A PROBLEM TO SOLVE. 409 



twenty-seven times as large as the sun's, or, in other words, 

 twenty-seven million time? larger than our terrestrial world. 



It is in reference to this magnificent phenomenon that we 

 hope to obtain some satisfactory information in December 

 1870. The results ascertained from the eclipse of 1868 proved 

 to be almost directly contradictory to those obtained last year 

 in the United States, and the problem now is, to discover why 

 these results were contradictory. 



In the meantime, observes the writer already quoted, 

 some astronomers say that the observations already made 

 suffice to show the real nature of the solar corona. " It has 

 frequently happened that, with the means of solving a problem 

 ready at their hands, astronomers have been content rather to 

 wait till new observations removed their doubts, than to under- 

 take the work of carefully analysing the facts already dis- 

 covered. It is urged that the atmospheric explanation (Faye's 

 and Lockyer's) is opposed by simple optical considerations; 

 that the blackness of the moon's disc, in the very heart of the 

 corona, affords the most unmistakable evidence that the 

 moon lies nearer to us than the corona." The solar glare 

 which, according to Faye's theory, illuminates our atmosphere, 

 ought, according to this view and ordinary reasoners will 

 think this argument irrefragable to cover the lunar disc as 

 well as the surrounding heavens. 



It is also argued, very forcibly, that the active atmosphere 

 above the horizon of the observer is partially obscured during 

 total eclipse, while all that part lying in the direction in which 

 the corona is seen is wholly shielded from the direct rays of 



