m 



power 800 — he was struck by the uncommon precision and 

 beauty of the image, and therefore led to examine it with all 

 possible attention. 



Mr. Dawes had drawn his attention to a dark line bounding 

 the southern as well as the northern portion of that part of the 

 ring (illustrated by a diagram) crossing the face of the planet : 

 but the phenomenon which most forcibly struck Mr. Lassell 

 and rivetted his attention, was a shaded appearance as if some- 

 thing like a crape veil covered a part of the sky within the 

 inner ring and extending about half way towards the ball; 

 while there was a darker, ill-defined boundary line separating 

 the crape-like appearance from the solid body of the inner 

 ring. By one of those curious coincidences which have of 

 late so repeatedly attended astronomical discovery — on receipt 

 of the Times newspaper at breakfast the following morning, 

 Mr. Lassell first learnt the intelligence that Mr. Bond of 

 Cambridge, U.S., had on the 15th November "discovered 

 a third ring of Saturn.'' Certainly, what Mr. Lassell saw 

 on the 3rd December, for the first time, did not suggest 

 to him the notion of another ring ; but it is very possible 

 that Mr. Bond, possessing the advantages of a much finer 

 climate and lower latitude, as well as an instrument of 

 undoubted excellence, may have been enabled to ascertain 

 the precise nature of a phenomenon of which the first view 

 only revealed to Mr. Lassell the existence. 



Mr. Lassell also mentioned that while observing Saturn, 

 with his twenty-feet equatorial, on the 21st of last month, 

 when the atmosphere was unusually fine, he was favoured 

 with a sight of the eight SatelKtes presented at one view ; 

 and also then observed for the first time the dark Hue along 

 the southern edge of the ring before referred to; but, being 

 then absorbed by watching the Satellites, he did not rumi- 

 nate upon the explanation of this appearance until Mr. Dawes 

 drew his attention to it again. 



Since the above communication was made Mr. Dawes has 



