12 The Saturnian System. |January, 
Exterior diameter of outer ring in miles . . 166,920 
Interior af PP ¥ 
Exterior : °’,; inner ring ,, 1. CE 
Interior 3 if ie . Sega 
Interior SS dark ring ,, i? Tomiie 
Breadth of outer bright sing ss 2) Uc 18. 9,025 
Breadth of division between rings . . . . 1,680 
Breadth of inner brightring . . . . . + 17,605 
Breadth of dark ring. splay WeanE 8,660 
Breadth of system of bright rings . ciel oP 
Breadth of ‘entiré'system ‘of rings ©. '. °.)°) 39,57@ 
Space between planet and dark ring. Bret 9,760 
We are thus brought to the planet’s globe. Its mass we 
have already indicated. Its dimensions are as follows :— 
the equatorial diameter is about 70,150 miles, the polar 
diameter about ths less, or about 63,500 miles. The 
volume exceeds the earth’s 697 times, so that since in mass 
Saturn only exceeds the earth about go times, his mean 
density is but about ?%ths of the earth’s. His globe rotates 
in about gh. 55¢m. on an axis inclined about 263° to the 
perpendicular to Saturn’s orbit-plane. The rings and all 
the satellites, except the outermost, travel nearly in the 
plane of Saturn’s equator, but the outermost satellite travels 
on a path inclined about 15° to that plane. 
Even on a general survey, only, of this wonderful system, 
the impression conveyed to the mind would not be that we 
have in Saturn an orb belonging to the same order as our 
earth, were it not for the influence of the preconceptions to 
which I have already adverted. It seems to me that if we 
could imagine a visitant from outer space viewing our solar 
system, he would at once recognise in Jupiter and- Saturn 
the members of an order of orbs probably intermediate in 
character between the sun and the minor planets. He would 
reason that while, on the one hand, these planets being very 
much less than the sun in volume and mass, are obviously 
of an inferior order, and in this sense resemble the earth and 
Venus; they are, on the other hand, sofar comparable with 
the sun, even in these respects, that they largely exceed the 
earth and her fellow planets—that is, in those circum- 
stances in which alone the major planets are comparable 
with the minor planets, they are as far removed from them 
on the one hand as from the sun on the other. But when 
we turn to features in which the major planets resemble the 
sun, we find that they differ absolutely from the minor 
planets. Thus, in having the complete control of systems 
