4 o8 THE TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE. 



reasonably be suggested that, in so short a time, no data can 

 be ascertained worth the cost and trouble the proposed expe- 

 dition will necessitate ; but the reader requires to be informed 

 that the most valuable acquisitions lately won in the region of 

 solar physics have been the result of observations which may 

 almost be described as momentary. 



What, then, is the important point on which our astronomers 

 hope to gain information from a close examination of the 

 approaching eclipse ? 



This question has been ably answered by a well-informed 

 writer in the Daily News. The great problem to be solved 

 is that of the strange appearance of the solar corona of that 

 glory of light which rings round the great luminary when totally 

 eclipsed, to it, as some astronomers assert, a purely optical 

 phenomenon, or, as others more reasonably declare, " one of 

 the most imposing of all the features of the solar system." It 

 is true that the former opinion is held by such men as Faye, 

 Lockyer, and Professor Airy ; but if it be founded on fact, the 

 phenomenon loses all its importance, and nearly all its interest. 

 If the other opinion prove correct, and the corona is discovered 

 to be in reality an appendage of the orb of day, then the mind 

 must at once acknowledge its unsurpassed splendour, its mag- 

 nificent proportions. As its glow and ethereal radiancy often 

 extends several degrees from the eclipsed sun, its diameter 

 cannot be less than 2,800,000 miles. 



Assume, then, that it is shaped like a globe, that it is the 

 globular envelope (so to speak) of the sun, and we may con- 

 clude that its outer boundary would at most enclose a volume 



