Apparent o 20h. 45m. 515. End 21 30 18 Digits eclipsed 30°42' on Sun's North Limb. 1854. May 26th. Beginning of the Eclipse 4h. 26m. 273. Formation of the Ring 5 40 27 Apparent o 5 40 52 Nearest Approach of Centres 5 40 55 Rupture of the Ring 5 41 26 End of the Eclipse 6 46 49 Digits eclipsed 11° 20'. D's Ap. Lat. at Nearest Ap. 50" North. This Eclipse will probably be annular in Boston, and in some part of New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. . . *1858. March 14th. Sun rises eclipsed 18h. 14m. Os. Apparent o 18 43 27 Greatest Obscuration 18 46 42 End 19 43 37 Digits eclipsed at Sunrise 1° 39'; at Greatest Obs. 5° 31' on Sun's South Limb. 1859. July 29th. Beginning 5h. 32m. 8s. Apparent o 5 56 31 Greatest Obscuration 6 4 End 6 35 53 Digits eclipsed 2° 34' on Sun's North Limb. The eclipse will not extend to the Southern States, and will not be central in any place. *1860. July 17th. Beginning 19h. 22m. 46s. Apparent o 20 21 21 Greatest Obscuration 20 22 36 21 28 40 End. *1861. December 30th. Sun rises eclipsed 19h. 30m. 08. Greatest Obscuration 20 8 56 Apparent o 20 9 0 End. 21 6 32 Digits eclipsed at Sunrise 1° 51'; at Greatest Obscuration 4° 22' on Sun's South Limb. . *1865. October 18th and 19th. Beginning 18th, 21h. 9m. 558. Greatest Obscuration . 22 44 58 Apparent o 22 46 4 End 19th, 0 25 7 Digits eclipsed 8° 18' on Sun's South Limb. This eclipse will be annular in the States of North and South Carolina ; at Charleston the ring will last 6 minutes. This is the third return of the Eclipse of September, 1811, which was annular in Virginia. *1866. October 7th and 8th. Beginning 7th, 23h. 11m. 338. Apparent o 23 33 50 Greatest Obscuration' 23 41 25 End 8th, 0 10 34 Part eclipsed 0° 31' on Sun's North Limb. South of Connecticut there will be no eclipse, and no central eclipse in any part of the Earth. 1869. August 7th. Beginning 5h. 21m. 179. Apparent o 6 16 7 Greatest Obscuration 6 16 40 7. 7 28 *1873. May 25th. The Sun and Moon will be in contact at Sunrise; but the Sun will be eclipsed to places at a greater distance from the Equator, and in less longitude from Greenwich. *1875. September 28th. Sun rises eclipsed 17h. 56m. Os. Formation of the Ring 18 20 21 Apparent o 18 21 28 Nearest Approach of Centres 18 21 37 Rupture of the Ring 18 22 52 End of the Eclipse 19 30 43 Ap. Lat. of the Moon at N. Ap. 29" North. Digits eclipsed at Sunrise 7° 14' at N. Ap. 11° 25' This eclipse will be annular in Boston and in some part of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont. Beginning 4h. 11m. 298. Greatest Obscuration 5 2 39 Apparent o 5 42 End 5 48 24 Digits eclipsed 30 37' on Sun's North Limb. 1878. July 29th. Beginning 4h. 56m. 108. Greatest Obscuration 5 50 1 Apparent o 5 53 57 End 6 39 8 Digits eclipsed 7° 23' on Sun's South Limb. This eclipse will not be total in any part of the United States, but probably will be so, in the island of Cuba. This is the fourth return of the total eclipse of June 16th, 1806. . *1880. December 30th. Sun rises eclipsed 19h. 30m. Os. Greatest Obscuration 20 12 50 Apparent o 20 12 59 End 21 11 37 Digits eclipsed at Sunrise 2° 46' ; at Greatest Obscuration 5° 29' on Sun's North Limb. This eclipse cannot be central in any place. At the time of this eclipse the Sun and Moon are very nearly at their least possible distance from the Earth. 