sheriff. If time will permit, every demand from a civil officer for military aid, whether it be for the execution of civil process or to suppress insurrections, should be forwarded to the President with all the material facts in the case for his orders, and in all cases the highest commander, whose orders can be given in time to meet the emergency, will alone assume the responsibility of action. By a timely disposition of troops where there is reason to apprehend a necessity for their use, and by their passive interposition between hostile parties, dangers of collision may be avoided. Depart ment commanders, or, in case of necessity, their subordinates, are expected in this regard to exercise upon their own responsibility a wise discretion, to the end that in any event the peace may be preserved."

In his opinion," Attorney-General Evarts used this language: "Nothing can be less in accordance with the nature of our Government, or the disposition of our people, than a frequent or ready resort to military aid, in execution of the duties confided to civil officers. Courage, vigor, and intrepidity, are appropriate qualities for the civil service, which the marshals of the United States are expected to perform, and a reenforcement of their power by extraordinary means is permitted by the law only in extraordinary emergencies."

The only portion of the army which has seen active service during the year is that under the command of General Sherman in the Department of the Missouri, where operations against the hostile Indians on the Plains have been carried on from time to time. (See INDIAN WAR.) Among the changes recommended in the general administration of affairs, is the transfer of the management of all matters pertaining to the Indians from the Department of the Interior to that of War, and there is considerable probability that such a change will be made.

Steps have been taken, under authority of the acts of Congress, approved August 3, 1861, and June 25, 1864, for dropping from the rolls of the army, upon the report of an examining board, such officers as may be found unfit for service on account of intemperate or vicious habits. Much will undoubtedly be done in this way to elevate the character of the service. A reform is recommended by the AdjutantGeneral in the matter of military prisons. Guardhouse confinement he regards as an inefectual and very injurious mode of punishment, and discharge from the regiment is at once followed by an enlistment in another regiment under an assumed name. He recommends military prisons, which, he says, if properly managed, would serve as reformatory institutions, and would rid the army of many vicious and insubordinate men; they would materially diminish the need and expense of courtsmartial, prevent the discharge of many desperate men in the unsettled parts of the country, where they always become pests and outlaws,

and would facilitate the recognition of offendders against the civil law who have entered the ranks of the army. He proposes to build the first prison in New York harbor, and if that is found to work well, then he would have Congress to provide for similar institutions on Ship Island, at one point on the Pacific coast and at one point in the Mississippi valley. The labor of convicts and the stoppages of pay would, he thinks, nearly support each prison after its erection. He would have companies of discipline attached to each prison, into which, under proper regulations, all idle and worthless men of the class who prefer being in the guardhouse to doing duty should be transferred, and would have these vagabonds severely dealt with.

Great attention has been given to gathering and identifying the remains of soldiers, slain in the late civil war. There are now 72 national cemeteries, besides very many local and private grounds. The whole number of graves recorded is 316,233, and the occupants of 145,764 have been already clearly identified. Some twenty-five rolls of honor have been prepared, which contain a list of the graves of nearly 200,000 soldiers, with a record of the place where the remains were found, and about 100,000 concerning the occupants of which no record has yet been made, though documents in existence may furnish the needed information. The records which are made contain all the facts which could be gathered concerning the bodies of the dead. The expense of this care for the relics of the fallen soldiers of the nation thus far is about $2,000,000, and it is thought that $500,000 more will be needed. The Grand Army of the Republic inaugurated this year a custom of strewing with flowers the graves of the buried soldiers, on the 30th of May, a tribute to their departed comrades which it is proposed sacredly to observe from year to year. This touching observance was by no means confined to the members of the Grand Army, but people of all classes throughout the country joined in this floral tribute to the memory of the dead.

There was a "grand reunion" of the officers of the Thirteenth Army Corps, and of the Armies of the Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland, and Georgia, at Chicago, on the 15th and 16th of December. These reunions, it is thought, will become common with the officers of the army of the late war.

