240 SCIENCE IX SHORT CHAPTERS. 



Of course these stoves of our northern neighbors are costly may 

 be very costly when highly ornamental. The stove of a Norwegian 

 "bonder," or peasant proprietor, costs nearly half as much as the 

 two-roomed wooden house in which it is erected, but the saving it 

 effects renders it a good investment. It would cost 100 or 200 to 

 fit up an English mansion with suitable porcelain stoves of the Rus- 

 sian pattern, but a saving of 20 a year in fuel would yield a good 

 return as regards mere cost, while the gain in comfort and healthful- 

 ness would be so great that, once enjoyed and understood, such out- 

 lay would be willingly made by all who could afford it, even if no 

 money saving were effected. 



; r Only last week I was discussing this question in a railway carriage, 

 where one of my fellow-passengers was an intelligent Holsteiner. He 

 confirmed the heresy by which I had shocked the others, in exulting 

 in the high price of coal, and wishing it to continue. He told us 

 that when wood was abundant in his country, fuel was used as bar- 

 barously, as wastefully, and as inefficiently as it now is here, but 

 that the deforesting of the land, and the great cost of fuel, forced 

 upon them a radical reform, the result of which is that they now 

 have their houses better warmed, and at a less cost than when fuel 

 was obtainable at one fourth of its present cost. 



Such will be the case with us also if we can but maintain the pres- 

 ent coal famine during one or two more winters, especially if we 

 should have the further advantage of some very severe weather in the 

 mean time. Hence the cruel wishes above expressed. The coal 

 famine would scarcely be necessary if we had Russian winters, for in 

 such case our houses, instead of being as they are, merely the most 

 uncomfortable in North Europe, would be quite uninhabitable. 

 With our mild winters we reqiiire the utmost severity of fuel prices 

 to civilize our warming and ventilating devices. 



CHAPTEK XXIX. 

 "BATLY'S BEADS." 



To the Editor of the Times. 



SIB,- The curious breaking up of the thin annular rim of the sun 

 which is uncovered just before and just after totality, or which sur- 

 rounds the moon during an annular eclipse, has been but occasion- 

 ally observed, and some scepticism as to the accuracy of Baily's 

 observations has lately arisen. Having attempted an explanation of 

 the " beads," I have looked with much interest for the reports of the 

 eclipse of 1870, for, if I am right, they ought to have been well seen 

 on this occasion. This has been the case. We are informed that 

 both Lord Lindsay and the Eev. S. J. Perry have observed them, and 

 that Lord Lindsay has set aside all doubts respecting their reality by 

 securing a photographic record of their appearance. 



My explanation is that they are simply sun-spots seen in profile- 

 spots just caught in the fact of turning the sun's edge. All observers 

 are now agreed as to the soundness of Galileo's original description 



