THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OF APRIL 6, 1875. 
147 
to take a sketch of the corona. Messrs. A. W. Murray and Pattison called out the 
time remaining for observation. 
The following gentlemen also gave their valuable assistance during the eclipse : — 
Messrs. W. J. Firks, R.N., Bietje, W. Bray Hendricks, Edward Loftus ; also 
Captain A. J. Thompson, S.R.N., and Captain Chung, S.R.N., and Mom Dang. 
Y. THE ECLIPSE— GENERAL APPEARANCES. 
Description of eclipses by eye-witnesses are generally so discordant that no 
conclusion can be drawn from them. The following remarks, however, seem worthy 
of notice : — 
A great many of the inhabitants of Bangkok were fortunate enough to witness the 
total solar eclipse in 1868, and they were unanimous in their opinion about the great 
difference in the appearance of the corona and in the general aspect of the eclipse. 
The difference seems to have been so striking that some of the Siamese asserted that 
this last one was no total eclipse at all. The first point they mentioned was the 
much greater darkness in 1868. In proof of this we cite the following from an 
account of the eclipse by Sir Harry St. George Ord, C.B., then Governor of the 
Straits Settlement, who witnessed the eclipse at the invitation of the late King 
of Siam. 
“ At the time of the complete obscuration of the sun, which took place at 1 l h 30™, 
the darkness was so considerable that at a distance of a few feet a person’s features 
were undiscernible and all sense of distance appeared to be lost, the thermometers 
could not be read without a light held close to them, and the face of the sky was 
studded with stars as in deep twilight.” 
During this last eclipse several persons both at the observatory and in Bangkok 
were looking out for stars, and more than four could in no case be seen. Though 
the lamps had been lighted for the benefit of those who had to draw, write, or read, 
the lamps were blown out by the wind, but no inconvenience whatever was produced 
by this. 
The signal for beginning and end of totality could be seen without difficulty at the 
small observatory 40 yards off, and Mr. Lott could read a small watch hung up a 
distance of ll> feet from his face inside a shed which did not admit any direct fight from 
the corona. Part of this striking difference between the two eclipses may be due to 
the peculiar atmospheric conditions. There was, indeed, in 1875 a considerable haze 
over the country, and the sky, though cloudless, was by no means clear. But eye- 
witnesses affirm that it is the corona itself which was brighter this time and much 
better defined. The fight in the former eclipse was much softer and pleasant to 
look at. In the last one it was quite as intense as a bright full moon. 
Another difference which those who could compare this eclipse with the one in 
1868 noticed related to the corona, which they agreed was much more irregular and 
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