light was seen to proceed from the horizon--that is, from those regions
where the darkness was not total--and by this light print of a moderate
size could, with a little difficulty, be read. Such plants as usually
close their petals at night were seen in most places to close them also
during the eclipse. The thermometer fell from 2 to 3 degrees of Reaumur,
and in the fields about Perpignan a heavy dew fell. A change in the color
of the light, and consequently of the enlightened objects, was noticed by
many, although they were not agreed in their description of it. But this
diversity may have been caused by the nature of the air at different
places being probably different, and the degree of obscurity very unequal.
At Lipezk, where the eclipse lasted the longest, being 3 minutes and 3
seconds, a darkness similar to that of night set in, and there the eclipse
began exactly at noon.

The effect of the eclipse on the animal creation was similar to what had
been observed before in the like circumstances: they ceased eating;
draught animals suddenly stood still; domestic birds fled to the stables,
or sought other places of shelter; owls and bats flew abroad, as if night
had come on. Of three lively linnets, kept in a cage, one dropped down
dead. The insect world too was greatly affected; ants stopped in the midst
of their labors, and only resumed their course after the reappearance of
the sun; and bees retreated suddenly to their hives. A general
restlessness pervaded the animal world; and only those places which were
situated more on the boundary of the zone, and where the obscurity was
consequently less complete, formed an exception.

During the total eclipse, the dark moon which covered the sun's disk
appeared surrounded with a brilliant crown of light or halo. This halo
consisted of two concentric belts, of which the inner one was the
lightest, and the external less brilliant, and gradually fading. In the
direction of the line which connected the point of the commencement of the
total eclipse with that of its termination, two parabolic pencils of
light--some observers say several--appeared on the halo. Within it also
light intervolved veins were observable. The breadth of the inner halo was
from 2 to 3 minutes; that of the external one from 10 to 15 minutes; the
pencils of light, on the other hand, extended as far as from 1 to 11/2
degree; by some they were traced even to 3 degrees. The color of the halo
was of a silver