one or two of which reflected the light much more brilliantly than others.  The weight of this one meteoroid was too insignificant as compared with that of the Astronaut seriously to disturb my course.  Fortunately for me, I passed so nearly through the centre of the aggregation that its attraction as a whole was nearly inoperative.  So far as I could judge, the meteors in that part of the ring through which I passed were pretty evenly distributed; and as from the appearance of the first which passed my window to the disappearance of the last four hours elapsed, I conceived that the diameter of the congeries, measured in the direction of my path, which seemed to be nearly in the diameter of their orbit, was about 180,000 miles, and probably the perpendicular depth was about the same.

I may mention here, though somewhat out of place, to avoid interrupting the narrative of my descent upon Mars, the only interesting incident that occurred during the latter days of my journey—­the gradual passage of the Earth off the face of the Sun.  For some little time after this the Earth was entirely invisible; but later, looking through the telescope adjusted to the lens on that side, I discerned two very minute and bright crescents, which, from their direction and position, were certainly those of the Earth and Moon, indeed could hardly be anything else.

Towards the thirtieth day of my voyage I was disturbed by the conflicting indications obtained from different instruments and separate observations.  The general result came to this, that the discometer, where it should have indicated a distance of 333, actually gave 347.  But if my speed had increased, or I had overestimated the loss by changes of direction, Mars should have been larger in equal proportion.  This, however, was not the case.  Supposing my reckoning to be right, and I had no reason to think it otherwise, except the indication of the discometer, the Sun’s disc ought to have diminished in the proportion of 95 to 15, whereas the diminution was in the proportion of 9 to 1.  So far as the barycrite could be trusted, its very minute indications confirmed those of the discometer; and the only conclusion I could draw, after much thought and many intricate calculations, was that the distance of 95 millions of miles between the Earth and the Sun, accepted, though not very confidently, by all terrestrial astronomers, is an over-estimate; and that, consequently, all the other distances of the solar system have been equally overrated.  Mars consequently would be smaller, but also his distance considerably less, than I had supposed.  I finally concluded that the solar distance of the Earth was less than 9 millions of miles, instead of more than 95.  This would involve, of course, a proportionate diminution in the distance I had to traverse, while it did not imply an equal error in the reckoning of my speed, which had at first been calculated from the Earth’s disc, and not from that of the Sun.  Hence, continuing my course