386 



EAMBLES OP A NATUEALIST. [Ch. XXII. 



the former had reached its greatest brilliancy, which was 

 most marked about the centre or apex. 



In the horizontal bow the red colour was upon the outer 

 or convex side, while iu the vertical bow the red was on the 

 inner or concave side. The horizontal bow was therefore the 

 primary bow, and the vertical bow the secondary or reflected 

 one. Hence we had the remarkable spectacle of a secondary 

 bow appearing before the primary bow was at all developed, 

 and fading in proportion as the latter reached its greatest 

 intensity. The vertical bow, however, was always much 

 less bright than the horizontal bow ultimately became. This 

 latter, when once the prismatic colours became fully de- 

 veloped, seemed rapidly to approach us from the horizon, 

 the limbs appearing to shoot forward, becoming broad, and 

 spreading a wide coloured space upon the blue water on 

 either side ; and the bow, when complete, had somewhat of 

 a horseshoe-shape, as though foreshortened. When it had 

 reached its greatest intensity, being then of amazing bril- 

 liancy, it suddenly faded and disappeared, and the vertical 

 bow, which had been growing very faint, disappeared at the 

 same time. Throughout the whole duration of the pheno- 

 menon the apex of the horizontal bow maintained precisely 

 its original position upon the horizon, namely, where I had 

 first been struck by the appearance of the luminous haze ; 

 and from the time I first observed this appearance tiU the 

 moment when the whole vanished was about ten miuutes. 

 During this time a small drizzling rain fell, which was 

 scarcely sufficient to wet the deck, and the squally effect 

 passed away to the south-west. 



But while it might happen that no peculiar phenomena 

 attracted attention in the sky, nor any living animals were 

 visible in the water, it was always interesting to observe the 



