64 The Greed Solar EcUjJse [Jan., 



myself to measurement. And here I hesitate ; I have no idea how 

 those five minutes passed so quickly. Clouds were evidently passin.cj 

 continually, for the lines were only visible occasionally. The red 

 must have been less vivid than the orange, for after a short attempt 

 to measure it I passed on to secure the orange, and succeeding to 

 my satisfaction, tried for the blue line. Here I was less successful. 

 The glimpses of light were rarer and feebler, the line itself growing 

 shorter and farther from the cross. I did, however, place the cross 

 very near the true position, and got a reading just as the re- 

 illumination of the field of view informed me that the sun had 

 reappeared on the other limb. I consider there can be no question 

 that the orange line was identical with d (sodium), so far, at least, 

 as the instrument is competent to establish an identity. I also 

 consider that the identity of the blue line with r (hydrogen) is not 

 estabhshed ; on the contrary, I believe the former is less refracted 

 than F, but not much. With respect to the red line, I hesitate 

 much in assigning an approximate place. It might have been 

 near c (hydrogen). I doubt its being so far as b, but there would 

 be its limits. The corona may have projected a spectrum of some 

 kind, but I saw none." 



The observations made by Captain Haig were of less value 

 than those of Lieut. Herschel, being taken with a hand-spectro- 

 scope which he had fitted to a small telescope. He reports that he 

 observed the spectra of two red flames close to each other, and in 

 their spectra two broad bright bands quite sharply defined, one 

 rose -madder and the other fight golden. Just before emergence, 

 these spectra were soon lost in the spectrum of the moon's edge, 

 which had also two well-defined bright bands (one green and one 

 indigo) about a quarter of the width of the bands in the spectra of 

 the flames, this spectrum being again soon lost in the bright sun- 

 hght. 



Major Tennant, at Guntoor, was more successful, owing doubt- 

 less to his apparatus being more perfect. He reports a continuous 

 spectrum from the corona, and one of bright lines from the pro- 

 minences examined. He says : — " I am, I believe, safe in saying 

 that three of the lines in the spectrum of the protuberances cor- 

 respond to G, D, and h. I saw a line in the green near r, but I had 

 lost so much time m finding the protuberance (owing to the finder 

 ha^^ng changed its adjustment since last night), that I lost it in the 

 sunlight before measuring it, and I believe I saw traces of a fine in 

 the blue near g, but to see them very clearly involves a very large 

 change in the focus of the telescope, which was out of the question 

 then. " I conclude that my result is that the atmosphere of the sun 

 is mainly of non-luminous (or faintly luminous) gas at a short dis- 

 tance from the limb of the sun. It may have had faintly luminous 

 lines, but I had to open the jaws a good deal to get what I could 



