138 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
during the long exposure of the American negative, and the 
photographed effects of their alteration would have made that 
picture differ greatly from the one obtained by Mr. Brothers, 
which had a very brief exposure. And their appearance is in- 
compatible with the supposition of a cosmical cloud near to, 
though not connected with, the sun ; for in that case, why 
should the rifts maintain a nearly radial position ? And if we 
conceive the corona to be a solar envelope, we cannot regard 
the gaps as conical openings therein: they must be looked 
upon as valleys of great extent in the direction of our line of 
sight. They rather indicate vacant spaces between groups of 
radiant streamers of luminous or illuminated matter ; and this 
interpretation may well be put upon them by those who have 
been arguing upon the analogy of the corona to terrestrial 
aurorce and its possible connection therewith — a fascinating 
subject upon which one would be disposed to dwell if the 
identity of the coronal with the auroral spectrum lines were 
less doubtfully established. 
The spectroscopic results from the eclipse are tolerably 
numerous. The chief point of interest in them is the ample 
verification of the existence of the green (iron ?) line corres- 
ponding to u 1474” of Kirchoff ’s scale, not only in the spectrum 
of the leucosphere, but in the far outlying regions of the 
corona. Professor Harkness, at Syracuse, saw the line in all 
parts as far as 10' from the moon (or sun), and suspected two 
other green lines less refrangible. Mr. Burton, at Augusta,, 
saw the line also. Professor Winlock, at Xeres, saw it every- 
where for 20', or two-thirds the solar diameter, around the sun* 
Professor Young, also at Xeres, found it half a diameter off. 
Carpmael, at Estepona, saw three lines, one of which is 
doubtless the 66 1474 we may well infer the same of one of 
two lines seen by Professor Denza, in Sicily. And we can 
scarcely doubt that one of those seen by Captain Maclear at 
San Antonio was also the now famous line ; and if so it was, 
with others (c, d, and e), seen faintly on the moon's disc , thus 
clearly indicating reflection in our own atmosphere or in some 
medium between us and the moon. It is thus rendered almost 
certain that some of the distant coronal haze is reflected light, 
and this view is strengthened by the facts that Harkness saw a 
complete hydrogen spectrum when no prominence was near his 
slit, and that Young saw the c-line far above any possible 
hydrogen atmosphere. 
Enough of observations have probably been secured to fix 
indubitably the position of the “1474” line. If more infor- 
mation is needed, it would be worth while to try if it can- 
not be procured from the moon. A spectator upon our satellite 
at sunrise would see the corona peep above his horizon som& 
