186 FHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1/27. 



Oct. 20, I7'23, from 6 in the evening; till midnight. 



Sept. 26, 1725, from 7 till 10 at night. 



Oct. 3 and 4, 1726, it continued the whole night. 



Oct. 8, 1726, a very surprising one. 



Oct. 26, 1726, about 10 in the evening. 



March 3, 1727, a very surprising one, from 8 till midnight. 



March 5, 1727, it appeared again. 



Four Mock Suns, or Parhelia, seen at Kensington, March 1, 1 726-7. By Mr. 

 George fVhiston. N° 308, p. 257. 



Walking in a garden at Kensington, about a quarter after 10, Mr. Whiston 

 observed the following appearances. First, a halo about the sun, vm, fig. 5, 

 pi. 4, with its usual circumstances, which are pretty frequent : its upper part 

 was very luminous, having a confused mixture of the rainbow colours in it, and 

 being touched at the vertex with the two other curvatures, ovr, nvt, though 

 the latter arch nvt did not appear till some time after. The bottom part of it 

 also at M, which appeared a little above the horizon, had something of the 

 same nature, but not in so great a degree. The two parhelia, a, b, also soon 

 appeared, whose diameters were pretty large, and their brightness and colour 

 pretty much as the upper part of the halo. 



As the halo was at that time not quite perfect, but had some parts interrupted, 

 Mr. W. thought that the two parhelia were in the circumference of its circle, 

 as usual ; but after about a quarter of an hour, he directly observed the halo to 

 pass between the parhelion a, and the true sun; and he had no reason to doubt 

 the same of the other b also, though he did not directly observe it. 



The parhelia a, b, which were but a little distant from the circumference of 

 the halo, began now to appear with narrow, pale, whitish streaks of light, in 

 the nature of tails, proceeding from them ; but soon extended themselves so 

 far, that they met in the point opposite to the sun, and formed the great circle 

 abcd, parallel to the horizon, whose breadth was about half that of the halo. 

 Viewing it carefully all round, there appeared a third mock sun c, of a plain 

 whitish light, without any mixture of colours, which was also the case of the 

 whole great circle: and presently also a fourlli, d, both of them pretty exactly 

 resembling each other, very much inferior to the parhelia a, b, in brightness, 

 though not so much in magnitude. 



As Mr. W. had no opportunity of measuring the several angles, he placed the 

 mock suns, c, d, in the scheme, rather in agreement with former observations, 

 than his own ;^uesses; for they appeared to be at a greater distance from 



