that the air, the cloud, ever between us and the dark moon, gives us the same spectrum that we get from the prominences themselves. Given, however, the layers and elements in the chromosphere extended as far as you will, and apparently increased or not by reflexion not at the sun, we have still to account for rays, rifts, and the like. If anyone will explain either Mr. Brother's photograph or Mr. Gilman's picture of the eclipse of 1869, containing those dark bands starting from the moon and fading away into space, and the bright variously-colored rays between them, on any solar theory, he will render great service to science. But in the meantime I must fall back upon M. Mädler's opinion of 1860, with the addition to it that I have stated that we have found, at all events, that some of the doubtful light is now solar; we have turned the opinion into a fact.

Bear in mind that close to the sun you have a white layer composed of vapors of many substances, including all the outer ones; outside this is a yellow region; above that a region of hydrogen, incandescent and red at the base, cooler, and therefore blue, higher up, the red and blue commingling and giving us violet; and then another element thinning out and giving us green. Take these colors in connection with those which are thrown on our landscapes or on the sea during eclipses, each region being lighted up in turns with varying, more or less monochromatic, light, and that light of the very color composing the various layers, each layer being, as I have shown, so much brighter than the outer ones that its light predominates over them. Is it too much to suggest to those who may be anxious to attempt to elucidate this subject, that probably if they would consider all the conditions of the problem presented by that great screen, the moon, allowing each of these layers by turn to throw its light earthward, the inequalities of the edge of the globular moon allowing here light to pass from a richer region, here stopping light from even the dimmer ones, they would be able to explain the rays, their colors, variations, apparent twistings, and change of side? I do not hesitate to ask this question, because it is a difficult one to answer, since the whole question is one of enormous difficulty. But difficult though it be, I trust I have shown you that we are on the right track, and that in spite of our bad weather, the observations made by the English and American Government Eclipse Expedition of 1870 have largely increased our knowledge.

With increase of knowledge generally comes a necessity for changing the nomenclature belonging to a time when it was imperfect. The researches to which I have drawn your attention form no exception to this rule. A few years ago our science was satisfied with the terms prominences, sierra, and corona, to represent the phenomena I have brought before you, the nature of both being absolutely unknown, as is indicated by the fact that the term sierra was employed, and aptly so, when it was imagined the prominences might be solar mountains! We now know many of the constituent materials of these strange things; we know that

we are dealing with the exterior portion of the solar atmosphere, and a large knowledge of solar meteorology is already acquired, which shows us the whole mechanism of these prominences. But we also know that part of the corona is not at the sun at all. Hence the terms leucosphere and halo have been suggested to designate in the one case the regions where the general radiation, owing to a reduced pressure and temperature, is no longer subordinate to the selective radiation, and in the other, that part of the corona which is non-solar. Neither of these terms is apt, nor E is either necessary. All purposes will be served if the term corona be retained as a name for the exterior region, including the rays, rifts, and the like, about which doubt still exists, though it is now proved that some part is non-solar, while for the undoubted solar portion the term Chromosphere-the bright-line region-as it was defined in this theatre now two years ago, exactly expresses its characteristic features, and differentiates it from the photosphere and the associated portion of the solar atmosphere.

Here my discourse would end, if it were not incumbent on me to state how grateful I feel to Her Majesty's Government for giving us the opportunity of going to the eclipse; to place on record the pleasure we all felt in being so closely associated in our work with the distinguished American astronomers who from first to last aided us greatly; and to express our gratitude to all sorts of new friends whom we found wherever we went, and who welcomed us as if they had know us from our childhood.

3. Shooting Stars of August 10th-11th.-At Sherburne, N. Y., a party of six persons watched for the August meteors on the night of the 10th-11th of the month. Between 11h 40m and 12h, fortyeight were seen. In the next hour one hundred and forty-three were counted, and in the first eighteen minutes of the next hour, thirty-two. By this time the moon was sensibly diminishing the numbers seen, and the party broke up.

