462 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 
the single lines appear to be each about half as wide as the com- 
ponents of b 3 , and are separated by an interval about one third 
as great. The whole number between b t and 6 4 must be over a 
hundred, though they are of course very difficult to count with 
accuracy. They are a little wider in the middle of the spot-spectrum, 
in fact spindle-shaped, running out into extremely fine threads 
where they pass into the penumbra, and in my instrument they 
seem to be a little more hardly and sharply defined on the upper 
(more-refrangible) edge than on the lower. 
The bright lines, of which there are six between b x and 6 4 , are 
generally about as wide as the interspace between the components 
of b 3 . They are sharply defined at both edges, and no brighter at 
the centre than at the edge — a fact which rather bears in favour of 
the idea that they are merely interruptions in the dark-line series, 
and not really superposed bright lines. Just above b i (at \ 5162-3) 
there is a very conspicuous one, which is also noticeable enough 
in the ordinary solar spectrum. Attention has indeed been 
frequently called to it long since by other observers. Below E 
these bright lines are rare. Higher up in the spectrum, between 
F and Gr, they become very numerous. 
I have also made a considerable number of observations upon 
prominences with the nine and one-half inch equatoreal and its own 
spectroscope. There have been lately numerous very fine exhibi- 
tions, especially in connection with the spots. The number of lines 
reversed in the spectrum of the chromosphere has at times been 
very great, far exceeding the number observed and catalogued in 
1872 ; but I have not been able to detect a single new one below 
C, though the two mentioned in my catalogue have been seen 
almost continuously. On two occasions (July 31st and August 
1st) anew line above H (A. 3884 + 2) was conspicuously visible for 
an hour or two each time, during a specially vigorous eruption of 
the prominences associated with the great spot, which was then just 
passing off the limb. This line was seen easily without the aid of 
any fluorescent eye-piece ; and I am satisfied that on a photographic 
plate it would have been more brilliant than either H or K. I 
could not determine its position within one or two units on account 
of the difficulty of identifying the numberless fine lines around it. 
With the widened slit it showed clearly the form of the lower 
part of the prominence, but not the upper. It was almost precisely 
imitated by two new lines at A 4092 and 4026 ; and the catalogue- 
lines 4077 and 3990 resembled it also. On the other hand, h, H, 
and K showed the higher parts of the prominence as well as the 
lower, while the lines at 4045 and 3970 were exceedingly fine and 
smooth, without knottiness or structure. 
On August 1st, at 2 h 58 m local time (=7 h 57m Greenwich time), 
the intensity of the chromosphere-spectrum was very remarkable, 
the bright lines more vivid and numerous than I remember ever to 
have seen them before. Between this time and 3.12 a prominence 
was shot up in fragments of flame to an elevation of over 120,000 
