n the Pacific long before he swam into
Herschel's ken. Nevertheless, inquiries into his physical habitudes are
still in an early stage. They are exceedingly difficult of execution,
even with the best and largest modern telescopes; and their results
remain clouded with uncertainty.

It will be remembered that Uranus presents the unusual spectacle of a
system of satellites travelling nearly at right angles to the plane of
the ecliptic. The existence of this anomaly gives a special interest to
investigations of his axial movement, which might be presumed, from the
analogy of the other planets, to be executed in the same tilted plane.
Yet this is far from being certainly the case.

Mr. Buffham in 1870-72 caught traces of bright markings on the Uranian
disc, doubtfully suggesting a rotation in about twelve hours in a plane
_not_ coincident with that in which his satellites circulate.[1126]
Dusky bands resembling those of Jupiter, but very faint, were barely
perceptible to Professor Young at Princeton in 1883. Yet, though almost
necessarily inferred to be equatorial, they made a considerable angle
with the trend of the satellites' orbits.[1127] More distinctly by the
brothers Henry, with the aid of their fine refractor, two gray parallel
rulings, separated by a brilliant zone, were discerned every clear night
at Paris from January to June, 1884.[1128] What were taken to be the
polar regions appeared comparatively dusky. The direction of the
equatorial rulings (for so we may safely call them) made an angle of 40
deg. with the satellites' line of travel. Similar observations were made
at Nice by MM. Perrotin and Thollon, March to June, 1884, a lucid spot
near the equator, in addition, indicating rotation in a period of about
ten hours.[1129] The discrepancy was, however, considerably reduced by
Perrotin's study of the planet in 1889 with the new 30-inch
equatoreal.[1130] The dark bands, thus viewed to better advantage than
in 1884, appeared to deviate no more than 10 deg. from the satellites'
orbit-plane. No definitive results, on the other hand, were derived by
Professors Holden, Schaeberle, and Keeler from their observations of
Uranus in 1889-90 with the potent instrument on Mount Hamilton.
Shadings, it is true, were almost always, though faintly, seen; but
they appeared under an anomalous, possibly an illusory aspect. They
consisted, not of parallel, but of forked bands.[1131]

Measurements of the little sea-green disc whi