Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1869-08-13

and fifty~three minutes; end of to-
tality, four o'clock fifty-three min
utes and fifty-eight seconds, which
would make the total eclipse just SIS
seconds.
When the sun was about half hid
den by the dark disk of the moon
our attention was called to the ap-
pearance of the sky in the north, a
gloom was thrown on all the land
scape, and the sky was of deep
dense, black blue, particularly the
horizon as II terrible storm was APP
preaching. The trees in the distant
had lost their lively verdure, the
golden wheat fields had dull sickly
color, and gradual approach of dark
ness became impressive. The sun
light on the south and southeast had
become much Weekend, it had that
unearthly greenish and reddish
gloomy, sickly, faint, aspect making
the contrast between the sky i'm the
north and south very great. 1t APP
peared as if the sky was descending
to the ground and the horizon con-
tracing. AS we could see for miles
to the north and east, the sight was
grand, beautiful, inspiring awe and
wonder.
AS the eclipse advanced to within
few seconds of the total observa-
ton, the scene became intensity in
teresting, particularly at the north.
The big woods and the timber i'm the
valley of the Cedar had lost their
beautiful verdure and looked like
outlines of dark pictures in an UNI
familiar country. 1t was magnifi-
cent sight, not quite as dark as night,
but it appeared as If the sky at the
horizon was putting OH deep blue
black the sky to the south, near the
horizon, was Of a hrownish yellow.
AS the totality appeared, a breath
less intensity of interest was mani
fest by all of our party, and all ma
ture seemed hushed, and as Cooper
describes the eclipse of 1906: "all liv-
ing creatures seemed thrown into a
state of agitation the doves and
martins returned to boxes, birds
were flutteriEg to and fro, butterflies
fell to the ground i'm state of stupor,
the singing of the birds became
hushed, the fowls went to roost, and
within minute of the total darkness,
the sun appeared like thin crescent,
line becoming more and more broken
up as it advances" suppose owing
to the irregular edge of the moon
and its mountains.
We look around us now on the
countenances Of those of our party,
all wear look of wonder and ankle
ty, watching for the approach of the
moons shadow. Suddenly one of
the party shouted, there it is-the
Shadow" The awful shadow of the
moon was approaching us at a veloci-
ty of mile second, from the west,
as O dark, vast mass, or column, or
cloud, as the description had been
given us. How grand this sight
was, as the mighty shadow swept
onward to the east.
The approach and recession Of the
shadow was not uniform, but dark
stripes appeared fluttering across the
landscape and the edges appeared
tremulous, and one of our party, who
was looking at the eclipse just as the
last visible ray disappeared, says it
is like flicker of candle going out.
1t seemed but second before we
were immersed in the shadow, and
as near as we could calculate, the
shadow was 80 to 40 seconds passing
over, from the time when first seen
until it had passed away.
Now comes the grand sight--in an
instant the panorama is changed, the
dark clouds that were at the north
changed positions to the south, which
was as black rs the darkness of night.
To the north and northeast, say one
third OF the horizon as we could
scan with the eye, we could see plain
ly, objects beyond the disk on the
Distant luplcaa I'M An abpyo I. 81 an
deep blue or black, to the south and
southwest deep jet black, while at
the north mellow, faint, yellowish
or birthstone color and beautiful, the
wheat fields waving with the golden
grain, the varied hues of green, with
the white farm houses dotted here
and there, appeared. Above us now
was the twinkling stars, glittering i'm
all their glory, in the broad dark
zone-night, with the stars above us,
to south and west of us, and to the
north and east of us, 10 or IL miles,
Old Sol shining on the landscape
and the dark, deep shadow sleeping
OH the southwest i'm all of its black
ness. What a variety of views we
can take in with one scanning of the
eye. Around and over us, we can't
describe it. At this moment, we
have to the southeast, south and
west, the blackness of a terrible
storm, to the north the distant OBJ
jects have a fine yellow hue, and to
the east a fine purple hue, and the
deep blue overhead, with stars peep.
ing out, witt, the sun entirely hid,
with the beautiful, faint crown of
light apparently surrounding the
moon, with the faint streaks like jets
of flame are seen protruding from
the edge, the GOODNESS was great, as
the thermometer had fallen some twen-
~ degrees.
AS Cooper says: "there was breath
less intensity of gloom" manifested
by all of our party, and there should
be a feeling of something instructive
in this awful phenomena, ard ole of
humiliation and awe. Tie sight was
certainly much finer from our point
OF observation than farther to the
center, for we had the effect of the
totality a sufficient length of time to
get the full benefit of it, with the adj
dition of seeing the sunlight on the
distant parts of the landscape beyond
the northern boundary, and as the
restoration begun, the landscape be-
came more beautiful, the striking
contrast of the glorious and sublime
spectacle of the light on the distant
Iandscape as lie began to play among