ross those of the
planets. Such is the solar system--a lonely archipelago in the ethereal
ocean--a little family of worlds."

"Not without its jars, I'm afraid."

"The sun is chief of the clan," continued Gazen, "and keeps it together
by the mysterious tie of gravitation. While flying through space, he
turns round his own axis like a rifle bullet in 25 or 26 days. His
diameter is 860,000 miles, and although he is not much denser than
sea-water, his mass is over 700 times greater than the combined mass of
all his retinue. Gravity on his surface being 28 times stronger than on
the earth, a piece of timber would be as heavy as gold there, and a
stone let fall would drop 460 feet the first second instead of 16 feet
as here. He is built of the same kind of matter as the earth and other
planets, but is hotter than the hottest electric arc or reverberatory
furnace. Apparently his glowing bulk is made up of several concentric
shells like an onion. First there is a kernel or liquid nucleus,
probably as dense as pitch. Above it is the photosphere, the part we
usually see, a jacket of incandescent clouds, or vapours, which in the
telescope is seen to resemble 'willow leaves,' or 'rice grains in a
plate of soup,' and in the spectroscope to reveal the rays of iron,
manganese, or other heavy elements. What we call 'faculae' (or little
torches), are brighter streaks, not unlike some kinds of coral. The
'Sunspots' are immense gaps or holes in the photosphere, some of them
150,000 miles in diameter, which afford us a peep at the glowing
interior. There are different theories as to their nature, hence they
provide rival astronomers with an excellent opportunity of spotting each
other's reputations. For instance, I look upon them as eruptions, and
Professor Sylvanus Pettifer Possil (my pet aversion) regards them as
cyclonic storms; consequently we never lose an opportunity of erupting
and storming at each other. Above the photosphere comes a stratum of
cooler vapours and gases, namely, hydrogen and helium, a very light
element recently found on the earth, along with argon, in the rare
mineral cleveite. Tremendous jets of blazing hydrogen are seen to burst
through the clouds of the photosphere, and play about in this higher
region like the flames of a coal fire. These are the famous 'red flames'
or 'prominences,' which are seen during a total eclipse as a ragged
fringe of rosy fire about the black disc of the moon. Some of them rush
thro