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.

STOCKHOLM,
1851, Aug. 5.

I then by appointment with Sir Edmund Lyons went with him to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Baron Stjerneld, who received me most civilly.  My business was to thank him for the orders which had been given to facilitate the landing of our telescopes, &c., &c.  He was quite familiar with the names of my party, Humphreys Milaud, &c., so that I trust they have been well received (I have had no letter).  He intimated, I suppose at Sir E. Lyons’s suggestion, that perhaps King Oscar might wish to see me, but that it would not be on Tuesday.  So I replied that I was infinitely flattered and he said that he would send a message to Sir E. Lyons by Tuesday evening.  Now all this put me in a quandary:  because I wanted to see Upsala, 47 miles off:  and the steamboats on the Maelar only go in the morning and return in the morning:  and this was irreconcileable with waiting for his Majesty’s appointment which might be for Wednesday morning.  So after consultation Sir E. Lyons put me in the hands of a sort of courier