SUNSETS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3942, 8 March 1884, Page 4

SUNSETS.

(Lloyd's Weekly London Newspaper.) The glowing splendour of Sunrise and Sunset during the past few weeke has naturally aroused tho keenest interest of astronomers, and in a lengthy communication to the Times of yesterday, Mr Norman Loekyer enters fully into ,the subject. He analyses the light of the Sun, and explains how it is affected by the atmosphere through which it passes. This brings him to the cause of the marvellous phenomena we have been witnessing. During last August there occurred the climax of the most tremendous volcanic eruption which, perhaps, the world has seen during historic times. In the course of it an island 3000 feet high entirely disappeared. The usual volcanic products, including the finest particles both solid and vaporous, were ejected into the air to a height that no man will ever say, since for many miles round the scene of these devastating forces noon was as black as night, and darkness was over all the land for thirty-six or forty hours. The noise was heard at a distance of 2000 miles._ On tho following day Sunrise and Sunset in the Indian sea were marked by unwonted splendor, and Dr Meldrum at once ascribed them to the Sun's light passing through tho fine dust, resulting from volcanic action, floating in the upper air. The island mountain of Krakatoa is thus traced from its original bed in the Straits of Sunda to the skies of the surrounding region ; and now the prevailing currents are believed to have brought the volcanic particles floating around our atmosphere, bathing the morning and evening in dyes of lustroue splendour.