78 
Intelligence  and  Miscellaneous  Articles. 
The  velocity  of  ascent  also,  166  miles  per  second,  is  considerably- 
greater  than  any  thing  hitherto  recorded.  A  general  idea  of  its  ap- 
pearance, when  the  filaments  attained  their  greatest  elevation,  may 
be  obtained  from  fig.  2. 
As  the  filaments  rose  they  gradually  faded  away  like  a  dissolving 
cloud;  and  at  lh  15m  only  a  few  filmy  wisps,  with  some  brighter 
streamers  low  down  near 
thechromosphere,remained  Fig  2. 
to  mark  the  place. 
But  in  the  meanwhile 
the  little  "  thunder-head," 
before  alluded  to,  had 
grown  and  developed  won- 
derfully into  a  mass  of 
rolling  and  ever-changing 
flame,  to  speak  according 
to  appearances.  First  it 
was  crowded  down,  as  it 
were,  along  the  solar  sur- 
face ;  later  it  rose  almost 
pyramidally  50,000  miles 
in  height;  then  its  summit 
was  drawn  out  into  long  fi- 
laments and  threads  which 
were  most  curiously  rolled 
backward  and  downward, 
like  the  volutes  of  an  Ionic 
capital ;  and  finally  it  faded 
away,  and  by  2h  30m  had 
vanished  like  the  other. 
Figs.  3  and  4  show  it  in  its 
full  development — the  former  having  been  sketched  at  lh  40" 
the  latter  at  lh  55m. 
and 
Fig.  3. 
Fig.  4. 
The  whole  phenomenon  suggested  most  forcibly  the  idea  of  an 
- -"-■  '-  upward,  but 
followed  by 
rne  whole  pnenomenon  suggesueu  uiusu  luiuiuiy  mc 
explosion  under  the  great  prominence,  acting  mainly  upward,  but 
ulso  in  all  directions  outward,  and  then  after  an  interval  f 
