A phenomenon altogether unprecedented was seen during the total eclipse of the sun which happened on the 8th of July, 1842. The moon was like a black patch on the sky surrounded by a faint whitish light or corona about the eighth of the moon’s diameter in breadth, which is supposed to be the solar atmosphere rendered visible by the intervention of the moon. In this whitish corona there appeared three rose-coloured flames like the teeth of a saw. Similar flames were also seen in the white corona of the total eclipse which took place in 1851, and a long rose-coloured chain of what appeared to be jagged mountains or sierras united at the base by a red band seemed to be raised into the corona by mirage; but there is no doubt that the corona and red phenomena belong to the sun. This red chain was so bright that Mr. Airy saw it illuminate the northern horizon through an azimuth of 90° with red light. M. Faye attributes the rose-coloured protuberances to the constitution of the sun, which, like Sir William Herschel, he conceives to be an incandescent globe, consisting of two concentric parts of very unequal density, the internal part being a dark spherical mass, the external a very extensive atmosphere, at a certain height in which there is a stratum of luminous clouds which constitutes the photosphere of the sun; above this rises his real atmosphere, so rare as to be only visible as a white aureola or corona during total and annular eclipses. M. Faye conceives that from the central mass gaseous eruptions issue, which form the spots by dissipating and partly extinguishing the luminous clouds, and then rising into the rare atmosphere above that they appear as rose-coloured protuberances during annular eclipses. He estimates that the volume of these vapours sometimes surpasses that of the earth a thousand or even two thousand times. Sir William Herschel attributed the spots to occasional openings in the luminous coating, which seems to be always in motion; but whatever the cause of the spots may be, it is certainly periodical. The white corona and beads were seen during the eclipse of the 15th March, 1858, but there were no rose-coloured appearances, in England at least; but the sky was clouded, so that the eclipse was only visible at intervals.