about 38; in the southwest part of Nova Scotia about 41; in the northeast part of the same province 45; in crossing from Cape Breton to Newfoundland 51; and in crossing the latter island, about 64 miles per minute.

Neither will the distance of the Moon, nor her motion in her orbit, be uniform throughout the eclipse. At the beginning of the general eclipse the distance between the centres of the Earth and Moon will be 236,450, and at the end 235,940, English miles; and her hourly motion from the Sun, referred to the centre of the Earth at the same times, will be 2134 and 2140 miles.

Path of the Contact of the Northern Limbs, on the Southern Boundary of the Annular Eclipse.

This path will pass about 35 miles in a southerly direction from the path of the Centre, and very nearly parallel to it; but, where the Moon has but little altitude, the distance from the Central path will be about 50 miles.

This path begins in the North Pacific, crosses the province of Old California, the Gulf of California, the Intendency of Sonora, the provinces of Chiguagua, Bolson de Mapimi, Cohahuila, New Santander, and Texas, in Mexico; the Counties of Opelousas and Attakapas, the Parishes of West Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge, St. Helena, and St. Tammany, in Louisiana; the Counties of Hancock, Jackson, and Greene, in Mississippi, the Counties of Mobile, Washington, Clarke, Monroe, Wilcox, Montgomery, Pike, and the Territory of the Upper Creek Indians, in Alabama; the Territory of the Lower Creeks, and the Counties of Pike, Henry, Jasper, Morgan, Greene, Washington, and Lincoln, in Georgia; the Districts of Abbeville, Laurens, Union, Chester, York, and Lancaster, in South Carolina; the Counties of Mecklenburg, Anson, Montgomery, Moore, Chatham, Wake, Franklin, Warren, Halifax, and Northampton, in North Carolina, the Counties of Greenville, Sussex, Surry, Warwick, and York, across the Chesapeake, and the Counties of Northampton and Accomack, in Virginia, where it leaves the Continent; thence across the Atlantic to the island of Newfoundland, across that island where it is narrowest (between Placentia and Trinity bays) into the Atlantic again, and ends near the termination of the path of the Centre, about 600 miles southeast of Greenland, and 550 southwest of Iceland.

The magnitude of the obscured part of the Sun will be very nearly the same throughout the space comprehended between the three preceding paths; but the appearance of the Sun at the nearest approach of the centres of the Sun and Moon will be very different. To the inhabitants of the country traversed by the first of the three, the south limbs of the Sun and Moon will appear exactly in contact. Approaching a little towards the path of the centre, a ring will be seen about the Sun; but of unequal width, being much wider on the northern than on the southern side. As we con tinue to advance, this inequality diminishes, the southern side of the ring becoming wider, and the northern contracting, until, on our arriving thereat, the ring becomes perfect, and of equal width round the Sun. Its duration is here the greatest, being (on the continent) about two minutes. If we proceed, still in a southerly direction, the ring will again become unequal, but the north side of it is now the narrower; the inequality continually increases as we proceed, until on arrival at the last of the preceding paths, the north limbs of the Sun and Moon will come into contact, and the ring be destroyed.

Not one of the largest cities of America is comprehended in the space between the contact of the north and south limbs, the width of this space

being only (while on the continent) about 70 English miles. In the republic of Mexico it does not appear, by our map, that the eclipse will be annular in any town of note.

The principal villages or towns at which the eclipse will probably be annular, are,

In LOUISIANA-Opelousas, St. Marion's, Point Coupee, Baton Rouge, and St. Francisville.

In MISSISSIPPI-Pinkneyville, Liberty, Holmesville, Monticello, and Winchester.

In ALABAMA-St. Stephens, Clarksville, Linden, Canton, Cahawba, Marions, Washington, and Montgomery.

In GEORGIA-Lawrenceville, Monroe, Madison, Gainesville, Jefferson, Athens, Lexington, Danielsville, and Carnesville.

IN SOUTH CAROLINA-Pendleton, Abbeville, Greenville, Laurensville, Spantanburg, Union, and Yorkville.

In NORTH CAROLINA-Rutherfordton, Lincolnton, Charlotte, Statesville, Concord, Tindalsville, Blakeley, Lexington, Salem, Martinville, Pittsborough, Danbury, Hillsborough, Oxford, and Warrenton.

In VIRGINIA-Boydstown, Marysville, Nottoway, Hicksford, Petersburg, Scottsville, Blandford, Richmond, Williamsburg, York, Dunkirk, Rappahannock, Urbanna, Bridgetown, and Drummond.

In MARYLAND-Princess Ann and Snowhill.

In DELAWARE-Georgetown, Bridgetown, Milford, and Lewistown.
In NEW JERSEY-Cold Spring.

In MASSACHUSETTS-Chilmark, Edgartown, Harwich, Chatham, Siasconset, and Nantucket.

In NOVA SCOTIA-Shelburne, Liverpool, Lunenburg, Halifax, and Pic

tou.

In CAPE BRETON-Louisbourg.

Path of the Phase of 9 Digits on the North Limb.

Mean time | Mean time Latitude Longitude

of

of

* On the meridian of the place.

