REMARKS ON NATURE. 
95 
reived in the occultatiuns of stars, and the phenomena of solar eclipses. Hence 
its climate must be very extraordinary; the alternation being that of unmitiga¬ 
ted and burning sunshine, fiercer than an equatorial moon, continued for a 
whole fortnight, and the keenest severity of frost, far exceeding that of our polar 
winters, for an equal time. Such a disposition of things must produce a con¬ 
stant transfer of whatever moisture may exist on its surface, from the point be¬ 
neath the sun to that opposite, by distillation in vacuo , after the manner of the 
little instrument called a cryophorus. The consequence must be absolute aridity 
below the vertical sun, constant accretion of hoar frost in the opposite region, 
and perhaps a narrow zone of running water, at the borders of the enlightened 
hemisphere. It is possible, then, that evaporation on the one hand, and conden¬ 
sation on the other, may, to a certain extent, preserve an equilibrium of tempe¬ 
rature, and mitigate the extreme severity of both climates .—Herschel on Astron. 
— Lard. Cyclop. 
Sun’s Rays. —The sun’s rays are the ultimate source of almost every motion 
which takes place on the surface of the earth. By its heat are produced all 
winds, and those disturbances in the electric equilibrium of the atmosphere which 
give rise to the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism. Bv their vivifying action, 
vegetables are elaborated from inorganic matter, and become, in their turn, the 
support of animals and men, and the sources of those great deposits of dynami¬ 
cal efficiency which are laid up for human use in our coal strata. By them the 
waters of the sea are made to circulate in vapour through the air, and irrigate the 
land, producing springs and rivers. By them are produced all disturbances of 
the chemical equilibrium of the elements of nature, which by a series of compo¬ 
sitions and decompositions, give rise to new products, and originate a transfer of 
materials. Even the slow degradation of the solid constituents of the surface, in 
which its chief geological changes consist, and their diffusion among the waters 
of the ocean, are entirely new r to the abrasion of the wind and rain, and the al¬ 
ternate action of the seasons; and when we consider the immense transfer of 
matter so produced, the increase of pressure over large spaces in the bed of the 
ocean, and diminution over corresponding portions of the land, we are not at a 
loss to perceive how the elastic power of subterraneous fires, thus repressed on the 
one hand and relieved on the other, may break forth in points when the resist¬ 
ance is barely adequate to their retention, and thus bring the phenomena of even 
volcanic activity under the general law of solar influence.— Ibid. 
The Starling. —Much confusion appears to have existed respecting the com¬ 
mon starling : whether such a bird as the solitary thrush exists in this country, I 
cannot pretend to say ; but it is certain, that the common stare does not obtain 
its black plumage until the end of July or beginning of August, being of a dingy 
hair-brown colour. This plumage is sometimes very smooth, and gives the bird 
the appearance of an adult, but it only remains until the first autumn, when the 
black feathers appear first on the sides, and gradually spread over the w'hole body. 
The plumage, however, is not in perfection until the second moult .—Field Nat. 
Mag. 
