234 Th e Eclipse of Last December. [April, 



we may regard this portion of the light as reflected sunlight. 

 As respects the part of the light which gives the bright line 

 spectrum, we should infer that the source of light is luminous 

 gas or vapour, — with this proviso, that we need not 

 necessarily have to deal with masses (still less with a com- 

 plete atmosphere) of such gas, but possibly with the light 

 due to such electric discharges as are assumed to cause the 

 appearance of our own auroras. This view seems at least 

 far from improbable, and it is supported by the fact that the 

 conspicuous bright line of the coronal spectrum is one 

 of the principal lines of the auroral spectrum. Assuming 

 it to be true, we should remain in doubt whether the 

 vapours corresponding to the lines exist as vapours in the 

 space traversed by such electric discharges, or whether those 

 lines indicate the nature of the particles or bodies between 

 which the discharge passes. 



But doubts still rested on the observations made by the 

 American astronomers. Observers in Europe seemed dis- 

 posed to question the accuracy of their American fellow- 

 workers. " The evidence furnished by the American observers,'* 

 wrote Mr. Lockyer, " is bizarre and puzzling to the last 

 degree ; " and he referred to observations of his own, 

 causing him to " hesitate to regard the question as settled." 

 The fact, also, that a double spectrum had been seen, was 

 referred to by Mr. Lockyer as "hard to understand, unless 

 we suppose the slit to have been wide, and the light faint, 

 in either of which cases final conclusions can hardly be 

 drawn either way." * With a caution not very complimentary 

 to American men of science, their results were relegated to 

 the eclipse of 1870, for confirmation or disproval by European 

 observers. 



Fortunately, in this respect, the observations of last 

 December were most satisfactory and conclusive. One of 

 the first telegrams received from the shadow-track was one 

 in which Mr. Lockyer admitted that the observations made 

 by the Americans in 1869 had been confirmed. And the first 

 detailed account published in England, in the form of a 

 letter addressed to the Editor of the " Daily News," by 

 Father Perry, the head of one of the observing parties 

 sent out to Spain, exhibited very decisively the same result. 

 The following extract from Father Perry's narrative may 

 fitly introduce the more detailed evidence to be subsequently 

 given. Knowing that the unfavourable sky would render 

 observations with larger spectroscopes quite impracticable, 



* From an article in the first number of " Nature," (Nov. 4, 1869.) 



