ASTRONOMY AND METEOEOLOGY. 885 



thin as was the planet, it had not cooled so much at the time of the explosion 

 but that some of the fragments could assume a spherical form. The follow- 

 ing method ojf comparing the evidences was followed : 



The planet's place was first to be found. Three or four independent pro- 

 cesses were used for this and they agreed surprisingly. He interpolated it as 

 a lost term in a geometric series, from Mars to Saturn, for the first approxi- 

 mation. He compared it with Saturn and Jupiter, and with Mars and Jupiter. 

 He found where a planet would be dropped off in the successive cooling and 

 contracting of the solar system. And he compared its orbit for size and eclip- 

 ticity witli those of the asteroids. Some of them gave solutions very far from 

 the average rejecting these ; the others coincided with previous deductions 

 and with each other surprisingly. Its day he found by Kirkwood's analog}*. 

 Its equatorial diameter was the result of two calculations, one of which would 

 inevitably give a result too large and the other too small in all cases when the 

 planet did not explode at its equinox, when it would be exact. These num- 

 bers were 78,425 and 68,656 miles. A just comparison gave 70,470. 



It is curious to see how the history of this planet verifies the theory of La 

 Place, that a heavenly body must be either nearly a sphere or a disk, and 

 that the latter must be unstable. And this reminded Professor Alexander 

 again to allude to the earth's ring the zodiacal light. He had long been 

 convinced that the moon could not be the only satellite thrown off by our 

 planet in taking on its present form, but knew not where to look for the rest. 

 A more careful calculation of the data furnished by the Reverend Mr. Jones, 

 had given him for the diameter of the ring 17,000 miles, and a time of about 

 half a day for rotation. And curiously enough hah a day was the time that 

 had been assigned by a previous calculation for the revolution of an aerolite 

 around the earth. 



EXTREME TEMPEEATUEE IX AUSTEALIA. 



Mr. E. Merriam furnishes to the New York Times the following facts respect- 

 ing the extreme heat recently observed hi Australia. He says, "at the place 

 of observation in the southern hemisphere, lat. 37 48' south, Ion. 144 57' 

 east, on the banks of the river Geelong, the maximum temperature thus far 

 observed, was 120, and minhnum 24 difference, 96. On the 26th of Oc- 

 tober, 1854, the temperature rose to 115 at 3 P.M.; 4 P.M., 110; 5 P.M., 

 80, or a fall of 30 in 60 minutes, and next morning at five o'clock, 40, or 

 a change of 75 hi 14 hours. 



"My correspondent in a letter dated Monday, Januray 29, 1855, says: 

 'Yesterday was said to be a hotter day than the celebrated Black Thursday 

 which occurred many years ago with a northern sirocco, and a hundred miles 

 of brush on fire. People were driven to the water like cattle to preserve 

 life for the thermometer was at 118 nearly all day in the shade and out of 

 the wind. In the wind it was at least 150.' " 



This extreme of natural heat is the greatest we believe, with one or two 

 exceptions, which has ever been before recorded. On the west coast of Af- 

 rica the thermometer haa been observed to stand at 108 Fahrenheit in the 



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