SECT. iv. PHENOMENA IN THE SUN. 165 



magnitude to be visible at such a distance. They have 

 been examined with a very high telescopic power by Mr. 

 Nasmyth, who describes them as lens-shaped bodies 

 of wonderful uniformity, and likens them to willow 

 leaves crossing each other in all directions, and moving 

 irregularly among themselves. Mr. De la Rue and Padre 

 Secchi say they have seen something imilar, and others 

 liken them to rice grains. Sir John Herschel 8 is of 

 opinion that they consist of incandescent matter sus- 

 tained at a level corresponding to their density in the 

 solar atmosphere, an atmosphere which he considers as 

 varying from a liquid state below to the highest tenuity 

 of a rarefied gas above. In a memoir read at the In- 

 stitute of Paris, 9 by M. Faye, something of the same 

 kind is suggested. 



There are comparatively brighter waves of the 

 sun's disc, called faculse, which are portions of the sun's 

 photosphere thrown up into the higher regions of his 

 atmosphere ; for Mr. De la Eue took a stereoscopic im- 

 pression of a solar spot and some faculse, in which the 

 spot appeared to be a hollow and the faculse elevated 

 ridges. Being elevated above the photosphere, their 

 light is less absorbed by the sun's atmosphere, and by 

 contrast they are brighter at the less luminous border 

 of the solar disc than at the equator. 



It appears that the red flames and protuberances 

 seen round the edge of the sun during a total eclipse 

 are gaseous or vaporous luminous bodies which certainly 

 belong to the sun ; for during the total eclipse in 1860 

 it was observed, that as the moon moved over the sun's 

 disc, the red flames and part of the corona discovered 

 themselves at the side which she had left, and were 

 covered by her disc at the side towards which she was 

 approaching. Besides, the illuminating effect of the red 



' Quarterly Journal of Science,' April 1864. 9 Jan. 7, 1865. 



