normal order of things--that is, every
evening--the contrary appears; violet remains visible after the red.

This experiment shows that the last light emitted by the eclipsed Sun
belongs to the least refrangible rays, to the greatest wave-lengths, to
the slowest vibrations, to the yellow and red rays. Such therefore is
the predominating color of the solar atmosphere.

This experiment completed, we turn back to the Sun. Magical and splendid
spectacle! Totality has commenced, the Sun has disappeared, the black
disk of the Moon covers it entirely, leaving all round it a magnificent
corona of dazzling light. One would suppose it to be an annular eclipse,
with the difference that this can be observed with the naked eye,
without fatigue to the retina, and drawn quietly.

This luminous coronal atmosphere entirely surrounds the solar disk, at a
pretty equal depth, equivalent to about the third of half the solar
diameter. It may be regarded as the Sun's atmosphere.

Beyond this corona is an aureole, of vaster glory but less luminous,
which sends out long plumes, principally in the direction of the
equatorial zone of the Sun, and of the belt of activity of the spots and
prominences.

At the summit of the disk it is conical in shape. Below it is double,
and its right-hand portion ends in a point, not far from Mercury, which
shines like a dazzling star of first magnitude, and seems placed there
expressly to give us the extent and direction of the solar aureole.

I draw these various aspects (which, moreover, change with the movement
of the Moon), and what strikes me most is the distinction in light
between this aureole and the coronal atmosphere; the latter appears to
be a brilliant silvery white, the former is grayer and certainly less
dense.

My impression is that there are _two solar envelopes of entirely
different nature_, the corona belonging to the globe of the Sun, and
forming its atmosphere properly so-called, very luminous; the aureole
formed of particles that circulate independently round it, probably
arising from eruptions, their form as a whole being possibly due to
electric or magnetic forces, counterbalanced by resistances of various
natures. In our own atmosphere the volcanic eruptions are distinct from
the aerial envelope.

The general configuration of this external halo, spreading more
particularly in the equatorial zone, is sufficiently like that of the
eclipse of 1889, published in my _Popular Astronomy