OF THE ZODIACAL LIGHT. 445 



It seems to me that the phenomena observed are best 

 explained by the hypothesis that the siin forms, with the 

 zodiacal light_, a system similar to that of Saturn and his 

 rings. The main body of the light would, according to 

 this hypothesis, be analogous to the broadest of the bright 

 rings of Saturn — the distance between the sun and the 

 inner edge of the ring being so small that the inner edge 

 of the ring sets before the darkness has become sufficiently 

 great to allow of observation, and the main body of the 

 light, or main ring, being separated (as in the case of the 

 rings of Saturn) from the outer envelope or exterior ring, 

 thus accounting for the dark space seen beyond the apex 

 of the main body of the light and between it and the lumi- 

 nous envelope. 



It may not be out of place here to say a few words on 

 the distribution of the tracks of meteors in the tropics and 

 southern heavens. It is not unusual to see them fall along 

 the axis of the zodiacal light. I have seen this occur fre- 

 quently. At Smyrna many small meteors were observed 

 to cross the body of the light in various directions during 

 the observation. On the 22nd March 1862, in latitude 

 15° 11' N., long. 110° 9' E., a meteor of the fourth magni- 

 tude, and slightly reddish in colour, was observed to fall 

 from 7 Tauri along the southern edge of the light. Again, 

 on the 24th July in the same year, in lat. 22° 21' S., 2° 17' 

 E., I find in my note-book that a meteor of the third mag- 

 nitude, white and tailless, passed just below Saturn, to- 

 wards the horizon, along the axis of the light. Others 

 might be mentioned. All my observations go to show 

 that the tracks of meteors tend to parallelism with, or to 

 be at right angles to the Milky Way, or to be parallel to 

 the ecliptic ; but of course this refers only to meteors 

 which have a cosmical origin, and not to those which are 

 properly atmospheric ; and as this topic is foreign to my 

 present subject, I pass from it. 



