THE FUEL OF THE SUN. 27 



ter. They are all combustible, and, with a few exceptions, 

 the products of their combustion would solidify after they 

 were projected beyond the photosphere. Much of the iron, 

 nickel, cobalt, and copper might pass through the fiery or- 

 deal of such projection, and solidify without oxidation, es- 

 pecially when more or less enveloped in uncombiued hy- 

 drogen. 



It is obvious that, under these circumstances, there must 

 occur a series of precipitations analogous to those from the 

 aqueous vapor of our atmosphere. These gaseous metals, 

 or their oxides, must be condensed as clouds, rain, snow, 

 and hail, according to their boiling and metal points, and 

 the conditions of their ejection. We know that sudden 

 and violent atmospheric disturbance, accompanied with 

 fierce electrical discharges, especially favor the formation 

 of hailstones in our terrestrial atmosphere. All such vio- 

 lence must be displayed on a hugely exaggerated scale in 

 the solar outbursts, and therefore the hailstone formation 

 should preponderate, especially as the metallic vnpors con- 

 dense more rapidly than those of water on account of the 

 much smaller amount of their specific heat, and of the 

 latent heat of their vapors. 



What will become of these volleys of solid matter thus 

 ejected with the furious and protracted explosions forming 

 the solar prominences ? In order to answer this question, 

 we must remember that the spectroscope, as recently ap- 

 plied, merely displays the gaseous, chiefly the hydrogen, 

 ejections ; that these great gaseous flames bear a similar 

 relation to the solid projectiles that the flash of a gun does 

 to the grape-shot or cannon-ball. Mr. Lockyer says : "In 

 one instance I saw a prominence 27,000 miles high change 

 enormously in the space of ten minutes ; and, lately, I have 

 seen prominences much higher born and die in an hour." 

 He has recently measured an actual velocity of 120 miles 

 per second in the movements of this gaseous matter of the 

 solar eruptions, the initial velocity of which must have been 

 much greater.* If such is the velocity of the gaseous ejec- 



* Subsequent observations (1882) by Secchi, Young, and others 

 have demonstrated velocities far exceeding this ; quite sufficient to 

 project the solid matter clearly beyond the sphere of solar attraction. 



