142 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



scientific matters. The original statement announced 

 that the sun would not be in perihelion by so many 

 seconds of semi-diameter, in itself a very incorrect mode 

 of expression. Still it was clear that what was meant 

 was, that the earth would be so far from the 

 place of nearest approach to the sun that the latter 

 would not look as large as it possibly can look, 

 by so many seconds of semi-diameter. In many papers, 

 however, we read that the * sun will not be in perihelion 

 by so many seconds of mean chronometer ! ' Who first 

 devised this marvellous reading is unknown. 



(From the Daily News for September 27, 1869.) 



DEEP-SEA DREDGINGS. 



MEN have ever been strangely charmed by the un- 

 known and the seemingly inaccessible. The astro- 

 nomer exhibits the influence of this charm as he 

 constructs larger and larger telescopes, that he may 

 penetrate more and more deeply beyond the veil which 

 conceals the greater part of the universe from the 

 unaided eye. The geologist, seeking to piece together 

 the fragmentary records of the past which the earth's 

 surface presents to him, is equally influenced by the 

 charm of mystery and difficulty. And the microscopist 

 who tries to force from nature the secret of the infinitely 

 little, is led on by the same strange desire to discover 



