tz told me that his fever was quite cured, and
that in the meantime two other patients had, by his advice, tried this
method, and with the same success. [Footnote: Prof. Helmholtz, whom I
had the pleasure of meeting in Switzerland last year, then told me
that he was quite convinced that hay fever was produced by the pollen
afloat in early summer in the atmosphere.]

********************

VI. VOYAGE TO ALGERIA TO OBSERVE THE ECLIPSE.

1870.

THE opening of the Eclipse Expedition was not propitious. Portsmouth,
on Monday, December 5, 1870, was swathed by fog, which was intensified
by smoke, and traversed by a drizzle of fine rain. At six P.M. I was
on board the "Urgent." On Tuesday morning the weather was too thick to
permit of the ship's being swung and her compasses calibrated. The
Admiral of the port, a man of very noble presence, came on board.
Under his stimulus the energy which the weather had damped appeared to
become more active, and soon after his departure we steamed down to
Spithead. Here the fog had so far lightened as to enable the officers
to swing the ship.

At three P.M. on Tuesday, December 6, we got away, gliding
successively past Whitecliff Bay, Bembridge, Sandown, Shanklin,
Ventnor, and St. Catherine's Lighthouse. On Wednesday morning we
sighted the Isle of Ushant, on the French side of the Channel. The
northern end of the island has been fretted by the waves into detached
tower-like masses of rock of very remarkable appearance. In the
Channel the sea was green, and opposite Ushant it was a brighter
green. On Wednesday evening we committed ourselves to the Bay of
Biscay. The roll of the Atlantic was full, but not violent. There
had been scarcely a gleam of sunshine throughout the day, but the
cloud-forms were fine, and their apparent solidity impressive. On
Thursday morning the green of the sea was displaced by a deep indigo
blue. The whole of Thursday we steamed across the bay. We had little
blue sky, but the clouds were again grand and varied--cirrus, stratus,
cumulus, and nimbus, we had them all. Dusky hair-like trails were
sometimes dropped from the distant clouds to the sea.

These were falling showers, and they sometimes occupied the whole
horizon, while we steamed across the rainless circle which was thus
surrounded. Sometimes we plunged into the rain, and once or twice, by
slightly changing our course, avoided a heavy shower. From time to
time perfect rainbows spanned th