no PLEASANT WAYS IN SCIENCE. 



exactly with what we should expect if two large meteoric 

 masses travelling side by side had rushed, with a velocity 

 originally amounting to two or three hundred miles per 

 second, through the portions of the solar atmosphere lying 

 just above, at, and just below the visible photosphere. The 

 actual rate of motion was measured at 120 miles per second 

 as the minimum, but may, if the direction of motion was 

 considerably inclined to the line of sight, have amounted 

 to more than 200 miles per second. The effect was such, 

 that the parts of the sun thus suddenly excited to an 

 increased emission of light and heat appeared like bright 

 stars upon the background of the glowing photosphere 

 itself. One of the observers, Carrington, supposed for a 

 moment that the dark glass screen used to protect the eye 

 had broken. The increase of splendour was exceedingly 

 limited in area, and lasted only for a few minutes 

 fortunately for the inhabitants of earth. As it was, the whole 

 frame of the earth sympathized with the sun. Vivid auroras 

 were seen, not only in both hemispheres, but in latitudes 

 where auroras are seldom seen. They were accompanied 

 by unusually great electro-magnetic disturbances. 



" In many places," says Sir J. Herschel, " the telegraph 

 wires struck work At Washington and Philadelphia, the 

 electric signalmen received severe electric shocks. At a 

 station in Norway, the telegraphic apparatus was set fire to, 

 and at Boston, in North America, a flame of fire followed 

 the pen of Bain's electric telegraph, which writes down the 

 message upon chemically prepared paper." 



We see, then, that most certainly the sun can be locally 

 excited to increased emission of light and heat, which never- 

 theless may last but for a very short time ; and we have 

 good reason for believing that the actual cause of the sudden 

 change in his condition was the downfall of meteoric matter 

 upon a portion of his surface. We may well believe that, 

 whatever the cause may have been, it was one which might 

 in the case of other suns, or even in our sun's own case, 

 affect a much larger portion of the photosphere. If this hap 



