Page:Furcountryorseve00vernrich.djvu/280

 1 62 THE FUR COUNTRY, moments of the eclipse the queen of the night and the great orb of day should be wrapped in an opaque cloud at the critical moment, so that he, the astronomer, Thomas Black, come so far to watch the phenomenon, should be unable to see the luminous corona or the red prominences ! How terrible would be the disappointment ! How many dangers, how much suffering, how much fatigue, would have been gone through in vain ! " To have come so far to see the moon, and not to see it ! " he cried in a comically piteous tone. No, he could not face the thought, and early of an evening he would climb to the summit of the cape and gaze into the heavens. The fair Phoebe was nowhere to be seen ; for it being three days before new moon, she was accompanying the sun in his daily course, and her light was quenched in his beams. Many a time did Thomas Black relieve his over-burdened heart by pouring out his troubles to Mrs Barnett. The good lady felt sincerely sorry for him, and one day, anxious to reassure him, she told him that the barometer showed a certain tendency to rise, and reminded him that they were in the fine season. shoulders. " Who can speak of a fine season in such a country aa this?" " Well, but, Mr Black," said Mrs Barnett, " suppose, for the sake- of argument, that you miss this eclipse by any unlucky chance, I suppose there will be another some day. The eclipse of July 18th will not be the last of this century." " No, madam, no," returned Black ; " there will be five more total eclipses of the sun before 1900. One on the 31st December 1861, which will be total for the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, and the Sahara Desert a second on the 22d December 1870, total for the Azores, the south of Spain, Algeria, Sicily, and Turkey ; a third on the 19th August 1887, total for the north-east of Germany, the south of Russia, and Central Asia ; a fourth on the 9th August 1896, visible in Greenland, Lapland, and Siberia ; and lastly, a fifth on the 28th May 1900, which will be total for the United States, Spain, Algeria, and Egypt." " Well, Mr Black," resumed Mrs Barnett, " if you lose the eclipse of the 18th July 1860, you can console yourself by looking forward to that of the 31st December 1861. It will only be seven- teen months I "
 * The fine season ! " cried the poor astronomer, shrugging his