94 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



shaped gap could not be accepted as demonstrative or 

 even trustworthy. The presence of the V-shaped gap 

 in Mr. Brothers's photograph would supply an argument 

 positive and final ; its absence would supply a negative 

 argument, proving nothing, however, and leaving the 

 matter much where it stood before the eclipse took 

 place. 



The first sketch I received was contained in a hasty 

 note from Mr. Brothers, written soon after his arrival 

 in England. I was surprised, and, to say the truth, 

 somewhat disappointed, to find that the V-shaped gap 

 was not shown, as in the Spanish pictures. There 

 were several gaps, but not one in the lower left-hand 

 portion of the corona. But in the next letter which 

 I received, Mr. Brothers intimated that the sketch was 

 only intended to show the general aspect of the corona 

 to show its radiated structure and that, in fact, he 

 had not copied the sketch from the photograph, the 

 negative not being as yet unpacked. Some days 

 elapsed before a drawing made from the photograph 

 was sent to me. In this drawing the V-shaped gap 

 was not only presented in the same place as in the 

 Spanish views, but, as in them, it formed the most 

 remarkable feature of the corona. Soon after, photo- 

 graphs taken directly from Mr. Brothers's negative 

 were in the hands of all who took interest in the 

 subject, and there pictured by the corona itself was 

 the gap on which so much was held to depend. All 

 possibility of mistake as to the reality of the agreement 

 between this gap and the gap shown in the American 



