THE SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 1871. 95 



As a sample of these, I take the observations of Profes- 

 sor Young, made on September 7th last, and described 

 fully in " Nature" on October 19. 



He first observed a number of the usual flame-prominen- 

 ces having the typical form which has been compared to a 

 "banyan grove." One of these banyans was greater than 

 the rest. This monarch of the solar flame-forest measured 

 fifty -four thousand miles in height, and its outspreading 

 measured in one direction about one hundred thousand 

 miles. It was a large eruption-flame, but others much 

 larger have been observed, and Professor Young would 

 probably have merely noted it among the rest, had not 

 something further occurred. He was called away for twen- 

 ty-five minutes, and when he returned "the whole thing 

 had been literally blown to shreds by some inconceivable 

 uprush from beneath." The space around " was filled with 

 flying debris a mass ol detached vertical fusiform fila- 

 ments, each from 10 sec. to 30 sec. long by 2 sec. or 3 sec. 

 wide, brighter and closer together where the pillars had 

 formerly stood, and rapidly ascending." Professor Young 

 goes onto say, that "When I first looked, some of them 

 had already reached a height of 100,000 miles, and while I 

 watched they rose, with a motion almost perceptible to the 

 eye, until in ten minutes the uppermost were 200,000 miles 

 above the solar surface. This was ascertained by careful 

 measurement." 



Here, then, we have an observed velocity of 10,000 miles 

 per minute, and this is the gaseous matter, merely the flash 

 of the gun by which the particles of solidified solar matter 

 are supposed to be projected. 



The reader must pause and reflect, in order to form an 

 adequate conception of the magnitudes here treated 100,- 

 000 miles long and 54,000 miles high! What does this 

 mean? Twelve and a half of our worlds placed side by side 

 to measure the length, and six and three quarters, piled 

 upon each other, to measure the height! A few hundred 

 worlds as large as ours would be required to fill up the 

 whole cubic contents of this flame-cloud. The spectroscope 

 has shown that these prominences are incandescent hydro- 

 gen. Most of my readers have probably seen a soap-bubble 



