84 THE INDIAN ECLIPSE, 1898. 



seconds, but the eclipse was then over by a full second. As the 

 clock had been arranged for 118 seconds, the eclipse had lasted 

 112 seconds, or 4 seconds less than had been expected. 



It has long been known that the coronal spectrum is from 

 three distinct sources. One, a purely continuous spectrum, 

 probably from glowing particles of cosmical dust; a second, 

 with difficulty distinguished from it, of reflected sunlight, i.e. a 

 continuous spectrum interrupted by the dark Fraiinhofer lines ; 

 and the third a bright-line spectrum due to glowing gases. It 

 would seem, from the comparison of the observations of 

 different eclipses, that the third kind of spectrum varies 

 in its brightness, relatively to the sum of the other two, very 

 much from time to time. The coronal spectrum in 1893 and 

 1882 and 1883 i.e., years of maximum seems to have given 

 readier evidence of bright lines than in years nearer minimum. 

 The present occasion was therefore not a good one for such an 

 observation as I had undertaken; and if repeated in 1900, a 

 much higher dispersion should be employed in order to get rid 

 as far as possible of the light from the first two sources. 



So far as my observation at this eclipse goes, it points to the 

 gas, w r hich we may call " coronium " for distinctness, being 

 distributed pretty evenly round the sun to a distance of about 

 160,000 miles, and that it is not specially associated with the 

 striking irregularities of the visual corona. It must be however 

 remembered that the corona as seen is far brighter up to about 

 this limit than above it ; that the " inner corona," in short, 

 corresponds pretty closely to this distribution of " coronium." 



Miss DIXON'S EEPORT. 



Miss DIXON, assisted by Miss Bevan as recorder, observed at 

 Buxar with a similar prismatic opera-glass, kindly lent by Miss 

 E. I. Page ; and noticed that at six minutes before totality the 

 Fraiinhofer lines were clearly seen, particularly C, D, F, and G 

 (C and G being specially marked). These were similarly seen 

 after totality, and lasted fully ten minutes. Their first dis- 

 appearance was immediately before totality. The phenomena 

 of the reversing layer was clearly seen at the commencement 

 and end of totality, many bright arcs flashing out, C, D 3 , ^, and 

 F being very conspicuous. The bright arc corresponding to 

 " 1474 K " was specially looked for, but could not be identified. 



