_July 28, half-past 10, morning_.

The weather is at present most perfectly doubtful. Nearly the whole
sky is closely covered, yet there is now and then a momentary gleam of
sun. The chances are greatly against much of the eclipse being
seen. All is arranged to carry off the telescope, &c., at 11: they can
be carted to the foot of the hill, and we have made out a walking-pass
then to the top. We are to dine with Mr Dickson afterwards.

_July 28, 10 at night_.

Well we have had a glorious day. As soon as we started, the weather
began to look better. We went up the hill and planted my telescope,
and the sky shewed a large proportion of blue. At first I placed the
telescope on the highest rock, but the wind blew almost a gale, and
shook it slightly: so I descended about 8 feet to one side. (The power
of doing this was one of the elements in my choice of this station,
which made me prefer it to the high hill beyond the river.) The view
of scenery was inexpressibly beautiful. The beginning of eclipse was
well seen. The sky gradually thickened from that time, so that the sun
was in whitish cloud at the totality, and barely visible in dense
cloud at the end of the eclipse. The progress of the eclipse brought
on the wonderful changes that you know: just before the totality I saw
a large piece of blue sky become pitch black; the horror of totality
was very great; and then flashed into existence (I do not know how) a
broad irregular corona with red flames _instantly seen_ of the most
fantastic kind. The darkness was such that my assistant had very great
trouble in reading his box chronometer. (A free-hand explanatory
diagram is here given.) Some important points are made out from
this. 1st the red flames certainly belong to the sun. 2nd they
certainly are in some instances detached. 3rd they are sometimes quite
crooked. 4th they seem to be connected with spots. The corona was
brilliant white. One star brilliant: I believe Venus. I had no time to
make observations of polarization, &c., although prepared. When the
totality was more than half over I looked to N. and N.W., and in these
regions there was the fullest rosy day-break light. After the
sun-light reappeared, the black shadow went travelling away to the
S.E. exactly like the thunder-storm from the Main. The day then grew
worse, and we came home here (after dinner) in pouring rain.