ver, a sensibly elliptical path
the major axis of which is in rapid revolution.[1068] Its very
insignificance raises the suspicion that it may not prove solitary.
Possibly it belongs to a zone peopled by asteroidal satellites. More
than fifteen thousand such small bodies could be furnished out of the
materials of a single full-sized satellite spoiled in the making. But we
must be content for the present to register the fact without seeking to
penetrate the meaning of its existence. Very high and very fine
telescopic power is needed for its perception. Outside the United
States, it has been very little observed. The only instruments in this
country successfully employed for its detection are, we believe, Dr.
Common's 5-foot reflector and Mr. Newall's 25-inch refractor.

In the course of his observations on Jupiter at Brussels in 1878, M.
Niesten was struck with a rosy cloud attached to a whitish zone beneath
the dark southern equatorial band.[1069] Its size was enormous. At the
distance of Jupiter, its measured dimensions of 13" by 3" implied a real
extension in longitude of 30,000, in latitude of something short of
7,000 miles. The earliest record of its appearance seems to be by
Professor Pritchett, director of the Morrison Observatory (U.S.), who
figured and described it July 9, 1878.[1070] It was again delineated
August 9, by Tempel at Florence.[1071] In the following year it
attracted the wonder and attention of almost every possessor of a
telescope. Its colour had by that time deepened into a full brick-red,
and was set off by contrast with a white equatorial spot of unusual
brilliancy. During three ensuing years these remarkable objects
continued to offer a visible and striking illustration of the compound
nature of the planet's rotation. The red spot completed a circuit in
nine hours fifty-five minutes thirty-six seconds; the white spot in
about five and a half minutes less. Their _relative_ motion was thus no
less than 260 miles an hour, bringing them together in the same meridian
at intervals of forty-four days ten hours forty-two minutes. Neither,
however, preserved continuously the same uniform rate of travel. The
period of each had lengthened by some seconds in 1883, while sudden
displacements, associated with the recovery of lustre after recurrent
fadings, were observed in the position of the white spot,[1072]
recalling the leap forward of a reviving sun-spot. Just the opposite
effect attended the rekindlin