ASIA. The territory of the European governments in Asia, which already embraces about one-half of the entire area, is steadily enlarging. The war between Russia and the Khan of Bokhara, and the conquest of nearly the whole territory of the latter by Russia, must have taught the weak rulers of Central Asia that they are powerless against their two great Christian neighbors, Russia and England. Only to the disagreement of these two powers is it due that Khokan, Bokhara, Afghanistan, Beloochistan, and a few other countries of Central Asia, are still enumerated among the states of

realities. It was hoped that spectrum analyses would solve this enigma; as it was to be the first eclipse at which the science of the spectroscope would be called into play. Kirchoff, De la Rue, Nasmyth, and others, had already, by the agency of this instrument, observing the sun, under the ordinary conditions, become convinced of the existence of incandescent vaporous matter around that body, to which they had given the name of photosphere. According to their view, it was an envelope of gaseous matter in a state of combustion, at an inconceivably high temperature, by which the most refractory metals would be readily vaporized. The inspection of the lurid prominences seen during the eclipse was expected to confirm this generally-accepted theory.

Full reports of the observations of the various parties have not yet been made public; but the following statements, from official and unofficial sources, give the more important facts and inferences with regard to the eclipse. An observer of the eclipse, at Aden, writes the following to the London Times:

As the result of the observations taken by our astronomical expeditions in Southern India can only have reached England through the medium of electricity, I avail myself of the passage of a mail steamer to communicate what was observed at this station. The only astronomers and photographers that have come to Aden are all Germans; three of them, Dr. Weiss, Navigating Lieutenant Rhea, and another gentleman, are Austrians. Their chief object was to make observations on the constitution of the corona.

From the observations taken by these gentlemen, there can be no doubt that the problem is now solved, several varied experiments proving in a most conclusive manner that the corona merely consists of inflammable gas in a high state of combustion: The North-German party consisted of one astronomer, Dr. Thiel, of Bremen, and four Prussian photographers working under the direction of Dr. Fritch, of Berlin. This party devoted their attention chiefly to photographing the different phases of the eclipse, having Belected Aden as the most likely spot in the zone of "totality" to be free from clouds.

Several English amateurs, officers of the army and navy, also contributed their help in recording various experiments according to their respective abilities.

The weather for a week preceding the eventful 18th had been unusually cloudy for Aden, and prevented the sarants who had arrived in the beginning of August from making as many observations as they would have wished. The mornings had been particularly trying, the sun rising between thick banks of purple-gray clouds. On the evening of the 17th almost all the rank and fashion of Aden made an exodus to Marshag Hill, the eastern promontory of Aden, where the German party were established with all their instruments. The night was very cloudy, and much anxiety was felt by all interested in the success of the observations. At gray dawn, however, and just before first contact, the banks of cloud separated into broad bands, occasionally shutting out a view of the eclipse, Totality commenced at 6h. 29m. 28s. A. M., and lasted 2m. 558., during which interval a most magnificent view of the phenomena was obtained, and four most successful photographs were taken.

The only planets and stars observed during the totality were Venus, Jupiter, and Sirius, which at once

shows that the darkness was not great.

At the time of totality the height of the tide was 7 feet, or for Aden a good average spring tide. The preceding spring tides (about a fortnight before)

The German party were delighted with all their experiments, and considered themselves amply repaid for their trouble. They had most superb instruments, and were particularly civil and obliging in explaining their use, mechanism, etc. Among the most interself-acting by means of a most ingenious clock-work esting was a photographing telescope, which is made mechanism, which, with the help of a simple pendulum and endless wheels, is so delicately adjusted as to counteract the motion of the earth, and to keep the telescope rightly fixed on the star or planet dur

ing the ten or fifteen seconds required to receive the impression.

I send a rough representation of the corona. Its size was accurately measured by means of a telescope with small squares in the diaphragm. These valves can be exactly determined by experiments with the same telescope in the distance between known stars, which can be brought to scale.

I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient servant, A. G.

ADEN, August 21.

Dr. Weiss, of Vienna, had charge of the Austrian expedition, and selected Aden as his place of observation, chiefly because he had heard much of the usual freedom of the sky there from rain and cloud. The doctor and his assistants observed three large prominences on the border of the moon during the eclipse. The most remarkable of these he describes as sharply defined, finger-shaped, brilliant with the most vivid carmine red, the length of which amounted to about the eighth part of the sun's semi-diameter. Dr. Weiss and Dr. Theodor Oppolzer both made measures of the position and the results agreed with each other. Atand magnitude of each of these protuberances, tention was also directed to the corona, which had a certain general similarity to that seen in Spain at the solar eclipse of July 18, 1860. It could not, however, be perfectly observed, because its longer radiations were for the most part concealed by clouds. Lieutenant Rhea conducted the spectral investigations. He remarked, at the occurrence of the totality, a sudden disappearance of all the dark (Fraunhofer's) lines, the spectrum passing into a socalled continuous one, faint indeed, but still quite distinctly visible. Toward the end of the totality, when a thin veil of cloud had passed over the sun, by which the corona was hidden, whilst the protuberances glimmered through it, the most refrangible part of the spectrum disappeared almost entirely, and there remained a series of red bands, separated from each other by broad dark spaces.

