The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-02-25
CHE 9ailp 8nllttin,
WEDNESDAY,, FEB %, 1885.
the RuDDy SUNSETS,

"itiSic WAS aUOlrcSScU ralllCf 10 lne
public of Honolulu than 70 its scicnt-
ists-from whom I expected no
mercy and am not disappointed
the vigorous reply of the Rev. S. +.
Bishop shows Inc that / may have
Internationally trod upon the corns
of at least one local writer The
Rev. Mr.. Bishop is, however, mis-
taken i'll surprising that here in
Canada we are too far removed from
the ruddy sunsets to study them
carefully, or that We need his help
to put us on the right track--or
rather the track that he thinks right.
''Dust, dust, Krakatoa dust" has
been dinned into our ears for over
a year with more or less success,
as l have already pointed out. He
tells me to "follow up the earliest
appearances of these phenomena
to their very beginning,
which is the only right way to go to
work" This is excellent advice,
which / advise him also to take.
The every beginning" is the point l
have not yet been able to arrive at,
but would submit to his wisdom the
fact that ruddy sunsets and sunrises
were very noticeable over portions
Of North America during tile years
1878, and also thatanold resident of
Montreal, soon after the reappear-
ance Of the red skies in 1883 inform
ed me that he had frequently noticed
similar phenomena at intervals
during his life. But perhaps Kra-
katoa, or some other good-natured
volcano, was at hand in the past to
oblige. The Rev. Mr.. Bishop adj
mits that am probably correct in
imputing" the ruddy sunsets to re-
fraction by minute ice crystals.
This is very kind on his part, but
the cup of triumph is at once dashed
from my lips when he adds that for
him to allow, even this much my
poor ice particles must submit to
being saddled-like Sinbad-to his
old dust nuclei; symbolical, it is to
bepresumed, ofthewaysome scientists
are saddled and ridden by their
hobbies, and like their "dust" des-
tined to reach the ground sooner or
later. My ice prisms, however,
spurn the proposed alliance as en-
tirely incongruous. The Rev. Mr..
Bishop is ready with conclusive
proofs, he knows to the hour when
the various phenomena began, but
gives not one proof to show that
dust would appear red in the posi-
ton he claims for it. We know
from experience that vapor clouds
consisting of frozen ice PARTICLES are
often ruddy enough at morning and
evening. The ruddiest of all the
planets is Mars, in whose atmos-
phere the vapor of water (ice) is
assuredly present in considerable
quantities, but whose VOLCANOES have
probably exhausted themselves ages
since. The glows may have increas-
ed at Honolulu with the approach
of Winter, but here the fact has
been reversed, they having been
much more common during the past
Summer than at present. The Com
mittee of the British Association had
not their dates down in such an I'M
broken string as the Rev. Mr..
Bishop, even after their sending
queries and getting replies from all
parts of the globe. The conclusion
reached by them was, as Lhave al
ready mentioned, that there existed
no positive proof Of the dust theory.
Neither has-despite all his positi.
vism-the Rev. Mr.. Bishop any
tangible proofs. He has a theory
hardly original-but 1 also have q
theory, and what to-day is generally
admitted as orthodox in this branch
of science, may next year be ex-
tremely heterodoX. The dust
theory is having its day, but may
ere long have to step down and out.
Why, only a few months since i
was impossible to get in wore
against it. AS an slice prismist'
/ can afford to wait, giving the dus
rlantu of time IN Sattlp althouoh i