W. A. Norton on the Corona in Eclipses of the Sun, 5 



sion observed over the rocks under its various conditions ; and 

 inasmuch as all direct evidence of the submergence of the land 

 required for an iceberg sea over New England fails, the conclu- 

 sion appears inevitable that icebergs had nothing to do with 

 the drift of the New Haven region, in the Connecticut valley ; 

 and, therefore, that the Glacial era in central New England was 

 a Glacier era. 



1 to the Sept. No. of this Journal, I alluded 



briefly to the auroral theory of the solar Corona, and referred 

 to publications in which I had advocated it. I propose now to 

 give a brief discussion of the theory. 



The grounds upon which I have maintained the auroral origin 

 of the Corona in different publications are the following : 



1. The Corona cannot be the permanent atmosphere of the 

 sun, shining by reflected light, since its outline is neither cir- 

 cular nor oval, but exceedingly irregular, and it extends out 

 from the sun many times farther in some directions than in 

 others. The utmost tBat can reasonably be maintained is that 

 for a small portion of its outward extent, for which the grada- 

 tion of light is nearly uniform, it may possibly be a solar at- 

 mosphere. 



2. The natural indications of the aspect of the corona are 

 that it is chiefly composed of separate masses of luminous 

 matter, of unequal brightness and length, radiating out from 

 different points of the sun's limb. The general radiated struc- 

 ture of the corona, and the great comparative outward extent 

 of the luminous radiations in certain directions, have attracted 

 the ; 



streamers have been seen to extend 

 from the sun, while others did not extend to one quarter of 

 this distance. 



3. Eeasoning analogically from the earth to the sun we 

 naturally conceive the body of the sun to be surrounded by a 

 permanent atmosphere. On the same grounds we should infer 

 that the space exterior to this atmosphere is pervaded, either 

 occasionally or permanently, by auroral streamers, simflar to 

 those which at times shoot out many hundreds of miles mto 

 space, from the upper atmosphere of the earth. •_ c ^ 



4. If the luminous radiations of the 

 lUst expect t' 

 , and positio 



