38 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



air, but a close scrutiny revealed a diminution of 

 brilliancy towards the edge of his disc, which, when 

 fully recognised, presented him at once as the globe he 

 really is. On this globe we could already distinguish 

 the spots and those bright streaks which astronomers 

 call faculce. But it was not the aspeqt of his globe 

 which attracted our wondering attention. We saw that 

 globe surrounded with the most amazingly complex 

 halo of glory. Close around the bright whiteness of 

 the disc, and shining far more beautiful, by contrast 

 with that whiteness, than as seen against the black disc 

 of the moon in total eclipses, stood the coloured 

 region called the sierra ; not red, as we had ex- 

 pected to see it, but gleaming with a mixed lustre of 

 pink and green, through which, from time to time, 

 passed the most startlingly brilliant coruscations of 

 orange and golden yellow light. Above this delicate circle 

 of colour towered three tall prominences and upwards 

 of thirty smaller ones. These, like the sierra, were 

 not red, but beautifully variegated. We observed, 

 however, that in parts of the prominences colours 

 appeared which were not seen in the sierra more 

 particularly certain blue and purple points of light, 

 which were charmingly contrasted with the orange 

 and yellow flashes continually passing along the 

 whole length of even the loftiest of these amazing 

 objects. It was, however, worthy of notice that the 

 prominences round different parts of the sun's orb pre- 

 sented very different appearances ; for those near the 

 sun's equatorial zone and opposite his polar regions 



