Mr. KendaWs Kotice of a Halo. 337 



Art. XVL — Notice of a Halo, by Thomas Kendall, in a 

 letter to the Editor. 



New-Lebanon, Jan. 1, 1824, 



Sir, 



On the 2nd of July last a most extraordinary phenome^ 

 Iton of halos around and about the sun was witnessed in 

 this vicinity, f do not know that it has been reported by 

 any one : thinking that it may not be wholly uninterest- 

 ing to you, I shall attempt a description. The weather 

 had been dry and warm for two or three weeks previous. 

 On the 2nd the atmosphere was a little smoky, at 1 o'clock 

 P. M. the sun was hid by a thin stratum of clouds, not very 

 compact, and evidently assuming a more uniform appear- 

 ance, which was succeeded by a (ew scattering drops of 

 rain. At 2 o'clock, I first discovered the halos. The clouds 

 had mostly disappeared or had become thin and uniform, 

 having the common consistence of vapour which is usually 

 accompanied with halos. The sun was surrounded by a 

 circle or halo of the common size, but much more brilliant, 

 resembling the rainbow quite as much as it did the ordina- 

 ry halo ; the area of this circle was much darker than the 

 surrounding space. North of this, with its periphery pass- 

 ing into the sun, appeared another halo, once and an half 

 the diameter of the first, not so bright as the former, but 

 more so than usual ; the area of this was darker than the 

 surrounding space, but not as dark as the other. The 

 north side of this halo was intersected at one place by seg- 

 ments of two others not quite as brilliant as the last, whose 

 relative diameters could not be ascertained but were evi- 

 dently larger, and if they were in fact portions of perfect 

 circles, I thought at the time, that like the last they were 

 bounded by the sun ; at each intersection the brilliancy 

 was increased in proportion to the number of circles cross- 

 ing each other. A little to the East of south, and about 

 halfway from the south side of the primary halo to the hor- 

 izon appeared a portion of 16 or 20 degrees of another ha* 

 lo apparently having the sun for its centre, and as bright 

 as the primary one, this was mistaken by some for a rain^ 

 bow ; at one time I discovered (as I supposed) portions of 



VoL.VIL— No. 2. 43 



