I have witnessed three total eclipses, but I do not find that repetition dulls the interest. The first was that of 1869, which passed across the United States and was nearly central over Louisville. My station was on the southern border of the eclipse track, not very far from the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, and I well remember that early experience. The special observations of precision in which I was engaged would not interest the reader; but while trying to give my undivided attention to these, a mental photograph of the whole spectacle seemed to be taking without my volition. First, the black body of the moon advanced slowly on the sun, as we have all seen it do in partial eclipses, without anything noticeable appearing; nor till the sun was very nearly covered did the light of day about us seem much diminished. But when the sun’s face was reduced to a very narrow crescent, the change was sudden and startling, for the light which fell on us not only dwindled rapidly, but became of a kind unknown before, so that a pallid appearance overspread the face of the earth with an ugly livid hue; and as this strange wanness increased, a cold seemed to come with it. The impression was of something _unnatural_; but there was only a moment to note it, for the sun went out as suddenly as a blown-out gas-jet, and I became as suddenly aware that all around, where it had been, there had been growing into vision a kind of ghostly radiance, composed of separate pearly beams, looking distinct each from each, as though the black circle where the sun once was, bristled with pale streamers, stretching far away from it in a sort of crown. This was the mysterious corona, only seen during the brief moments while the shadow is flying overhead; but as I am undertaking to recall faithfully the impressions of the instant, I may admit that I was at the time equally struck with a circumstance that may appear trivial in description,--the extraordinary globular appearance of the moon herself. We all know well enough that the moon is a solid sphere, but it commonly _looks_ like a bright, flat circle fastened to the concave of the starry vault; and now, owing to its unwonted illumination, the actual rotundity was seen for the first time, and the result was to show it as it really is,--a monstrous, solid globe, suspended by some invisible support above the earth, with nothing apparent to keep it from tumbling on us, looking at the moment very near, and more than anything else like a gigantic black cannon-ball, hung by some miracle in the air above the neighboring cornfield. But in a few seconds all was over; the sunlight flashed from one point of the moon’s edge and then another, almost simultaneously, like suddenly kindled electric lights, which as instantly flowed into one, and it was day again. [Illustration: FIG. 32.--SKETCH OF OUTER CORONA, 1869. (U. S. COAST SURVEY REPORT.)]