1 G ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



was in full activity, and the question has received an em- 

 phatic and affirmative answer. 



"As to the brightness of the corona at the recent eclipse, 

 there is considerable difference of opinion. The writer, with, 

 lie thinks, a large majority of those who also saw the eclipse 

 of 18G9, is strongly of the impression that in 1869 the corona, 

 though perhaps less extensive, was many times more brilliant, 

 while the corona in 1870 seemed to him intermediate be- 

 tween those of 1809 and 1878. Some of the best observers, 

 however, are of quite the contrary opinion. 



" While, however, there may be room to question the con- 

 clusion that the corona this year was uncommonly faint, there 

 can be no question that its spectrum was profoundly modified. 



"The bright lines which come from its gaseous constitu- 

 ents were conspicuous in 1869 and in all the subsequent 

 eclipses until the present one; but this year they were so 

 faint as to be seen by only a few of the observers, while the 

 great majority missed them entirely, seeing only a continu- 

 ous spectrum. This w 7 as especially remarkable in the case 

 of the green corona line (known as ' 1474' from its position 

 upon Kirchhoff's map of the solar spectrum). Many observers 

 saw it plainly just at the beginning and end of totality, but 

 during the middle of the eclipse nearly all entirely lost sight 

 of it. That it was really present all the time, however, though 

 faint, is proved by the observations of Professor Eastman, 

 Mr. Thomas, and the writer, the first of whom traced it all 

 around the sun to a distance of from 10' to 20', going twice 

 over the ground, and keeping it in sight all the time. "With 

 the hydrogen lines the case was similar; the writer had one 

 or other of them in the field continually, and they never 

 quite disappeared, though at times very faint. 



" Of course, the slitless spectroscopes, both ocular and pho- 

 tographic, from which so much had been expected, failed to 

 give any satisfactory results. In 1871, when the instruments 

 Merc first used, the observers saw a series of colored images 

 of the corona. Mv. Lockyer, for instance, saw four such im- 

 ages one icd, one green, one blue, and one violet. This year 

 nothing oft lie kind appeared. At the moment, indeed, when 

 totality began, there was an exquisite exhibition, first of the 

 darkness of the solar spectrum, and then for an instant of a 

 multitude of bright-colored segments the spectrum of the 



