Solar Eclipse ofJuli^ 28, 1851. 83 



numero tres aut quatuor." This observation, however, was 

 not known to any of the observers in 1842, and all were 

 therefore taken by surprise. Drawings were exhibited of 

 these red mountains as seen at Perpignan, Narbonne, Vienna, 

 Pavia, Superga, and Lipetsk. It was shewn that, by a tra^e 

 still visible on the engraving, the drawing first made at 

 Vienna had coincided very exactly with that made at Pavia ; 

 that the Narbonne observations would be very, exactly recon- 

 ciled with them by supposing the error (very likely to occur 

 to unpractised astronomers) of taking the -north limb to be 

 the upper limb ; that at Perpignan, Superga, Lipetsk, the 

 lowest of the red prominences was not seen ; and that at 

 Superga and Lipetsk only was the middle one of the upper 

 prominences seen, though in several places an irregular band 

 of red light had been seen of which one salient point might 

 be the prominence in question. In all the places where the 

 order of formation had been observed, the same prominence 

 (the left hand upper prominence) was defined as the first 

 seen. At Perpignan this was observed by M. Mauvais to 

 shew itself first as a small point and to project gradually 

 as from behind the moon. The discordance in these repre- 

 sentations did not appear to the Lecturer at all startling ; it 

 was not greater than the discordance in the accounts given 

 by two good observers in different rooms of the same building 

 at Padua. 



The determination of the locality and nature of these red 

 prominences is one of the most difiicult of all connected with 

 the eclipse. The first impression undoubtedly was that they 

 are parts of the sun. If so, their height, at the lowest esti- 

 mation, is about thirty thousand miles. The principal ob- 

 jection, however, to their solar location is the difference in 

 their forms as seen at different places : thus at Perpignan 

 they are represented as widest at the top : at all other places 

 they are widest at the base. Moreover at some places, as 

 Pavia and Vienna, where they were seen a long time, they 

 underwent no change : whereas at Perpignan one at least 

 was seen to slide out as from behind the moon. In all cases, 

 however, much is to be allowed for the hurried nature of the 

 observation. 



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