4S8 Mr. E. L. Garbett's Description of some Parhelia 



Below these phiEnomena and near the horizon were faint 

 traces of two other coloured arcs, which, however, were so 

 much more distinct in the second display, that they might be 

 regarded as belonging to it exclusively. 



All these appearances gradually faded, till soon after 11 a.m. 

 they had completely vanished. A little before 1 p.m. how- 

 ever, I was surprised to find the large horizontal circle reap- 

 pearing; and though it never regained its former distinctness, 

 there were some other appearances different from those of the 

 morning, but equally complex. These are represented in 

 fig. 3, projected in the same manner as fig. 2, so as to admit 

 of a comparison with it. The two faint arcs of large radius 

 passing near the zenith, were never seen in this second display, 

 nor yet the white parhelion at their intersection ; but the two 

 coloured parhelia next the sun were much brighter than in 

 the morning, and the coloured arch over the sun became so 

 bright toward its vertex as to be painful to the naked eye. 

 This increased brilliancy seemed to arise from the coalescence 

 of this arch with another, which was concentric with the sun, 

 likea common halo, and surrounded him at apparently the usual 

 distance of 23°. Its appearance therefore corrected two errors 

 into which I might otherwise have fallen. It showed that the 

 eccentricity of the other coloured arch was real, and not an 

 effect of perspective, and also that the two prismatic mock- 

 suns were independent, and not formed by an intersection of 

 halos. 



It will be observed that this circular halo, though complete, 

 was by no means regular, but strongest at the upper and lower 

 parts, from whence it declined in brilliancy till it was hardly per- 

 ceptible at the sides, where it crossed the horizontal circle. Its 

 summit exactly coincided with that of the eccentric arch, so 

 that their overlapping produced a dazzling brilliancy at that 

 part ; and as the colours of both arcs were arranged in the 

 same order (the red inwards), they were not altered by their 

 combination. 



The inner edge of both these halos was, as usual, the only 

 one sharply defined; the outer limits of both died away gra- 

 dually ; and at their common vertex, the light often appeared 

 to graduate upwards with the curious rayed or hairy appear- 

 ance shown in the figure, reminding one of the representation 

 of an auroral arch, in miniature. A similar appearance, but 

 inverted, was also seen below the foot of the circular halo, 

 where it seemed to touch the summit of another very luminous 

 but ill-defined arch, or rather nebulous mass of light, the 

 upper limit of which was arched, but which graduated down- 

 wards with the bearded appearance shown in the figure. This 



