New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-12-16
4 RORLD.W VIDE SPECTACLE.

A WORLD-WIDE SPECTACLE.
The sunset glow witnessed in the United
! States during the closing week OF November
was brilliantly reproduced last night. Appar-
emily it is not a phenomenon due to local
atmospheric conditions. The gorgeous spec
tacle was watched Oh the same November even
ings in various parts of the world lin England,
France, Germany, Italy, Egypt and India. In
Europe as in the United States the most remark
able sunsets were those of November p and the
following night, although the essential features
of the phenomenon were reproduced during the
succeeding four nights. In England this Won
derful after glow attracted universal attention,
being described in numerous letters to the
newspapers and acknowledged on all sides to be
a unique spectacle. The characteristic feature
there as here, was the appearance OF an I'M
mense illumination extending from the central
point where the sun had disappeared, well to-
ward the zenith and continuing for two and a
half hours without the peculiar scintillatlng
effects of the Aurora Borealis.
An intelligent observer who had watched the
English sunsets for thirty years, directed atten-
ton to remarkable distinction between the
November after glow and the ordinary evening
effects of the western sky. The crimson glow
which follows the disappearance Of the sun Is
almost invariably the last effect of color, coming
a considerable time after the yellow tone has
faded, and being followed by the cold gray
which precedes the night. During the closing
week of November there was reversal of this
rule. The yellow glow, it is true, first over
spread the sky, gradually deepening to orange
and then to crimsOn-the same rich hue that was
seen here but after the blOod-red dye came
deep orange glow extending over half the sky,
and so intense in color that lamps appeared as
white light against it. At sunrise the whole
effect was reproduced, the order of tints being
reversed. The spectacle in the morning opened
with the orange glow, which had been the clos
ing feature of the sunset this was followed by
the crimson fires burning from the horizon to
the zenith and the final tone was the grcenish
yellow which marked the first stage OF the even
ing phenomenon. Now the abnormal effect
was the reversal of the usual order Of crimson
and orange evening and morning. The crimson
ought to have been the final tone at night and
the first in the morning, for the scientific reason
that the orange is less refrangible than the GRIM
son ray. This reversal Of the natural order OF
refrangbility indicated most unusual atmos-
pheric conditions.
While these remarkable sights in the heavens
have attracted general attention in England,
there has been no disposition to exaggerate their
importance or to advance fanciful theories in
explanation of them. One or two cOrrespOn
dents of the newspapers attempted to connect
them with the eruption in Java or with changes
in the spots on the sun; but the hypothesis gem
orally adopted attsibuted them to the extreme
rarefaction of the atmosphere, by which
Englishmen were enabled to see in their usually
murky island sights ordinarily reserved for Al
pine climbers or the residents of Naples. If this
be the true explanation, this rarefactiOn of the
atmosphere was not confined to certain localities
but was condition which produced correspond
ing results simultaneously in Europe, America
and Asia. The blood-red sunsets illuminating
half the sky, which were admired i'll New York
and London, in Italy and Southern France, over
spread the whole armament, and in India kim
died a lurid light that excited superstiticus
dread. There must have been a general cause
for an exceptionally clear atmosphere the world
over; or else some other theory must be adj
vanccd to explain the phenomenon. For ex-
ample, it has been suggested by American
scientists that the earth has been passing
through meteoric belt in space, and that the
molecules of meteOric dust becoming detached
by friction with the atmosphere either become
incandesccnt or else are revealed by the rays of
the sun.