1885. March 16th. Beginning Oh. 35m. Os. 1 55 55 1 57 22 End 3 10 49 Digits eclipsed 6° 27' on Sun's North Limb. C *1886. August 28th. Beginning 18h. m. 22s. Apparent o. 18 33 15 Greatest Obscuration 18 40 1 18 51 52 End. 1892. October 20th. Beginning Oh. 18m. 39s. Apparent o 1 45 11 Greatest Obscuration 1 51 8 End 3 20 8 Digits eclipsed 8° 11' on Sun's North Limb. The Sun will probably be centrally eclipsed in the Canadas and Labrador. . *1897. July 28th. Beginning 21h. 7m. 35s. Greatest Obscuration 22 15 35 Apparent o 22 24 56 End 23 23 59 Digits eclipsed 4° 26' on Sun's South Limb. *1900. May 27th. Beginning 20h. 8m. 418. Apparent o 21 22 50 Greatest Obscuration 21 23 6 End. 22 45 32 It is supposed that the only similar Catalogue now extant is the one computed for Paris, from the old lunar tables of Mayer, by M. Vaucel, at the request of Louis XV, and published in the fifth Vol. of the “ Mémoires de Mathématique et de Physique. Paris, 1768.” Vaucel's Catalogue commences with 1767, and ends with 1900. By this it appears, that the only eclipse nearly central at Paris, in all this term of years, is the annular eclipse of Oct. 9th, 1847, which is also the only one of the magnitude of eleven digits. But in Boston, between 1791 and 1900, seven of this magnitude take place, three of which are annular, one total, and two annular within the distance of eighty English miles. The following are the solar eclipses at Paris, according to M. Vaucel, in the remainder of the present century. 1832, July 27, Obscuration, ó 45 1868, Feb. 23, Obscuration, Ö 's 10 8 3 6 1841, July 18, 0 30 1874, Oct. 10, 3 36 1842, July 8, 10 9 1875, Sept. 29, 2 7 1845, May 6, 5 12 1879, July 19, 4 8 1846, April 25, 3 42 1880, Dec. 31, 4 28 1847, Oct. 9, Annular. 1882, May 17, 3 19 1851, July 28, 9 15 1887, Aug. 19, 3 13 1858, M'ch 15, 10 45 1890, June 17, 5 46 1860, July 18, 9 32 1891, June 6, 3 40 1861, Dec. 31, 6 13 1895, March 26, 16 1863, May 17, 3 58 1896, Aug. 9, 0 15 1865, Oct. 19, 5 52 2 25 7 53 1867, M'ch 6, 9 26 CE CC 66 II. METEOROLOGICAL AND GEOLOGICAL INFORMATION. 1. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE WEATHER. [From the Companion to the British Almanac for 1830.] ARE you weather-wise? is a question often anxiously asked, when all the appointments and arrangements for the out-door happiness of a large party have been made, and every desirable object anticipated or secured, except the certainty of fine weather, or even a continuation of it, if it already exist. The tone of the answers to this important query is in general expressive of hope of what it might, rather than of confidence as to what it will, be. The same desire of information and the same uncertainty prevail in the deliberations upon the more important and extensive operations of man, wherever the action of the atmospheric agents may assist or interfere ; so that the cunning cheat, who could make a parade of abstruse learning sufficient to mystify the uninformed, has, for centuries, found the sale of predictions as to the state of the weather, an abundant source of profit. “ Quackery,” to use the recent language of M. Bory de St. Vincent, “ has too long abused the public credulity upon this subject; for it must be acknowledged, that these phenomena are connected with a train of agencies, whose very existence we can never appreciate, and whose powers are beyond our means of calculation.” Still, by the light which has been thrown upon the operations of this part of nature by the philosophers of our own times, we can safely take some steps towards an acquaintance with those atmospheric changes which directly or indirectly affect all vegetable and animal life, and more particularly with the order in which they succeed each other. Provided with this knowledge, we may often be able to anticipate them, and timely prepare either to avert or diminish their injurious influence, or take the greatest advantage of opportunities which may be propitious to the increase of the subsistence, wealth, and happiness of the community. In the attempt to form a correct notion of the causes which produce those incessant variations in the atmosphere, which are popularly called |