288 Scientific Intelligence. 
mouth aan who formed one of Prof. Coffin’s Nautical Alma- 
nac party at Burlington. By keeping the center of the slit direct- 
ed to the poi at which the contact is to take place, the observer 
is forewarned of the approach of the moon’s limb, by the shorten- 
ing of the bright lines belonging to the chr omosphere. The line 
C is well adapted to this purpose, and is seen to grow steadily 
shorter until it is totally extinguished. The moment of disappear- 
ance of the last bright ray is of course that of aed first contact, 
which is thus observed with the same care and accurac ¥ as any 
found by F ayer to accord within a small portion of a secon 
with the ine as determined by hing he Sema) of a series of photo- 
graph, taken during the first min 
oung also determined ‘the position of nine bright lines 
eon the totality. These corresponded to 694, 1017°5, 1250+20, 
1350+20, sid 2080, 2602+-2, 2796 of Kirchhoff’s scale, and the 
line A. es 6 were seen elsewhere, but this region was not 
scrutinized by Prof Young.) Of those named, the Ist et 8th 
and 9th are the hydrogen lines «, 8, 7, 4, respectively ; the 2d is 
near ~ but are refrangible, and was very bright; the 3d and 1th 
are new, but faint and their position estimated ; ’ the 5th is given 
by both’ Kirchhoff and Angstrém as an iron line; the 7th was s also 
ee , and is new, its place being micrometrically determined from 
2796. 
Of these Prof. Young states that all but three belong to the pro- 
tuberances; but the 5th certainly, and the 3d and 4th probably, to 
the corona only, remaining visible when the image of the protu- 
rances was moved away from the slit, and the other lines disap- 
the last No. of this Journ 
of. Harkness, of Was ington Observatory, observed at Des 
Moines the spectra of five eons beaious no two of which gave 
the same lines. In the corona spectrum he found no absorptive lines, 
and but ec bright line 
Me the protuberances were made by Prof. Rogers, at 
Des M lies, who found the largest to be nearly a minute an 
half high, and observed a peculiar r honeycombed or cellular appear 
ance in all of them 
pecial search was made for intra-Mercurial planets pe ae 
Newcomb, at Des Moines, according to the e plan suggested by him 
in the April No. of this J ournal, with two 6-inch object-glasses, hav- 
ing a field of about 20‘ each, and previously cl amped to the 8 
ion. A similar serutiny of the ecliptic near the sun ded 
made by Dr. Gould, at Burlington, in connection with Prof. 
fin’s party, using a Tolles telescope of five inches aperture a0 and a 
field of nearly 2°, provided with occulting dises at the focus. But 
