Mr. Rendall’s Notice of a Halo. 337 
Art. XVI.—Notice of a Halo, by Thomas Kendall, in a 
letter to the Editor. . 
New-Lebanon, Jan. by 1824, 
Sin, 
Le be age 
On the 2nd of July last a most extraordinary phenome- 
non of halos around and about the sun was witnessed in 
this vicinity. I do not know that it has been reported b 
any one: thinking that it may not be wholly uninterest- 
ing to you, | shall attempt a description.. The weather 
had been dry and warm for two or three weeks previous. 
On the 2nd the atmosphere was a little smoky, at 1 o’clock 
- M. the sun was hid by a thin stratum of clouds, not very 
compact, and evidently assuming a more uniform appear- 
ance, which was succeeded by a few scattering drops of 
rain. At 2 o’clock, I first discovered the halos. The clouds 
had mostly disappeared or had become thin and uniform, 
having the common consistence of vapour which is usually 
accompanied with halos. The sun was surrounded by a 
circle or halo of the common size, but much more brilliant, 
resembling the rainbow quite as much as it did the ordina- 
ry halo ; the area of this circle was much darker than the 
surrounding space. North of this, with its periphery pass- 
ing into the sun, appeared another halo, once and an half 
the diameter of the first, not'so bright as the former, but 
more so than usual; the area of this was darker than the 
surrounding space, but not as dark as the other. The 
north side of this halo was intersected at one place by seg- 
ments of two others not quite as brilliant as the last, whose 
relative diameters could not bé ascertained but were evi- 
dently larger, and if they were in fact portions of perfect 
Sircles, | thought at the time, that like the last they were 
bounded by the sun ; at each intersection the brilliancy 
was increased in proportion to the number of circles cross- 
ing each other. A little to the East of south, and about 
half way from the south’side of the primary halo to the hor- 
izon appeared a portion of 15 or 20 degrees of another ha- 
_ do apparently having the ’sun for its centre, and as bright 
as the pri one, this was mistaken ‘by some fora ratn- 
bow ; at one time | discovered (as | supposed) portions of 
Vou. VII.—No. 2. 43 
