cause, as their visibility should
otherwise be limited to a half segment of a circle. The regions thus
shining to us are obviously those on which the sun has not yet set,
his appearance above the horizon being prolonged, as in our own case,
by refraction, though to a much larger extent. The magnitude of the
sun's disk as seen from Venus, a third larger than it appears to us,
is also adducted by Mr. Proctor in his posthumous work, "The Old and
the New Astronomy," edited and completed by Mr. A.C. Ranyard, as an
element in extending the illumination of Venus to more than a
hemisphere of her surface. As his diameter there is 44-1/4 deg., a zone
of more than 22 deg. wide outside the sunward hemisphere is he thinks
illuminated by direct though partial sunlight, the orb being
throughout this tract still partially above the horizon.

[Illustration: GEOGRAPHICAL ASPECT OF VENUS.]

[Illustration]

THE STARS

(FROM STARLAND.)

BY SIR ROBERT S. BALL.

[Illustration]

The group of bodies which cluster around our sun forms a little
island, so to speak, in the extent of infinite space. We may
illustrate this by a map in which we shall endeavor to show the stars
placed at their proper relative distances. We first open the compasses
one inch, and thus draw a little circle to represent the path of the
earth. We are not going to put in all the planets. We take Neptune,
the outermost, at once. To draw its path I open the compasses to
thirty inches, and draw a circle with that radius. That will do for
our solar system, though the comets no doubt will roam beyond these
limits. To complete our map we ought of course to put in some stars.
There are a hundred million to choose from, and we shall begin with
the brightest. It is often called the Dog Star, but astronomers know
it better as Sirius. Let us see where it is to be placed on our map.
Sirius is beyond Neptune, so it must be outside somewhere. Indeed, it
is a good deal further off than Neptune; so I try at the edge of the
drawing-board; I have got a method of making a little calculation that
I do not intend to trouble you with, but I can assure you that the
results it leads me to are quite correct; they show me that this board
is not big enough. But could a board which was big enough fit into
this lecture theatre? Here, again, I make my little calculations, and
I find that there would not be room for a board sufficiently great; in
fact, if I put the sun here at one en