Heavens--Compared with Jupiter--Saturn
to the Unaided Eye--Statistics relating to the Planet--Density of
Saturn--Lighter than Water--The Researches of Galileo--What he
found in Saturn--A Mysterious Object--The Discoveries made by
Huyghens half a Century later--How the Existence of the Ring was
Demonstrated--Invisibility of the Rings every Fifteen Years--The
Rotation of the Planet--The Celebrated Cypher--The
Explanation--Drawing of Saturn--The Dark Line--W. Herschel's
Researches--Is the Division in the Ring really a
Separation?--Possibility of Deciding the Question--The Ring in a
Critical Position--Are there other Divisions in the Ring?--The
Dusky Ring--Physical Nature of Saturn's Rings--Can they be
Solid?--Can they even be Slender Rings?--A Fluid?--True Nature of
the Rings--A Multitude of Small Satellites--Analogy of the Rings of
Saturn to the Group of Minor Planets--Problems Suggested by
Saturn--The Group of Satellites to Saturn--The Discoveries of
Additional Satellites--The Orbit of Saturn not the Frontier of our
System.

At a profound distance in space, which, on an average, is 886,000,000
miles, the planet Saturn performs its mighty revolution around the sun
in a period of twenty-nine and a half years. This gigantic orbit formed
the boundary to the planetary system, so far as it was known to the
ancients.

Although Saturn is not so great a body as Jupiter, yet it vastly exceeds
the earth in bulk and in mass, and is, indeed, much greater than any one
of the planets, Jupiter alone excepted. But while Saturn must yield the
palm to Jupiter so far as mere dimensions are concerned, yet it will be
generally admitted that even Jupiter, with all the retinue by which he
is attended, cannot compete in beauty with the marvellous system of
Saturn. To the present writer it has always seemed that Saturn is one of
the three most interesting celestial objects visible to observers in
northern latitudes. The other two will occupy our attention in future
chapters. They are the great nebula in Orion, and the star cluster in
Hercules.

So far as the globe of Saturn is concerned, we do not meet with any
features which give to the planet any exceptional interest. The globe is
less than that of Jupiter, and as the latter is also much nearer to us,
the apparent size of Saturn is in a twofold way much smaller than that
of Jupiter. It should also be notic