Dec. 13. 1883] 



NATURE 



'30 



with the object of ascertaining whether the cftcct was due 

 to a complementary tint, and am thoroughly convinced it 

 was not. At four o'clock, or a little after, the moon was 

 distinctly green on a blue-gray sky-ground, with very thin 

 gray cloud-drift floating over it. At the same time the 

 whole of the western sky was lit up with a very pale 

 whitish yellow, to which neither blue nor green would be 

 complementary. There was not a vestige of crimson or 

 rose colour at that time in any part of the sky. Later, 

 when the crimson supervened, the green tint of the moon 

 was only very slightly intensified, so slightly indeed as to 

 leave me still in doubt whether there was any change at 

 all. It stands to reason, moreover, that if the result were 

 due to the presence of crimson in the sky we should 

 frequently see a green moon. Some other cause must 

 therefore be sought in explanation of this new pheno- 

 menon. If we may accept Mr. Lockyer's conclusions 

 with regard to volcanic action — and he certainly esta- 

 blishes a very strong case — the cause is not far to seek. 

 It would be especially interesting to ascertain over how 

 wide an area the effect was visible. Some records from 

 observers at a distance would be very valuable. 



Ealing, December 10 SYDNEY HODGES 



P.S. — In quoting my letter to the Standard last week 

 you gave a wrong name — Hooper instead of Hodges. 



There is one point in connection with this subject to 

 which much attention has not been given, namely, the 

 increase of light, especially in the morning. Having slept 

 out of town lately, I have been able to watch the sunrises, 

 and to be exact I will describe in few words what occurred 

 on Wednesday last, December 5. The eastern horizon is 

 bounded by a hill some 50 feet high as seen from my house. 

 At 6 a.m. I saw, rising in a semicircular form above the 

 horizon, and tolerably defined in outline, a beautiful red 

 coloration of the sky. The colour spread along the 

 horizon in a westerly direction, and at 6.30 the entire 

 vault of heaven was suffused with this red colour. When 

 it was first noticed, namely at 6 o'clock, the light was 

 sufficient to illumine the garden, as in the early morning 

 in summer. At 6.15 the light was sufficiently strong to 

 enable me to read the figures on my pocket-watch at the 

 head of my bed, namely eighteen feet away from the 

 window. The sun rose above the horizon at Sh. 5m., and 

 at 10° farther west than the first burst of colour which I 

 noticed. As the sun rose, the red colour disappeared, 

 and it was entirely lost before the sun was fully in view. 

 I am told by friends who were in Diisseldorf on November 

 30 that at 6 o'clock on that morning their rooms were 

 lighted up so that everything was plainly visible. They 

 at first supposed that the light was produced by a large 

 fire opposite ; but they soon discovered that it arose from 

 this red light which you have now so well explained. 

 December 10 B. E. Brodhurst 



Not having noticed any letter in Nature stating that the 

 remarkable led glow seen in so many places after sunset 

 was also observed in Ireland, perhaps you will permit me 

 to mention that during the past fortnight, and especially 

 since the 24th ult., it has attracted much attention here. 

 This day week my steward insisted that the heather was 

 on fire on the hills and that we were only watching its 

 reflection. Since then the phenomenon has been even 

 more remarkable, and the farm labourers have been 

 enabled to remain at work in the fields ten to fifteen 

 minutes later than usual. A bank of cloud generally 

 separates the red glow from the horizon. Before sunrise 

 the sky has sometimes a strange reddish look, and at 

 4 a.m. on the 29th ult. the brilliant roseate hue (referred 

 to in the Times as having been seen in London at 5 a.m.) 

 was witnessed here. Rich.ard M. B.^rrington 



Fassaroe, Bray, Co. Wicklow, December 2 

 According to a letter from my brother, dated Yoko- 

 hama, September 22 last, the sun was completely obscured 

 there two days after the earthquake took place in the 



Straits of Sunda. He writes: — "What a terrible earth- 

 quake that must have been in the Straits of Sunda. In- 

 credible as it may appear, two days afterwards the sun 

 here was completely obscured, and, on its reappearance, 

 was quite Mw^j'rtv/, while every now and then jets that 

 looked like smoke passed across its disk. This lasted 

 for two days," and he adds that " it is conjectured that this 

 is caused by the volcanic smoke and ashes having been 

 driven up here by the south-west monsoon." 



32, Fenchurch Street, E.C., Dec. 8 W. HAMILTON 



A FEW days since I was memioning to my family that 

 I remembered how splendid the colouring of the sky 

 was at Malta after sunset in the year that " Graham's 

 Island'' appeared. In this morning's Tiiui-s that island 

 is alluded to, and I think you may be interested in the 

 perusal of the accompanying pamphlet (printed for 

 private circu'ation only). My father (Capt. Sir le 

 Fleming Senhouse, K.C. H.), you M'ill see, landed on tht- 

 island, and named it after the then First Lord of the 

 Admiralty. The great beauty of the sunsets we have 

 been having have forcibly reminded me of the colouring 1 

 saw so many years since at Malta. 



Hillside, Guildford, Dec. 8 ELIZABETH M. Pitman 



A correspondent sends the following : — 



It may interest your readers to know that in reference 

 to the splendid sunsets we have seen in England lately 1 

 received in a letter from Lieut. C. K. Hope, R.N. (tv/ rauic 

 by inshore passage to the Caj :e of Good Hope) the fol- 

 lowingaccount of an extraordinary phenomenon witnessed 

 by him on October 26 soon after crossing the equator : — 

 " H.M.S. Oiivitcs, October 26. — Last evening shortly 

 after sunset the sky bearing from us between north-west 

 and south-west suddenly burst into a red glowing light : 

 the highest point attained an altitude of probably 35° or 

 40°, and from there tapered gradually away on both sides 

 to the horizon. It showed brightest about 7.15, it being 

 nearly dark at the time, and lasted till 7.30, gradually 

 dying away till about 8 o'clock, when very little of it was 

 left. I could have understood the phenomenon if we had 

 been 40^ further north or 20' further south, but on the 

 edge of the tropics such a thing is very strange." 



December 5 



T 



THE JAVA ERUPTIONS AND EARTHQUAKE 

 WA VES 



HE following communications have been sent us for 

 publication by the Hydrographer of the Admiralty : — 



Extract from a letter of Commander the Hon. Fole\' 

 C. P. Vereker, of H.M.S. Magpie, dated Labuaii 

 Island, October i, 1883 : — 



"... The noise of the detonations caused by Mount 

 Krakatoa, resembling distant, heavy cannonading, was 

 distinctly heard by us and the inhabitants of thi^ 

 coast as far as Bangney Island on August 27. The 

 weather at that time was also much unsettled, with thick 

 hazy weather, and peculiar clouds to the southward, and 

 the sun while at a low altitude assumed a greenish hue 

 for several days. . . ." 



Extract from a letter of Stafi-Commander Coghlan, 

 R.N.:~ 



" Western Australia, Perth, September 14,1883.— This 

 coast has been visited by waves and volcanic disturb- 

 ances (sounds as of the firing of guns inland, &c.)- 

 apparently associated with the Sunda Strait outbreak. 



" News is anxiously looked for from ournorth-west coast, 

 as a wave 15 feet high, coming at high water, would 

 lay Cossack, the mouth of De Grey River, Carnarvon 

 (north of Gascoyne), and other places under water. In 

 Champion Bay a wave rose 8 feet above the usual 

 high- water mark. At Fremantle, King George's Sound , 



