But in no sun's diameter, surrounding the moon's dark body. part of Great Britain will this appearance be visible. tral eclipse will commence at 12 ho. 54 min. 40 sec. apparent time at Greenwich, in lat. 81 deg. 39. min. 30 sec. north-and long. 149 deg. 33 min. west of Greenwich. The sun will be cen trally eclipsed on the meridian at 1 ho. 8 min. 15 sec. in lat. 76 deg. 6 min. 20 sec. north-and long. 17 deg. 3 min. 20 sec. west. It will traverse the supposed polar basin and the northeast coast of Greenland; the object of so much curiosity at the present time; so that if the discovery ships, which sailed in 1818, viz. the Dorothea, Captain Buchan and Lieut. Morrel, and the Trent, Lieutenants Franklin and Beechey, to the Pole direct, should chance to be in those parts, they may probably observe the eclipse in those high northern latitudes, as may also the navigators returning from the Greenland Whale Fishery, should they not be home at the time. The centre of the moon's shadow, after quitting the coast of Greenland, passes a little to the west of Mayness's Island; it thence proceeds up the North Sea, about midway between the Shetland Isles and the coast of Norway, leaving every part of Britain to the west. It thence enters the Continent of Europe, between Embden and the Weser, and in crossing the Confederation of the Rhine it passes by Cassel, Wurtzburg, and Munich. It thence crosses a part of Italy, and enters the Gulf of Venice between Venice and Trieste, and proceeding in its track it leaves the Island of Tremiti a little to the west. It thence crosses the heel of Italy and enters the Mediterranean, passing over the Gulf of Tarento, leaving the coast of Morea and Candia about a degree to the east, whence it enters Egypt, passing by the city of Alexandria, leaving the Egyptian Pyramids a little to the south, whence it passes over Grand Cairo and the north end of the Red Sea: it then enters Arabia, and finally leaves the earth near the Persian Gulf, at 3 ho. 8 min. 10 sec. in lat 27 deg. 10 min. 30 sec. north, and long. 46 deg. 2 min. east of Greenwich. Total duration of the central eclipse 2 ho. 13 min. 30 sec. The general eclipse commences at 11 ho. 23 min. in lat. 59 deg. 43 min. north, and long. 90 deg. 50 min. west; and finally leaves the earth at 4 ho. 39 min. 45 sec. in lat. 3 deg. 21 min. north, and long. 20 deg. 25 min. east. Total duration of the general eclipse to the inhabitants of the earth 5 ho. 16 min. 45 sec. The duration of the annular eclipse cannot at any particular place exceed six minutes of time. The eclipse will be annular, or the whole body of the moon will appear on the sun's disc, over a space of about 150 miles in breadth, on each side of the central line. And where the eclipse is of the magnitude of 11 digits and one-tenth, the obscuration will be as great as if central. This eclipse, after traversing the expansium from the creation of the world, first came in at the south pole of the earth about 88 years after the Conquest, or in the last of King Stephen's reign, since which time it has proceeded more northerly, and will finally leave the earth at the North Pole, A.D. 2090, whence no more returns of this eclipse will take place from the latter period till after a revolution of 12,300 years. Lynn Regis, Aug. 15, 1820. I am, sir, yours respectfully, COMETS. JAMES UTTING. M. Encke, Assistant Director of the Observatory at Gotha, has traced out the track of the comet which appeared in 1786, 1795, 1805 and 1819. It is by means of an ellipsis of an uncommon form, if not absolutely unique, that the orbit of this body (rather to be reckoned among the planets than comets) has been traced. That this body is not self-luminous, may be considered as fully ascertained. That the tail or radiance emanating from it, was a lucid vapour through which rays of light passed, cannot be doubted, and so probably is the tail of all comets; and if confidence might be placed in an accidental observation of the face of the sun, at the time when, by calculation, this body should have been passing over it, the body was also diaphanous ;— otherwise it was so small as to escape the notice of the observer, who was then most intent on examining the spots visible on the face of the sun. METEORIC SUBSTANCES. A meteoric stone, which fell in India on the 18th of February 1815, is now in the East India Company's Museum. The following particulars are extracted from a letter to Major Pennington by Capt. G. Bird :-" On the above day, about noon, some people at work in a field near, about half a mile from the village of Dooralla*, were suddenly alarmed by an explosion which they conceived to be of a large cannon, succeeded by a rushing noise like that of a cannon ball in its greatest force. Turning their eyes towards the quarter whence the sound proceeded, they saw a large black body in the air, apparently moving directly towards them: it passed them with inconceivable velocity, and buried itself in the earth at the distance of about sixty paces from the spot where they stood. As soon as their terror would suffer them, they ran to the village, where they found the people no less terrified than themselves, from an apprehension (for they had not seen the meteorolite) that an armed marauding party was approaching. When the Brahmins of the village were told In the territory belonging to the Pattialah Rajah. what what had really happened, they proceeded, followed by the people, and, digging up the spot, indicated by the broken surface and fresh earth and sand scattered round it, at the depth of about five feet, in a soil of mingled sand and loam, they found the stone. The Brahmins conveyed the stone to the village, where they commenced a Poosa, and, covering it with flowers, set on foot a subscription for erecting a temple over it, not doubting that they should soon turn it to a profitable account. The explosion was heard to the distance of twenty-five miles from Dooralla.