OF SPECTRA AT THE SOLAR ECLIPSE OF JANUARY 22, 1898. 
395 
It thus appears that the intensities found in tliese spectra by no means represent 
the actual intrinsic intensities of the bright lines of the different elements. Could we 
obtain a sample of the incandescent gas from near the base of the flash-spectrum layer 
and examine it close at hand with a slit spectroscope, it is certain that the relative 
intensities would differ widely from those in the flash spectrum as observed at an 
eclipse, and it is possible that they would be found to correspond much more closely 
with the relative intensities in the Frauidrofer spectrum. 
From the foregoing considerations it is clear that the emission lines from the lowest 
levels of the flash layer must be very difficult to observe, however bright they may be 
intrinsically. The wide divergence between the flash and Fraunhofer spectra, with 
respect to intensities, would appear, therefore, to afford no ground for abandoning the 
original interpretation of the flash proposed by Professor Young from his observation 
in 1870, and the evidence of these photograjDhs certainly indicates that the flasli 
does, in fact, represent the upper, more diffused portion of a true reversing stratum. 
In the flash-sj^ectrum photograph (No. 3) fifteen elements can be identified with 
certainty in the lower chromosphere, in addition to hydrogen and helium, and there 
are three elements doubtfully represented. 
Arranged according to their relative intensities, the following four groups occur :— 
Group 1. 
(Lines strong in Hash and in solar spectrum.) 
Na . . . atomic w^eight 23’0 
Mg . . . „ „ 24-3 
A1 . . . „ „ 27-1 
Ca . . . „ „ 40-U 
Group IL 
(Lines strong in flash but compai'atively weak iu solar spectrum.) 
Sc . 
atomic 
weight 
44-1 
Ti . 
• • ?? 
5 5 
48-1 
V . 
• • 5 5 
5 '' 
51-2 
Cr . 
• • 55 
5 5 
52-1 
Mn . 
• • 55 
5 5 
55-0 
Sr . 
• • 55 
5 5 
87-G 
Y . 
. . 5 5 
55 
887 
Group III. 
(Lines relatively w^eak in flash, very strong in solar spectrum.) 
Fe . . . atomic weight 56'0 
Ni . . . „ „ 58-7 
