Congressional troops failed to capture Viña del Mar, but eventually
cut the railway line a few miles out, and crossed over to the back of
Valparaiso, which was soon captured.--_The Graphic._

* * * * *




THE SUN'S MOTION IN SPACE.

By A.M. CLERKE.


Science needed two thousand years to disentangle the earth's orbital
movement from the revolutions of the other planets, and the
incomparably more arduous problem of distinguishing the solar share in
the confused multitude of stellar displacements first presented itself
as possibly tractable a little more than a century ago. In the lack
for it as yet of a definite solution there is, then, no ground for
surprise, but much for satisfaction in the large measure of success
attending the strenuous attacks of which it has so often been made the
object.

Approximately correct knowledge as to the direction and velocity of
the sun's translation is indispensable to a profitable study of
sidereal construction; but apart from some acquaintance with the
nature of sidereal construction, it is difficult, if not impossible,
of attainment. One, in fact, presupposes the other. To separate a
common element of motion from the heterogeneous shiftings upon the