The Plymouth weekly Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1860-1869, 1869-08-12

and more fiery thaa ever, and blu zed
all the more brilliantly when contrast
ed with the gloomy aspect below, for
the darkness upon the earth was now
black and forbidding. Suddenly the
suns light went out, quick as light
ming came the change, land in the heav-
ems we saw the dark sphere Of the
moon surrounded with halo of the
most beautiful silvery light, the corona
of the astronomers. The gloom dis
appeared, the blue sky shoue out as
clear as crystal and studded here and
there with stars, the most. noticeable
among which was Venus which glow
ed with brilliancy. Below the sun,
stretching from;tbe north around the
west to the extreme south, was broad
band of yellow light, very much re-
embling a fine aurora. 1t is impossi-
bic for pen, no matter how gifted, to
convey any idea of the transcendent
beauty of the scene. Everybody was
carried away with delight, and even
the steadiest and most unimaSinative
gave vent to their admiration in ecstat-
ic ordinations. The light was not so
great as from full moon, but it was
Of a peculiar mellowness, such as we
had never seen before. Halfa minuse
perhaps, after the sun was wholly OBJ
scurcd, and until the end, there could
be noticed on the edge Of the moon
bright projections of flame and GRIM
son colors, resembling stars, caused by
the burning Of hydrogen; and at the
period of observation the professor in
charge of the telescope, and one or two
observers with first class eyes, saw the
pheromona known as 'Bailey's beads,
or the separation of the last thread Of
light from the suns disc into small
particles. The moon seemed to the
eye to be two or three feet in front of
the sun. The period Of total obstruc-
ton passed so quickly that one could
but just glance around. and it was i'm
possible to pay attention to the separ-
ate details, to take in the full grandeur.
AS quickly'as it disappeared the sun
again flashed out, i-st, with an:intense-
ly bright, white light, which soon turn
ed red as the moon passed. We could
then realize, what the people of Indi-
annapolis missed, no matter how'nearly
the eclipse might have been total here,
for the least particle of the suns light
destroyed the effect. 1t was worth
travelling a thousand miles to see even
if it occurred every three years
With the nd of total observation the
same gloo noticed before came back
for few minutes. but faded quickly
away with the returning light. The
shadow of the moon approaching and
retreating could be seen by none of our
party, although closely watched for,
but few min ut es before totality a
haze or mist was discovered in the
north west. This soon disappeared,
however. The total observation COM
menced at fifteen minutes and fifteen
seconds past FIVE, and lasted until sew.
enteen minutes and thirty-fve seconds
after, a period of two minutes and 20
seconds. The thermometer when the
sun shone out stood at seventy and one
half degrees. and at twenty mioutes
past five at seventy degre es, making q
change of six degree in one hour, at
least half as much would have been
caused under ord mary circumstances.
The observation disappeared as grad
ually as it appeared, the moon being
lost sight of at q quarter past six
Indianapolis Sentinel.