TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 9 
ridge on the surface of the Mare Imbrium, in latitude 42° N. and longitude 3° 30' E, 
It is almost the only crater in a somewhat irregular line of detached rocks which 
are designated the Teneriffe Mountains, the principal of which is the isolated rock 
Pico,” named by Schréter. These mountains are each designated by a Teneriffan 
appellation. A fine rock, equal to “ Pico,” and westward of “ Piazzi Smyth,” is 
called “ Piton’’; those south and north of “ Pico,” “ Guajara” and “ Rambleta” ; 
a fine branching chain east of “ Rambleta,” “ Alta Vistay’; and a rock N.E. of 
“Rambleta,” ‘ Chajorra.” 
On the Distribution of Heat on the Sun’s Surface, and the Currents in ts 
Atmosphere. By J.J. Murray. 
Professor Secchi, of Rome, has ascertained that the sun’s equator is sensibly 
hotter than its poles. That this should be the case follows from the meteoric 
theory of solar heat. The asteroids which revolve round the sun, and fall into its 
atmosphere as meteors, probably occupy, like the entire solar system, a lenticular 
space haying its greatest diameter nearly coincident with the sun’s equator ; and 
if so, a greater number of meteors must fall on the equatorial than on the polar 
regions of the sun, making the former the hottest. The meteoric theory will also 
account for the currents in the sun’s atmosphere, observed by Mr. Carrington (see 
the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Astronomical Society,’ 15th April, 1860). He 
finds that the spots in the lowest latitudes drift most rapidly from W. to E. Were 
the sun's atmosphere, like the earth’s, acted on by no other motive power than the 
unequal heating at different latitudes, the relative direction of the currents would 
be the reverse of this, in virtue of the well-known principles of the trade winds and 
“ counter-trades,” and this would be true at all depths in the sun’s atmosphere. 
But if meteors are constantly falling into the sun’s atmosphere, moving from west 
to east with a velocity scarcely less than that of a planet at the sun’s surface, and 
in greatest number in its equatorial regions, there is a motive power which is 
adequate to drive its atmosphere round it from west to east, and with greatest 
velocity at the equator. The intensely bright meteor-like bodies which Mr. Car- 
rington and another observer simultaneously saw traverse the sun’s disk moved 
from west to east, and they were almost certainly asteroids falling into the sun, 
Researches on the Moon. By Professor Puririrs, /.R.S, 
The author, having on previous occasions presented his views as to the methods 
and objects of research in the moon, was desirous now to state a few results, and 
exhibit a few drawings, the fruit of recent examinations of the moon by means of a 
new equatoreal by Cooke, with an object-glass of 6 inches*. In sketching ring 
mountains, such as Theophilus and Posidonius, the author has been greatly 
interested by the changes of aspect which even a small alteration in the angles of 
elevation and azimuth respectively produce in the shadows and lights. Taking an 
example from Cyrillus, with its rocky interior, and fixing attention on the nearly 
central mountain, it always appears in the morning light to have two principal 
unperforated masses. By a slight change in the direction of the light, the division of 
these masses is deeply shaded on the north or deeply shaded on the south, and the 
figure of the masses, 7. ¢. the limit of light and shade, seems altered. A slight 
change in the angle of elevation of the incident light makes more remarkable 
differences. On Posidonius, which is a low, nearly level plateau, within moderately 
raised borders, the mid-morning light shows with beautiful distinctness the shield- 
like disk of the mountain, with narrow broken walls, and in the interior, broad, easy 
undulations, one large and several smaller craters. In earlier morning more craters 
appear, and the interior ridges gather to form a broken terrace, subordinate to the 
principal ridge. This circumstance of an interior broken terrace, under the high 
main ring of mountain, is very frequent, but it is often concealed by the shadow 
of the great ridge in early-morning shadows. To see it emerge into half-lights, 
and finally into distinct digitations and variously directed ridges, as the light falls 
* He has also observed the aspect of the sun, but on this subject he reserved his remarks. 
