Mil MOON'S ATMOSPHERE 63 



the moon's atmosphere, and the difficulties 

 experienced in accounting for the crown, "or eUe 

 concerning a meteor observe*! n our air, but in 



the vapours that encompass the sun," might have 

 warned Dr. II alley and others to be especially wat 



> a total eclipse was doe in liritain on April 22, 

 Ualley admitted the points named to be M very 

 singular, and deserving a great deal of attention." 1 1 

 believed that a total eclipse of the sun had not been 

 sen in London since March 20, 1140 A.D. He psnooo 

 * gentle censure on the French astronomers for their 

 indifference to the total eclipse of 1706, but excuses 

 them on the ground that it was the first which " had 

 been observed with the attention the dignity of th< 

 menon requires." Strange to say, he made no 

 preparation to watch for " the blood-streak " and 

 luminous ring" that crowned the black body of the 

 moon, \\h< M the chance of seeing them again was 

 presented in 1715. They were seen and describe 

 him with a singular turning aside from facts to fables 

 about the moon's atmosphere, and the vapours that 

 were raised or the dews that fell on her surface. 

 Here is the account Hall. -y gives of the red clouds 

 and the luminous ring in the eclipse of 1715 r 1 



"A few seconds before the sun was all hid, there 

 discovered itself round the moon a luminous ring, 

 about a digit, or perhaps a tenth part of the moon's 

 diameter in breadth. It was of a pale whiteness or 

 rather pearl colour, seeming to me a little tinged with 

 the colours of the 7m, and to be concentric with the 

 moon, whence I concluded it the moon's atmosphere. 

 But the great height thereof far exceeding that of our 

 "Don," FkU. Trm*. xxix. p. 248. 



