"BAILT8 BEADS." 221 



Such will be the case with us also if we can but main- 

 tain the present coal famine during one or two more Avin- 

 ters, especially if we should have the further advantage of 

 some very severe weather in the meantime. Hence the 

 cruel wishes above expressed. The coal famine would 

 scarcely be necessary if we had Kussian winters, for in such 

 case our houses, instead of being as they are, merely the 

 most uncomfortable in North Europe, would be quite 

 uninhabitable. With our mild winters we require the ut- 

 most severity of fuel prices to civilize our warming and 

 ventilating devices. 



"BAILY'S BEADS." 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE Times. 



SIB, The curious breaking up of the thin annular rim 

 of the sun which is uncovered just before and just after 

 totality, or which surrounds the moon during an annular 

 eclipse, has been but occasionally observed, and some scep- 

 ticism as to the accuracy of Baily's observations has lately 

 arisen. Having attempted an explanation of the "beads," 

 I have looked with much interest for the reports of the 

 eclipse of 1870, for, if I am right, they ought to have been 

 well seen on this occasion. This has been the case. We 

 are informed that both Lord Lindsay and the Rev. S. J. 

 Perry have observed them, and that Lord Lindsay has set 

 aside all doubts respecting their reality by securing a photo- 

 graphic record of their appearance. 



My explanation is that they are simply sun-spots seen in 

 profile spots just caught in the fact of turning the sun's 

 edge. All observers are now agreed as to the soundness of 

 Galileo's original description of the spots that they are 

 huge cavities, great rifts of the luminous surface of the 

 sun, many thousands of miles in diameter, and probably 

 some thousand miles deep. Let us suppose the case of a 

 spot say, 2,000 miles deep and 10,000 miles across (Sir 

 W. Herschel has measured spots of 50,000 miles diameter). 



