26 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



analysis. It is far from being unlikely that three 

 long-vexed questions the nature of the aurora, and 

 that of the zodiacal light, and that of comets' tails 

 will receive their solution simultaneously. 



I had scarcely completed the above pages when 

 news was brought from America that the spectrum of 

 the sun's corona, as seen during the recent total solar 

 eclipse, exhibited the same bright lines as the aurora. 

 The fact that auroral lines are mentioned will at once 

 l)e noticed ; but it is to be remarked that the two faint 

 lines which have been lately seen in the auroral spec- 

 trum correspond to but a very small portion of the 

 light we receive from the northern streamers. In the 

 spectrum of the corona the same three lines appear, 

 but their relative brightness is different. The bright- 

 est line of the auroral spectrum is faint in the spectrum 

 of the corona, while the latter exhibits a bright line 

 where the former has a faint one. 



News has also been received that a comparison of 

 the photographs of the eclipse proves the corona, or at 

 any rate its brightest part, to belong to the sun. 



Lastly, it has been found that the peculiar phospho- 

 rescent light sometimes visible all over the sky at night 

 gives the same spectrum (very faint, of course) as the 

 aurora and the zodiacal light. 



It is impossible not to recognize the fact that these 

 discoveries point to relations of the utmost importance. 

 The teachings of the spectroscope are too certain to be 



