443 



SUMMERSUN. 



important article of cultivation is rice, of which 

 there are many different species. Of articles of 

 commerce, the most abundant is popper, formerly 

 obtained in greater quantities than at present. 

 Other productions are, gumbenzoin, camphor, cassia, 

 cotton, coffee, &c. The upas tree, and the gigantic 

 rafflesia, are among the vegetable curiosities. It is 

 rich in mineral and fossil productions ; has long 

 been famous for gold, which is still procured in 

 considerable quantities ; and has mines of iron, 

 copper, and tin. It produces a great variety and 

 abundance of fruits, and wild animals, as elephants, 

 tigers, rhinoceroses, alligators, &c. ; also birds of 

 various kinds. The inhabitants are rather below 

 the middle size : their limbs are for the most part 

 slight, but well shaped. The women flatten the 

 noses and compress the skulls of children newly 

 born ; and the males destroy their beards. The 

 inhabitants have made but little progress, generally, 

 in the arts of industry, though they excel in some 

 particular manufactures. The Malay language is 

 every where spoken along the coasts of Sumatra. 

 (See Malays.) Among the modern political divi- 

 sions of the island, the principal are the empire of 

 Menancabow and the Malays, the Achineese (see 

 Acheeri), the Battas, the Rejangs, and the people 

 of Lampong. The Dutch first began to form set- 

 tlements on the coasts in 1666, and in 1685, the 

 English also established themselves at Bencoolen. 

 In 1825, the presidency of Bencoolen, of which the 

 capital was Fort Marlborough, was ceded to the 

 Dutch, in return for Malacca. The latter were al- 

 ready in possession of Padang, a strong fortress on 

 the western coast, and of Palembang (25,000 inha- 

 bitants), on the eastern coast. Previous to the 

 late revolution in the Netherlands, they were mak- 

 ing preparations to reduce the whole island. Sir 

 Thomas Stamford Raffles was the first European 

 who penetrated to the interior of the island, which 

 he crossed from Bencoolen to Pelembang. See 

 Marsden's History of Sumatra, and Anderson's Mis- 

 sion on the East Coast of Sumatra (Edinburgh, 

 1826, 2 vols.). 



SUMMER ; in Great Britain, the season com- 

 prehended in the months of May, June, and July. 

 The equinoxes and solstices divide the year into four 

 seasons. From the vernal equinox to the summer 

 solstice is with us the astronomical spring. From 

 the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox is our 

 summer. The time betwixt the autumnal equinox 

 and the winter solstice is our autumn, and from 

 the winter solstice to the vernal equinox is our 

 winter. Notwithstanding the changes in the signs 

 of the ecliptic, produced by the precession of the 

 equinoxes, the ancient signs of summer have re- 

 mained in the calendar. In the northern hemis- 

 phere, they are Cancer, Leo, Virgo ; in the southern, 

 Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. Our summer takes 

 place at the time when the earth is at the greatest 

 distance from the sun, and hence moves the slowest. 

 The diameter of the sun, therefore, appears consi- 

 derably smaller at this season than in winter, and 

 the summer of the northern hemisphere has ninety- 

 three and a half days, a few days more than the 

 winter, and, therefore, more than the summer of 

 the southern hemisphere. Notwithstanding the 

 greater distance of the sun in summer, his rays have 

 much more effect than in winter, because they fall 

 more directly upon the northern hemisphere. He 

 also rises much sooner, and sets much later, and, 

 therefore, describes a much greater arc in the 

 heavens than in winter. At the time when he has 



reached tliu tropic of Cancer, he ascends highest in 

 the heavens, and remains longest above the horizon ; 

 and we might, therefore, suppose that this would 

 be the period of the greatest heat. But experience 

 shows that the greatest heat generally takes place 

 in August, throughout the whole northern hemis- 

 phere, far beyond the polar circle. The reason of 

 this circumstance is, that, in August, the influence 

 of the sun's rays has been felt for a long time on 

 the earth, and that, within the polar circle, as far 

 as to the tenth or twelfth degree from the pole, 

 the ice has been thawed and the temperature of the 

 air moderated ; hence the wind which blows from 



those northern regions to the south is milder See 



Meyer's Manual of Physical Astronomy, Theory of 

 the Earth, and Meteorology (German, Gottingen, 

 1805). 



SUN. This magnificent luminary, the great 

 source of light, heat, and life, appears to us a cir- 

 cular and resplendent disk ; from which appearance, 

 and the observation of the solar spots (described 

 below), it follows that this body has a form nearly 

 spherical, and turns round its axis once in about 

 twenty-five and a half days, because a sphere only 

 'can appear to the eye like a circular disk in all posi- 

 tions. The true relation of the sun, not only to 

 our earth, but to all the planets of our system, hns 

 been known since the discoveries of Kepler. The 

 primary planets, accompanied by their moons, re- 

 vol ve about the sun in elliptical orbits, which have 

 but little eccentricity, the sun itself being situated 

 in a focus common to all these ellipses. His mean 

 distance from the earth, which has been finally de- 

 termined, with tolerable accuracy, by the observa- 

 tion of his parallax (seethe subsequent part of this 

 article), amounts, in round numbers, to about 

 95,000,000 miles : the sun, therefore, is above 400 

 times farther distant from us than the moon ; and 

 a cannon ball which moves 600 feet in each second, 

 would require about twenty-six years to reach it. 

 The apparent diameter of the sun is pretty nearly 

 the same as that of the moon : it is somewhat above 

 half a degree ; yet, according to the various points 

 of the earth's orbit, from which we observe the 

 same, varies somewhat a necessary consequence 

 of the elliptical form of this orbit. The conclusions 

 which we draw from the differences in the apparent, 

 magnitude of the sun as to the different distances 

 of this body from the earth, agree perfectly with 

 what we learn, respecting the same subject, from 

 other sources ; so that this point may be considered 

 as well settled. The mass of the sun, which ex- 

 ceeds that of all the planets together 800 times, is, 

 in proportion to that of our earth, according to 

 Piazzi, as 329,630 to 1 ; the diameter exceeds 

 that of the earth 112 times, the surface 12,700 

 times, the solid contents 1,435,000 times. The 

 earth, appears, as Biot says, by this statement, a 

 mere grain of sand, compared to the sun, which, 

 again, in his turn, is but a point in infinite space. 

 Respecting the physical structure of the sun, astro- 

 nomers have entertained different opinions, from 

 times immemorial. The hypothesis of Herschel is, 

 that the sun is an opaque body, having on its sur- 

 face mountains and valleys, like the earth, the 

 whole surrounded by an atmosphere constantly 

 filled with luminous clouds. These sometimes 

 open in particular places, and allow the body 

 of the sun to be seen; hence the appearance 

 of solar spots. This hypothesis seems to be pre- 

 ferable to that of Laplace (who imagines the sun 

 to be a burning body), because it allows us to con- 





