Dec. 9, 1869 | 
very extreme accuracy in the drawings, not being a practised 
draughtsman, but the sketch gives a very fair idea of the number, 
form, and arrangement of the immense cloudy mass, whose 
height was about 50” and its length 330” (22,500 miles by 
1,350,000). The points a and é were very bright. 
2. +135° small, but very bright at the base, of this form 
(Fig. 2). 
3. —85° of this form (Fig. 3). 
The dark spot, marked c, was very curious, reminding one 
strongly of the so-called fish-mouth in the nebula of Orion. I 
saw no change in it for 20 minutes. 
On the other hand, the first 
Fic. 2. 
series mentioned were changing rapidly, so that at five o’clock 
the sketch which was drawn at two was quite inapplicable, only 
the general features remaining unaltered. 
4. — 128°, about 20” high, forked,gas in Fig. 4. 
The structure was cirvws in every one but No. 3, which seemed 
more like a mass of cumulus. 
To-day, for the first time, I saw 6, reversed 
in the chromosphere when the slit was tangent 
to disc; 1474 was easy; the new line at 2602 
cannot be detected as yet. 
At 2.25, while examining the spectrum of a 
large group of spots near the sun’s western 
limb, my attention was drawn to a peculiar 
double hnobdishness of the ¥F line (on the sun’s 
disc, not at the edge), represented by Fig. 5, a, 
at the pointe. In a very few moments a 
brilliant spot replaced the knobs, not merely 
interrupting and reversing the dark line, but blazing like a star 
near the horizon, only with blue instead of red light ; it remained 
Fic. 4. 
for about two minutes, disappearing, unfortunately, while I was 
examining the sun’s image upon the graduated screen at the slit, 
in order to fix its position, which was at — 823, about 43” from 
the edge of the limb, about 15” inside of the inner edge of the 
spot-cluster. I do not know, therefore, 
whether it disappeared instantaneously 
or gradually, but presume the latter. 
Fig. 5, 4, attempts to give an idea of 
the appearance. When I returned to 
the eye-piece, I saw what is represented 
at Fig. 5, c, &c. On the upper (more 
refrangible) edge of ¥ there seemed 
to hang a little black mote, making a 
barb, whose point reached nearly to 
the faint iron line just above F. As 
given on Angstrom’s atlas, the wave- 
length of F is 486°07, while that of 
the iron line referred to is 485-92 (the 
units being millionths of a millimetre). 
This shows an absolute change of 0°15 
in the wave-length, or a fraction of its 
whole amount, represented by the 
decimal 0°00030, and would indicate an advancing velocity of 
about 55°5 miles per second in the mass of hydrogen whose 
absorption produced this barbed displacement. 
The barb continued visible for about five minutes, gradually 
resolving itself into three small lumps, one on the upper, and 
two on the lower line, Fig. 5, ¢. In about ten minutes more, 
the F line resumed its usual appearance. I did not examine the 
c line, as I did not wish to disturb the adjustments and risk 
losing some of the curious changes going on under my eye. 
After the close of this strange phenomenon, I examined, with 
c ad 
our large telescope of 6-inch aperture, the neighbourhood in | 
which this took place, and found a very small spot exceedingly 
close to, if not actually a/, the place. “This was at 2.45. At 
5.30 it had grown considerably, 
Undoubtedly, the phenomenon seen was the same referred to 
by Mr. Lockyer when he speaks of often secing the bright lines 
of the prominences not only at the sun’s limb but on his dise. 
It is the only time I have had the good fortune to see it as yet. 
NATURE 
173 
GEOLOGY 
Structure of Eophyton 
THE Geological Magazine for the present month contains a 
paper by Mr. Henry Hicks, describing the structure of a fossil, 
from the Lower Arenig rocks of Ramsey Island, near St. David's, 
which he considers to be an Zophyton, resembling £. Linn@a- 
num of Torell. The rocks in which this fossil occurs rest 
conformably upon Upper Lingula flags, and underlie rocks of the 
Skiddaw or Tremadoc series. 
