37 



When the sun-spot period was published, Sabine found the 

 years of maximum and minimum to correspond almost exactly with 

 the years of maximum and minimum intensity in the magnetic 

 storms of the earth. Again, Mr. Meldrum of the Mauritius has 

 been for years tabulating from the logs of passing vessels the cy- 

 clones of the Indian ocean. He has found after tabulating these 

 storms for years that they also are subject to periods of maximum 

 and minimum, and these correspond with singular exactness to 

 the sun-spot period. The rainfall at Brisbane and Port Louis and 

 other places has also been shewn to vary with these sim storms. 

 And I know not how far diseases, blights, famine, and pestilence ; 

 periods of abundance, of wealth, of poverty, and of depression may 

 not be found in the future to be ultimately associated with the 

 changes which sweep over the surface of the sun. Let me now 

 call your attention to what are termed the faculse. 



In the copy of the beautiful photograph of the sun's limb, 

 taken by Mr. Warren de la Eue, which is now on the screen, you 

 will observe heaped up masses of light round the spot. These 

 more brilliant portions of the sun's surface are what are termed 

 faculae. They may be of all magnitudes, from softly gleaming 

 narrow tracts 1,000 miles long, to continuous complicated and 

 heapy ridges 40,000 miles and more in length, and 1,000 to 4,000 

 miles broad. " The sun's surface we have learnt is of a cloudy 

 nature, the light and heat being derived from the soKd incandescent 

 particles of which the clouds are composed. For there are changes 

 continually going on between the cooler exterior and the interior. 

 The descending current is accompanied by a spot, the ascending 

 one by a facula. " Now, as I have shewn you how far reaching is 

 the influence of the spots of the sun, so I will give you an instance 

 of how far the appearance of a brighter portion may thrill through 

 the universe. Mr. Carrington, whose observatory was near Eedhill, 

 writes, " I had secured diagrams of all the groups and detached 

 spots, and was engaged at the time in counting from a chronometer 

 ["%,nd recording the contact of the spots with the cross mres, when 

 within the area of the great north group two patches of intensely 



