252 



NATURE 



\_yan. lo, i< 



favours the volcanic dust theory ; for it is strange that I should 

 never have noticed it before, if it is of common occurrence ; 

 still we know that a phenomenon is more easily seen again after 

 it has once been observed, than seen in the first instance. Can 

 these pink rings be accounted for optically ? If they could, 

 would it not throw much light upon the cause of the fine sun- 

 rises and sunsets ? 



With regard to the height of the film which has caused these, 

 I should like to ask whether it is considered proved that the 

 sun is actually shining on it so far into the twilight, or whelher 

 the glow may not be caused by reflection from bright sky upon 

 which the sun is really ^hining. The after-glow among the 

 Alps is clearly caused in this latter way, and not by the sun 

 shining upon the mountains them elves. At the same time, the 

 appearance of cirrus clouds dark against the bright sky, as oc 

 curred this morning at ab rat 7.40 a.m., seems to point to the 

 film being far above them. Thos. Wm. Backhouse 



Sunderland, December 19, 1S83 



P.S. — This morning the pink half-ring was again conspicuous, 

 only the inner half was nearly white ; within was the blue, 

 darkish, as before. It was at its best at 8.10 a.m. 



December 20, 1883 T. W. B. 



I learned from a Dutch paper (but I forget from which) that 

 a b'.ue sun was observed at Paramaribo in the beginning of 

 September (I think it was the 2nd or the 6th). 



Stuttgart, January E. Metzger 



The following letter appears in the Times of Tuesday : — 



" A shower of matter having ' a white sulphurous appearance ' 

 is reported from the vicinity of Queenstown, Cape Colony, 

 towards the close of November. The appended paragraph, 

 giving an account of the phenomenon, ii extracted from a Kim- 

 berley (Griqualand West) newspaper of December i. Taken 

 in connection with the description in your correspondence 

 columns of December 25 of a somewhat analogous shower at 

 Scutari, the paragraph is certainly interesting, and, perhaps, of 

 value to physicists investigating the cause of the recent celestial 

 phenomena. " Walter Clark 



" Edinburgh, January 3 



" ' We were informed yesterday of the occurrence at Glen 

 Grey, about twelve miles from Queenstown, of a phenomenon 

 which, while it lasted, nearly terrified the white and native 

 population out of their wits. On t he afternoon of Wednes- 

 day a thick sho\\'er of matter, presenting a white sulphurous 

 appearance, fell in the valley in which this village is 

 situate, and, passing right over it from east to west, covered 

 the entire surface of the country with marble-sized balls 

 of an ashy palenes;, which crumbled into powder at the 

 slightest touch. The shower was confined to one narrow 

 streak, and while it lasted, we are told, the surrounding atmo- 

 .sphere remained unchanged and clear, as it had been before. 

 Great noises accompanied the shower, and so frightened the 

 people working in the fields, who at first were under the impres- 

 sion that it was a descent of fire— the white substanc- glistening 

 in the sun — that on perceiving it they fled into their houses for 

 shelter No dam.ige was ciused by what fell, and upon ex- 

 amination of the substance afterwards it was found to be jier- 

 fectly harmless. At fir.-t the little balls were soft and pulpy, but 

 they gradually became dry and pulverised, crumbling at the 

 touch. We have before us a piece of earth on which one of 

 them fell, and the mark left behind resembles a splash of lime- 

 wash or similar matter. It does not smell of sulphur.' ' 



Mr. JohnTebbutt, of Windsor Observatory, N.S.W., writes 

 as follows to the Sydney Ha aid : — The appearance presented by 

 our evening skies fir some weeks past has been the subject of 

 general remark. Last evening, the 14th, the sky was almost 

 cloudless after sunset, and the usual brick -red light again made 

 its appearance along the west-south-west horizon. It was re- 

 flected apparently from an almost invisible and gauze-like cloud 

 in the higher regions of the atmosphere. About seven o'clock 

 the red glow was at its maximum, when a solitary cUud, whose 

 apparent surface did not exceed ten squire degrees, presented 

 tself above it at an altitude of 25°. This cloud, which was at 

 first white, quickly changed to a beautiful green, its borders 

 being of a deeper tint. Of all the cloud phenomena that I have 

 witnessed, it was one of the m"st remarkable. It retained its 

 green colour for the space of about ten minutes, being all the 

 time subject to much internal commotion. It soon afterwards 



resolved itself into several cloudlet.s, and finally disappeared. 

