The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-03-31
ECLIPSES.
Ancient and Modern.

Ancient and Modern.
Riccioh, thelearned Jesuit astronomer,
relates that during a total eclipse of the
sun of 1415 birds were seen in Bohemia
to fall down dead with fright: The same
Is recorded relative to the eclipse Of
1860. Some eye-witnesses say: 1.-THE
birds, strange to say, fell to the ground
seized with fear" In 1706, at Montpelier,
In France, the observer said, "Bats fit
ted about as at the beginning of night.
Fowls and pigeons ran precipitately to
their roosts. The small birds that had
been singing in their cages became silent
and put their heads Under their wings.
The animals employed in the labors Of
the fields all at once halted"
Argo points out several curious facts
ON the influence of eclipses on anirnals
IAN inhabitant of Perpignan puf-
posely kept his dog without food from
the evening Of the 18th of July. The
next morning, at the instant when the
total eclipse was going to take place, he
threw piece of bread to the poor ami
NAL, which had began to devour it when
the suns last rays disappeared Instantly
the dog let the bread fall, nor did he
take it up again for two minutes, that is,
until the total observation had ceased,
and then he ate it with great avidity.
Another dog sought refuge between
his masters legs when the stln. became
eclipsed. In farm, some fowls at the
instant of total observation; suddenly
left the millet that had just beefi given
them, and sought refuge in stable; At
the Mas de PAsparron, the fowls being
far from any habitation, went and
grouped themselves under a horses
belly. A hen attended by brood of
chickens hastily called them to her, and
covered them with her wings. Some
ducks which were swimming about in a
pool at the instant of the suns disap-
pearance, did not attempt to regain the
farm which they had left two hours be-
fore, but huddled together in q corner.
NJ Lehtherie, professor at Montpelier,
also gave some details concerning the
effects of the total eclipse upon Several
species of animals. The bats, he says,
thinking hight had come, quilted their
retreats an owl came out Of st. Peters
tower, and flew across the square of the
Peyrou; the swallow disappeared the
fowls went to roost some oxen that
were feeding near the church of Mague-
Tonne arranged themselves in circle
with their backs toward each other, and
their horns outward, as if to resist an
attack.
In narrative that Father Zantedeschi
addressed to Arago from Venice he
said that; ''Some birds wishing tc
escape, and not being able to see,
knocked UP against the ehimneys ant
the walls with such violence BIS to fall
down stupefed on the roofs, in the
streets, and into the lagoons. Among
the birds that met with these accidents
may be specified some swallows and &
pigeon. Other swallows were seized IL
the streets, their fright having scarcely
left them the power of futtering. Some
bees which had left their hive in grea
numbers at sunrise, returned to it ever
before the instant of total darkness anc
they waited till the sun had entirely re.
sumed its brightness before they venturec
forth again.
The ancients supposed that during at
eclipse the whole earth was enveloped IL
darkness, but the moons shadow which
falls on the earth and causes an eclipse
of the sun is only 100 miles across, bu
owing to the 70 alton this tract is con
siderably heightened and it is always
the darkest in the centre of the shadow
The great solar eclipse of 1859 became
total first upon the earth in Siberia a
sunrise, was total at Alaska at noon anC
thence the line of total eclipse ran south
easterly through British America, Min.
nesota, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, and
North Carolina, s1d ended iii the ocear
at sunset.
The first eclipse OH record is one Of
the moon observed at Babylon, 721, B. c.
Thales is said to have shown the true
cause of eclipses about 600 years before
the birth of Christ. Eclipses of the sur
were generally regarded by the ancienti
as omens of some terrible public calamity
that was about to happen, and although
the theory Of eclipses is said to have
been known to the Chinese $50 years
before the birth of Christ, yet to this
day the people imagine that these
phenomena are caused by the attempts Of
| dragon to devo1r the stih and moon,
and they assemble with drums and other
instruments, believing that with the
noise they make they will brighten him
away.