_, which also
corresponded with a minimum of solar energy. The year 1900 is in fact
close upon the minimum of the eleven-year period. This equatorial form
is, moreover, what all the astronomers were expecting.

[Illustration: FIG. 78.--Total eclipse of the Sun, May 28, 1900, as
observed from Elche (Spain).]

There can no longer be the slightest doubt that the solar envelope
varies with the activity of the Sun....

"But the total eclipse lasted a much shorter time than I have taken to
write these lines. The seventy-nine seconds of totality are over. A
dazzling light bursts from the Sun, and tells that the Moon pursuing its
orbit has left it. The splendid sight is over. It has gone like a
shadow.

"Already over! It is almost a disillusion. Nothing beautiful lasts in
this world. Too sad! If only the celestial spectacle could have lasted
two, three, or four minutes! It was too short....

"Alas! we are forced to take things as they are.

"The surprise, the oppression, the terror of some, the universal silence
are over. The Sun reappears in his splendor, and the life of nature
resumes its momentarily suspended course.

"While I was making my drawing, M. l'Abbe Moreux, my colleague from the
Astronomical Society of France, who accompanied me to Spain for this
observation, was taking one of his own, without any reciprocal
communication. These two sketches are alike, and confirmatory.

"The differential thermometers that I exposed to the Sun, hanging
freely, and protected from reflection from the ground, were read every
five minutes. The black thermometer went down from 33.1 deg. to 20.7
deg., that is 12.4 deg.; the white from 29 deg. to 20.2 deg.--that is,
8.8 deg. The temperature in the shade only varied three degrees.

"The light received during totality was due: first, to the luminous
envelope of the Sun; second, to that of the terrestrial atmosphere,
illuminated at forty kilometers (twenty-five miles) on the one side and
the other of the line of centrality. It appeared to be inferior to that
of the Full Moon, on account of the almost sudden transition. But, in
reality, it was more intense, for only first-magnitude stars were
visible in the sky, whereas on a night of full moon, stars of second,
and even of third magnitude are visible. We recognized, among others,
Venus, Mercury, Sirius, Procyon, Capella, Rigel, Betelgeuse."

* * * * *

From these notes, taken on the spot, it is evid