554 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



INTERESTING LUMINOUS PHENOMENON. 

 Messrs. Editors. 



A BEAUTIFUL and unusual phenome- 

 non was observed here on the after- 

 noon of the 13th instant. Between three 

 and four o'clock, the western sky being par- 

 tially covered with cirri, and obscured near 

 the horizon by a dense haze, about thirty 

 degrees horizontally north of the sun was 

 seen a mock-sun of dazzling brilliancy. Ex- 

 tending from it above and below was a 

 luminous haze, of too small an extent and 

 too indefinite outline at its extremities to 

 exhibit any curvature. The entire mass of 

 light thus appeared to have an oblate form, 

 very much elongated vertically, the brilliant 

 mock-sun forming its nucleus. On its sun- 

 ward side the colors of the solar spectrum 

 were plainly visiblfi. In the clear sky, di- 

 rectly over the true sun, and about half-way 

 to the zenith, was an inverted arch of pale 

 white light, of parabolic form, with its axis 

 to the sun, its extremities, which faded off 

 into the blue, being five or six degrees apart. 

 Directly overhead was an arc of a circle, of 



still fainter light, whose apparent radius 

 was about ten degrees. No prismatic tints 

 could be detected in either of these arcs. 

 The situation of the objects described is 

 roughly shown in the diagram. The sky to 

 the south of the sun was so covered by 

 cirro-strati as to obscure any parhelion that 

 might otherwise have been visible there. A 

 noticeable feature of the phenomenon was 

 the distinctly 7»«/-«6oKc form of the middle 

 arc of light. Never having seen this partic- 

 ular feature described in accounts of simi- 



lar phenomena, I would ask if it is a usual 

 accompaniment of them, and at the same 

 time would ask if any satisfactory explana- 

 tion of the cause of parhelia and the accom- 

 panying circles, other than the partial ex- 

 planations of Huygens and Fraunhofer, has 

 yet been given ? 



On the morning following the appear- 

 ance described, we had light flurries of snow, 

 and afterward rain. 



G. B. Seely. 

 Boston, December 15, 1879. 



"THE AGE OP ICE." 



Messrs. Editors. 



I HAVE been placed in a false position 

 through your publication, without date, of 

 my article bearing the above title in your 

 October issue of the current year. I am 

 accused, by a paper called the " St. Louis 

 Globe-Democrat," of plagiarizing from Croll 

 and Merriman. Permit me to state that the 

 article was written in 1874, nearly six years 

 ago, and read at the session for that year of 

 the Kansas Academy of Science, as the 

 archives of that body will testify. I think 

 Croll's book was not at that time published. 

 Geikie's, if published, had not yet reached us 

 in Kansas ; and Mr. Merriman did not write 

 till a later period. I had seen nothing on the 

 subject but St. Pierre's "Studies of Nature," 

 and a fugitive fragment from Adhemar. I 

 think my manuscript was handed in too late 

 to be printed in the " Transactions " of the 

 Academy for that year ; but doubtless the 

 record of its presentation in 1874 is on file. 

 I left Kansas soon after, and had seen no- 

 thing of my article from that time till the 

 day it appeared in the " Monthly." You 

 will testify that it was published without 

 my knowledge. 



I should have sooner adverted to the 

 matter, only that I hoped the article would 

 remain in the oblivion to which its slender 

 merits entitled it ; but now that I am charged 

 with plagiarizing from men who, though 

 vastly superior in knowledge and research, 

 really wrote after I did, I beg space for the 

 above, or for some editorial statement of a 

 corresponding character. 



I am yours, very respectfully, 



H. B. Norton, 

 San Josf , Caufobnia, December 22, 1879. 



Mr. Norton's article, referred to above, 

 was received by us November 2, 1874, and 

 was never afterward in the hands of the 



