Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 24.djvu/618

600 At Madras, India, Professor C. Michie Smith, of the Christian College, remarked the "perfectly rayless" and bright silvery-white color of the sun on the 9th of September. The same was noticed on the next day, but was succeeded, after the reappearance of the sun from behind a cloud, by a bright pea-green color. This peculiar color was again observed the next morning, and in the evening it "was a magnificent spectacle, and attracted the notice of every one. The silvery sheen was visible early in the afternoon, and the brightness of the sun rapidly faded, till by about five o'clock one could look at it directly without any difficulty. At this time there was a distinct tinge of green in the light when received on a sheet of white paper, while shadows were very prettily tinted with the complementary pink. As the sun sank toward the horizon the green became more and more strongly marked, and by 5.30 it appeared as a bright-green disk, with a sharp outline. In fact the definition was so good that a large spot (about 1' long) was a conspicuous object to the naked eye." The green suns were also seen for several days about the 22d. The spectrum, which Dr. Smith carefully examined, "showed clearly that aqueous vapor played a large part in the phenomena, for all the atmospheric lines usually ascribed to that substance were very strongly developed. But in addition to this there was a very marked general absorption in the red." Abnormal electrical conditions of the atmosphere were noticed at this place in connection with the phenomenon. Of an earlier date than any of these observations is a notice of a "green sun," remarked at Panama on the 2d and 3d of September, the same day on which a blue sun and lurid sky were observed at Trinidad.

The appearance of the green color in the sun and in parts of the sky outside of the sphere of the red glow was also remarked in numerous observations made in Europe. In one of the earliest notices of the spectacle published in England, the writer says that at sunset "a very peculiar greenish and white opalescent haze appeared about the point of the sun's departure, and shone as if with a light of its own, near the horizon. The upper part of this pearly mist soon assumed a pink color, while the lower part was white, green, and greenish-yellow." Another observer, at Worcester, describes the blue of the sky as having been changed to green and the green as being speedily replaced by the ruddy tint; and again, in the morning, "the color of the sun changed to an exquisite emerald hue, staining the landscape, and investing houses, buildings, glazed windows, and greenhouses with a remarkably weird aspect." At sunset of the same day, "the crescent of the moon, being just above the fringe of red light, assumed a lively green hue, and continued to exhibit the novelty of an emerald crescent" for a quarter of an hour. At other places, we read of the contrast of the glow with "the pale greenish hue of the clear sky around"; of a crimson arch stretching from southeast to northeast, "with a very clear greenish-blue sky beneath it in the east," and