THE SUN'S LONG STREAMERS. 659 



THE SUN'S LONG STEEAMEKS. 



PROFESSOR CLEVELAND ABBE, an American astronomer and 

 meteorologist, who had intended to observe the eclipse of the 

 sun last July from the summit of Pike's Peak, in Colorado, more than 

 14,000 feet above the sea-level, fell ill after he had reached that place, 

 and was carried down to the Lake House (elevation 10,000 feet), there 

 to remain while the rest of his party staid to view the eclipse from 

 the summit. Probably if he had remained with them his observations 

 would have differed in no very marked degree from those which other 

 astronomers made on that occasion. He would have devoted a few 

 seconds, perhaps, to the study of the sun's corona with the naked eye. 

 He would probably have made some telescopic, spectroscopic, or polari- 

 scopic observations during the rest of the three minutes during which 

 the total eclipse lasted, and possibly he might have noted some feature 

 rather more effectively and satisfactorily than most of the other ob- 

 servers. But under the actual circumstances he could not hope thus 

 to take his place among the thousands of observers who have noted 

 the phenomena of total solar eclipses. He had no optical or other in- 

 strument. Worse than all, he is near-sighted ; and, though he had a 

 pair of spectacles, it was not quite strong enough to correct his near- 

 sightedness. 



Yet Professor Abbe succeeded in making observations far exceeding 

 in interest any which were made by the entire force of eclipse observers 

 in 1874 and 1875, and fairly comparable in this respect with the most 

 remarkable discoveries effected during the great eclipses of 1868, 1869, 

 1870, and 1871. Debarred from instrumental researches, unable to do 

 what most observers of eclipses seem anxious to do — namel}^, to see 

 everything that can be seen — he was compelled to restrict himself to 

 precisely that line of observation which we indicated eight years ago 

 as likely to be most instructive. He gave his whole attention to the 

 corona, and especially to its. outlying and feebler portions. Studying 

 the phenomena with the naked eye, or at least Avith only spectacles to 

 aid him, he could recognize faint luminosity which the telescope would 

 inevitably have concealed from his view. He was not hurried ; nor was 

 he disturbed by the thought that such and such instruments must be 

 attended to in turn while still totality lasted, with care also that in the 

 darkness nothing should be disturbed or injured. As he said after the 

 observations were completed, and as we pointed out in 1870, " a glance 

 of a few seconds will no more suffice to do justice to the delicate phe- 

 nomena " (of the corona) " than it would suffice to enable a naturalist 

 to draw the distinguishing features of a new shell or insect, or would 

 enable an artist to correctly sketch in a landscape." 



Before describing what Professor Abbe actually saw, it may be well 

 to indicate first the nature of the observations he proposed to make, and 



