44-0 Mr. E. Joseph Lowe on remarkable Solar Halos. 



can here appeal to a vera causa of the highest and most 

 comprehensive kind, whilst, however exactly the undulatory 

 theory may explain any or all phaenomena, it still does not 

 carry us up to any vera causa, the existence of the aether 

 having no independent proof, and being thus altogether hy- 

 pothetical, as there is no more proof that the medium which 

 resists Encke's comet is the same with the luminiferous aether, 

 than there would be that atmospheric air is the same with 

 inflammable gas. 



LXII. llemarkable Solar Halos seen on the 19th of October 

 1846. By Edward Joseph Lowe*. 



f\N Monday, October 19, 1846, remarkable solar halos 

 ^-^ were observed at Highfield House, Nottinghamshire. 

 The morning was fine with linear-cirri at a great altitude and 

 cumuli floating beneath. The upper current drove the clouds 

 from south, the lower from south-west. 



At 22 h the phaenomenon might 

 ^''-""""" : ^Viv he said to have commenced, for the 



sky had assumed a hazy appear- 

 ance, and a halo (I.) of 22° 30' 

 radius had become visible: this 

 was of a pale straw colour and 

 soon became bright. The sky 

 within the halo was considerably 

 darker than that without. 



22 h 10 m . An inverted arc of 

 another halo (II.), of (apparently) 

 33° radius, also of a pale straw 

 colour, formed at the vertex of 

 the other halo, appeared. 



At 22 h 15 m the halo (II.) had 

 assumed a brilliant yellow colour, 

 and the portion (IV.) which 

 joined the halo (I.) a flame-like 

 ^Vj-j^V-*--*' appearance, having widened con- 



siderably, being now about 3° in 

 width and 6° in length. This brilliant parhelion, as I shall 

 call it, became in a few minutes intense in brilliancy, vieing 

 with the sun, for that luminary had been deprived of his 

 usual brilliancy by haze, and had its rays carried out con- 

 siderably. No change took place until 23 h 30 m , when a third 



* Communicated by the Author. 



