seen at Portsea on the 29i/i of March 1848. i39 



imperfect arc was colourless, but the brightest part of the whole 

 exhibition, except the common summit of the two coloured 

 arches. 



At equal distances to the right and left of these phaenomena, 

 and much nearer the horizon, were the two fragments of co- 

 loured arcs faintly seen in the morning, but which now became 

 as distinct as common secondary rainbows, which they greatly 

 resembled in breadth and colour, except that the order of 

 their colours was like that of the primary rainbow, the red 

 being on the convex side, which was next the sun, as shown 

 in the figure. These arcs, though very faint, lasted as long 

 as any of the others. 



The large white circle was in the afternoon very irregular 

 in its intensity, owing to many light cirrous clouds crossing 

 it, some of which had the effect of extinguishing it, while 

 others, on the contrary, rendered it more luminous, but always 

 less distinct, causing it often to spread upwards and downwards 

 with a bearded appearance like that already described ; and 

 wherever this appearance was seen, the rays or hairs were 

 exactly vertical. 



There was however always an increase in the light of this 

 horizontal band where it approached the outer sides of the 

 two prismatic mock-suns, so as to give the idea of white tails 

 proceeding from them on the side furthest from the sun. 

 There was also, as long as the phtenomenon lasted, a very 

 definite concentration of light much brighter than the rest of 

 the circle, at a spot which seemed about 120° of azimuth to the 

 left of the sun, so that another such focus corresponding to it 

 on the opposite side would nearly have divided the circle into 

 three equal parts ; but of this last mock-sun I could never 

 catch a glimpse, though the other continued distinct enough 

 for more than half an hour. 



It may be observed, that these phaenomena occurred pre- 

 cisely at the time of a most remarkable change in the weather, 

 especially in the temperature, which for the previous few 

 days had been such as is usually felt at this season ; but the 

 29th of March was the first of a series of five days which 

 excited general surprise, as being some of the warmest ever 

 known for the season. On this day the sun was unusually 

 powerful, but the sky a very pale blue. The wind was, at 

 Portsea, S. by E., in which direction there were no clouds, 

 but light cirri overhead, and a very regular wall of cumuli 

 about 5'' high round the northern horizon. The barometer 

 was at 29*8 and rising. Though the parhelia gradually va- 

 nished, the common circular halo seemed rather to increase. 

 The following morning was wet; but at 11, when it became 



