MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS. 137 



be withdrawn, and also the appearance of the corona. Of course 

 we had been reading Sir Norman Lockyer's book, and it had led 

 us to expect, a great deal too much, both as to what could be 

 seen and done by untrained observers and as to the striking 

 character of those phenomena that no duffer could help seeing; 

 and our experience in that respect seems to have been shared 

 by other "intelligent but not mathematical" amateurs. The 

 book left one with the impression that sketching the corona 

 was a simple matter, and sketching it presupposes " seeing " it. 

 I only wish Sir Norman Lockyer could be set to " see " a section 

 of pathological liver or kidney (not double-stained) under the 

 microscope and make a sketch of it, too, in a 1^ minutes, and 

 then he would perhaps understand the disappointment which 

 his book prepared for well-meaning but unfortunate amateurs 

 about the corona. 



As the light waned a pale violet haze appeared on the horizon 

 chiefly to the westward. Dr. Henderson pointed out to me a 

 green tinge on the land beyond the tank, but I feel sure it was 

 only due to the diminished glare permitting the better apprecia- 

 tion of green bushes and plants among the sere and yellow 

 grass, and the more so as it disappeared instead of deepening 

 towards the climax. We were disappointed in the impressive- 

 ness of the coming of the shadow, but in the deeper dusk of 

 totality the light violet haze developed into a bank of heavy 

 dull reddish purple blending above into dull ochreish yellow, 

 which in its turn was lost in the deepened blue of the sky. 

 The sky and its reflection in the tank, the land surface and the 

 trees, were simply darkened by the withdrawal of the daylight. 



As regards the corona, I suppose the untrained eye does not 

 know how to " see." I had on spectacles for myopia 2-50 D, so 

 I cannot plead short sight. I saw no details such as Sir Norman 

 Lockyer's questions ask for, but only three long streamers. 



As to the shadow -bands, I should rather call them shadow 

 ripples. They reminded me of the figures I have seen while 

 bathing in the Channel Islands when the image or shadow of 

 the ripples on the surface of the clear water dance on the 

 shingly bottom below. Another lady quite independently 

 compared them to the reflection from the surface of the sea on 

 the ceiling of the cabin of a ship. Only the shadow-bands were 

 far less brilliant, smaller, more regular and much less beautiful, 

 but the tremulous, rippling movement was similar. It was a 

 sort of elongated network of shadowy with light spaces some 2 or 

 3 inches across, and the lengthwise of the network and the 

 direction of the rippling were towards the sun. 



EDITH A. HUNTLEY, M.D. 



Other observers compared them to the shadow of a barred 

 window falling on the sheet, to the shadows of ripples of water 



