78 



Capt. Haig's Spectroscopic Observations [Recess, 



man only differed in their position of the small flame c, the former placing 

 it to the right, the latter at a similar distance on the left of the flames b ; 

 but Captain Tanner at once yielded his conviction to that of Mr. Kero Lax- 

 uman, which, therefore, we accepted as most likely to be true. The spec- 

 trum of c was not observed by me at all. I therefore think it could only 

 have appeared simultaneously with the bright spectrum of the moon's edge. 

 I so held the spectroscope that I could not see the spectrum of the flame a. 



The following is an extract from Captain Tanner's notes, taken almost 

 immediately after the eclipse : — " I at first saw three prominences — one long 

 curved pointed tongue, and two close together, straight but flat-topped, 

 about two-thirds the height of the former. They were of a rose-madder 

 colour, and were decidedly more like flames than anything else, not only in 

 their general appearance and colour, but by their being composed of smaller 

 tongues of flame parallel (or nearly so) to the general axis of the flame, 

 so that they had a streaky appearance and a ragged edge. At the first 

 glance, when the sun was somewhat obscured by clouds, I thought they 

 were homogeneous and had hard edges ; but this idea was at once dis- 

 pelled when the clouds cleared off. The two protuberances, which were 

 close together, were not, as far as I could see, joined by any smaller shots 

 of flame. I afterwards observed one small protuberance, and marked 

 the position of it in my sketch. I did not observe that it was streaky, 

 as the others were — perhaps on account of its being so small, and perhaps 

 because I had not sufficient time to examine it properly. As regards the 

 corona, when we first began to see the eclipse through the clouds, I was 

 under the impression that the eclipse, instead of being total, was only an- 

 nular, so bright was the corona near the moon's limb. I could not detect 

 any irregularities in the structure of the corona, but the light appeared to 

 be gradually shaded off all round." 



Captain Tanner also says, " The most careless observer would notice the 

 streaks of which the flames b were composed ; but it required more care- 

 ful inspection to determine the streaky nature of the flame 



The following is from Mr. Kero Laxuman's notes : — "The protuberance 

 a appeared like a red flaming torch, width J a minute, height about 2 

 minutes, colour dark red, lines stretched over a less-red ground. The di- 

 rection not perpendicular to the edge of the moon, but making an angle of 

 60° with it. Those marked b were broader and almost as high as «, but 

 not pointed. They appeared to expand a little at the vertex. They were 

 also streaked by several dark-red lines. That marked c appeared semicir- 

 cular, with a breadth of about J a minute. The flame a was visible for 

 about 2 minutes after the end of totality ; and had there been no clouds, 

 I think it could have been seen longer." 



Both Captain Tanner and Mr. Kero Laxuman also agreed in describing 

 the form of the red flames b as somewhat similar to hands with fingers 

 slightly separated. 



