The Volcanic Dust Phenomena

Abstract

I WOULD draw the attention of such of your readers as may be travelling in Switzerland or other mountainous countries to the circumstance that in the clear atmosphere of the mountains the great corona or circle round the sun, as well as the semicircle seen opposite the sun before and after sunset continue to be markedly conspicuous; and the higher one ascends the more striking these phenomena are. I saw both the phenomena especially remarkable on the Gornergrat, altitude 10,289 feet, on the 21st and 22nd of last month; and even as low as 4000 feet they are decidedly more striking than at sea-level. It appears, therefore, that the bulk of the volcanic dust, if such it be, that still remains continues at a great elevation, and the prediction made last autumn that it might remain for years in the atmosphere, seems likely to be fulfilled.