All the time that the _total phase_ (as it is called) lasts, the corona glows with its pale unearthly light, shedding upon the earth's surface an illumination somewhat akin to full moonlight. Usually the planet Venus and a few stars shine out the while in the darkened heaven. Meantime around the observer animal and plant life behave as at nightfall. Birds go to roost, bats fly out, worms come to the surface of the ground, flowers close up. In the Norwegian eclipse of 1896 fish were seen rising to the surface of the water. When the total phase at length is over, and the moon in her progress across the sky has allowed the brilliant disc of the sun to spring into view once more at the other side, the corona disappears. There is another famous accompaniment of the sun which partly reveals itself during total solar eclipses. This is a layer of red flame which closely envelops the body of the sun and lies between it and the corona. This layer is known by the name of the _Chromosphere_. Just as at ordinary times we cannot see the corona on account of the blaze of sunlight, so are we likewise unable to see the chromosphere because of the dazzling white light which shines through from the body of the sun underneath and completely overpowers it. When, however, during a solar eclipse, the lunar disc has entirely hidden the brilliant face of the sun, we are still able for a few moments to see an edgewise portion of the chromosphere in the form of a narrow red strip, fringing the advancing border of the moon. Later on, just before the moon begins to uncover the face of the sun from the other side, we may again get a view of a strip of chromosphere. The outer surface of the chromosphere is not by any means even. It is rough and billowy, like the surface of a storm-tossed sea. Portions of it, indeed, rise at times to such heights that they may be seen standing out like blood-red points around the black disc of the moon, and remain thus during a good part of the total phase. These projections are known as the _Solar Prominences_. In the same way as the corona, the chromosphere and prominences were for a time supposed to belong to the moon. This, however, was soon found not to be the case, for the lunar disc was noticed to creep slowly across them also. The total phase, or "totality," as it is also called, lasts for different lengths of time in different eclipses. It is usually of about two or three minutes' duration, and at the utmost it can never last longer than about eight minutes. When totality is over and the corona has faded away, the moon's disc creeps little by little from the face of the sun, light and heat returns once more to the earth, and nature recovers gradually from the gloom in which she has been plunged. About an hour after totality, the last remnant of moon draws away from the solar disc, and the eclipse is entirely at an end.