tely overpowers it. When, however, during a solar
eclipse, the lunar disc has entirely hidden the brilliant face of the
sun, we are still able for a few moments to see an edgewise portion of
the chromosphere in the form of a narrow red strip, fringing the
advancing border of the moon. Later on, just before the moon begins to
uncover the face of the sun from the other side, we may again get a view
of a strip of chromosphere.

The outer surface of the chromosphere is not by any means even. It is
rough and billowy, like the surface of a storm-tossed sea. Portions of
it, indeed, rise at times to such heights that they may be seen standing
out like blood-red points around the black disc of the moon, and remain
thus during a good part of the total phase. These projections are known
as the _Solar Prominences_. In the same way as the corona, the
chromosphere and prominences were for a time supposed to belong to the
moon. This, however, was soon found not to be the case, for the lunar
disc was noticed to creep slowly across them also.

The total phase, or "totality," as it is also called, lasts for
different lengths of time in different eclipses. It is usually of about
two or three minutes' duration, and at the utmost it can never last
longer than about eight minutes.

When totality is over and the corona has faded away, the moon's disc
creeps little by little from the face of the sun, light and heat returns
once more to the earth, and nature recovers gradually from the gloom in
which she has been plunged. About an hour after totality, the last
remnant of moon draws away from the solar disc, and the eclipse is
entirely at an end.

The corona, the chromosphere, and the prominences are the most important
of these accompaniments of the sun which a total eclipse reveals to us.
Our further consideration of them must, however, be reserved for a
subsequent chapter, in which the sun will be treated of at length.

Every one who has had the good fortune to see a total eclipse of the sun
will, the writer feels sure, agree with the verdict of Sir Norman
Lockyer that it is at once one of the "grandest and most awe-inspiring
sights" which man can witness. Needless to say, such an occurrence used
to cause great consternation in less civilised ages; and that it has not
in modern times quite parted with its terrors for some persons, is shown
by the fact that in Iowa, in the United States, a woman died from fright
during the eclipse of 1869.