2l8 



NATURE 



{Jan. 1 8, 1872 



present know of the observations. The stations and 

 observers as finally arranged were as follows : — 



Bekul — Analysing Spectroscope, Capt. Maclear and Mr. 

 Pringle. 



Polariscope, Dr. Thomson. 



Photography, Mr. Davis. 

 Manantoddy — Analysing Spectroscope, Mr. Fiiswell. 



Integrating Spectroscope, Mr. Abbay. 

 Poodocottah — .Spectroscope, Professor Respighi. 



Sketches of Corona, Mr. Holiday. 

 Jaffna — Integrating .Spectroscope, Capt. Fyers and Mr. 

 Ferguson. 



Polariscope, Capt. Tupraan and Mr. Lewis. 



Photopraphy, Captain Hogg. 

 Trincomalee — Spectroscope, Mr. Moseley. 



Besides these observers, we had at Bekul the valuable 

 assistance of General Selby, commanding the troops in 

 Canara and Malabar (for whose help in supplying guards' 

 tents, &c., the friends of Science cannot be too thankful), 

 Colonel Farewell, Judge Walhouse, and others, in sketch- 

 ing the Corona. At all stations, of course, most precious 

 help in various ways was given by all present who volun- 

 teered for the various duties, though some of them lost a 

 sight of the eclipse in consequence. Among those who 

 helped in this way at Bekul were Mr. Mclvor, Mr. Pringle, 

 Captain Bailey who timed the eclipse, Mr. Cherry, and 

 Captain Christie, the Inspector of Police, whose pre- 

 sence there turned out to be of the most serious value, for 

 the natives seeing in the eclipse the great Monster Rahoo 

 devouring one of their most sacred divinities, not only 

 howled and moaned in the most tremendous manner, but 

 set lire to the grass between our telescopes and the sun 

 to propitiate the representative of the infernal gods. 

 Captain Christie with his posse of police stopped this 

 sacrifice at the right moment, and no harm was done. 



Now for the observations. Perhaps I may be per- 

 mitted to begin with my own, as at the present moment 1 

 know most about them. I determined to limit my spec- 

 troscopic observations to the spectrum of a streamer, and 

 to Young's stratum, thereby liberating a number of seconds 

 which would enable me to determine the structure of the 

 undoubted corona with a large refractor, to observe the 

 whole phenomena with the naked eye, and through a train 

 of prisms with neither telescope nor collimator, and 

 finally with a .Savart and biquartz. I found the 120 

 seconds gave me ample time for all this, but owing to a 

 defect in the counterpoising of my large reflector, which 

 disturbed the rate of my clock, I missed the observation 

 of the bright line stratuin (assuming its e.xistence) at the 

 first contact. At the last contact Mr. Pringle watched for 

 it and saw no lines. 



Having missed this, I next took my look at the corona. 

 It was as beautiful as it is possible to imagine anything to 

 be. Strangely weird and unearthly did it look — that 

 strange sign in the heavens ! What impressed me most 

 about it, in my momentary glance, was its serenity. I 

 don't know why I should have got such an idea, but get it 

 I did. There was nothing awful about it, or the landscape 

 generally, for the air was dry and there was not a cloud. 

 Hence there were no ghastly effects, due generally to the 

 monochromatic lights which chase each other over the 

 gloomy earth, no yellow clouds, no seas of blood — the 

 great Indian Ocean almost bathed our feet — no death- 



shadow cast on the faces of men. The whole eclipse was 

 centred in the corona, and there it was, of the purest 

 silvery whiteness. 1 did not want to see the prominences 

 then, and I did not see them. I saw nothing but the 

 star-like decoration, with its rays arranged almost sym- 

 metrically, three above and three below two dark spaces 

 or rifts at the extremities of a horizontal diameter. The 

 rays were built up of innumerable bright lines of different 

 lengths, with more or less dark spaces between. Near 

 the sun this structure was lost in the brightness of the 

 central ring. 



But from this exquisite sight I was compelled to tear 

 myself after a second's gazing. I next tried the spectrum 

 of a streamer above the point at which the sun had dis- 

 appeared. I got a vivid hydrogen spectrum, with 1474 

 (I assume the point of this line from observation) 

 slightly extended beyond it, but very faint throughout its 

 length compared with what I had anticipated, and thicken- 

 ing downwards, like F. I was, however, astonished at 

 the vividness of the C line, and of the continuous spectrum, 

 for there was no prominence on the slit. I was above 

 their habitat. The spectrum was undoubtedly the spec- 

 trum of glowing gas. 



I next went to the polariscope, for which instrument I 

 had got Mr. Becker to make me a very time-saving con- 

 trivance — a double eye-piece to a small telescope, one 

 containing a Savart and the other a biquartz. In the 

 Savart 1 saw lines vertical over everything — corona pro- 

 minences, dark moon, and unoccupied sky. The.t «as 

 no mistake whatever about this observation, for I swept 

 three times across and was astonished at their unbroken- 

 ness. 1 next tried the biquartz. In this I saw wedges, 

 faintly coloured here and there ; a yellowish one here, a 

 brownish one there, with one of green on each side the 

 junction, are all the colours I recollect. Then to the new 

 attack — the simple train of prisms which, the readers of 

 Nature know. Professor Young had thought of as well as 

 myself; its principle being that, in the case of particular 

 rays given out by such a thing as the chromosphere, or the 

 sodium vapour of a candle, we shall get images of the 

 thing itself painted in that part of the spectrum which the 

 ray inhabits, so to speak, wc shall see an image for each 

 ray, as if the prisms were not there. What I saw was four 

 exquisite rings, with pi'ojections where the prominences 

 were. In brightness, C came first, then F, then G, and 

 last of all 1474 ! Further, the rings were nearly all the 

 same thickness, certainly not more than 2' high, and they 

 were all enveloped in a line of impure continuous 

 spectrum. 



I then returned to the finder of my telescope, a3:[' inch, 

 and studied the structure of the corona and prominences. 

 One of the five prominences was admirably placed in the 

 middle of the field, and I inspected it well. I was not 

 only charmed with what I saw, but delighted to find that 

 the open-slit method is quite competent to show us promi- 

 nences well without any eclipse. I felt as if I knew the 

 thing befoie me well, had hundreds of times seen its exact 

 equivalent as well in London, and went on to the structure 

 of the corona. Scarcely had I done so, however, when 

 the signal was given at which it had been arranged that I 

 was to do this in the 6-inch Greenwich refiactor. In this 

 instrument, to which I rushed, for Captain Bailey had 

 Just told us that we had " still 30 seconds more " — which I 