Major G. F. Tennant, R. E., who had com

mand of the English expedition, gives the folwowing woount of photographie operations, in a letter to Prof. G. B. Airy, the Astronomer Royal dated Gantoor, April 18th:

The morning was very promising, and, if it had folDRY, MA Aree of ita predecesor, We would have nad a magukrent clear sky, but it donded over the eat with the comilostrati, which, wille hardly stopping vision, interfered very much with the photo graphic energy; and the result was that every Legative was under-exposed, and we have little more tean very dense marks, showing the protuberances. Tas xix plates arranged for were dy exposed, but *De beat 30 concentrated the nitrate of silver solation, that, bealdea showing but faint traces of any corona, they are a covered with spots. Still, we may make something of them, and will try.

Captain Branfil reports the protuberances unpolarized, and the corona strongly polarized everywhere, in a plane passing through the centre of the sun. Complementarily, I have to report a continuous spectrum from the corona, and one of bright lines from the prominence I examined. I am, I believe, safe in saying that three of the lines in the spectrum of the protuberances compared to C, D and b. I saw a line in the green near F, but I had lost so much time in finding the protuberance (owing to the finder having changed its adjustment since last night), that I lost it in the sunlight before measuring it, and I be lieve I saw traces of a line in the blue near G, but to nee them clearly involves a very large change' in the focus of the telescope, which was out of the question then. I conclude that my result is, that the atmosphere of the sun is mainly of non-luminous (or faintly luminous) gas at a short distance from the limb of the It may have had faintly luminous lines, but I had to open the jaws a good deal to get what I could see at first, and consequently the lines would be diffused somewhat; still, I think I should have seen them. The prominence I examined was a very high narrow one, almost to my eye like a bit of the sun through a chink in brightness and color (I could see no tinge of color), and somewhat zigzagged like a flash of lightning. It must have been three minutes high, for it was on the preceding side of the sun near the vertex, and was a marked object both in the last photo-plate, just before the sun reappeared, and to the eye.

Captain Branfill saw the prominence colored, as did two other gentlemen; but one in my observatory (like myself) only saw it white. I should, however, say that for long, I never saw Alpha Orionis markedly red, nor Antares, and I may not catch red soon, though I cannot conceive this being so.

In conclusion, I may note that the darkness was very slight, and the color not half so gloomy as in the eclipse of 1857, which was partial at Dehli, where I was then.

The London News, of August 25th, says:

Telegrams have been received almost simultaneously from Major Tennant, who commanded the expedition sent out by the Astronomical Society, and from Dr. Janssen, who commanded the French expedition. Major Tennant states that light fleecy clouds covered the sky, but that the eclipse has been, in the main, successfully observed. This news is very promising, because his party had undertaken the duty of photographing the eclipse. The Government of India had obtained from England a Newtonian reflector, especially constructed for the occasion; and arrangements had been made by means of which it was hoped that six photographic pictures would be taken during the totality. Major Tennant would hardly have described the observation of the eclipse as successful, unless several trustworthy photographs had been taken.

