THE ECLIPSE

Abstract

THE telegram sent from Denver, signed by Professors Young and Watson, Dr. Draper, and myself, will have given an idea of the results which we think have been secured on the eclipse of this year. Since the telegram was despatched I have been engaged in making as many notes on the various points of detail as incessant travel and a temperature of 91° in the shade would permit. A long time must elapse before anything like a general view of the total work done is possible, but I think that the readers of NATURE may rely upon the correctness of what I have collected, though it is quite possible, as I have not succeeded in finding all the observers, that some errors may have crept in And again, it is quite possible that the many dry plates taken and even yet not developed, may contain information of which at present we have no idea. To take an instance: we do not yet know whether Prof. Harkness's attempt to photograph the polariscopic phenomena presented by the corona was successful or not, for I learn at the Naval Observatory here that he is still at Fort Steele, handing over his camp equipment to the military, who all along the line have been placed in the most unreserved way at the disposal of the different parties by the express orders of Gen. Sherman himself, who takes the greatest interest in such inquiries, and is anxious to foster scientific inquiries as far as in him lies. Strange as it may seem, this is the expressed feeling of all the authorities here, from the Chief of the State downwards. In interviews with which I have been honoured, the President of the United States himself, the Secretary for War, Gen. Sherman, and other members of the Cabinet, have one and all insisted upon the importance of securing records of all possible natural phenomena, and expressed their gratification that such records have been secured in the present instance by Government aid.