-Major Pennington, on hearing of the circumstance, wrote to Captain Bird to endeavour to procure the stone; and the latter, on application to the Rajah, found no difficulty in obtaining an order for its removal. Indeed the Rajah seemed rather to consider the stone as an omen of evil; for he gave special orders that it should not approach his place of residence. It was carried to Captain Bird, then at Lodiana (about eighty miles from the place. where it fell), escorted by a party of Brahmins and some Seik horse. It weighs rather inore than twenty-five pounds, is covered with a thin black pellicle, is somewhat triangular, and exhibits on a corner whence a piece has been broken off iron pyrites and nickel. While it remained with Capt. Bird, the Brahmins in the neighbourhood went to his tent to pay adoration to it; nor would any Hindoo venture to approach it but with closed hands in apparent devotion." A very singular meteoric substance has lately been recognised in the Museum of M. Von Grotthuss, of Curland. It is distinguished in Germany by the name Mourning paper. According to the Ephemeris of the Leopold Academy, it fell in great quantities in Curland on the 31st of January 1686. The specimen found in M. Von Grotthuss's collection, and which was labelled as of meteoric origin, consists of a mass of black leaves, like burnt paper, but harder; it coheres together, and is brittle. When examined by chemical reagents, it was found to consist of silica, magnesia, iron, and some nickel, with traces of chromium. Black substances like beans fell at the same time. An aërolite which fell at Jonzac, 13th of June 1819, has been analysed by M. Laugier, and gave Oxide of iron 36.0 ! The increased weight is ascribed to the oxidizement of the metals during the analysis. As observed by the author (Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. xiii. 441), the above stone is remarkable, not only from the absence of nickel, but on account of the proportions of the other contents, the sulphur and magnesia being much less, and of the alumina and lime greater than usual. The author also suggests that the presence of chrome rather than of nickel should be considered as characteristic of meteoric stones. REMARKABLE HAIL-STORM. The south-eastern part of the county of Mayo has been visited by one of those awful visitations which occur but very rarely in our happy and temperate climate. Of its devastating effects we have the following description and appalling particulars from a respectable gentleman residing in the vicinity of Ballyhannes : "A shower of ice-stones, accompanied by a tremendous thunder-storm, fell in this district on the 29th June, and in its course. has caused general destruction. Its breadth did not exceed half a mile, which it left a perfect ruin-the potatoe crop cut close to the earth-the flax bruised as in a mill-the corn shattered and blasted, never to rise again! All the windows within its limits are broken-numerous tame and wild fowl killed by it. Some of these stones were flat, heavy, and as large as a watch ! the greater part of the shape, but of a larger size than a pigeon's egg. I have seen a bog turf penetrated by them as if bullets had been shot into it. How far this frightful phænomenon may have run its course I cannot as yet say-possibly into the Western Sea. A poor lad, unfortunately bathing, disregarded its terrific approach; his head is dreadfully cut and injured: his body par tially quite black, and covered with contusions.' ATMOSPHERICAL PHENOMENON. One of those very singular and curious phænomena which are occasionally seen among the Hartz mountains in Hanover, and have once or twice been observed on Souter Fell in Cumberland, has been seen in Huntingdonshire. About half past four o'clock on Sunday morning, July 16, the sun was shining in a cloudless sky, and the light vapours arising from the river Ouse were hovering over a little hill near St. Neot's, when suddenly the village of Great Paxton, its farm-houses, barns, dispersed cottages, trees, and its different grass fields were clearly and distinctly visible in a beautiful aërial picture which extended from east to west about 400 yards. Nothing could exceed the astonishment and admiration of the spectator, as he looked at this surprising phænomenon from a gentle declivity in an opposite direction at the distance of half a mile, or his regret at its disappearance in about ten minutes.—Cambridge Chronicle. |