98 NETHER LOCHABER. 



like a bull's-eye in a bright target of living light, which a little 

 before sunset was plainly visible to the naked eye. It was the 

 evening of the Fort- William market day, and we drew the attention 

 of several people returning from the fair to the unusual phenomenon. 

 One jolly old fellow, who had probably been largely patronising 

 the " tents " on the market stance throughout the day, would insist 

 upon it that he saw, not one big spot on the sun, but two or more 

 — and perhaps he did. A few days previously a perfect stream of 

 maculae of all sizes might easily be observed along the solar equator, 

 looking for all the world as if a flock of ravens were at the moment 

 passing, in struggling order within the telescope's field of view, 

 between us and the sun. At the moment we write these lines, 

 there is a very large spot half-way between the solar centre and its 

 western limb, that towards sunset, if the sky is clear, might, we 

 think, be discerned by the unaided eye. Auroral displays, too, 

 still continue to render our nights, though at present moonless, and 

 frequently cloudy withal, bright and cheerful by their broad and 

 mysterious efi'ulgence. 



The November meteors of the present year seem to have made 

 little or no display anywhere. Here it was wet and cloudy, so that 

 we could not have seen them even if the sky was ablaze with them. 