Between this and the preceding path are included the middle provinces and the north part of Yucatan, in Mexico; the southern extremities of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, the whole of Florida, a large part of Georgia and South Carolina, the southeast half of North Carolina, and the southeast extremity of Virginia; the northwest extremity of Cuba, the Bermudas, and some of the Bahamas.

The magnitude of the obscuration, in this space, will vary from 11 to 9 digits on the Sun's North limb, according to the distance of the place from the path of the contact of the northern limbs.

This path begins in the Pacific Ocean, crosses the province of Costa Rica in Guatimala, the Caribbean sea, the island of Hayti, into the Atlantic Ocean, where it ends a little east of the Western islands Within the

two preceding paths are included the south provinces of Mexico, the north provinces of Guatimala, the whole of Jamaica, nearly the whole of Cuba and Hayti, several of the Bermudas, and all the Western islands.

Within this space the Sun will be eclipsed from 9 to 6 digits on his north limb.

This path begins in the Pacific, passes over the Gallipagos, and the provinces of Cundinamarca and Venezuela, of that country which is, or was recently, known by the name of the Republic of Colombia, thence across the Caribbean sea into the Atlantic Ocean.

Between the two preceding paths are included the southern provinces of Guatimala, the province of Panamá, the north part of Cundinamarca, and the northeast part of Venezuela, the southeast part of Hayti, and the islands Curaçoa, Buen Aire, Orchilla, Martinique, Dominica, Mariagalante, Guadaloupe, Montserrat, St. Kitts, Nevis, Barbuda, St. Eustatia, Saba, St. Barts, St. Martins, Anguilla, St. Croix, St. John's, St. Thomas, Virgin Gorda, Anegada, Porto Rico, and several others in the Caribbean sea.

The degree of obscuration within this space will be from 6 to 3 digits on the northern limb.

Path of the Contact of the Northern Limb of the Sun with the Southern Limb of the Moon, or of the Southern Boundary of the Eclipse.

This path, like all the rest, begins in the Pacific Ocean, passes across the north part of the province of Truxillo, in Peru; the provinces of Quito and Spanish Guiana, in Colombia; and the north extremity of Dutch Guiana into the Atlantic Ocean, where it ends a little north of the Cape Verd islands.

Between this and the preceding path are included the northern extremity of the province of Truxillo, the northwest half of the province of Quito, and the southern half of Cundinamarca, a large part of Venezuela, nearly the whole of Spanish Guiana, the northern extremity of Dutch Guiana, and the islands Trinidad, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Barbadoes, Grenada, Tobago, Margarita, Blanca, Tortuga, and many others in the West Indies.

The degree of obscuration within this space will be from 3 to 0 digits on the northern limb; under the path of the contact of the limbs, and of course still farther south, the Sun will not be eclipsed,

PHASES OF THE ECLIPSE FOR SOME OF THE PRINCIPAL PLACES IN

THE UNITED STATES

The eclipse was computed for the following places by the tables used for computing the path of the centre and that of the digits. For the sake of comparison, the phases at Halifax, Nantucket, and Boston, were likewise computed by the tables of Burckhardt, and for the last of these places, by the tables of Burg, which, however, are now but rarely used.

It will be observed that the several phases of the eclipse, at each place, have been computed for the semidiameters of the Sun and Moon, as given by the tables, and as corrected, for irradiation (-34"), and inflexion (—2′′), according to the theory of Dusejour. The existence of these corrections is extremely doubtful. Indeed, the correction of the Moon's S. D. for inflexion (-2'') has been altogether neglected in the computation of the occultations (although introduced into the computation of those of the last year), from the circumstance that in each of the occultations of Aldebaran, observed in Boston in 1829 and 1830, the star was eclipsed longer, by several seconds, than it should have been, if the correction had been well established.

The apparent places of the Sun and Moon were always computed with great care, even the latitude of the Sun being taken into consideration; yet it is not impossible that some small errors may have escaped notice; greater error, however, is to be apprehended from a wrong assumption of

It is

the latitude and longitude of the place in question, although, in these particulars, we have followed the best authorities. Indeed it may be safely remarked, that the geographical positions of but very few places in the United States (especially the longitude), are well established. confidently hoped, that the highly favorable opportunity for determining the difference of the meridians of our principal cities, afforded by this remarkable eclipse, and the occultations of Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Aldebaran, and Regulus, in the course of this year, will not be neglected.

The longitude and altitude of the Nonagesimal degree of the Ecliptic (in other words, the longitude and latitude of the Zenith) were computed by the method pointed out in the Appendix to the "New Amer. Prac. Navigator." As the position of this point depends on the reduced latitude of the place, the obliquity of the Ecliptic, and the Right Ascension of the Meridian, or of the Zenith, five of the logarithms used in the computation of this point, must be very nearly the same, at any place, for many years; being affected only by the very slow diminution of the obliquity. For the purpose of facilitating as much as possible the recomputation of the eclipse, at any place, should the same be deemed necessary, the sum of these logarithms, as well as the sum of the reductions of the Moon's Equatorial parallax for the ellipticity of the Earth (one three-hundredth), and the Horizontal parallax of the Sun, have been prefixed to the phases; the two first of the logarithms referring to the Longitude, and the third to the Altitude of the Nonagesimal.

The following places have been arranged with reference to the apparent Ecliptic conjunction of the Sun and Moon, which, in mean time for the meridian of Washington, will take place as follows, viz.—