30 Dr. and Mrs. Huggins. On the Bright [June 8, 



cation of the work, a comparison may throw some light on the 

 question of change of form and nature of the surroundings of the Sun 

 during the interval between the observations. In this respect we may 

 have the photographs taken in Chili to further extend this time 

 interval. 



The various members of the expeditions have enjoyed good health, 

 and no one seems to have suffered injury from the excessive heat. 



The Committee are under great obligations for much assistance 

 given to the expeditions. The work of observation in Africa was 

 made on French territory. The French Government did everything 

 possible in granting a choice of sites, and M. Victor Allys, the 

 French Administrator at Fundium, gave most valuable help. 



The Admiralty have given us a gunboat to take the party up the 

 Salum River and attend on them during the time this work lasted, 

 and a cruiser brought the party from Bathurst to Grand Canary. 

 The value of the help afforded by the Admiralty can be appreciated 

 when it is known that without it this expedition could not have been 

 sent. 



From many other quarters most valuable aid has been received, 

 and will be more fully acknowledged in the General Report. 



II. " On the Bright Bands in the present Spectrum of Nova 

 Aurigse." By WILLIAM HUGGINS, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S., 

 and Mrs. HuGGiNS. Received May 29, 1893. 



Some few prefatory words are called for in explanation of the 

 partial incompleteness of the present communication. 



A considerable brightening, from below the 14th magnitude to 

 above the 10th magnitude, was found to have taken place in the 

 Nova when it was re-observed in the early part of August, 1892, 

 and to be accompanied by a modification of its spectrum, apparently 

 analogous to a similar change in the spectrum of Nova Cygni in 

 1877, since the observations we made of the star on March 24, 1892, 

 when it had fallen to nearly the llth magnitude.* 



In consequence, however, of the removal of the eye-end of the 

 telescope to the workshops of Messrs. Troughton and Simms for the 

 attachment to it of the mounting for a fine Rowland grating by 

 Mr. Brashear, we were without the means of observing the star and 

 its spectrum during the whole of the autumn and the early winter. 

 It was not until the beginning of the year that the new spectroscope 

 was mounted in our observatory, and then, from some instrumental 

 causes of delay and from a prevalence of bad weather, we were 



* Koy. Soc. Proc.,' vol. 61, p. 492. 



