The Remarkable Sunsets

Abstract

THE brilliant morning and evening glows have not yet left us. In connection with a letter of one of your correspondents of December 20, 1883, it may be interesting to add that the year 1783, which was characterised by a fearful eruption of Skaptar Jokul in Iceland, and by remarkable sky-colour phenomena similar to those we have lately had, was also the year in which the last great eruption of Asama Yama in Japan took place (see Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. vi. part ii. P. 327). Asama Yama is the greatest active volcano in Japan. In connection also with the unusual quantity of aqueous vapour with which the atmosphere has been charged, as proved by the spectroscopic observations of Prof. Michie Smith and others, and the facility that dust particles give for the formation of clouds, and therefore also of snow, it may be interesting to note that the beginning of the present year has been characterised by the greatest fall of snow that the oldest inhabitants here have known for thirty years. The minimum temperature reached this winter (–28° C. on the morning of December 23 in the neighbourhood of the college) is also the lowest for Kingston during the same period. Prof. Goodwin is now engaged in analysing the snow in order to find out whether similar impurities to those found in Europe and in Java are present.