Within The Tropics Great Serenity Of The Sky And A Perfect Dissolution Of The Vapours Diminish The Extinction Of The Light Sent Back To Us By The Lunar Disc.

I was singularly struck during the eclipse by the want of uniformity in the distribution of the refracted light by the terrestrial atmosphere.

In the central region of the disc there was a shadow like a round cloud, the movement of which was from east to west. The part where the immersion was to take place was consequently a few minutes prior to the immersion much more brightly illumined than the western edges. Is this phenomenon to be attributed to an inequality of our atmosphere; to a partial accumulation of vapour which, by absorbing a considerable part of the solar light, inflects less on one side the cone of the shadow of the earth? If a similar cause, in the perigee of central eclipses, sometimes renders the disc invisible, may it not happen also that only a small portion of the moon is seen; a disc, irregularly formed, and of which different parts were successively enlightened?

On the morning of the 30th of March we doubled Punta Gigantes, and made for the Boca Chica, the present entrance of the port of Carthagena. From thence the distance is seven or eight miles to the anchorage near the town; and although we took a practico to pilot us, we repeatedly touched on the sandbanks. On landing I learned, with great satisfaction, that the expedition appointed to take the survey of the coast under the direction of M. Fidalgo, had not yet put to sea.

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