94 CJironicles of Science. [Jan., 



drab-coloured clay, becoming bluish higher up, thickly covered with 

 vegetable debris, trunks of trees varying from 6 inches to 2 feet in 

 diameter, branches, twigs, leaves, and hazel-nuts; no animal or 

 human remains or tools were found, though some of the hazel-nuts, 

 which were very abundant, had been gnawed (by squirrel- ? . 

 Many stumps were still in a vertical position. The movement of 

 submergence must have been uniform, as it had not disturbed the 

 approximate horizontality of the old forest ground, and must have 

 amounted at the least to 18 feet, the greatest tidal range on that 

 part of the coast, but there are no data from which to calculate 

 how much greater it may have been. 



3. ASTRONOMY. 



{Including the Proceedings of the Astronomical Society.) 



The careful examination of the photographs of the recent fc 

 solar eclipse in America has revealed a very int a dan > fact respecting 

 the sun's corona. It has long been questioned whether this appear- 

 ance belongs to the sun or is merely an optical effect due to our 

 own atmosphere. It appears from the careful comparison of the 

 photographs taken during the progress of the last eclipse, that the 

 moon passed over the corona. The reader will remember that it was 

 from observations of this sort, made nine years ago, that astronomers 

 were led to the conclusion, now incontrovertibly established, that 

 the prominences belong to the sun. There seems little reason fox 

 doubting that we may now come to the same conclusion respecting 

 the corona. 



It must be mentioned, however, that many eminent physicists 

 and astronomers are still disposed to question the justice of this 

 conclusion. Passing over the observations made by Mr. Pickering 

 during the total eclipse, from which he is inclined to think that the 

 corona belongs to the moon, we may dwell on sounder reasons which 

 have been alleged against the belief that the corona belongs to the 

 sun. Recent observations of the spectra of the prominences by Mr. 

 Lockyer and other astronomers, compared with the careful study 

 by Dr. Frankland of the corresponding spectra of terrestrial elements 

 under varying circumstances of pressure and temperature, have led 

 to the belief that the part of the sun's atmosphere which Lies above 

 his photosphere is not very dense, — certainly not by any means so 

 dense as it would be if the corona were in reality a solar atmosphere. 



On the other hand. Professor Young, an American astronomer, 

 has made a highly significant observation. He has found that the 

 spectrum of the corona exhibits the same bright lines as the auroral 



