44 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



torial regions of his globe. Yet it must not be inferred 

 that the radiated glory now visible around the sun was, 

 strictly speaking, four-cornered. There was a general 

 tendency to the four-cornered or trapezoidal form, but 

 the apparent figure of the light was gapped and striated 

 in an irregular manner, suggesting that the real shape 

 of the portion of space through which these radial 

 gleams extended was far from simple. We could not 

 trace any actual outline of the coronal glory ; so far as 

 we could judge, it merged itself gradually into a faintly 

 illuminated background of light, which, as we could 

 now perceive, surrounded the sun to a vast distance on 

 all sides, but with an obviously increased extension 

 opposite the sun's equatorial regions. 



The most remarkable circumstance, however, in the 

 radial aspect now presented by the outer corona, was 

 the fact that it had undoubtedly not been so well 

 marked even if it -had existed at all only a short time 

 before. There could, indeed, be no mistake about the 

 matter ; some strange process of change had taken place 

 whereby the coronal region had become thus mar- 

 vellously striated. The same process of change had 

 caused all parts of the solar atmosphere, excepting 

 only the sierra, to glow more resplendently. But 

 the streaks and sprays of faint white light remained 

 unchanged, as well in shape as in lustre and 

 colour. They appeared now by contrast somewhat 

 fainter than they had been ; and, of course, owing to 

 our having drawn nearer to them, they appeared some- 

 what larger : but we agreed that, in reality, no appre- 



