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
through the chromosphere to a height of 80,000 miles in 15 minutes.

"Higher still is the 'corona,' an aureole of silvery beams visible in a
total eclipse, and resembling the star of a decoration. The streamers
have been traced for hundreds of thousands of miles beyond the solar
disc. It appears to consist of meteoric stones, illuminated by the
sunlight as well as of incandescent vapours of 'coronium,' a very light
element unknown on the earth, and probably, too, of electrical
discharges. The 'zodiacal light,' that silvery glow often seen in the
west after sunset, or in the east before sunrise, may be a prolongation
of it."

"I daresay these meteorites are swarming about the sun like midges about
a lamp," said I.

"And just as eager to get burnt up," replied Gazen, with a smile. "Let
us pass now to the planets. The little one next the sun is Mercury, who
can be seen as a rosy-white star soon after sunset or before sunrise. He
is about 36 million miles, more or less, from the sun; travels round his
orbit in 88 days, the length of his year; and spins about his axis in
24 hours, making a day and night. His diameter is 3,000 miles, and his
mass is nearly seven times that of an equal volume of water. The