134 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Juiie 



seconds eaclij aucl were taken at equal distances of time from tlie 

 beginning to the end of the totality. They exhibit the pro- 

 tuberances and parts of the chromosphere well, but do not show a 

 trace of the corona. 



It is not easy to distinguish the protuberances in all cases from 

 the chromosphere whence they spring. Our photographs, and a 

 drawing made by Mr. Yail, of Philadelphia, who rendered us the 

 greatest assistance in our preparations, and carefully noted the 

 passing phenomena of the eclipse through a Dolland 40-inch 

 telescope, agree in laying down five protuberances. Mr. Falconer, 

 of London, who likewise joined our party, distinguished only five 

 protuberances. Professor Morton, on the other hand, finds nine 

 in his pictures. Some that he and we consider as such only difi"er 

 by being isolated from the neighbouring banks of light. Flames 

 are strongly marked in pictures taken to the east of us, of which 

 the rudiments only are visible in ours; and the large protuberance 

 on the lower limb, which, in our pictures, grows from a bright dot 

 in picture I. to a high flame in picture III., burns down in picture 

 IV. to one-half its former height, and commences to assume the 

 flattened form which it has in all the pictures taken to the east of 

 us. This remarkable protuberance was seen by Capt. Ashe, and 

 the other members of our party, to blaze up rapidly after the 

 exposure of the second picture ; then the top of the flame was 

 wafted away to the east, as if by a strong current in the upper 

 atmosphere of the sun, and the body of the flame gradually 

 burned down, assuming the forms it bears in pictures III. and IV. 



Mr. Vail described the protuberances, and especially the large 

 one, as follows : — 



" But the most remarkable appearance of all, and that which 

 attracted the attention of every cne who witnessed the eclipse, 

 whether seen with the naked eye or with the telescope, were the 

 red protuberances that shot up immediately on the disappearance 

 of the sun from various places on the edge of the moon. Their 

 position your photographs will fix better than I can describe. 

 The largest was on the lower edge of the moon, and was, by my 

 estimate, when highest, not less than two minutes in altitude from 

 the edge of the moon, or about 55,000 miles. 



" Its color was a bright pinJdsh red ; its outlines were perfectly 

 well defined, and were not curves, but rather irregularly broken 

 straight lines ; and, througliout, it seemed marked by similar 

 lines. 



