106 LIGHT SCIEXCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



with the same purpose that the expeditions formed for 

 observing the present eclipse were to have set forth. 

 The questions to be answered are full of interest, even 

 now when their full significance is not known ; while 

 it may well be that when we begin to have accurate 

 information about them, we shall find they have a real 

 importance wholly unlocked for. As the last direct 

 rays of the sun are concealed by the advancing moon, 

 there springs into view a glorious crown of colored 

 light pearly w r hite in parts, faintly pink beyond, and 

 at the extreme verge showing tints of mauve and 

 violet and green delicate and beautiful beyond de- 

 scription. Through this coronal glory there extend 

 rays of bluish-white light, reaching often to a vast dis- 

 tance from the black disk of the moon. Commonly 

 remaining unchanged in position, these rays sometimes 

 if all the narratives can be trusted exhibit very 

 obvious signs of motion, resembling in this respect 

 those streamers of colored light which we have lately 

 so much admired in the aurora. Indeed, wonderful as 

 it may seem, the corona has lately come to be regarded 

 as associated in some way with the Aurora Borealis. 

 "We know that those auroral streamers which form so 

 wonderful a display in our own skies are due to solar 

 influences. In whatever way it may be brought about, 

 certain it is that disturbances of the sun are reflected 

 in terrestrial auroral displays. The auroras which 

 have occurred lately were predicted by astronomers, 



