eclipse 
camera serve merely to show the clouds near the sun and to certify 
that the instrument was correctly focussed. At the last contact 
the sun was again completely obscured, so that we had not even 
the consolation of determining the exact time when the moon left 
the sun’s disc. 
We knew that all was in readiness and still had a few hours to 
spare wherein to rest. But our sleep was broken by anxious 
