country and speaking its language. The point which we had selected was the pass of Peñacerráda, where the road from Vitoria to Logroño crosses the Sierra de Toloño, a mountain ridge of some length, the summits of which rise to between 4000 and 5000 feet in height. Here we had been led to expect, almost certainly, an unclouded sky. But the derangement of climate, which we have experienced in the north, has partly extended also to Spain; and on our arrival, on the morning of 17th July, at the village of Peñacerráda, where the ascent of the mountain commences, we were dismayed at finding no improvement in the weather; on the contrary, the clouds reached almost to the foot of the hills, so that our purpose was quite frustrated of selecting a suitable spot for our instruments, getting them into adjustment, fixing latitude and time, &c., so that there might be nothing to distract our attention on the day of the eclipse; for on the hill we could not see five yards before us. There being no remedy, we returned to the village inn, to wait with patience till the next morning. Our advent caused some stir in the place, and we had a call in the afternoon from the Cura (or parson), a mild, respectable looking old gentleman of near seventy, who, in the absence of our interpreter, conversed as well as he could in Latin with Dr M'Taggart, our stock of Spanish being very limited; but on Mr Martin coming in, we drew from him some reminiscences of the battle of Vitoria, a portion of the English forces having encamped near the village on the day preceding the battle; and he spoke with affectionate respect of the Duke of Wellington, calling him the father of Spain. At Vitoria, on the contrary, we found the inhabitants rather French in their sympathies, and for the most part ignorant of the fact of a decisive battle having been fought in their neighbourhood.

The morning of the 18th dawned with prospects but slightly improved; the sky still quite overcast, though the clouds were higher on the hills than yesterday; and as we began to ascend about 6 A.M., they gradually rose above us; and when we had reached the summit of the pass, about 3500 feet in height, they were still above our heads, but perched on the mountain peaks. Just beyond the top of the pass a magnificent view awaited us; we looked down on the valley

of the Ebro, winding its way among vineyards and corn fields, about 2000 feet below us; southward there was a clear view to the mountains of Burgos, some thirty miles distant, with their heads still in the clouds, while along the line of the river the eye could sweep from the hills of Pancorbo in the northwest to near Tudela in the south-east, a range of more than eighty miles. Many towns and villages were discerned, among which were Briones-which though distant eight miles, seemed almost at our feet-Haro, Logroño, and La Guardia. Patches of sunlight could be seen in the distance, on beholding which, some of us were for pressing on immediately and descending to the plains, under the impression that the clouds were clinging to the mountains; but were induced to wait by the suggestion that our mules needed rest, and that there would be abundant time to move on some hours later should the weather not improve, while by leaving our vantage-ground we should lose some of the most interesting phenomena, viz., the effects on the distant landscape. We therefore took up a position, on a rocky ledge jutting out over the valley about 500 feet below the top of the pass, directly above the village of Leza, and were gratified by seeing the sun break out a little before ten. We were thus enabled roughly to fix our time and latitude, which latter was found to be 42° 34'. Towards the commencement of the eclipse the sky had quite cleared; the first contact was noted at 1h 48m 32s (approximate Greenwich time); at 2h 30m, the light and heat had sensibly decreased, and the former had taken a decidedly yellow tinge; at 2h 44m, Venus was caught in the telescope as the finest possible crescent, being very near conjunction; at 2h 55m, she was seen with the naked eye, and Jupiter about 2 minutes later. At 2h 52m, several tabular mountains on the moon's limb were noticed near the south cusp, giving it a jagged appearance. At 2h 57m, long coloured rays, like those of inflected light, were seen proceeding outwards, or to the left from the sun, now become quite a thin crescent. At 2h 58m, fine parallel lines of shadowy waves running nearly north and south, were seen moving rapidly eastward over the rocks, accompanied by a flickering in the air. The light had now become very dim; an inky gloom prevailed up the valley

westward, and a sickly yellowish hue eastward, while in the plain below, the shadows of small passing clouds seemed unusually black and sharply defined. At 3h 1m 0s, the sun disappeared, the corona having suddenly flashed out ten seconds previously on the opposite side of the moon, and spread almost instantly round the circumference like the opening of a fan. In the telescope four prominences were seen, not at all resembling either flames or clouds, but nearly colourless, barely tipped with rosy points, and having clear definite outlines; one of them near the vertex looked something like a tree, or rather a cabbage; another a little to the left was quite detached; those on the left side gradually disappeared by the advance of the moon; one of these was shaped like a mitre, and as it sank, another, almost precisely similar, emerged at the opposite point; this last continued visible a short time after the sun's reappearance, which took place at 3h 4m 23s, without any trace of Baily's beads; the corona was visible about 12 seconds longer. During the obscuration, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, and Saturn, were well seen, as also Regulus and Castor. Round the horizon a deep orange tint prevailed to the height of some 10°, against which the distant hills showed very black, while the low clouds looked rather of a dirty green, somewhat like tarnished brass. The shadow passed away down the valley rather like a faint shower, but paler and more uniform. The light during the total obscuration was certainly much greater than that of the full moon, for the watch could be read with ease, but the light was of quite a different character from moonlight, resembling more the gloom of a heavy thunderstorm after sunset. About 3h 7m, there was a repetition of the shadowy lines and flickering light, the cause of which was not apparent. The hue of the corona rather resembled dead silver, and there were rays proceeding from it about twenty in number, but of irregular lengths and intervals, the longest extending near 30. A number of persons from the village had collected about us soon after the commencement of the eclipse, and neither they nor the animals which accompanied them (mules and dogs) showed any signs of emotion or alarm at the coming on of the darkness; yet I must confess to have been conscious myself