M. Janssen states that the eclipse has been successfully observed. The spectrum of the red protu

berances which are seen around the black disk of the moon during totality, and which have long since been proved to belong to the sun, has been found to present a very remarkable and expected appeararse. What this appearance is he dies not tell us: bas one conclusion drawn from the nature of the spectrum is that the protuberances themselves are gaseous. It will interest cur readers to know that, Whatever dubiety must still be attached to the results of the observations made by M. Janssen, we may accept at once this general conclusion of his as beyond a peradventure. There are few observations more simple and conclusive than those by which the general character of a self-luminous object is determined by spectroscopic analysis. The rainbow-colored streak of light which indicates that the source of light is a luminous solid or liquid: the colored streak crossed by dark lines which indicates that before reaching us the light from such a source has passed through absorptive vapors; and the spectrum consisting of bright lines only, which indicates that the source of light is a luminous gas; all these spectra are so readily distinguishable inter se that it is impossible for the veriest beginner to mistake one for another. Thus it may be looked upon as absolutely certain that the nature of the colored prominences has now been definitely settled. Those enormous masses of luminous matter, some of which exceed the earth many hundreds of times in volume, are now known to be great gas-heaps. It had been supposed that they were solar clouds, formed by the condensation of the metallic vapors which exist within the solar atmosphere into liquid globules, in a manner precisely corresponding to the formation of aqueous clouds in our own atmosphere. This view will now in all probability have to be definitively abandoned. Yet that the prominences are formed by some sort of condensation taking place within the solar atmosphere seems almost indisputable; so that the evidence we now have seems to show that, as a modern astronomer has suggested, the fierce heat which exists in the sun's immediate neighborhood is sufficient to "melt solid matter, turn liquids into vapors, even vapors into some still more subtle form."

Dr. Hermann Vogel, who accompanied the North-German expedition to Aden, as photographer, writes to the Augsburg Gazette. experiences were:

His

At 4 o'clock on the 18th of August, we left Aden, where the expedition had established its headquarters. Nine-tenths of the sky was overcast, and we endeavored to feel as resigned as possible to our probable disappointment. Our object was to obtain as many photographs as could be taken of the phenomena during the three minutes they would last, and in order to do this we had practised with our machine, like soldiers with fire-arms. Dr. Frische was charged with the preparation of the plates, Dr. Zenker with putting the slides into the machine, Dr. Therle with drawing them out when they had been exposed a sufficient time, while my business was in the tent. With this division of labor we found that it would be possible to obtain six photographs in the three minutes. As the important moment approached, to our delight we saw, through a break it the clouds, the disk of the sun, partially covered by the moon. The landscape around us assumed a strange hue, neither sunlight nor moonlight-the chemical-color rays were exceedingly weak. As a test, we exposed a plate in the machine for fifteen seconds, and obtained a good impression of the clouds; as the disk of the sun grew smaller the clouds opened out. The last minute before the total eclipse arrived, Dr. Frische and I crept into our tent-our work began. The first plate was experimentally exposed five and ten seconds, in order to be sure of the right time. Mohammed, our black servant, brought me the first slide into the tent. I prepared the plate, and anxiously watched to see what would appear. Just then my light went out. I

rushed out of the tent with the plate in my hand, and came back with a small oil lamp, which, in case of accidents, I had placed on a table outside. Eagerly I gazed on the plate; the dark border of the sun was surrounded on one side by peculiar protuberances, and on the other was a remarkable horn. The phenomena were the same on both pictures. My joy was great, but I had no time to indulge in it. The second plate, and, a moment afterward, the third plate, were brought into the tent. Dr. Zenker shouted to us that the sun was reappearing. The total eclipse was over. The last two plates only showed slight impressions of pictures, as they had been spoilt by the clouds, which, while they were exposed in the machine, had closed in. The three plates showed protuberance on the lower border. We washed, fixed, and lackered our plates, and took several copies of them on glass, which will be sent separately to Europe, in order to insure their safe arrival.

Commander Perrin, of the Peninsular and Oriental steamship Carnatic, reported to the directors of his company from Suez:

