Natural History, 8fc. 



433 



and the rest of the sky filled with nimbus 1 . After a few minutes there 

 appeared round the parhelia B and (Fig. 1.), large segments of 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



the circle B D C B, the inner part of which was red ; towards C 

 the circle was thinner, and not so complete as on the south side 

 B; and at the uppermost part, D, the arch was not completely 

 closed : at the same time a white sun was visible opposite to 

 the real one at about 20 above the horizon. The clouds now 

 gradually ascended towards the zenith, so as to leave but slight traces 

 of the arch at B, and to efface C and the northern parhelion com- 

 pletely. The sunshine was very weak, and the clouds were of a 

 brownish- red hue, when on a sudden the circle HER appeared at 

 45 from the sun; it was red internally, green in the middle, and 

 blue outside. The northern arch was less distinct than the south- 

 ern, EH; at E also the segment of a circle round the zenith was 

 visible of about 45, and there the most vivid colours were seen, from 

 purple to green and violet. At 4 o'clock, H E B had nearly disap- 

 peared ; the segment F E I was still visible, and remained so till half 

 past four, when all traces of the phenomenon had disappeared, and 

 the sky was equally covered with a cloudy surface. 



Two of my friends, who happened to be at a distance from me of 

 some thousand paces towards the south, saw, besides the two parhelia 

 B and C, a third in D, and through it there was a segment of about 

 22 parallel to the horizon ; it was of red colour at the side directed 