The latitude of the radiant was one and one-half degrees less than that of the nebula in Perseus. Its length was at least two degrees, extending from a point 2° or 3° to the left of that star to one 8 or 10° to the right. A large part of the tracks near the radiant could, however, be regarded as diverging from the portion to the left of Eta. Nearly or quite seven-eighths of the meteors were judged to be conformable to the above line as a radiant.

H. A. N.

4. On a Meteor seen at Wilmington, N. C., July 19; by Capt. E. S. MARTIN.-On Wednesday night, July 19th, between 8 and 9 o'clock, we were very much startled by a blaze of light, followed by a hissing noise like fire roaring. Our first thought was that the house was on fire, but, in a second, a large ball of fire came rolling through the air, immediately over the house, from the south toward the north, and broke in the northern heavens, throwing off three large stars of crimson fire. Almost a minute after, there came a loud report, as of a cannon, only followed by a roll too long for a gun and not quite long enough for thunder.

IV. MISCELLANEOUS SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

1. Deep Sea Dredging, under the direction of the Coast Survey. The U. S. Coast Survey Steamer F. R. Hassler, commander P. C. Johnson, U. S. N., now approaching completion at Wilming 'ton, Del., will be dispatched as soon as ready to the coast of California for the survey for which she is designed.

Prof. Peirce, Superintendent of the Coast Survey, to make this long voyage by way of the Straits of Magellan as profitable as possible to science, has offered to Prof. Agassiz the direction of a scientific party to sail in her, and pursue during the voyage deep sea researches and investigations in natural history at the different points of stoppage. The party will consist of Prof. Agassiz as director (accompanied by Mrs. Agassiz), Ex-President Hill of Harvard College as physicist, Assist. L. F. Pourtales of the Coast Survey in charge of deep sea dredgings, Dr. Steindachner as icthyologist, Mr. Blake as draughtsman. Some of the officers of the ship have also qualified themselves to assist in various researches. The points at which the steamer will probably stop will be Bermuda, Trinidad, Rio Janeiro, Montevideo, the Falkland Islands, the Straits of Magellan, Juan Fernandez, the Gallapagos.

The ship is fitted out with a special view to deep sea soundings and dredgings, and will probably be ready for sea in the latter part of September.

2. International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology.—The annual meeting of this Congress, instituted by the Italian men of science, will open at Bologna on the 1st of October next, and continue eight days. The payment of twelve francs, which may be sent to Professor Capellino at Bologna, will entitle any one to a card of membership and to all its publications. The special questions before the meeting are:

(1.) The age of Stone in Italy.

(2.) The caverns on the borders of the Mediterranean, and particularly those of Tuscany, compared with those of southern France. (3.) The lake-dwellings of northern Italy.

(4.) Analogies between the "Terramarres" and the Kjækkenmædding.

(5.) Chronology of the first substitution of bronze for iron. (6.) Craniological questions with reference to the several races which have peopled the different parts of Italy.-Les Mondes, xxiv, 672.

3. Prof. Marsh's Rocky Mountain Expedition.-A letter to one of the editors from Prof. Marsh, dated Fort Wallace, Kansas, July 25th, 1871, states that he has just returned from his preliminary trip, among the Saurians, and has in his large collections, obtained in Kansas during the last fortnight, some very interesting things, including various portions of the hind limbs of the Mosasaurs, and some more remains of the Pterodactyl found last season. By the latest information from the party, they were at Salt Lake City, bound westward.

4. British Association.-The meeting for the current year at Edinburgh commenced on the 2nd of August. Sir William Thomson, the President, delivered his inaugural address in the Music Hall. The Emperor of Brazil occupied a chair on the President's right hand. The present was the third meeting at Edinburgh during the 40 years of the existence of the association.

The report of the treasurer shows that at the Liverpool meeting (1870) £852 were taken in annual subscriptions, £1,103 from associate's tickets, and £910 from ladies' tickets. The whole income of the year was a little over £5,239, or more than twentysix thousand dollars.

5. American Association.--The meeting was opened at Indianapolis on the 16th of August. The address of Prof. T. Sterry Hunt, the retiring president, was delivered to a large audience in the evening. Besides other business of the morning session, Professor J. E. Hilgard, of the U. S. Coast Survey, chairman of a special committee appointed with reference to establishing an observatory at one of the highest points of the Pacific Road, reported that a memorial had been presented to Congress on the subject, and favorable action was hoped for at an early day.

