dy quoted, and who writes,
moreover, from personal experience, that I cannot do better than
transfer her striking account to my pages.[15] "Then, with frightful
velocity, the actual shadow of the Moon is often seen approaching, a
tangible darkness advancing almost like a wall, swift as imagination,
silent as doom. The immensity of nature never comes quite so near as
then, and strong must be the nerves not to quiver as this blue-black
shadow rushes upon the spectator with incredible speed. A vast, palpable
presence seems overwhelming the world. The blue sky changes to gray or
dull purple, speedily becoming more dusky, and a death-like trance
seizes upon everything earthly. Birds, with terrified cries, fly
bewildered for a moment, and then silently seek their night-quarters.
Bats emerge stealthily. Sensitive flowers, the scarlet pimpernel, the
African mimosa, close their delicate petals, and a sense of hushed
expectancy deepens with the darkness. An assembled crowd is awed into
absolute silence almost invariably. Trivial chatter and senseless joking
cease. Sometimes the shadow engulfs the observer smoothly, sometimes
apparently with jerks; but all the world might well be dead and cold and
turned to ashes. Often the very air seems to hold its breath for
sympathy; at other times a lull suddenly awakens into a strange wind,
blowing with unnatural effect. Then out upon the darkness, gruesome but
sublime, flashes the glory of the incomparable corona, a silvery, soft,
unearthly light, with radiant streamers, stretching at times millions of
uncomprehended miles into space, while the rosy, flaming protuberances
skirt the black rim of the Moon in ethereal splendour. It becomes
curiously cold, dew frequently forms, and the chill is perhaps mental as
well as physical. Suddenly, instantaneous as a lightning flash, an arrow
of actual sunlight strikes the landscape, and Earth comes to life again,
while corona and protuberances melt into the returning brilliance, and
occasionally the receding lunar shadow is glimpsed as it flies away with
the tremendous speed of its approach."

In connection with the approach of the Moon's shadow, it is to be noted
that at totality the heavens appear in a certain sense to descend upon
the Earth. If an observer is looking upwards towards the zenith over his
head, he will see the clouds appear to drop towards the Earth, and the
surrounding gloom seems also to have the effect of vitiating one's
estimate of