THE SOLAR RAINBOW.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I have little doubt that what your correspondents saw on Wednesday, October lltb, was a fragmentary phase of the well-known, though somewhat rare, phenomenon called "parhelia," or mock-suns; the halo only being partially
seen without the parhelia. In the " Philosophical Transactions" for 1733 a display of this phenomenon is described as witnessed by Whiston. There was a halo round the sun, " in the two intersections of which two plain parhelia appeared tolerably bright and distinct. They were evidently red towards the sun, but pale or whitish at the opposite sides, as was the halo also. Looking upwards we saw an arc of a curiously inverted rainbow. This arc was as distinct in its colours as the common rainbow, and of the same breadth."— [We have received, but cannot find space for, a great many other letters on this subject.—ED. Spectator.]
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