Mr. Hicks describes and figures the fossil under the name of 
iyton (2) explanatum. He describes it as a moderately 
convex stem, about four lines broad, jointed, and ribbed through- 
out its whole length. At one joint in the specimen described, 
the ribs bend outwards, as if to form a branch. The stem is 
covered by a very thin cortical substance, within which it is 
composed of minute tubular columns, lying close together, and 
running the whole length from one joint to another. 
The Geological Magazine also contains papers by Mr. Ruskin 
| on Banded and Brecciated Concretions, illustrated with a plate 
and several woodcuts ; by Mr. Poulett Scrope, on the pretended 
raised Beaches of the Inland Slopes of England and Wales, 
severely criticising Mr. D. Mackintosh’s recent volume on Geology 
and Scenery ; by Prof. Harkness, on the middle Pleistocene de- 
posits of Britain; by Mr. R. Tate, on additions to the list of 
British Brachiopoda of the secondary rocks, including a table 
showing the distribution of the British Ziassic Brachiopoda ; and 
by Mr. W. H. S. Westropp, on the occurrence of ‘‘albite” in 
the granite of Leinster. Lord Enniskillen contributes a cata- 
logue of the type specimens of fossil fishes in his collection. 
The number also contains the usual notices, reviews, and abstracts 
of the proceedings of societies, correspondence, &c. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
LONDON 
Chemical Society, December 2.—Dr. A. W. Williamson, 
F.R.S, in the chair, Sir Roderick Murchison, Bart., F.R.S., 
Messrs. M. H. Cochrane, Edward Smith, T. Walton, M.R.C.S., 
G. M. Hopwood, John Wiggin, Thomas Gibb, and George 
Harrison were elected Fellows. A paper on some points of the 
Chemical Nomenclature of Salts by Mr. H. G. Maden was 
read. The author advocated the use of the prefixes “ proto” 
and ‘‘per” instead of the terminations “ ous” and ‘‘ic” in the 
nomenclature of salts, and expressed his preference for the sys- 
tematic names formed from English words, as ‘‘ copper sulphate.” 
Dr. Attfield recommended an adherence to trivial names like 
““calomel” and ‘‘corrosive sublimate,” when possible, as 
changes in theory necessarily led to inconvenient alterations in 
nomenclature. Dr. Williamson objected to Mr. Maden’s pro- 
posal to revert to the use of the prefixes ‘‘ proto” and ‘*‘ per,” 
on the ground that they had formerly produced great confusion, 
particularly in the nomenclature of the chlorides of mercury. He 
advocated an extension of the use of the terminations ‘‘ ous” and 
“ic,” which indicated the places of compounds in a series with- 
out binding chemists to particular views of constitution. He 
thought Mr. Maden’s preference for English words might be car- 
ried too far and produce such terms as ‘‘brimstonic acid’ and 
‘*charcoalic oxide.” Mr. Vernon Harcourt expressed his gene- 
ral concurrence with the author. Dr. Odling pointed out that 
in certain names, such as “‘ ferricyanide of iron,” it was advanta- 
geous to use both English and Latin names. Dr. Voelcker thought 
that the employment of different names for the same substance 
familiarised chemists with different views of constitution. A 
communication from Mr. J. Hunter on the analyses of sea-water 
from different depths was read. ‘The author gave the results of 
observations made during the recent scientific expedition of the 
Porcupine. 
Zoological Society, November 25.—Mr. John Gould, 
I.R.S., V.P., in the chair.—Mr. Sclater made some remarks on 
the condition of various zoological gardens on the Continent 
recently visited by him, and on rare animals observed in those 
establishments. The secretary exhibited on behalf of Mr. John 
Brazier, C.M.Z.S., the eggs of a megapode (Afegafodius) from 
Banks Island, New Hebrides, indicating the existence of a species 
of this genus in that group of islands. A letter was read from 
Mr. W. T. Fraser, C.M.Z.S., giving some confirmatory facts 