The position of the ship at the time of the first contact was lat. 16 N., lon. 54.15 E., being thus twenty miles north of the northernmost limit of totality in that meridian. The eclipse was with us only partial, that portion of the sun's disk remaining unobscured being, however, only about one-sixteenth part of its diameter. Unfortunately, at the time of the first contact, the sun was obscured by clouds, which threatened to deprive us entirely of seeing any part of the eclipse. At intervals, however, we got very hasty glimpses of its progression, though so short as to prevent reliable observations being taken; at length the bank of clouds dispersed and left a perfectly clear view of the eclipse at that stage, the sun having about two-thirds of its diameter eclipsed. At 7 A. M., the nearest point of totality had been reached, the altitude being twenty-two degrees ten minutes. It was at this time our best efforts were directed for observing the phenomena presented. That portion of the sun remaining uneclipsed consisted of a narrow streak in shape like a crescent of its upper left limb, in size about onesixteenth part of its diameter. The light emitted from this was of a peculiar character and difficult to describe, being at the same time extremely brilliant and yet most remarkably pale. The high sea running appeared like huge waves of liquid lead, and the ghastly paleness of the light thrown upon it and all around revealed a scene which, for its weird-like effect, it would be as impossible to depict as it is to describe. The eclipse not being total with us, the corona was not visible. The first appearance noted by the spectroscope was that of several dark lines in the spectrum of that portion of the sun visible at its greatest obBcuration, which was examined through a narrow chink with the instrument, as recommended by Lieutenant Herschel. The next appearance was a roughness on the concave edge of the crescent of sunlight left visible. This was well marked, and seen very plainly with the unarmed spectroscope; the rapidly increasing brightness of the sun prevented the prisms being of much use except during the darkest part of the eclipse. Throughout, the rays between red and green predominated over those between green and violet. A small black spot was observed on the sun's disk, situated in its upper right limb, distant about one-eighth part of its diameter from its extreme edge. Contact ceased at 16h. 43m. 29s. Greenwich mean time. The only meteorological peculiarities discovered were that the temperature the day before the eclipse was unusually low, being 74 degrees at noon, while, on the preceding day and that of the eclipse, it was 80 degrees and 79 degrees respectively. The direction or force of the usual monsoon wind was not apparently affected; the two only noticeable features being the extreme haziness of the horizon, with a clear sky, and the highly luminous appearance of the sea at night. The daily tidal range

of the barometer was considerably greater in scope than I have ever remarked before upon the day preceding the eclipse. The temperature of the sea during the eclipse was 75 degrees, that of the air 77 degrees, and barometer steady, at 29.70 degrees.

The commander of the Peninsular and Oriental steamship Rangoon had a good view of the eclipse. He writes:

The ship was at that time on the central line, viz.: in lat. 15.42 N., lon. 59.15 E. The total eclipse lasted four minutes eight seconds. The sketch shows what was seen by a large number of persons. In observing with the spectroscope, I saw what none of the others could see with their glasses, viz.: two prominences on the right limb of the moon (showing in the spectroscope to the left), of a yellow flamecolor immediately opposite to the red ones, the whole forming a square, with the moon in the centre showing out like a mass of rock. The color of the corona as seen through the prism was red, a yellowish green, blue, and violet; the violet the brightest till the middle of the eclipse, when the red became lumpy and showed brighter. The spectrum from the moon cut through the centre of this but very faint, the red thrown out with a curve. The motion of the ship was so great, it was impossible to get minute observations. There was so much haze and flying cloud, only Venus and one other star could be seen.

1. A small red flame or protuberance on the righthand lower corner of the moon, visible a few seconds before the sun was totally eclipsed, disappeared a few seconds after.

2. A minute and a half after commencement of

total eclipse, a long, red flame of about five minutes of arc on lower left-hand corner, and a red flame or blotch on upper hand, both visible from commencement of totality and very bright.

3. Three minutes after commencement, the long red flame rather shorter, and the upper one increased in size.

4. At reappearance of the sun's upper limb, the upper protuberance disappeared, the lower one was visible for about ten seconds after, about half its former size.

A native Bombay journal publishes the following descriptive paragraph: "The scene in the native town was curious at the time of this solar phenomenon. Men and women in their half-barbaric shabby dress were to be seen going from one temple to another to pray the deity to go to the help of the luminary of the day in his duel with the headless giant, 'Rahu.' The hallalcores, who are the dregs of the native community, received charities of gold and silver, copper, and clothes of various kinds. The ignorant thought that these sweepers have the efficacy of freeing the sun from this torment."

The Lunar Crater Linné.-Mr. W. R. Birt, Secretary of the British Association Moon Committee, furnishes a paper to the Student for August, on later observations of the supposed new lunar crater Linné (see ANNUAL CYCLOPÆDIA for 1867, article ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGRESS). He says that on June 26, 1868, at 9.45, G. M. T., he had a very favorable view of Linné with a Crossley equatorial of 7.3 inch aperture, and powers 122, 182, and 384. Nothing was visible but a small cone casting a shadow to the east, not quite so distinct and persistent as the shadow of the highest part of the ridge to