THE SUN'S LONG STREAMERS. 661 



ately surrounding the sun, proved the long rays extending much far- 

 ther from the sun to be non-solar phenomena. " The non-solar origin 

 of the radial structure," said Mr. Lockyer as late as July 20th last, " was 

 conclusively established " during the eclipse of December, 1871. 



To say the truth, there is no possible way of interpreting the long- 

 rays as phenomena of our own atmosphere or of matter (gaseous, 

 meteoric, or dust-like) on the hither side of the moon. The idea is one 

 which mathematicians may casually have thrown out. Indeed, Madler 

 and Airy, after the eclipse of 18G0, advanced the hypothesis that the 

 long rays belong to matter between us and the moon, while Sir John 

 Herschel adopted in his " Familiar Lectures " the notion that these rays 

 belong to matter at a great height in our own atmosjDhere. But it 

 would be to misrepresent these eminent astronomers to assert that they 

 ever maintained these views. The available evidence, analyzed as any 

 one of these mathematicians could have analyzed it, had he seen fit, 

 would have shown convincingly that the rays must come from matter 

 Ijing far beyond the moon. Sir John Herschel admitted this in a letter 

 addressed to the present writer. Whether Airy or Madler ever ex- 

 amined the evidence closely we do not know. If they did they doubt- 

 less were led to the same result as Sir J. Herschel. The matter may 

 be put in this way : Since these long rays extend from the black disk 

 of the moon during mid totality, they occupy then a part of the sky 

 where no sun-illuminated air lies at such a time ; therefore they cannot 

 belong to our air ; but if there were some very tenuous matter, aerial 

 or dust-like, extending as far as the moon's orbit, the whole region of 

 the sky athwart which these rays extend would contain matter of this 

 sort under full solar illumination ; no rays then would be seen, but a 

 nearly uniform glare, which should become brighter and brighter as the 

 distance from the sun's place increased. If we add to this that at mid- 

 night the whole of the sky, except a round spot some four or five times 

 the diameter of the moon, would be occupied by this cis-lunar matter 

 under direct solar illumination, instead of that illumination from behind 

 which such matter would receive during total eclipse, we see that the 

 darkness of our midnight sky speaks as decisively against this theory 

 as does the brightness of the long rays seen during total eclipse. 



Notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence available to show that 

 these rays lie far beyond the moon, Professor Abbe had adopted the 

 opinion that the rays belong to the earth's atmosphere, or else are mere 

 optical illusions. " I had hitherto firmly believed them," he says, " to 

 be either in the earth's atmosphere or in the observer's eyes. . . . Such 

 rays," he adds, " were seen by members of my eclipse party at Sioux 

 Falls City, Dakota, August, 1869 ; but at that time and ever since I 

 have doubted their existence." It is manifest that he did not begin his 

 observations with the preconceived idea that the rays belong to matter 

 far more distant than the moon, but with a strong opinion, if not a 

 strong prejudice, the other way. 



