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NATURE 
[%an. 19, 1871 

Having got so far, it may be here stated that of the 
three means of attack, namely, the spectroscope, the 
polariscope and telescope, and naked eye observations, 
the spectroscopic method, under certain circumstances, 
might have been by far the most doubtful, the polariscope 
method coming next. 
With regard to the spectroscopic observations, if we 
assume that no light whatever is received by and from 
our own atmosphere, the observatiors would be easily 
translated. A pure continuous spectrum would reveal to 
us solid or liquid matter in the circumsolar regions ; a 
spectrum continuous or not containing bright lines would 
give-us gases or vapours; the ordinary solar spectrum, 
with its dark lines, would indicate matter incapable of 
radiation itself, and therefore cool, reflecting to us ordi- 
nary sunlight. It is clear that the problem would be 
complicated if circumsolar matter both reflected sun light 
and sent us its own; and still more so if we allow that 
the coronal light may be partly contributed from reflections 
and refractions in our own atmosphere. Then we have 
to consider whether the light thus contributed may pos- 
sibly be due to the photosphere or to the prominences, 
and we are landed in a maze of difficulties which need 
not be discussed here. 
The system of sketching introduced for this eclipse is 
at once so simple and final that the only wonder is it has 
not been introduced before. The corona must be either 
solar, atmospheric, or subjective, that is, more or less built 
up in the observer’s eye, this more or less depending 
ceteris partbus upon the brilliancy of the undoubted solar 
portion. If at allstations, the stations being as wide apart 
as they have been this time, the drawings are similar, then 
the corona would be undoubtedly cosmical ; if dissimilar, 
then it would either be terrestrial or subjective: and this 
point could and would have been settled this time, if the 
weather had permitted, by arranging the observers zx pairs, 
that is, dealing with two observers in each place instead 
of a single one, and so obtaining the eye-variation, 
This being premised, what is the result of the very few 
observations, comparatively speaking, which have been 
made? Before I attempt to give any idea of my answer 
to this question, it is only fair to myself to state that my 
only sources of information, up to the present time, have 
been conversations with some of the American members 
of the Sicilian expedition, a brief telegram from the mem- 
bers of the English party at Agosta, the Rev. S.J. Perry’s 
communication to the Daz/y News of the 2nd instant, and 
an inspection of some drawings made by the officers of 
H.M. ships off Aci Reale. At Catania we saw a portion 
of the corona for 13 seconds through a cloud, and that 
was all; and the day after the eclipse, before the more 
fortunate members of my party returned, it became my 
duty to proceed to Malta in H.M.S. Lord Warden to 
attend the court-martial on the officers and crew of the 
beautiful, but unfortunate, Psyche, in which we had been 
wrecked on the 15th ult., and the weather in the Medi- 
terranean has been so bad that it was impossible to leave 
Malta in time to rejoin the expedition before they left 
for England. Of detailed information, therefore, I have 
none. 
In the first place, then, I submit that the fact that the 
corona is a compound phenomena comes out in an un- 
mistakable way. We have first of all a ring some 5’ or 

6’ high round the moon, which almost all observers have 
seen alike ; and then we have light beyond which some 
observers have seen of one shape and some of another, 
now stellate with many rays, now stellate with few, now 
absolutely at rest, now revolving rapidly. 
This I think to be the key-note of all the observations 
with which I have become acquainted. I need scarcely 
say that it is exactly what had been predicted. 
First among the fortunate ones who observed the 
corona with the telescope was Prof. Watson, of Ann 
Arbor, who took up his station at Carlentini, and appears 
to have been the best favoured among the Sicilian ob- 
servers. From his account I gather that there was an 
almost perfect sie// around the sun about 5’ high, and that 
outside this shell were less definite rays. What he was 
particularly struck with was this, that, as seen in the 
telescope, the rayed portion was most developed over the 
prominences, and,as I gathered from him in one case, 
the rayed portion was absent as if a veil had been 
removed; so that he, at all events, is strongly impressed 
with the idea that the shell represented a true solar ap- 
pendage, and that the rayed structure was due to our own 
atmosphere. 
Next comes Mr. Brett, who, although he was not so 
fortunate, still was enabled to see and place on record 
some most interesting features, including the whole out- 
line of the corona and even some of the protuberances. 
Healso, as I am informed, saw the rayed portion of the 
corona most developed above the protuberances, the out- 
line of the interior portion being visible, though not so 
strongly marked as in the case of Prof. Watson’s drawing, 
in consequence of less favourable atmospheric conditions. 
I am thankful to say that the weather at Syracuse enabled 
Mr. Brothers to obtain some admirable photographs, 
which I have not yet seen. These are among the most 
important results of the Expedition. 
Next I must mention Prof. Peirce, the head of one of 
the American parties, who observed two miles north of 
Catania, at a private casino of the Marchese Sangiuliano. 
I believe that he also saw the shell, but of this I am not 
absolutely certain ; but he distinctly observed that the 
outer corona over the prominences was rosy red, although 
he did not see the prominences himself. A more beau- 
tiful proof of the terrestrial nature of this portion of the 
corona it would be difficult to imagine: for, of course, at 
the sun, the hydrogen, which thus tinged it, is incapable 
of colouring anything, as its own light is absorbed by the 
transcendent brilliancy of the photosphere; while nothing 
would be more natural than to suppose that the light, 
which, in its own atmosphere, should strongly tinge any- 
thing radially illuminated, should be that of the promi- 
nences. 
But the strongest proof of the variability of the outer 
portion and of the constancy of the inner portion is 
afforded by the observations made on board the small 
fleet attempting to save the Pysche off Aci Reale, where 
the eclipse was observed in unclouded splendour. Here 
were the ironclads Lord Warden, Caledonia, and Royal 
Oak, and the tugs Wease/ and Hearty, besides the Italian 
gunboat P/edzscito, all within a stone’s throw of each 
other. Inall the drawings, and many have been received, 
we have a ring 5’ or thereabouts, while the outer portion 
is as variable as may be. Onthe same deck, that namely 
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