THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 105 
above. The visible part of the emergent sun over its whole breadth 
and up to the height of seven or eight seconds, was covered by a bed of 
rosy clouds, which appeared to gain in thickness as they emerged from 
behind the disc of the moon. Without enlarging on other phenomena 
noted by the French astronomer, it may suffice here to note that Le 
Verrier has been led by those to the entire re-construction of the 
theory hitherto maintained relative to the physical constitution of the 
sun; and, discarding the idea of a central dark globe, with successive 
opaque and luminous cloudy or gaseous envelopes, he now inclines to 
the belief that the sun is a body, luminous simply because of its high 
temperature, and covered by an unbroken layer of roseate matter, the 
existence of which he conceives his observations have demonstrated. 
Other observers, including those who watched the eclipse at Herena, 
still adhere to the opinion that the corona and the luminous clouds 
are alike ascribable to simple optical appearances ; and we must not 
only be content to wait the full publication of the results of the 
various independent observations, but in all probability reserve for the 
disclosures of future eclipses, the determination of some of those 
interesting questions relative to the physical constitution of that 
central sun which rules the undisputed sovereign of our system, 
dictates laws to the remotest planet, curbs the blazing comet in his 
far-wandering aphelion, and measures life, and time, and changing 
seasons, to all the worlds revolving in its train. 
But from this department of the history of scientific progress 
during the past year, in which Canada has been honorably repre- 
sented, though on a scale greatly inferior to what a just ambition 
would lead us to desire, I turn to glance at another sphere of labor. 
Among recent actions connected with the practical applications of 
science, most nearly related to our own immediate sympathies, none 
is, perhaps, calculated to awaken a deeper interest than the expedi- 
tion of Sir Leopold McClintock to survey the projected North Atlantic 
route for a new telegraphic cable between Great Britain and America. 
It recalls to us the memory of high hopes wrecked in the very hour of 
triumph. After repeated disappointments, and when every mind was 
prepared for failure, we all remember when, on the fifth of August, 1858, 
the news flashed along all telegraphic lines on the American continent 
that the Niagara and Gorgon steamers had reached Trinity Bay with 
their portion of the Atlantic cable intact ; and on the same memorable 
fifth of August the Agamemnon communicated by its means the 
