202 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



appearance presented when the filaments attained their 

 greatest elevation may be obtained from fig. 2. 



' As the filaments rose they gradually faded away 

 like a dissolving cloud, and at 1 h. 15 m. P.M. only a 

 few filmy wisps, with some brighter streamers low 

 down near the chromatosphere, remained to mark the 

 place. But in the meanwhile the little " thunder- 

 head " before alluded to had grown and developed 

 wonderfully, into a mass of rolling and ever-changing 

 flame, to speak according to appearances. First it was 

 crowded down, as it were, along the solar surface ; 

 later it rose almost pyramidally 50,000 miles in height ; 

 then its summit was drawn out into long filaments and 

 threads, which were most curiously rolled backwards 

 and downwards like the volutes of an Ionic capital ; 

 and finally it faded away, and by 2 h. 30 m. had 

 vanished like the other. Figs. 3 and 4 show it in its 

 full development ; the former having been sketched at 

 1 h. 40 m., and the latter at 1 h. 55 m.' l ' The whole 

 phenomenon,' he adds, * suggested most forcibly the 

 idea of an explosion under the great prominence, 

 acting mainly upwards, but also in all directions out- 

 wards, and then after an interval followed by a corre- 

 sponding inrush ; and it seems far from impossible 

 (the italics are mine) that the mysterious coronal 

 streamers, if they turn out to be truly solar, as now 

 seems likely, may find their origin and explanation in 

 such events.' 



1 Professor Young mentions that his 'sketches' do not pretend to 

 accuracy of detail, except the fourth, the three rolls in which are 

 nearly exact. 



