April 20, 1871 | ; 

towards the green, which was better defined, but not clearly so. 
I several times repeated the observation with the same result. 
This, if confirmed by other observations, would appear to point 
to some fluorescent property of the upper atmosphere. 
W. J. B. THompson 
Weybridge Heath, Surrey, April 11 

THERE was a magnificent auroral display last night (Sunday), 
which commenced at 10.45 P.M., and continued till 11.15. The 
streamers radiated from a point due N.W., there being no 
clouds in their vicinity, the colour was a deep red, and they ex- 
tended far beyond the zenith. At 11.20 another display was 
seen, but at right angles to the previous one, and streamed 
across the zenith due N. and S. When the sun had set there 
was an accumulation of stratified clouds near the western horizon 
and quite horizontal, these gradually rose radially, having their 
centre situated a little north of that of the aurora ; and at about 
I1.10 the uppermost radii passed into the field of the northern- 
most streamers, so that it became impossible for me to distinguish 
between them which was cloud and which was auroral. After 
the first appearance had faded away, the second was seen to 
proceed from these clouds upon the latter passing overhead, but 
did not last longer than fifteen minutes, by which time the radial 
clouds had become so dissipated as to lose their character, and, 
to me, were almost invisible. I may mention that this pecu- 
liarity in the clouds was noticed on Saturday evening (the 8th 
inst.) after sunset. 
The old superstition of bloodshed taking place in a distant 
country, and the red colour being the sign, is still prevalent ; it 
was asked of me, by an observer, ‘‘ whether there was a war in 
Paris, or was it on fire, as the reflection of something like it was 
in the sky?” Another declared he could hear ‘‘distant noises 
of the clashing of weapons.” * But the assertion of an old woman 
who was amongst my interrogators, was that it was the reflection of 
fire, and ‘‘showed that mahogany was burning.” The ignorance 
on this subject is appalling, and when we have such absurd ac- 
counts of the aurora borealis from persons of our own time. 
surely the obscure mentions of this phenomenon in the old 
chronicles (vide my article on this subject in NATURE for Dec. 
29, 1870) by perhaps equally ignorant observers of nature, are 
not so difficult of interpretation as many imagine. The experi- 
rience of the present is the key to the past. 
JOHN JEREMIAH 
43, Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell, April 10 

On Saturday, the 15th inst., a remarkably fine aurora was to 
be seen here towards the N.N.W. It was first observed at 8.45, 
and continued from then shining brightly till 9 p.M., when it 
made its disappearance. At first it formed a complete rose- 
coloured arch, in which flickering rays of bright white light were 
Occasionally to be seen. During its appearance its position was 
gradually shifted round to the north, where it remained till 
it disappeared. Je B. FL: 
Marlborough College, April 17 

The Comparative Aggregate Strength of the Light from 
the Red Hydrogen-Stratum, and of that from the 
rest of the Chromosphere 
I wASa spectator of the total eclipse on December 22, and 
though I had no further connection with the Government expe- 
dition than that I was favoured with a passage home in H.M.S. 
Urgent, Iwas kindly permitted by the Rev. Mr. Perry and his 
party to set up my telescope at their observatory at San Antonio, 
near Port St. Mary, on the harbour of Cadiz. 
I made an observation during the total phase, which I ought 
to have published sooner, but did not, partly from the distrust 
which an inexperienced observer naturally fee!s in his own results, 
and partly because I did not see that it might- have some value. 
AsI now think it may be of some interest, I will state what I saw. 
* How old and persistent this belief is may be shown by quoting a remark- 
able passage from Pliny. In Book II. chap. lvi., he says ~“‘ In the time 
of the Cimbrian Wars we have been told that armour was heard to rustle 
and the trumpet to sound out of heaven, ard this happened very often 
both before ana afterthose wars. But in the third consulship of Marius the 
Amerines and Tudertes saw men in arms in the sky, rushing one against 
another, from the east and west, and those from the west were discomfited. 
That the very firmament itself should be on fire is no wonder, for often it 
hath been seen when clouds have caught any great deal of fire.” | This same 
appearance is very probably that which Josephus refers toin his narrative 
of the terrors sent by God previous to the siege of Jerusalem. 
NATURE 



