“‘Excuse me for having made you wait, my lords,’ said the king as he mounted his horse. ‘Indeed, had it not been for these good folks, you might have waited for me long enough to little purpose. Move on, sirs.’ The array moved on accordingly; the sound of trumpet and drum again rose amid the acclamations; but the knight had relapsed into earthly paleness; his eyes were closed and opened not again. They ran to his assistance, but it was too late. The light that burned so low in the socket had leaped up and expired, in one exhilarating flash.”
GEOGRAPHY OF THE HEAVENS FOR APRIL.
By Prof. M. B. GOFF.
THE SUN.
The sun’s light “exceeds in intensity any that can be produced by artificial means, the electric light between charcoal points being the only one that does not look absolutely black against the unclouded sun.” “The heat thrown out from every square yard of the sun’s surface is greater than that which would be produced by burning six tons of coal on it each hour. Now, we may take the surface of the sun roughly at 2,284,000,000,000 square miles, and there are 3,097,600 square yards in each square mile.” A little calculation will show how many tons of coal must be burnt in an hour to represent the sun’s heat.
There comes also from the sun chemical force, which separates carbon from oxygen, and turns the gas, which, were it to accumulate, would kill all men and animals, into the life of plants, thus preserving the animal and building up the vegetable world. Whether it can keep up this amount of light and heat throughout the “endless ages,” we have no means of knowing. We have, however, no evidence even during centuries of any loss of either, so that we may safely say that there will be an abundance of both for all the time in which we are interested.
On the 25th of this month there will be a partial eclipse, beginning at 1:00 p. m., Washington mean time, in longitude 82° 3.5′ west, latitude 59° 12.3′ south. The greatest obscuration (about .75) will occur at 2:46.4 p. m. in longitude 4° 26.7′ east, latitude 70° 48.2′ south; will end at 4:32.4 p. m. in longitude 12° 20.6′ east, latitude 33° 6.7′ south. As it will be visible only in the extreme southern part of the western continent and in the south Atlantic Ocean, no importance is attached to its occurrence.