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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



these are termed faculm, and are, in fact, the opposites of the solar 

 spots. They are devious, undulating, shining ridges, like irregular 

 ranges of snowy mountains, and are represented as from 1,000 to 

 40,000 miles long, and from 1,000 to 4,000 miles in breadth. They are 

 frequent near the sun's edge, and often accompany the coming and go- 

 ing of the spots. But they are generally the attendants of the spots, 

 and often appear at points where spots are about to break out. Their 

 bright, concentrated, tortuous appearance in the neighborhood of a 

 spot is represented in Fig. 4. 



Another remarkable appearance of the sun's surface consists of 



Fig. 3. 



" Granules," " Pores," or " Eice-Grains," shown upon the Sun's Surface, by the Telescope. 



streaks or blades of light the " slashed straws " of Dawes, or the " wil- 

 low-leaves " of Nasmyth. These, says Sir John Herschel, cover the 

 whole disk of the sun (except the spaces occupied by the spots) in 

 countless millions, and lie crossing each other in every imaginable 

 direction. Mr. Dawes denies that they are so general, but they are 

 universally recognized in the vicinity of t he solar spots, taking a radial 

 direction around the penumbra, and giving it a jagged or coarsely- 

 thatched appearance. Father Secchi says : " I would compare them 

 to elongated masses of cotton of every possible form, sometimes en- 



