form comparable to a banyan grove—not an uncommon

the whole mass was about 100,000 miles, and its upper
surface was approximately 54,000 miles high!, At the
time we have noted the little brilliant lump, marked a,
developed itself like a summer thunder-head in shape;
and at this time Professor Young was called away from
his telescope for a few minutes. Returning at 12.55, he
was astonished to find that, “the whole thing had been
literally blown to shreds by some inconceivable up-rush
from beneath. In place of the quiet cloud I had left [we
are quoting his own words], the air, if I may use the

detached vertical fusiform filaments, each from 10! to 30”
(4500 to 13,500 miles) long by 2” or 3” (900 to 1250 miles)
wide, brighter and closer together where the pillars had
formerly stood, and rapidly ascending.” When Professor
Young first saw them (at 12.55) some were already
100,000 miles high ; but they rose as he watched them,
and in ten minutes the uppermost of them attained to
what several careful measurements proved to be the
enormous height of 200,000 miles—the greatest altitude
yet observed of these hydrogen extensions. At this
time the appearance was that roughly sketched in fig. 10.

Fig, 10.

The filaments—to name them by their apparent size, for
really some of them were long enough to reach from pole
to pole of the earth—as they attained this maximum
height, “faded away like a dissolving cloud, and at 1.15
only a few filmy wisps with sothe brighter streamers, low
down near the chromosphere, remained to mark the
place.”

Then the little “thunder-head” (marked @ in all the
cuts illustrating this explosion) forced itself into notice,
for it had grown and developed wonderfully into what

1 In mentioning these enormous figures, it is almost neces-
sary to assure the reader, once for all, that no doubt attaches

to such measurements: they are very easily made, and are
quite reliable.

VOL. IX. N.S.— NO. LII.

form for these prominences to assume. The length of

expression, was filled with flying débris—a mass of

$$$ $$ $$

THE FIERY FOUNTAINS OF THE SUN. 241

is best described as a mass of rolling and ever-changing
flame. First it was crowded down as it were along
the solar surface: presently it rose up like a pyramid,
50,000 miles high; then its summit was drawn out inte
long tongues and threads, which rolled tortuously about,
reminding the observer at one time of the volutes upon

Fig. ll.

an Tonic capital. At 1.40 it was sketched as in fig. 11,
and at 1.55 it had partially quieted to the state repre-
sented in fig. 12, and then it began to fade away, till, by

FIG. 12,

2.30 it had vanished like the outblown filaments which
had (seemingly) dissolved in the higher solar atmosphere
an hour before. And thus ended this stupendous eruption.

The whole phenomenon, says Professor Young, suggested
most forcibly the idea of an explosion acting mainly up-
ward, but also in all directions outward, and then after
an interval followed by a corresponding in-rush or down-
rush. Such an outburst manifests the working of forces
upon the sun of intensity surpassing any known tpon
earth. The magnitudes of the masses displaced are so
ereat that we have no nomenclature that can do justice
to them.» We talk of filaments and jets, and wisps for
want of larger terms; but such names applied to the
objects under notice are simply ludicrous. To help to
give an idea of the enormity of the things we are dealing
with we have drawn upon fig. 10 a little white dot in
the black space on the left-hand side. This dot represents
the earth upon the scale of the drawing—this world of
ours, 8000 miles in diameter. It is as a grain of mustard
seed beside those shafts of flame! The heat of this upshot
matter, which is, as we have said, mostly hydrogen gas, is
likewise immeasurable; but it must be of sufficient in-
tensity to fuse and destroy a mass of earth like our little
globe in a few minutes.

And then reflect upon the rapidity of ascent of the
thongs of flame! We are told that in the case before us
they rose 100,000 miles in ten minutes. That is, 10,000
miles in a minute, or 166 miles a second. It is indeed
possible that the real heights were greater than were ob-