THE SUN. 83 



" the photosphere," is a sort of thing that three or four 

 years ago we might be said to know nothing at all about; 

 I mean as to its nature and constitution; but within 

 that time a most wonderful discovery has been made by 

 Mr Nasmyth. According to his observations, made 

 with a very fine telescope of his own making, the bright 

 surface of the sun consists of separate, insulated, indi- 

 vidual objects or things ; all nearly or exactly of one cer- 

 tain definite size and shape, which is more like that of 

 a willow leaf, as he describes them, than anything else. 

 These leaves or scales are not arranged in any order 

 (as those on a butterfly's wing are), but lie crossing one 

 another in all directions, like what are called spills in 

 the game of spillikins ; except at the borders of a spot, 

 where they point for the most part inwards towards the 

 middle of the spot, presenting much the sort of appear- 

 ance that the small leaves of some water-plants or sea- 

 weeds do at the edge of a deep hole of clear water. The 

 exceedingly definite shape of these objects; their exact 

 similarity one to another ; and the way in which they lie 

 across and athwart each other (except where they form a 

 sort of bridge across a spot, in which case they seem to 

 affect a common direction, that, namely, of the bridge 

 itself), all these characters seem quite repugnant to 

 the notion of their being of a vaporous, a cloudy, or a 

 fluid nature. Nothing remains but to consider them as 

 separate and independent sheets, flakes, or scales, having 

 some sort of solidity. And these flakes, be they what 

 they may, and whatever may be said about the dashing 

 of meteoric stones into the sun's atmosphere, etc., are 



