34 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



would probably have believed to be possible. The visi- 

 bility of a certain set of bright lines would demonstrate 

 not only the existence of a prominence of a particular 

 height at one part of the solar disc, but the nature of the 

 gases of which that prominence was constituted. Nay, 

 so far as the existence of a prominence was concerned, 

 one line alone would suffice for the observer's purpose. 



But now new results of extreme importance began 

 to be obtained. 



One of the first of these was the confirmation of a 

 theory which had been put forward by Father Secchi 

 several years ago. This eminent observer, making use 

 of a particular mode of viewing the sun, had detected 

 signs of the existence all over the sun's surface of a 

 layer of the same coloured matter which forms the 

 prominences. Combining these indications with the 

 observations he had made during the total eclipse of 

 1860, he asserted with great, but not unjustified, confi- 

 dence his belief in the actual existence of this envelope. 

 * The observation of eclipses,' he remarks, ' furnishes 

 indisputable evidence that the sun is really surrounded 

 by a layer of this red matter, of which we commonly 

 see no more than the elevated points.' 



Now the new mode of research was admirably 

 suited to test the views of Father Secchi. In search- 

 ing around the solar disc, Mr. Lockyer could only here 

 and there find traces of the existence of prominences ; 

 but all round the disc he found short bright lines close 

 to the disc's edge, indicating beyond all question that 

 Father Secchi had been right, and that there really 

 exists all over the bright surface of the sun a gaseous 



