unaccountable appearances that were first
accurately noted by Mr. Bailey. During that
stage of an annular eclipse when it is complete
and the ring is about to be put out of
shape, a number of long black parallel lines
are drawn out by the moon, as if some glutinous
substance had stuck to the edge of the
sun, and was being pulled out in strings (the
light between them giving an appearance
like beads), until they break, and wholly
disappear. This phenomenon, has been
observed during every eclipse."

"Please, papa, may I let off the gunpowder?"
asked Sidery the Third, flourishing
the burning-glass.

"Yes; but George" (Sidery Secundus)
must stand by with the watch, and register
the power of the sun by noting the time its
rays, concentrated by the burning-glass, take
to explode the gunpowder."

"I fear there will be no rays to catch.
Look at those provoking clouds! " Miss
Sidery pointed to windward.

The astronomer surveyed first the weather,
then his elaborate preparations nervously;
but was too hopeful to encourage a doubt
that the eclipse would be an entire success.
Before we arrived at Swindon, he had
distributed all his offices. I was to observe
that the beasts of the field knelt down
to rest; that the birds in the air fluttered
back to their nests.  I was to watch the
crocuses in the flower-pot, that they duly
partook in the universal deception as to
the time of day, and closed themselves; I
was to perceive that the violets gave out
their more powerful night-scent. These
duties were imparted to me in a tone which
conveyed a threat that I should be held
responsible if Nature did not behave precisely
as philosophy had foretold. Charles was
to hold the lighted candle between the sun
and his eye, to testify at how many sun's
breadths' distance from the sun the flame
could be seen. MacAliquot undertook the
Welsh Scriptures and the Diamond Classics,
to ascertain the different degrees of darkness,
by his ability to read the three sizes of print.
He was also to be general timekeeper; to
check off the punctuality of the eclipse in
keeping the appointment astronomers had
made for it, both in its first appearance, its
greatest magnitude, and its exit over the face
of the sun.  The professor took to the
telescope. He was, besides, to keep everybody
at his post, and to maintain a thorough
discipline amongst his corps of observation.

Swindon, ten, fifty-five.  Coffee, sandwiches,
tea, rolls, bread-and-butter, Banbury
cakes, soda, brandy, bottled porter,
pork-pies for one hundred—immediately!
The young ladies at the counters of the
refreshment-room conduct themselves with
that deliberate self-possession which is
characteristic of great minds during emergencies.
The Sidery flask and sandwiches, however,
make us independent of them. Meanwhile
the male branches of the Sidery family
have unloaded all the apparatus upon the
south platform; and, being persons of great
constructive abilities, have fitted up an
observatory in defiance of every railway
regulation, and even of a train, on the eve of
running away from the Eclipse to Gloucester.
They construct it with chairs purloined from
the offices, wheelbarrows, their own camp-
stools, umbrellas, and other impromptu
materials. Even the telescope finds a station of
its own in the same precincts.

The hundred orders for refreshments have
at length been executed, and some of the
excursionists post themselves on a rising ground
to the left; others climb the hill into the
town; but the knowing ones make for the
old church-yard.  So many are, however, of
one way of thinking, that the station is very
soon quite occupied.  Sofas are brought out,
and ladies gracefully recline upon them,
opera-glasses in hand, precisely as if they
were inspecting the luminaries of her
Majesty's theatre.

Eleven, thirty. Clouds pass rapidly over
the sun. Some obscure him altogether;
others supersede coloured glasses.  Mr.
Sidery looks vexed and disappointed.
Little Sidery lets off his "poofs!" of
gunpowder; now in one minute; now in
seven. MacAliquot, watch in hand, looks
official and important.  Miss Sidery, having
as yet nothing celestial to observe, makes
delightful observations to me on subjects I
am better acquainted with, than the firmament;
such as pictures, music, and light literature.
I am occasionally called to a sense
of duty by our chief, who points out a cow
in the meadow, and a particularly spruce
sparrow hovering upon and around the wires
of the telegraph.  More clouds.

Eleven, thirty-five.  Intense excitement.
Clouds too thin to obscure the sun.  Every
bit of coloured glass to every eye.  Yet the
eclipse must have come upon some of the
spectators as an unexpected accident; for
they have brought nothing wherewith to see
the great glaring orb as in a glass, darkly.
Whereupon railway workmen suddenly ascend
from unexplained lower regions with
bits of smoked glass, for which, people who
have not courage to borrow of the better provided,
distractedly bargain.  One slender
gentleman seizes a huge danger signal-lamp,
and lifts it up before his face; but, being no
Hercules, is unable to maintain it in that
position long enough even for a glimpse of
the sun, and restores it to its rack.

Eleven, forty. The right-hand lower edge
of the sun begins to flatten. The watch
trembles in MacAliquot's hand as he exclaims,
"Wonderful!" The dark segment
increases in size. "What a testimony is this
accuracy of foretelling the exact time of the
eclipse, to the power of figures!" The Count
continues.  "As we have always known that
eleven digits and a-half of the sun will be