rvation and those made with the
unaided eyes (protected simply by a bit of smoked glass) of so many
improvised spectators. This had already been done by Arago at Perpignan
in 1842. The verification was almost immediate for the majority of eyes,
and may be estimated at eight or ten seconds. So that the commencement
of the eclipse was confirmed almost as promptly for the eye as with the
astronomical instruments.

The sky was splendidly clear; no cloud, no mist, deep blue; blazing Sun.
The first period of the eclipse showed nothing particular. It is only
from the moment when more than half the solar disk is covered by the
lunar disk that the phenomenon is imposing in its grandeur. At this
phase, I called the attention of the people standing in the court to the
visibility of the stars, and indicating the place of Venus in the sky
asked if any with long sight could perceive her. Eight at once
responded in the affirmative. It should be said that the planet was at
that time at its period of maximum brilliancy, when for observers
blessed with good sight, it is always visible to the unaided eye.

When some three-quarters of the Sun were eclipsed, the pigeons which had
flown back to the farm huddled into a corner, and made no further
movement. They told me that evening that the fowls had done the same a
little later, returning to the hen-house as though it had been night,
and that the small children (who were very numerous at Elche, where the
population is certainly not diminishing) left off their games, and came
back to their mothers' skirts. The birds flew anxiously to their nests.
The ants in one garden were excessively agitated, no doubt disconcerted
in their strategics. The bats came out.

A few days before the eclipse I had prepared the inhabitants of this
part of Spain for the observation of the phenomenon by the following
description, which sums up the previous accounts of the astronomers:

"The spectacle of a total eclipse of the Sun is one of the most
magnificent and imposing that it is possible to see in nature. At the
exact moment indicated by calculation, the Moon arrives in front of the
Sun, eats into it gradually, and at last entirely covers it. The light
of the day lessens and is transformed. A sense of oppression is felt by
all nature, the birds are hushed, the dog takes refuge with his master,
the chickens hide beneath their mother's wing, the wind drops, the
temperature falls, an appalling stillness is every