462 MR WILLIAM SWAN ON THE 
servations of the late eclipse lead to the conclusion, that the cloudy matter com- 
posing them is diffused over the surface of the sun, to an extent much greater 
than probably has hitherto been suspected. This appears from the following 
facts :— 
Mr Hinp,* Mr Dawes,} and Mr Goop,t who were situated near the southern 
edge of the moon’s shadow, so as to witness a nearly tangential eclipse, saw a long 
range of red prominences extending, with Jitile interruption, over nearly a third 
part of the moon’s limb. Observers who were situated near the middle of the sha- 
dow failed to see the greater part of this long range or sierra, which, owing to the 
effects of parallax, was probably almost entirely hid from them by the moon; but 
they saw isolated prominences, which were distributed pretty uniformly all round 
the moon’s circumference. A band of red light on the moon’s limb, which pre- 
ceded the reappearance of the sun, was likewise seen by Professor CHEVALLIER, 
Lieutenant Perrersson, Mr Jackson, and Mr Gray; and a similar fringe of red 
light was observed by Haury at the total solar eclipse of 1715.§ In describing 
this remarkable phenomenon, Lieutenant Prerrersson relates, that “ about 5° before 
the reappearance” of the sun, he “saw along the edge of the moon, just where he 
expected the sun” to reappear, ‘‘a red fringe of rose colour,” on which the hook- 
shaped prominence, to which reference has so often been made already, “seemed 
to rest, and of which it seemed a part.” || 
Obviously, the simplest view that can be taken of this phenomenon, is to re- 
gard the red fringe and the red prominences as of the same nature ; and all the 
observations will then confirm the idea that the matter composing those objects 
is distributed all round the sun. It therefore seems probable, that when we are 
furnished with observations of a tangential phase of the eclipse from stations on 
the north side of the moon’s shadow, it will be found that a sierra appeared to- 
wards the sun’s north point, of which the detached prominences seen in that 
region, by observers situated near the middle of the moon’s shadow, were only 
the highest peaks. 
Now, in order to account for the phenomena exhibited by the spots on the sun, 
it has been supposed that they are portions of his comparatively dark body, seen 
* Notice of R. Ast. Soc. for Jan, 1852, p. 67. + Ib., p. 69. 
+ Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for Oct. 1851; or Astron. Nachrichten, No. 777. 
§ Phil. Trans., vol, xxix. 
|| Notice of R. Ast. Soc., p. 59. 
A red fringe also appeared towards the beginning and end of the total phase at the eclipse of 
1842. Thus M.Scuumacuer, who witnessed the eclipse at Vienna, relates,—“ Peu de temps avant 
la fin de l’éclipse totale, il s’éleva vers cette partie du disque lunaire d’ou deyait jaillir le premiere 
rayon de lumiére, une étroite couche d’un rouge rosé qui s’étendait, peut-etre, sur un espace de 70 
4 80 degrés le long du bord de la lune, et qui disparut, ainsi que ’anneau lumineux et les montagnes 
rouges, aussitot que le premiere rayon du soleil jaillit.”—Annuaire for 1846, p. 433. 
M, Srruve remarks.—*“ Je crois avoir vu, un instant avant la disparition du dernier rayon 
solaire, wne couche rouge au bord de la lune, & 45 degrés environ du point ou le soleil disparaissait.” 
—Ibid, p. 437. 