 Two or three other small clouds were visible at the same time, 

 and about the same altitude above the northern horizon, but 

 the.se were of a gray colour throughout. The eastern sky about 

 the moon was of that deep blue which is frequently observed to 

 surround her when rising during the winter oppositions. .Shortly 

 after the dispersion of the green cloud, the ruddy glow gave 

 place to the ordinary pale gray of the tvilight, but by half-past 

 seven o'clock the western sky became .suffused with red, but this 

 time of a clearer and more aurora-like tint. It did not appear, 

 as in the former case, to be reflected from hazy cloud, and it 

 extended much higher in the sky. This repetition of the ruddy 

 glow on the sime evening is a phenomenon which I had wit- 

 nessed on several occasions during the present month. I re- 

 member that many years ago (probably Iwenty-five) a somewhat 

 similar patch of red light used to make its appearance regularly 

 after sunset in the west-north-we-t. This phenomenon occurred 

 previously to the commencement of my regular meteorological 

 observations in 1S63, and was, I think, contemporaneous with a 

 very dry winter. That the pre-ent ruddy skies are not merely a 

 local phenomenon is obvious from the fact that they have been 

 regularly observed during the past three months over a consider- 

 able portion of the Indian Ocean. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE 



Cambridge. — The following appointments have been made 

 in accordance with Grace No. 19, confirmed on December 6 

 Last : — J. H. Randell, B.A., Pembroke College, Assistant De- 

 monstrator in Physics ; J. C. McConnell, B.A., Clare College, 

 Assistant Demonstrator in Physics ; R. H. Solly, Demonstrator 

 in Mineral. )gy, and .\ssi.tant Curator of the Museum ; Walter 

 Gardiner, B.A., Clare College, Demonstrator in Botany ; A. 

 Sheridan Lea, M.A., Trinity College, .Senior Demonstrator in 

 Physiology ; W. D'Arcy Thompson, B.A., Trinity College, 

 Junior Demonstrator in Physiology; A. Harker, B.A., St. 

 John's College, Demonstrator in Geology. Baron Ana'ole von 

 Hiigel has been appointed Curator of the Museum of General 

 and Local Archaeology. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 



The American yournal of Science, December, 1883. — Some 

 points in botanical nomenclature, a review of " Nouvelles 

 kemarques sur la Nomenclature Botanique," par M. Alph. 

 de Candolle, Geneva, 1883, by Asa Gray. The main object of 

 this very valuable contribution to the vexed suViject of botanic 

 nomenclature is to enforce the principles and supplement the 

 data supplied by M. de Candolle in his epoch making work. 

 His doctrines are on the whole cordially accepted, and often 

 very ably illustrated, while here and there some useful sugges- 

 tive remarks and criticisms are offered on matters of detail upon 

 which diversity of opinion and practice still prevails. — Pre- 

 carboniferous strata in the Grand Canon of the Colorado. 

 Arizona, by Charles D. Walcott. The results are here embodied 

 of over two months' careful examination especially of the Kaib.ah 

 Division of the Grand Cail m and lateral gorges undertaken 

 during the winter of 1882-3. The author, an active member of 

 the United States Geological Survey, concludes that the Grand 

 Caiion and Chuar groups correspond to that of the Keweenawan 

 of Wisconsin, both being referable to the Lower Cambri.an. 

 Jointly with the Paradoxides horizon of Br.aintree, Massachusetts, 

 and St. John's, New Brunswick, the olenellus of Nevada, 

 Vermont, New York, and Newfoundland, and the Pi.tsdani 

 series of Wisconsin, New York, Canada, &c. ; they constitute 

 the Cambrian age as so far determined in North America. 

 — Contrioutions to meteorology, nineteenth paper, with three 

 plates, by Prof. Elias Loomis. This paper deals at some length 

 with the barometric gradient in great storms. The results 

 c mfirm in a general way the accuracy of Ferrel's formula : — 

 ^ _ 1076 4 (2« cos if/ -I- !<) sP 

 cos / ( I -f -0040 P' ' 

 where G denotes the barometric gradient in millimetres pel 

 degree of a great circle, or sixty geographical miles. But it is 

 shown that the effect of friction is considerably greater than was 

 supposed by Ferrel. — A brief study of Vesta, by M. W. Har- 

 rington. The auth ir considers it probable that this asteroid has a 