of a certain undefinable feeling of awe, arising no doubt from the strange aspect of things, and the unusual garb which all nature seemed to have put on; the livid gloom that seemed pouring down from the sky; the purplish-black of the mountains, which seemed to draw them closer to us; and above all, that strange black spot in the heavens with the mild glory round it; all conspired to excite a sense of wonder, even though the mind was prepared for some such phenomena. The prominences were not seen by any of our party with the naked eye, nor during the time they were watched was any change discernible in their forms, beyond what was caused by their being covered or uncovered by the moon.

The country through which we passed impressed us favourably. The productions, unlike those of southern Spain, much resembling our own, the greater warmth of climate being indicated by the luxuriance of the wild plants and flowers, the forwardness of the harvest, which had already commenced, and especially by the way in which the vines flourished in the open air, though no large vineyards were seen excepting near the Ebro. The Rioja wine, made in the upper part of the Ebro valley, is of good quality, somewhat resembling Burgundy, and would probably find favour in England if better known; it can be purchased at about 1s. per gallon. The people seemed physically a fine race, the women and children being remarkably handsome; but though somewhat less under priestly domination than formerly, they are still feeling its effects, and with some considerable degree of civil, there seems to be very little religious freedom as yet, no worship but the Roman Catholic being tolerated. We were not troubled by any custom-house inspection either on arriving or leaving, nor were our passports once asked for. The accompanying diagrams (Plate I.) show-No. 1, the appearance of the corona to the naked eye, as drawn from memory the day after the eclipse. The places of the prominences are just indicated, though they were not seen with the naked eye. No. 2 shows the forms and positions of the prominences, as referred to the northern point of the limb, which is the lowest in the diagram,

*The light was rather more diffuse, and the rays less hard and distinct, than the print represents them.

and as they appeared about 30 seconds after commencement of totality, excepting d, which is shown as it appeared just before the sun's reappearance.

On the Eruption, in May 1860, of the Kötlugjá Volcano, Iceland. By W. LAUDER LINDSAY, M.D., F.L.S. (Plate II)

On the 6th June last I went on board the "Arcturus," Danish mail screw steamer, which was then at Grangemouth en route from Copenhagen to the Faroe Islands and Iceland. Captain Andresen, its commander, informed me as the latest. news from Iceland, that the Kötlugjá volcano, after a quiescence of thirty-seven years, had just burst out afresh. He expressed a hope that his passengers might have an opportunity of seeing it in eruption; and promised, with a view to their doing so, to run as close as he safely could along the south coast of Iceland, about 20 miles inland, and to the north of which the said volcano is situated. On the 8th we sailed from Grangemouth; on the 11th we touched at Thorshavn, the capital of Faröe. Early in the morning of the 13th we sighted the south coast of Iceland, in the direction of the Oræfa-jökul; and on the afternoon of the same day we ran close along the coast between Portland Huk and the Westmanna Islands. The weather was magnificent, the sky comparatively serene; and we had therefore the best, and-perhaps for Iceland, unusual, opportunities of scanning the whole range of the southern Jökuls,* from the celebrated Hekla in

The word Jökul is generally translated Glacier, or glacier-covered mountain. Henderson† (in a foot-note, vol. i. p. 39) says, it "signifies an ice-mountain, and is derived from Jaki, a lump or fragment of ice." The Icelandic Jökul, however, so far as I could ascertain, is simply a mountain generally covered more or less throughout the year with snow. I say deliberately generally, and more or less; for under certain circumstances,-e.g., during very warm summers, or in their southern exposures,-some of those mountains may be sometimes stripped partially, or perhaps even wholly, of their snows. On the 13th June, when I passed Eyafjalla and Myrdals jökuls, there was almost no snow on the tops of the latter, and not a great deal on the shoulder of the former. Only here and there on Eyafjalla did the snow extend any distance down the mountain, while the whole of the lower parts of

↑ Vide foot-note page 9 of this article.