Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1884-02-15

EnOEu.
The CLERK o. dry gnous store.
aittliSc. s PIE; erie Phenomena.
From the ISrdon Times.
Mr.. Mormon Lockyer brings the light
of science this morning to bear on the
atmospheric phenomena which have
lately been surprising and deIighting
Europe. Sunrises and sunsets are the
most exquisite spectacles which nature
affords. The colors which accompany
them are enchanting everywhere. They
are no less glorious in Hyde Park than
on the crest of Swiss mountain. But
commonly they have been left to poets
to dilate on and glorify. Imagination
is captivated by them, and lends them
hues of its own. Nothing seems
more fleeting and visionary and
immaterial. When they embody any
substance it has been regarded as pecu.
)iarly local. Against London smoke is
set the lurid splendor it adds to the tints
of 6 London sunset. Mr.. Lockyer
teaches that science has as close concern
with these prismatic marvels as fancy.
He bids the lovely apparitions render
an account of their births and compost
ton. Though they remain as brilliant
and beautiful as ever, they are seen by
bis analysis to want food lika other
splendid ere atures. Marine anemones,
which are 40 delicate as q rose, require
to be nourished on raw meat. The
ethereal pomps Of the last fortnight or
more are reported to have derive their
wondrous complexion from a plentiful
diet of pumice-stone. BY the hypoth-
esis they are brought down from their
height Of impalpable purity to acknowl-
edge that they are earthly like the rest
of us. In return science invests them
with dignity of strangeness and dis
lance to which they never before pre-
sumed to aspire. The foundations Of
the globe have been poured into the air
for the admiration of Londoners. Ac-
cording to the view now set forth the
crowds that gazed on sight in the heav-
ems which Turner himself would not
have dared to portray were assisting at
celebration of the obsequies of the Isle
Of Krakatoa. Aloft in the skies were its
ashes. The sun was escorting them with
an illumination of the most bewitching
AuAV1dL SV1 CllCS IncAA l1NeL ACSvliAS'
place in the northern ocean
1t is an amusing story when DR.. Mel
drum, watching sunsets in the Indian
seas, sketched in outline and Mr.. Lock-
yer has elaborated, on this basis. An
atmosphere at least forty miles deep
clothes the earth, An aqueous vapor
in great part composes it, and forms the
rejecting medium. Generally the sum
set tints are due to that aqueous vapor
which vibrates under the suns rays.
According to the density Of the vapor,
as it absorbs or intercepts one color or
another, the lighJ it reflects is white,
blue, violet. or red. Ordinarily it would
| have been inferred from the SURPRISING
lustre of the sunrises and sunsets during
the last two or three weeks that for
some reason the band Of aque-
GUS vapor had thickened. Had the facts
answered, they would have explained
the result. The atmosphere has been
submitted to the thumbscrew Of the
spectroscope, and negatives the theory
altogether. In the period in question
! the dry-air band is pronounced to have
t enlarged at the expense of the watery.
! Recent vivid green's and crimsons must
have traversed an extra length of dry
| instead Of aqueous vapor. Had meteor
illogical science and the spectruscope ex-
! listed in old days, when there was neith-
er steam nor the telegraph, inquirers
mnst have paused in utter perplexity
| in the presence of these contradictory
! conclusions. Now the accelerated facil-
1 tiles for the transmission of
| news have accumulated in
the briefest interval mass of evidence
which indicates way out Of the scien-
| tsEo 1;1n,oop,o N1kon rofo~;okc h.
been enabled to track Krakatao in so.
luton from it's original sites in the Straits
of Sunda to the skies of Java, and Mad
| ras and other points in Southern India,
to the Seychelles and Mauritius, to the
Cape and the Gold Coast, to Brazil, Ven
| zuela and Trinidad. Over Java there
| was pail of black night on that terrible
28tli OF August. Madras was COMPOUNDED
| by bright green sun at sunrise and
sunset from the 9th to the 18th Of Sep
TENDER. In the Sey chelles and Brazil
at the end Of August and beginning OF
September the sun had been as pale "a
| the moon. Three months later,
| about the period at which, with the pre-
vailing currents Of the upper air, and in
the anticipated direction matter floating
| in the atmosphere would be due in
Europe, European skies have been WIS.,
| tied with succession of gorgeous sum
rises and sunsets. DR.. Meldrum's and
| Mr.. Lockyer's view is at any rate in
agreement with the circumstances, and
| has the merit of accounting for them. It
lis said that the EXPLODED fragments Of
Krakatoa and its volcanic roots have
| been dyeing European skies as they
shrouded Jaws. Gradually the veil has
become thinner and teebler. It has
! ceased to have power to hide the sun, or
turn it's face pale and silver. No
| longer do the sunbeamI reach he earth
blue and green and red as n the Ceylon
and Trinidad Yet the dust of the dead
ountains and crater has ever been
| here as real as the instant Of its fiery
election, If less solid and deep.
though it could not subjugate the sun
in its strength, it has had to determine
| the tone of the after-glow.
Poetry will scarcely complain OF
science for its habit of weighing the sun
and dissectiny the rainbow when 1t in
PRODUCES the mind thus to the SIC cret
workings of the laboratory of nature.
Nature has often been drawn smiling
| as she oYerthrews human hopes and
| hurries mortais to premature death.
Never has her supposed combination
!, Of serene remorseiessness and Artistic
lseusibility been exhibited by q morals
ring poet or noveiiat more graphically
than in ihescene In which science shows
~