i before i British Association. 309 
~ able est the atmosphere, observed the very minute, but ex 
tremely black, shadow of the ring of Saturn upon the body of 
the planet.  Hé® observed the line of shadow to be® notched, 
as it were, and almost. broken up into a line of dots; thus in- 
dicating mountains upon the plane of the ring—mountains doubt- 
less raised by the same internal forces and : pce the same 
ends as those of our own globe. » In’ passing from our solar 
system to the frontier of the sidereal . universe around us, we 
traverse a gulf of inconceivable extent. > If we represent the 
radius of the solar system, or of Neptuine’s ’s orbit (which is 2,900 - 
millions of miles) by a line two miles long, the interval be- 
.. earth’s orbit, or 13,746 times that of De pte which is thitele 
times ’as far from the sun as the earth. And yet to that distant. 
_ Zone has the Thiele of man traced the Creator’s arm working the’ 
“sical and intellectual life. It is by means of the. gigantic teles- 
: ee. that we have be ome | ac quainted with the 
_ the presence of Sytamaica! laws almost within our me The 
ibe oe. aia so cn developed in some of the nebule= 
Lis ioe is of opinion that those nebulz are systems of a very 
- Similar nature, seen more or less perfectly, and variously placed 
with reference to the line of sight. In re-examining the more re- 
¢ of these objects, Lord Rosse intends to view- them with 
| light of his six feet speculum, und iminished by the second 
n of the small mirror. By thus adopting what is called 
the front view, he Will doubtless, as he himself expects, discover 
Many new features in those interesting objects. It is to the in- 
r. Lassels has still mare recently, and under’ a singularly favor- 
