<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></SPAN>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
<p class="subheader">WHAT IS OBSERVED AFTER THE TOTAL PHASE
OF AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN IS AT AN END.</p>
<p class="newchapter"><span class="firstword">In</span> a certain sense, a description of the incidents
which precede the total disappearance of the Sun
in connection with a total Eclipse will apply more
or less to the second half of the phenomenon;
only, of course, in the reverse order and on the
opposite side of the compass. The Corona having
appeared first of all on the W. side of the Sun,
then having shown itself complete as surrounding
the Sun, will begin to disappear on the W. side,
and will be last seen on the E. side. Baily’s
Beads may or may not come into view; the Sun
will reappear first as a very thin crescent, gradually
widening; the quasi-nocturnal darkness visible
on the Earth will cease, and eventually the Moon
will completely pass away from off the Sun, and
the Sun once again will exhibit a perfect circle of
light.</p>
<p>Whilst there is so much to look for and look
at and think about, one thing must be sought
for instantly after totality, or it will be gone for
ever, and that is the Moon’s shadow on the
Earth. We have already seen in the last chapter
the startling rapidity and solemnity with which<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</SPAN></span>
the shadow seems to rush forward to the observer
from the horizon on the western side
of the Meridian. Passing over him, or even, so
to speak, through him, it travels onwards in an
easterly direction and very soon vanishes. Its
visibility at all depends a good deal upon whether
the observer, who is looking for it, is sufficiently
raised above the adjacent country to be able to
command at least a mile or two of ground. If
he is in a hollow, he will have but little chance
of seeing the shadow at all: on the other hand,
if he is on the top of a considerable hill (or high
up on the side of a hill), commanding the horizon
for a distance of 10 or 20 miles, he will have a
fair chance of seeing the shadow. Sir G. B.
Airy states, in 1851, “My eye was caught
by a duskiness in the S.E., and I immediately
perceived that it was the Eclipse-shadow in the
air, travelling away in the direction of the
shadow’s path. For at least six seconds, this
shadow remained in sight, far more conspicuous
to the eye than I had anticipated. I was once
caught in a very violent hail and thunder-storm
on the Table-land of the County of Sutherland
called the “Moin,” and I at length saw the storm
travel away over the North Sea; and this view
of the receding Eclipse-shadow, though by no
means so dark, reminded me strongly of the
receding storm. In ten or twelve seconds all
appearance of the shadow had passed away.”</p>
<p>Perhaps this may be a convenient place to
make a note of what seems to be a fact, partly
established at any rate, even if not wholly established,
namely—that there seems some connection<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</SPAN></span>
between eclipses of the Sun and Earthquakes. A
German physicist named Ginzel<SPAN name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></SPAN><SPAN href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</SPAN> has found a
score of coincidences between solar eclipses and
earthquakes in California in the years between
1850 and 1888 inclusive. Of course there were
eclipses without earthquakes and earthquakes
without eclipses, but twenty coincidences in
thirty-eight years seems suggestive of something.</p>
<div class="footnotes"><p class="footnotetitle">Footnotes:</p>
<div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></SPAN><SPAN href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></SPAN> <i>Himmel und Erde</i>, vol. ii. pp. 255, 309; 1890.</p>
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