A VOYAGE TO THE SUN. $? 



that this photospheric matter was actually of the nature 

 of cloud or fog, and that it was, in fact, formed by the 

 condensation of the glowing vapours of many metallic 

 elements into innumerable globules or vesicles, resem- 

 bling the water vesicles of our clouds. From the inner 

 surface of some of these clouds we could perceive that 

 metallic rain was falling. The metallic showers were 

 particularly heavy on the borders of the spot, though 

 whether this was due to the cooling to which the region 

 of the spot appeared to have been exposed, or to elec- 

 trical action caused by the intense activity all round 

 the spot, we could not satisfactorily determine. And 

 though we visited several other spots one of them re- 

 markably large we could perceive nothing explanatory 

 of these localised showers. 



In passing over the general photosphere' that is, 

 over regions where there were no spots we saw no signs 

 of the objects which have been called willow-leaves. 

 The photosphere presents a curdled aspect, as though 

 the metallic clouds which produce the greater part of 

 its light had been agitated into somewhat uniformly- 

 disposed waves not rollers, but such waves as are seen 

 when two seas meet but there was nothing suggestive 

 of interlacing. In the neighbourhood of the great dark 

 depressions, however, the rounded clouds seemed to be 

 lengthened by the effects of atmospheric disturbance ; 

 an effect which was enhanced by the downfall of me- 

 tallic showers from these clouds. X., who had been 

 inclined to entertain the belief that the bright solar 

 willow-leaves are in some sense organised beings, ad- 



