86 THE SUN. 



moon is opaque (or not transparent), it completely stops 

 all the light from every part of the bright disc of the sun, 

 so long as the total eclipse continues, which is sometimes 

 as much as two or three minutes ; and then are witnessed, 

 what at no other time can be seen, viz., certain wonder- 

 ful appearances of rose-coloured masses of light project- 

 ing, as it were, from the dark edge of the moon, for the 

 most part like knobs, or cones, or long ranged ridges 

 of what would seem to be mountains, rising from it ; but 

 sometimes like clouds or flaring flag-shaped masses of 

 red light, some of which have been seen quite detatched 

 from all connexion with the moon's border. That they 

 belong to the sun, however, and not the moon, is evident 

 from the fact that the moon in its progress over the sun's 

 face gradually hides those to which it is approaching, and 

 discloses those which belong to that side of the sun 

 which the moon is going to leave ; for I should mention 

 that they are seen irregularly placed all round the edge 

 of the sun. 



(43.) Now, what are these singular lights'? Flames 

 they certainly are not ; clouds of some sort it is ex- 

 tremely probable that they are, of most excessively thin 

 and filmy vapour, floating in a transparent atmosphere 

 which must for that purpose extend to a very consider- 

 able height above the luminous surface of the sun. We 

 are all familiar with the beautiful appearance of those 

 thin vapoury clouds which appear in our own atmosphere 

 at sunset. But these solar clouds must be almost infi- 

 nitely thinner and more unsubstantial, since even in that 

 intense illumination they are only seen when the sun 