The proceedings of the meeting have come too late to be further noticed in this number.

6. American Naturalist.-The press of the American Naturalist, at Salem, Mass., will issue, according to a recent announcement, a number containing abstracts of papers read at the meeting of the American Association at Indianapolis, and the address of Dr. Hunt, the retiring President.

OBITUARY.

EDWARD CLAPARÈDE.-One of the most industrious and learned of the younger zoologists of Europe, Edward Claparède, has lately (June, 1871) died at Sienna, at the age of 39. His memoirs, begun in 1857, have been issued with remarkable rapidity. His principal works consist of his monographs on the Infusoria and Annelids. In all his papers, his thorough physiological and anatomical training is perceptible, his details being always discussed in all their general bearing. Living in Geneva, and a pupil of Johannes Müller, he wrote with equal facility French and German: an admirable draughtsman, his many papers, which have appeared in the principal German and French scientific periodicals, are excellently illustrated and wonderfully accurate.

His qualities as an original and independent observer are best seen in his larger memoir on the Annelids of the Gulf of Naples, and his observations on the Anatomy and Embryology of the Invertebrates made on the coast of Normandy. His style was remarkably clear and his information very extensive, as is shown from his scientific reviews in the Archives de Genève. Thoroughly independent in his scientific opinions, he never allowed himself to be carried away by weight of authority, and no scientific charlatan protected by eminent names was allowed to pass current; his

reviews and criticisms were often sharp, but always just, and never personal. The Academy of Geneva, where he was Professor of Anatomy, will find it difficult to fill the place of one who, in spite of his failing health, showed an enthusiasm for his science rarely equalled.

A. AG.

ALEXANDER KEITH JOHNSTON, the geographer, died at Edinburgh, on the 11th of July, aged sixty-eight.

V. MISCELLANEOUS BIBLIOGRAPHY.

1. DR. ELLIS'S Life of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, is written in the best taste as a literary production, and sets the character of this philosopher in its true light as an original genius and able investigator. The memoir opens with a happy parallel between Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Thompson, "who were born within twelve miles of each other, under like straits, in humble homes; both of English lineage, of an ancestry and parentage yeomen on the soil on either continent, without dependence upon inherited means, or patronage, or even good fortune." Yet it appears they were never acquainted personally, although they were for thirty years contemporaries, of similar tastes and pursuits, and were intimate in friendship or correspondence with some of the same distinguished persons. Both labored in an unselfish spirit, and both succeeded in doing what has been for the good of a common humanity, "without distinction of class, and without a view to any personal ends of thrift or glory. If Franklin, whether by good fortune or a keener sense, attained a higher fame as a statesman, there can be no doubt that Thompson was more eminent in his scientific pursuits and attainments, and that is no small praise in view of all that Franklin did in science. As historians of science which is cosmopolitan, we can overlook, if we cannot wholly excuse, the course which misled Thompson to take up arms against his country, under circumstances of a highly irritating character which go far to excuse what we have reason to know he often regretted. Dr. Ellis has had access to numerous original sources of information, which have enabled him to correct many errors which had become traditional in the lives of Rumford, and to add a great number of items, both curious and instructive, showing the youth to have been father to the man. His skill with his pencil was early developed as a caricaturist, and in sketches, as well as in attempts at wood engraving, he showed considerable skill when he was not over fifteen years of age. His letters of enquiry, addressed at about the same age to his early friend Loammi Baldwin, touch on many subjects of a scientific nature, which few boys at that age are wont to trouble themselves with; this brief note, dated "Woburn, August, 1769," will serve as an example:

* Memoir of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, with notices of his Daughter. By GEORGE E. ELLIS. Published in connection with an edition of his works, by the American Academy of Arts an i Sciences, Boston. Published for the Academy by Claxton, Remsen, & Haffelfinger, Philadelphia. 680 pp. 8vo. 1871. The Complete Works of Count Rumford. Vol. I. Boston: Published by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 493 pp. 8vo.