495 
1896 — 97 .] Notes on the Total Eclipse of the Sun. 
thoughts about the prospects of seeing anything at the critical time. 
About 1 a.m. down came a heavy shower of rain, and matters 
looked desperate ; but by the time we started off for our station at 
2.30, the sky had partly cleared. A light westerly wind caused 
the clouds to drift in such a manner that, if fortune but favoured 
us, the total phase might eventually be seen through one of the 
clear patches visible in the north-west. As we trudged up the now 
familiar pathway carrying our large chronometer with us, it seemed 
as if all Yadso was making its way to the heights above the town. 
A strange excitement pervaded the very atmosphere, and everyone 
spoke in a lower voice than usual. On reaching our station we 
found it surrounded by a large crowd composed of widely different 
elements : there was, of course, the usual type of British tourist ; 
but, besides English, Norwegians, and Finns, there were the Laps, 
looking picturesque in their gaily-coloured, blanket-like jackets. 
As the darkness gradually fell over us a hush seemed to pass 
through the crowd, rendering almost unnecessary the precaution 
taken by our guard of twenty Norwegian blue-jackets, who kept 
the people well back, so that we might have no difficulty in hearing 
the beat of the metronome. Absolutely nothing of the sun was 
visible as the critical moment approached. At last down came the 
unmistakable darkness of totality with startling suddenness. For, 
precisely at the predicted instant, towards us rushed the vast shadow 
with a speed of nearly 5000 miles an hour. Sharply rounded in 
front, as if, one might fancy, the better to cleave its way, it quickly 
broadened, till at length a wide band of darkness covered the earth. 
Still no signs of a break in the clouds, and all the time the merci- 
less metronome hammered away the precious seconds. We were 
helpless ; all we could do was to look around us and gaze on a 
scene that will never fade from our memory. To the south we saw 
the outlines of the lofty heights of Siid-Yaranger showing clear 
against a bright orange-coloured horizon, which looked strangely 
weird beneath the overhanging masses of inky, blue-black clouds. 
Looking along the line of totality all was shrouded in darkness, 
but as the eye travelled northwards, there again was that weird 
ochre-coloured sky, with the dark lowering canopy of those guilty 
clouds. And even as we looked, as if by magic, the darkness 
faded away as suddenly as it had come, and left us almost too 
