On the Solar Eclipse of 9th September, 1885. 383 



are said to be heaps, jets, or flames. Those which we saw were 

 heaps, I think, and they were less serrated and fantastic in 

 shape than some of us perhaps expected. Decidedly the largest 

 prominences, towards the close of the total obscuration, ap- 

 peared over the moon's left upper limb, at an angle of about 30° 

 from the perpendicular, directly below the point where I observed 

 the longest and most vivid coronal ray. Its apparent height 

 above the limb of the moon could not have been less than 

 70,000 miles, for it reached to nearly x Vth of the moon's ap- 

 parent or angular diameter, which I take to have been about the 

 same as that of the sun — 



n „,/ the sun's being 32' 36-41", or 850,000 miles in actual diameter, 

 oay &$ — the moon . s 31 / 26" „ 2,153 



How much this protuberance, or, indeed, any of the others, was 

 foreshortened, of course it is impossible to say. The real height 

 was perhaps in every case considerably above the apparent. 



" Of two prominences I wish specially to speak. They do not 

 seem to have been generally observed, but were clearly seen by 

 other members of my household beside myself. One of them 

 was also observed from the Hospital, by Dr. Boor. They were 

 like tiny clouds, of a heapy character, and differed entirely from 

 the other prominences, inasmuch as they were of a dun, or dark- 

 smoke, nearly black colour. Their positions were, one at an angle 

 of about 40° from the perpendicular towards the east, and the 

 other at about 10° below the horizontal line on the lower western 

 limb. Their position and relative size were recorded at the 

 moment of observation. They were entirely different in appear- 

 ance from the silvery or white, or rose-coloured prominences ; and 

 were no optical illusion, for I was so surprised to see them that I 

 looked at them again and again with the binocular or coloured 

 glass, and with the naked eye alternately. While I observed them, 

 they seemed to undergo no change. What were they '? Gold- 

 schmidt noticed similar little grey clouds in the eclipse of 1860, 

 (Proctor's " Sun," p. 262,) but these were in part isolated, and 

 floated, so to speak, outside the solar limb at some distance, and 

 were also observed subsequently to develope into rose-coloured 

 protuberances. Perhaps ours did the same, but the transforma- 

 tion was not observed by me. Someone says, ' Were they 

 planets ?' No ; their size and irregularity of shape, apart from 

 other reasons, would prevent us from entertaining that supposi- 

 tion. Were they faculae projecting above the sun's disc, such as 

 that seen by Mr. Dawes? (Proctor's " Sun," p. 180.) Were they 

 such dark curves as Herr Grosch, of the Santiago Observatory, 

 saw upon the moon's limb, in the total eclipse of 1867 ; sharp 

 curves, resembling in appearance lines drawn with lead-pencil on 

 white paper ? (Proctor's " Sun," p. 346.) Were they moun- 

 tains in the moon ? If they were, lunar heights tower far higher 

 than even those fabulous ones of Captain Lawson in New Guinea. 



