s in 1856
(or, in other words, as well placed as it can possibly be); but though
he used a telescope nine inches and a half in aperture, and though his
attention was specially attracted to the inner edge of the inner bright
ring (_which seemed to him indistinct_), he did not detect the dark
ring. Yet we have seen that in 1851, under much less favourable
conditions, a less practised observer, using a telescope of less
aperture, found that the dark ring could not be overlooked for an
instant. It is manifest that all these considerations point to the
conclusion that the dark ring is a new formation, or, at the least, that
it has changed notably in condition during the present century.

I have hitherto only considered the appearance of the dusky ring as seen
on either side of the planet's globe within the bright rings. The most
remarkable feature of the appendage remains still to be mentioned--the
fact, namely, that the bright body of the planet can be seen through
this dusky ring. Where the dark ring crosses the planet, it appears as a
rather dark belt, which might readily be mistaken for a belt upon the
planet's surface; for the outline of the planet can be seen through the
ring as through a film of smoke or a crape veil.

Now it is worthy of notice that whereas the dark ring was not detected
outside the planet's body until 1838, nor generally recognised by
astronomers until 1850, the dark belt across the planet, really caused
by the dusky ring, was observed more than a century earlier. In 1715 the
younger Cassini saw it, and perceived that it was not curved enough for
a belt really belonging to the planet. Hadley again observed that the
belt attended the ring as this opened out and closed, or, in other
words, that the dark belt belonged to the ring, not to the body of the
planet. And in many pictures of Saturn's system a dark band is shown
along the inner edge of the inner bright ring where it crosses the body
of the planet. It seems to me that we have here a most important piece
of evidence respecting the rings. It is clear that the inner part of the
inner bright ring has for more than a century and a half (how much more
we do not know) been partially transparent, and it is probable that
within its inner edge there has been all the time a ring of matter; but
this ring has only within the last half-century gathered consistency
enough to be discernible. It is manifest that the existence of the dark
belt shown in the olde