The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-09-08
Was With One Of the Success
full Astronomical Parties.
FROM MANY FOREIGN FIELDS.
Account of the Fram's Home Journey-FOre 81
Fires in ngton-Filibusters Landed
in Cuba-Labor Troubles in Glasgow Mani
toba School Question Harry Hill Dead.

NEW YORK, Aug. 2S.-Seventy hap
py excursionists who had made two
months voyage to the land of the mid
night sun safely landed tonight from
| the American liner Ohio. Not one of
them had seen the midnight sun. They
| were too late for that, but they wit
messed another sight whicS amply re-
paid them This was the total eclipse
of the sun.
Miss Mary Proctor, daughter of the
late Richard Proctor, the noted as
tronomer, was one of the passengers.
She was a very close observer of the
eclipse, and she also made a good
sketch of it during the brief interval
of total obscurity.
Those on the Ohio are the only ones
who had a clear view Of the eclipse, 4"
said Miss Proctor tonight. Our vessel,
after touching at Southampton, went
to ST. Petersburg, allowing the excur-
sionists a week to visit that city and
Moscow. Then the Ohio steamed to
point near the Island of Stott, OF the
promontory of Kunnen, Norway, and
early on the morning of August 9th
we were aroused to witness the eclipse
"Our object, at least mine, was to ex-
anime the suns corona, or crOwn OF
glory. Ordinarily, as you know, it IS
impossible to look at the sun, as it's
chromosphere is an ocean of glowing
hydrogen from 5000 to 10000 miles in
depth, which envelopes the sun as the
air envelopes our earth.
''It was impossible, however, to use
a telescope, as the vessel was not stea-
dy enough, and we had to content our
selves with field glasses. This | re-
gretted greatly from a scientific stand
point. At exactly 2: So: % o'clock in the
morning the first contact was visible;
that is, the dark edge of the moons
disc began to creep over the face of
the sun.
"One hour later, to a minute and a
second, the sun was totally eclipsed
The light had slowly faded during the
hour until it was like summer twilight
1t was barely possible to read if one had
good eyes. The sea gulls had fed,
screaming, as the darkness settled,
and we could see the light fading out
of the sky as we all stood on deck,
silently watching the black disc that
nearly covered the orb of day. Around
that disc of black appeared a ring of
light, and on the edge of the ring were
several bright red spots or projections
that gemmed the edge of the moon like
so many brilliants.
"On the western edge a strong red
streak made it's appearance and there
appeared also the filaments of pearly
light forming the corona. These colOrs
shot, too, from the eastern edge, but
not so far as from the opposite side of
the suns disc. There the light seemed
to shoot into space-a distance equal
to twice the suns diameter. 1t was as
if the moon had been brought in front
of the sun as a huge reflector, and as
we were behind it on the earth we
could only see the rays that it shot out
on all sides.
The total Obscurity lasted one min
ute and thirty-fve seconds. 1t ended
at 3: 80 o'clock, and at 4: 80: 03 the con-
tact ended, and the sun shone as bright
ly as before.
4 shall never forget the awed feel
ing with which / viewed that eclipse
1t was as if the sun was being slowly
snuffed out. l had never witnessed an
eclipse before, and my father never
saw one in his lifetime.
The next eclipse is in 1898. It will