ained. Professor
Schaeberle, of the Lick Observatory, took, almost without assistance, at
Mina Bronces, a mining station 6,600 feet above the Pacific, fifty-two
negatives, eight of them with a forty-foot telescope, on a scale of four
and a half inches to the solar diameter. Not only the inner corona, but
the array of prominences then conspicuous, appeared in them to be
composed of fibrous jets and arches, held to be sections of elliptic
orbits described by luminous particles about the sun's centre.[571] One
plate received the impression of a curious object,[572] entangled amidst
coronal streamers, and the belief in its cometary nature was ratified by
the bestowal of a comet-medal in recognition of the discovery. Similiar
paraboloidal forms had, nevertheless, occasionally been seen to make an
integral part of earlier coronas; and it remains extremely doubtful
whether Schaeberle's "eclipse-comet" was justly entitled to the
character claimed for it.

The eclipse of 1893 disclosed a radiated corona such as a year of
spot-maximum was sure to bring. An unexpected fact about it was,
however, ascertained. The coronal has been believed to have much in
common with the chromospheric spectrum; it proved, on investigation with
a large prismatic camera, employed under Sir Norman Lockyer's directions
by Mr. Fowler at Fundium, to be absolutely distinct from it. The
fundamental green ray had, on the West African plates, seven more
refrangible associates;[573] but all alike are of unknown origin. They
may be due to many substances, or to one; future research will perhaps
decide; we can at present only say that the gaseous emission of the
corona include none from hydrogen, helium, calcium, or any other
recognisable terrestrial element. Deslandres' attempt to determine the
rotation of the corona through opposite displacements, east and west of
the interposed moon, of the violet calcium-lines supposed to make part
of the coronal spectrum, was thus rendered nugatory. Yet it gave an
earnest of success, by definitely introducing the subject into the
constantly lengthened programme of eclipse-work. There is, however,
little prospect of its being treated effectively until the green line is
vivified by a fresh access of solar activity.

The flight of the moon's shadow was, on August 9, 1896, dogged by
atrocious weather. It traversed, besides, some of the most inhospitable
regions on the earth's surface, and afforded, at the best, but a brief
in