e. Maclaurin[88] who lived in the early
part of the last century mentions that in his time a manuscript account
of this eclipse was preserved in the library of the University of
Edinburgh wherein the darkness is said to have come on at about 3 p.m.,
and to have been very profound. The duration of the totality at
Inverness was 4m. 32s.; at Edinburgh 3m. 41s. The central line passed
from Britain to the N. of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, through Bavaria, to
the Dardanelles, to the S. of Aleppo and thence nearly parallel to the
river Euphrates to the N.-E. border of Arabia. In Turkey, according to
Calvisius, "near evening the light of the Sun was so overpowered that
darkness covered the land."

In 1544, on Jan. 24, there occurred an eclipse of the Sun which was
nearly but not quite total. The chief interest arises from the fact that
it was one of the first observed by professed astronomers: Gemma Frisius
saw it at Louvain.

Kepler says[89] that the day became dark like the twilight of evening
and that the birds which from the break of day had been singing became
mute. The middle of the eclipse was at about 9 a.m.

In 1560 an eclipse of the Sun took place which was total in Spain and
Portugal. Clavius who observed it at Coimbra says[90] that "the Sun
remained obscured for no little time: there was darkness greater than
that of night, no one could see where he trod and the stars shone very
brightly in the sky: the birds moreover, wonderful to say, fell down to
the ground in fright at such startling darkness." Kepler is responsible
for the statement that Tycho Brahe did not believe this, and wrote to
Clavius to that effect 40 years afterwards.

In 1567 there was an annular eclipse visible at Rome on April 9. Clavius
says[91] that "the whole Sun was not eclipsed but that there was left a
bright circle all round." This in set terms is a description of an
annular eclipse, but Johnston who calculated that at Rome the greatest
obscuration took place at 20m. past noon points out that the
augmentation of the Moon's semi-diameter would almost have produced
totality. Tycho tells us that he saw this eclipse on the shores of the
Baltic when a young man about 20 years of age.

The total eclipse of February 25, 1598, long left a special mark on the
memories of the people of Scotland. The day was spoken of as "Black
Saturday." Maclaurin states[92]:--"There is a tradition that some persons
in the North lost their way in the time of this ecli