266 C. Abbe—Total Eclipse of the Sun of 1869. 
bases of the cones was probably included between seven and 
three minutes. Each apex was of a slightly dusky shade com- 
pared with the body of the cone. 
The most interesting feature was an unmistakable striation 
upon the surface of each cone, the strive apparently twisting 
spirally around up to the apex opposite to the movement of 
the hands of a watch as represented on the accompanying 
drawing. 
I noticed no colorations of these striae other than their darker 
hue. The details of this striking and new phenomenon inter: 
ested me so much that I naturally enough lost the observation 
of the third contact. The pearly cones were on that limb of the 
sun from which the moon was moving, and the details were 
every moment becoming more distinct, when the growing height 
of the bank of red protuberances was followed by the too speedy 
apparition of the glowing sun beneath. 
agrin at the loss or imperfect observation of the third con- 
tact, caused me to forget to note whether the three cones con 
tinued in view for any number of seconds thereafter. From 
the time of first recognizing the pearly cones until their disap- 
pearance probably thirty seconds elapsed (I am writing without 
my note book or other aid to memory), and I did not note any 
change in the appearance of the striw. The middle one of the 
cones caught my eye more particularly, and the impression Was 
that the other two, especially that on the right, was some dis- 
tance behind it, or possibly obscured by a cloud of haze in the 
solar atmosphere. 
t the time it seemed to me that I saw in the central cone r 
column of smoke and hot gas ascending high above the area © 
red flarae, then visible on the surface of the sun, and that the 
pearly cones existed in the solar atmosphere and constituted 4 
true solar corona. s anttfh 
My long delay in making this communication to the scientil¢ 
world will be excused, I trust, in view of the imperative © 
mands made upon my time during the two years that — 
elapsed since the eclipse of 1869. I shall be deeply inter 
to learn whether the phenomena seen by myself may not 
repeated on some other occasion and be studied by more exp® 
rienced observers. ; sl 
I may add that I had hastily provided myself with a N ed 
prism, in hopes to make at least some trial of the nature of the 
