e from the
diversity of the vapors which surround them, or from the different
manner in which they receive the Sun's rays. Do you not see in our
fires, that various kinds of wood produce different colors? Pines and
firs give a flame mixed with thick smoke, and throw out little light.
That which rises from sulphur and thick bitumen is bluish. Lighted
straw gives out sparks of a reddish color. The large olive, laurel,
ash of Parnassus, etc., trees which always retain their sap, throw a
whitish light similar to that of a lamp. Thus, comets whose fires are
formed of different materials, each take and preserve a color which is
peculiar to them."

Instead of being a cause of fear and terror, the variety and
variability of the aspect of comets ought rather to indicate to us the
harmlessness of their nature.

[Illustration]

THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 1883

_AN ASTRONOMERS VOYAGE TO FAIRY-LAND._

(FROM THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY, MAY, 1890.)

BY PROF. E.S. HOLDEN.

[Illustration]

In 1883 calculations showed that a solar eclipse of unusually long
duration (5 minutes, 20 seconds) would occur in the South Pacific
Ocean. The track of the eclipse lay south of the equator, but north of
Tahiti. There were in fact only two dots of coral islands on the
charts in the line of totality, Caroline Island, and one hundred and
fifty miles west Flint Island (longitude 150 west, latitude 10 south).
Almost nothing was known of either of these minute points. The station
of the party under my charge (sent out by the United States government
under the direction of the National Academy of Sciences) was to be
Caroline Islands.

Every inch of that island (seven miles long, a mile or so broad) is
familiar now; but it is almost ludicrous to recollect with what
anxiety we pored over the hydrographic charts and sailing instructions
of the various nations, to find some information, however scanty,
about the spot which was to be our home for nearly a month. All that
was known was that this island had formerly been occupied as a guano
station. There was a landing _then_.

After the _personnel_ of the party had been decided on, there were the
preparations for its subsistence to be looked out for. How to feed
seventeen men for twenty-one days? Fortunately the provisions that we
took, and the fresh fish caught for us by the natives, just sufficed
to carry us through with comfort and with health.

In March of 1883 we sailed from New York, and a