92 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



After the meeting a photograph, taken during the 

 eclipse by Mr. Willard, of America, was shown to a few 

 of those present. Why the picture was not exhibited 

 and described at the meeting itself I do not know. 

 Probably the description was reserved for American 

 societies. But whatever the cause, it is certain that if 

 the picture had been shown earlier, some doubts which 

 were expressed respecting the real nature of the corona 

 would have been obviated. For there, in the photo- 

 graph, and occupying the precise position described to 

 me much earlier by Mr. Hudson, and publicly described 

 and pictured by Lieutenant Brown and others, was 

 this V-shaped gap. 



Mr. Willard's photograph was taken at a station 

 near Xerez, so that all that has hitherto been said 

 relates to Spanish observations. To complete this 

 portion of the evidence, I quote the following passage 

 from an interesting account of the eclipse by one of 

 the observers in Spain. It is extracted from the 

 English Mechanic for January 27, 1871. 'The 

 corona proper, or glory, or radiated corona as it is 

 variously called extended a distance of almost the 

 moon's diameter from the moon's edge, but not equally 

 in every direction. It had a greater extension in four 

 directions, at the extremities of two diameters at right 

 angles to each other, so as to give it the shape, roughly 

 speaking, of a square with rounded corners. It was 

 broken in parts, and notably by one decided V-shaped 

 gap. This was observed, not only by one party, but at 

 three stations, San Antonio, Xerez, and La Maria 



