672 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



caused by_ an X-ray effect on our atmosphere. The sun and the 

 earth are separated like the terminals of a Crooke's tube — two con- 

 ductors with a vacuum between. An electrical excitation from 

 the sun may cause an electrical discharge between it and the earth. 

 This discharge might consist of an X-ray effect which could separate 

 the upper layers of the atmosphere into positive and negative 

 charges. The velocity of the negatively charged particles is greater 

 than that of the positively charged ones, and the revolution of 

 the earth may cause such a movement of these electrified particles 

 that electrical currents may be generated which in circulation 

 around the earth could produce the observed magnetism of the 

 north and south poles, together with the auroral lights character- 

 istic of those regions. This, I am well aware, is an audacious 

 theory. It is certainly a vast extension of the laboratory experi- 

 ments I have described, but the electrical radiations developed in 

 electrical discharges are as competent to produce powerful mag- 

 netic whirls as the heat radiations in our atmosphere to develop 

 cyclones. In the lower regions of our atmosphere the air is an 

 insulator like glass to the passage of an electrical current. A layer 

 a foot thick can prevent the circulation of the most powerful cur- 

 rent which is now used to generate horse power. When this air 

 space is rarefied at a certain degree of rarefaction the electrical 

 current passes, especially, as we have seen, if it is illuminated by 

 the X rays. When, therefore, we ascend to a height of ten or 

 twenty miles the rarefied air becomes an excellent conductor of 

 electricity of high electro-motive force. To my mind the condi- 

 tions exist for developing an electrical state in the earth's cover- 

 ing of air, which is competent to explain the electrical manifesta- 

 tions of the air, the auroral gleam, and the mysterious effect on 

 the magnetic needle which keeps it directed to the magnetic north. 

 Can not we conclude that the study of the X rays bids fair to 

 greatly extend our conceptions of the constitution of matter and 

 of the action and interaction of Nature's forces? 



A Himalayan explorer reported, a few years ago, that he had seen, from 

 one of the lofty summits of the Mount Everesfdistrict, a peak which, be- 

 held in the same view with Mount Everest, was evidently higher than it. 

 Nothing has been heard of the matter since then till the recent appearance 

 of Major L. A. Waddell's book, Among the Himalayas. This author, who 

 has explored the same region, represents that the Tibetans there say there 

 is another mountain, due north of Mount Everest, that exceeds that peak 

 in height, thus confirming the story of the former Alpinist. It appears 

 that Mount Everest is not called Gaurisankar or Deodunga, as some affirm, 

 but that the Tibetan name of the culminating peak of the group is Jomo- 

 kang-har—" The Lady White Glacier." 



