The extreme helium-rich atmospheric composition determined for the halo white dwarf WD 0346 + 246 is reexamined .
This solution is shown to be improbable from an astrophysical point of view when accretion of hydrogen and metals from the interstellar medium is taken into account .
An alternate solution is proposed where hydrogen and helium are present in the atmospheric regions in equal amounts .
The best fit at T _ { eff } = 3780 K , \log g = 8.34 , and N ( { He } ) / N ( { H } ) = 1.3 is achieved by including in the model calculations a bound-free opacity from the Lyman edge associated with the so-called dissolved atomic levels of the hydrogen atom , or pseudo-continuum opacity .