To the equatorial telescopes photographic cameras are attached instead of the eye-pieces, in the hope that the corona may be made to impress itself on the plate instead of on the eye. The eye is an admirable instrument itself, no doubt; but behind it is a brain, perhaps overwrought with excitement, and responding too completely to the nervous tension which most of us experience when those critical moments are passing so rapidly. The camera can see far less of the corona than the man, _but it has no nerves_, and what it sets down we may rely on. At such a time each observer has some particular task assigned to him, on which, if wise, he has drilled himself for weeks beforehand, so that no hesitation or doubt may arise in the moment of action; and his attention is expected to be devoted to this duty alone, which may keep him from noting any of the features which make the occasion so impressive as a spectacle. Most of my own particular work was again of a kind which would not interest the reader. Apart from this, I can recall little but the sort of pain of expectation, as the moment approached, till within a minute before totality the hum of voices around ceased, and an utter and most impressive silence succeeded, broken only by a low “Ah!” from the group without the camp, when the moment came. I remember that the clouds, which had hung over the sun while the moon was first advancing on its body, cleared away before the instant of totality, so that the last thing I saw was a range of mountains to the eastward still bright in the light; then, the next moment, the shadow rushed overhead and blotted out the distant hills, almost before I could turn my face to the instrument before me. [Illustration: FIG. 36.--ECLIPSE OF 1857, DRAWING BY LIAIS. (ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY’S MEMOIRS.)] The corona appeared to me a different thing from what it did the year before. It was apparently confined to a pearly light of a roughly quadrangular shape, close to the limb of the sun, broken by dark rifts (one of which was a conspicuous object); while within, and close to the limb, was what looked like a mountain rising from the hidden sun, of the color of the richest tint we should see in a rose-leaf held up against the light, while others were visible of an orange-scarlet. After a short scrutiny I turned to my task of analyzing the nature of the white light.