A VOYAGE TO THE SUN. 43 



space than the paths of the most distant known mem- 

 bers of the solar system. 



Most of the meteors were rounded, though few were 

 perfectly globular ; some, however, appeared to be quite 

 irregular in shape. We were interested (and Y. was 

 not a little amused) to observe that most of the 

 meteors were rotating as steadily "as though they were 

 of planetary importance : the sets of meteors, also, 

 which we have already referred to, were circling round 

 each other with exemplary gravity. A strange circum- 

 stance, truly, that those peculiarities of planetary 

 motion, which we are accustomed to associate with the 

 existence of living creatures (whose, requirements these 

 movements so importantly subserve) should thus be 

 simulated by the minute orbs which wander to all 

 appearance uselessly through space ! 



After passing this interesting region, and travelling 

 more than three million miles farther on our course 

 towards the sun, we noticed for the first time that a 

 change had passed over the appearance of the sun's 

 atmosphere and the surrounding regions. The radial 

 streamers respecting which astronomers have so long 

 been in doubt had come into view in the most unmis- 

 takeable manner. We could trace them from the very 

 border of the sun's globe; across the inner glowing 

 atmosphere as well as the outer and more faintly illu- 

 minated region ; and beyond that region to distances 

 which we judged to vary from some seven or eight 

 millions of miles opposite the solar spot zones to about 

 two millions and a half opposite the polar and equa- 



