44 Solar System. 



sun, and is about 900,000,000 miles dis- 

 tant from it ; it is carried along its orbit 

 at the rate of 22,000 miles an hour, which 

 it completes in 29 l of our years. Its 

 diameter is computed to be 79,OOO miles ; 

 its rotation on its axis has been discover- 

 ed by Herschel to be completed in about 

 ten hours and a quarter. There is a ring, 

 or a broad circular arch, encompasses 

 the body of this planet, without touching 

 it, somewhat similar to the wooden hori- 

 zon of an artificial globe ; only that the 

 interior space occupied by the planet is 

 very considerable. It is about 21,000 

 miles in breadth ; which is equal to its 

 distance from Saturn on all sides. It 

 appears like a large luminous arch in the 

 heavens, as if it did not belong to the 

 planet. 



Herschel is the ninth planet in the or- 

 der of our system, and is twice as far dis- 

 tant as Saturn from the sun, and will be 

 nearly 83 years in going round it. It 

 is ninety times as large as the earth, and 

 is visible to the naked eye on a clear eve- 

 ning, if the moon be absent. 



Thtrse with their moons we consider 

 as the regular bodies of our system, so 



