134. Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters. 



of the photosphere are suspended. This atmosphere 

 resembles a sheet of flame or "prairie on fire," as Pro- 

 fessor Langley describes it. 



The reversing layer is the thin stratum at the base 

 of the flame-sheet, which is seen as the bright line 

 "flash" spectrum for a few seconds only during solar 

 eclipses. 



The chromosphere is the region immediately above 

 the reversing layer, consisting of the gases and vapors 

 which are non-condensible under the conditions there 

 prevailing," 



A total eclipse of the sun is without question one of 

 the most impressive and magnificent scenes visible to 

 the human eye. The gathering gloom, the deathly 

 ashen hues everywhere present, the strange pallid tinge 

 which steals over the faces of men, the weird and dark- 

 ening landscape, and the sombre gray deepening into 

 the purple sky combine to produce a vivid impression on 

 the mind which can never be forgotten. 



It was the good fortune of the writer to have been 

 able to station himself near the center of the track of 

 the shadow which darkened our southeastern states on 

 the 28th of May, 1900, and to have witnessed some of 

 the glories which only reveal their presence while our 

 brilliant sun is in eclipse. Perhaps no total eclipse in 

 recent years was so well observed, the shadow track 

 where it passed over the land surface being in easily ac- 

 cessible places, and the weather propitious at all points 

 where observers were stationed. The writer viewed the 

 phenomenon from Wadesboro, North Carolina, where 

 were also stationed expeditions from England, Canada, 

 the Yerkes and Princeton observatories and the Astro- 

 physical observatory of the Smithsonian Institution, be- 

 sides many smaller colleges and iDrivate observing 

 parties. The equipment of cameras, telescopes, spectro- 

 scopes and other appliances for studying this eclipse was 

 probably the largest and best ever heretofore utilized on 

 a like occasion. The results, while highly important in 

 many respects, really added but slight addition to the 

 sum total of our knowledge concerning many of the sun's 

 problems. 