487 
_ The instrument which I used was one of Browning’s direct- 
vision spectroscopes with seven prisms. It was not fitted to the 
telescope which I had with me, simply because I had not time to 
get them properly adapted to one another either before leaving 
England, or after arriving at Gibraltar by the Peninsular and 
Oriental steamer on December 16. 
I spent the first thirty or forty seconds of totality in taking a 
general observation with the telescope ; after that I gave it up 
to the friend who was travelling with me, and had fifty seconds 
at least during which I used the spectroscope. At first I tried 
to use it with the slit moderately narrow (about *oo5in.) ; but, as 
there was much cloud over the moon, though not enough to 
prevent the corona and a slight amount of red light from the red 
hydrogen-stratum being seen with the naked eye, I could get no 
light to pass through the prisms while the slit was narrow ; 
accordingly, I enlarged the slit toa width which would be absurd 
under most circumstances (about ‘o25in.), and then, taking a 
general view of the corona, saw a spectrum in which the red and 
green were present, but the blue and violet totally absent, and on 
this spectrum one line and one only: this line was strong com- 
pared with the rest of the spectrum, red, and of course broad to 
correspond with the width of the slit; and from its position on 
the continuous red part of the spectrum was either C or near it. 
After I first saw this spectrum and line I had fully thirty 
seconds, which I employed in directing the slit as well as I could 
towards all parts of the corona, and inseeking for other lines ; 
during the whole of the time I saw the same spectrum and the 
sare red line only. 
As this spectrum and line, from the nature of my instrument, 
must have proceeded from the mingled light of all parts of the 
chromosphere, I consider my observation as a humble imitation 
of that made by Mr. Pye, recorded in Prof. Young’s article in 
Nature for February 2 (p. 261). The mingled light was suffi- 
cient to give him with his delicate instrument the lines C, D, 1474 ; 
and he estimated the light of 1474 to be apparently greater 
than that of C, and to bear to it the ratio of 10 to 8°5 ; yet the 
light of 1474 was not sufficient to penetrate my rougher instru- 
ment, although the red line (which I can hardly doubt was C) 
showed conspicuously throughout the time that I turned the 
spectroscope upon the corona. 
Whatever value my observation has it must be set in the balance 
against Mr. Pye’s, and tends to weaken the argument by which 
Prof. Young attempts (in the article above-quoted) to show that 
the angular area of the self-luminous corona bears to that of the 
red hydrogen-stratum visible during totality so large a ratio as 
35 or 70 to I, and consequently extends 8’ or 16’ from the sun ; 
in fact my observation tends to give a smaller extent of self-lumi- 
nous corona than Mr. Pye’s. Basit E. HAMMOND 
53, Bilton Road, Rugby, April 1t 



Mount Washington 
Twice recently it has been mentioned in your columns that 
Mount Washington in New England attains the height of 
10,000 ft. If it were so its summit, for nearly 2,000 ft., would 
be clothed with perpetual snow. The most careful measure- 
ments—those of Prof. Guyot—give the height of the mountain 
as 6,288 ft. SAMUEL H,. SCUDDER 
Mentone, April 13 
[The communications in question were received from an 
American correspondent.—ED. | 

The Name “ Britain” 
THE existence in former times of other Britains than those of 
our own island should not be overlooked in discussing the deriva- 
tion of the word. According to Dr. Karl von Spruner’s maps 
of France and Spain for the sixth century, besides the Britannia 
in the north-west of France, there was a town called Britonia 
(the present Mondonedo) in the north-west of Spain. Unless 
the similarity of these names is nothing more than a strange 
coincidence, it does not seem probable that the name Britannia 
can have any connection with the tin which is found only in one 
of the Britannias. Carte (vol. i. p. 10, note), speaking of the 
Phrygians (Briges) “the first nation that entered Europe,” says, 
‘of this sort are the people known over England, Scotland, and 
Ireland, by the name of Brigantes ; the Britanni on the sea coast 
of Gallia Belgica; the Brigani mentioned by Pliny as seated in 
the Alpes . . . . . A Brigantium, now Braganza in 
Portugal ; and another (town) of the same name, now Britangas 
