244 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



Tennyson poses as an astronomer, but would not care to turn 

 over the indices of some twenty volumes to arrive at what he 

 wants. Here, on p. 73, he will find a reference to vol. xii. p. 92. 

 This is no perfunctory performance. Mr. Levander is not content 

 with reproducing the several Indices referred to, but having found 

 some of them " to be not quite so complete as they ought to have 

 been, and also to contain some typographical errors," he has caref ally 

 gone through the whole of the 6000 pages and attempted to make 

 his list as complete as possible. It is only by frequent use that mis- 

 takes, if they exist, can be run to earth. In the great majority of 

 cases much valuable time will be saved to the possessor of this 

 handy book. "We have detected the few following typographical 

 slips : Sir Isaac Newton figures twice as J. Newton ; Isaac Tod- 

 hunter as J. Todhunter ; W. Rowan Hamilton as E. W. H. (p. 44) ; 

 G-. M. Seabroke (p. 79) should be " Seabrooke "; and Sir E. Beckett 

 is printed (p. 53) Becket. These are all trival matters, but even 

 such are likely to vex the soul of such a careful worker as our com- 

 piler evidently is. Perhaps it was imperative to keep strictly to 

 the instructions of the brief, but now and then one could wish for 

 a little explanation, as in the case of " Mrs. Somerville, new work 

 by " (p. 63) and one or two similar entries. 



XXVIII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ON RAINBOWS AND GLOKIES. BY JOHN TYNDALL, LL.D., F.R.S. 



Dear Francis, 



TV^OULD you permit me to add the following observation to 

 * * what I have already communicated to you regarding rain- 

 bows? 



Some time ago I had sent to me, to Hind Head, the compressed 

 gases and other appliances necessary for the production of the 

 lime-light. On the night of Saturday, February 9th, I sent its 

 beam athwart one of the wildest storms that I have known. Fog 

 and driving rain filled the atmosphere. Standing in the beam, my 

 dark shadow was cast at a distance on the fog, and round the beam 

 were the zones of colour characteristic of the spectre of the Brocken. 

 A white circular rainbow, encompassing the beam, though far 

 removed from it in the darkness, was seen at the same time. A 

 glance at the plate in Ulloa's work will show that I had before me, 

 produced artificially, the exact phenomena described by him. The 

 plane of the white rainbow, however, was, to all appearance, much 

 nearer to me than the glory which surrounded the shadow of my 

 head. Yours faithfully, 



John Tyndall. 

 February 19, 1884. 



