1 84 HERSCHEL AND HIS WORK 



distinct." Of these views he writes : " The outer ring 

 is less bright than the inner ring. The inner ring is 

 very bright close to the dividing space, and at about 

 half its breadth it begins to change colour, gradually 

 growing fainter, and just upon the inner edge it is 

 almost of the colour of the dark part of the quintuple 

 belt." * A little after he adds : " The shadow of the 

 ring upon Saturn, on each side, is bent a little south- 

 wards, so that the apparent curve it makes departs a 

 little from the ring." Looking at these singular com- 

 panions of the planet across a gulf eight or nine 

 hundred millions of miles wide, it is not surprising 

 that an astronomer prays for "light, more light," to 

 resolve this puzzle of the bright and the dark. It is 

 only an outline of the ring, at the best, that we can 

 expect to obtain from the most careful drawings. But 

 what Herschel did not suspect or imagine about the 

 ring, it would be natural for him to confound with 

 other features that took a greater hold of his fancy. 

 Of the inner ring he says : " At about half its breadth 

 it begins to change colour," that is, it passes from 

 " very bright " to the darkness of the quintuple belt. 

 Now this was said of the ring as seen and figured in 

 1794. Compare it with the three rings in the three 

 figures shown in 1792. They are unlike that of 1794. 

 Either the ring had changed, or Herschel was in 1794 

 looking on two inner rings, a bright or very bright 

 ring, and a dark. This was Professor Bond's discovery 

 in 1850, " a crape ring " half the breadth of the very 

 bright inner ring, between it and the body of the 

 planet. There are thus three well-marked rings in 

 the system of Saturn, a somewhat dark outer, a very 

 1 Phil. Trans., 1794, pp. 54, 57. 



