The day in Toronto had been one of disappointment. Mr. Harvey said :—The morning was so cloudy that I had no opportunity of seeing the first contact. The Sun appeared faintly through the clouds at about 10.30, and I could see the disc fairly well, as may he understood when I say the two spots on it were plainly visible. The Moon was then cut­ ting off a small portion of the disc only. I used a low power of about 80, with a non-inverting eye-piece. The clouds soon blotted out all vision, but another rift in them appearing, I was able to observe the last con­ tact. I had a view for three or four minutes before it, when I was a little surprised to note how rapidly the Moon was moving off the disc. I timed the disappearance at 11.57, one of my daughters holding a watch, which I at once carried to the observatory, finding it half a minute slow by the standard time. This is as close to the true time as the weather and the bad seeing permitted me to arrive. It would have been useless to have calculated upon seconds.

Several other members reported similar experiences. Mr. A. F. Miller had timed the last contact to a very close agreement with the computed time, so far as under the conditions he could judge. Mrs. Savigny handed in a little sketch of the solar disc showing the position of the Moon when about passing off and also the position of spots on thesurface of the Sun. This had been made at the observatory where the large telescope had been prepared for observation. Mr. G. G. Pursey and Mr. T. Lindsay also reported their non-success. From correspon­ dents the reports were more encouraging.

Mr. J. R. Connon, of Elora, had seen the eclipse fairly well and had taken a photograph at 9h. 40m., a copy of which was forwarded to the Society. Mr. Connon remarked that the air was full of moisture and that the photo revealed this defect.

Dr. J. J. Wadsworth, of Simcoe, wrote :—

The eclipse of the Sun was observed here on 29th ult. Clouds obscured the phenomenon until 9.45, but from that time until 10.40 we caught glimpses through rifts in the vapour. The sky was clear the last ten minutes, and we had fine views through the reflector, aperture reduced to 6 inches, power 120, dark screen glass. Also I had the solar image thrown on a screen of cardboard,using my 3-inch refractor attached to the large telescope; so that the whole party watched the eclipse to the close—Rev. Canon Hicks, Rev. J. W. Dey and W. F. Steinhoff (the builder of my new equatorial stand) and others.

They allowed me the privilege of seeing the final disappearance of the Moon, which I watched with much satisfaction in the reflector, direct vision of course. Time (railway, E. S. T.) 10h. 52m. 30s. (But our watches are to be allowed for !) The group of spots and the large single spot near the western limit were well seen both by direct vision and on the screen—even the latter showing the penumbra clearly.

The following was received from Mr. D. E. Hadden, writing from Alta, Iowa, Lat. N. 40° 41'; Long. W. 6h. 21m. :—

The partial eclipse of the Sun which occurred on July 29th, 1897, was observed in Alta, Iowa, under favourable conditions, the sky being cloudless and of a deep blue colour. First contact was noted at 7h. 33m. 2s.; the disc was a little unsteady and this time may be a few seconds in error. The last contact was quite accurately observed at 9h. 35m. 47s.

At 7h. 47m. 20s. the limb of the advancing Moon occulted the larger sun-spot nearest the west limb, the spot being exactly bisected at the time mentioned, and its reappearance was noted at 8h. 20m. 55s.

An interesting phenomenon was the apparent blackening of the umbra of this sun-spot, as the edge of the Moon appeared to touch it (the umbra before appearing a shade lighter than the Moon). I also noticed a peculiar lengthening of the umbra towards the Moon’s limb as it reached its edge, a sort of “blackdrop” or “bead” so to speak. I do not think this was due to the inequalities of the Moon’s edge as the same appearance was observed during the spot’s reappearance.

About 4 digits of the disc were obscured, the sunlight was quite per­ceptibly changed about the time of mid-eclipse and the temperature of the air fell 4° in the shade as recorded by a self-registering minimum thermometer.

All observations are in Central standard time, a 4-inch telescope with Herschelian eye-piece magnifying 78, was used.