38 The Solar Eclipse of August last. [Jan., 



was at Otturuwa, describes the corona as approaching much more 

 nearly in regularity the four-rayed form generally given, and which 

 F . had always seemed idealized or con- 



ventional. The S.W. ray was, however, 

 unequally subdivided with the smaller 

 part towards the north. The whole 

 seemed of a fibrous, slightly curled 

 or twisted character, somewhat like a 

 cirrus cloud, and of silvery whiteness. 

 The prominences, especially the large 

 one a little to the left of south, seemed 

 at the first instant of a dazzling 

 white, but after his attention had been 

 diverted for a few moments, it ap- 

 peared of a brilliant decided rose colour 

 bordering on crimson, and remained 

 of this colour to the close. To Mr. 

 Zentmayer, who was engaged at the camera and had used neither 

 telescope nor screen, it appeared white, with a slightly roseate hue. 

 To Mr. Moelling, under similar conditions, it appeared white 

 throughout. Messrs. Brown and Baker, who had a short glimpse 

 of it from the door of the dark room, rather incline to the opinion 

 that it was white. Professor Pickering, who was at Mount 

 Pleasant, Iowa, describes the corona as an irregular foiir-pointed 

 star with, of course, a black centre. Two of the rays were nearly 

 vertical and two horizontal, the left-hand one pointing somewhat 

 downward, while between it and the lower ray was a fifth smaller 

 point. The colour was pure white, very different from the full 

 moon, but resembling a cumulus cloud. Its texture resembled 

 the ragged edge of a thundercloud, or the crest of a wave torn 

 by the wind. The striae were not radial but spiral, as if the sun 

 Lad been turned in such a way that the upper edge moved towards 

 the east. 



During the totality Professor Young gave special attention to 

 observation of the corona with the spectroscope. He found that, 

 in place of a subdued solar spectrum, which would have been anti- 

 cipated from the reports of former observations, it yielded a spec- 

 trum of bright lines. These are represented in the coloured illus- 

 tration, and below the spectrum of the corona is given a copy of 

 the spectrum of an aurora borealis as observed by Professor AYin- 

 lock on the evening of April loth. From the close accordance 

 between the coronal lines and three of the auroral lines, Professor 

 Young considers it almost certain that the corona is simply an 

 electric discharge, no doubt varying with great rapidity, as we see 

 in the case of the aurora ; in fact, that the solar corona is a perma- 

 nent aurora. It is, however, right to state that in an article by 



