mirrors which send to us rays from the fiery solar
nucleus. Modern conjectures will thus be
verified and tested, and physical astronomy will
have made a sure step in advance.

The eclipse of the 18th of August offers
excellent conditions for the examination of the
protuberances, the search after bodies near the
Sun, and the determination of the Sun's
diameter. For some time to come, we shall not
have another equally favourable occasion.
Although total eclipses are not absolutely rare,
and when they do occur are visible over a large
extent of the Earth's surface, there are very
few whose duration is long enough to admit of
attentive observation. In 1870, there will be
a total eclipse visible at Oran in Algeria, and
at Cadiz in Spain; but it will be so short, that
an observer will only have time to assure
himself of its actual occurrence. A December sky,
too, is seldom propitious to astronomers. This
year's eclipse will be comparatively long. In
the Gulf of Siam, the darkness will last six
minutes and forty-six seconds; in Cambogia,
where Saïgon is situated, it will last six minutes
and forty seconds; giving plenty of time for
precise and careful observation.

The long duration of the eclipse is owing to
several causes. The Moon, on the 18th of
August, will be within six hours of her perigee,
whilst the Sun will not be far from his apogee;
in other words, the Moon being as near to us
as it is possible for her to be, and the Sun
very distant, the amount of occultation will
thereby be increased. Moreover, the Moon's
apparent diameter will be further augmented in
the regions where the eclipse will take place
near the zenith, namely, in Cambogia and the
Gulf of Siam.

It is not, however, to either of those points
that the French expedition betakes itself. After
due consideration, the Malacca Peninsula was
fixed on, for the following intelligible reason.
The path of the central eclipse is this: Passing
Aden (South Arabia), it crosses the Arabian
Sea to Hindostan, which it reaches at
Kolapoor, a little above Goa. It then crosses
Hindostan from west to east, leaving it near
Masulipatam. Then it stretches across the Bay of
Bengal, passing to the north of the Andaman
Isles, over the northern portion of the Malayan
Peninsula, the Gulf of Siam, Cambogia Point,
the north of Borneo and Celebes, afterwards
skirting the south of New Guinea. The selection
of a station somewhere along this line was
seriously considered by a committee of astronomers
and naval officers, presided over by the
minister of Public Instruction.

At Aden, the point nearest home, the Sun
will be too near the horizon, and the duration
of the eclipse only three minutes. The west
coast of Hindostan would hardly suit the
purpose. August is the rainy season, the time of
the monsoon. There would be a strong chance
of scientific observers travelling several thousand
leagues for the pleasure of looking at a canopy of
clouds. The English astronomers, foreseeing
that probability, have fixed on the east coast, at
Masulipatam, where a vast tract of highland and
mountain will protect them—at least they hope
so—from the south-west monsoon. The
English government has there got together
powerful means of observation.

It is thither, we have seen, that the French
send M. Janssen; for at Saïgon also the south-
west monsoon is unfavourable. Cambogia is a
flat and marshy country with no protection from
the winds. Borneo, Celebes, and Amboyna,
were also rejected. The French have consequently
selected a position on the east coast of
Malacca, where their observers will be sheltered
from the monsoon by the chain of mountains
which runs along the whole length of the Peninsula.
We have to wait in patience for the results
obtained at these international look-outs. We
shall probably have a more approximate
answer to the much-vexed question, What is the
Sun?

POPULAR TALES FROM ITALY.

THE following tales were communicated, in
the first instance, to Dr. H. Grimm, of Berlin,
by a young Neapolitan, who served as a model
to the painters at Rome. Dr. H. Grimm sent
the newly-acquired treasure to his uncle, the
great Jacob Grimm, whose death, in
September, 1863, shortly after he had received
them, prevented their publication. The appearance,
in the Jahrbuch für Romanische und
Englische Literatur of the Venetian tales, edited
by Dr. Reinheld Köhler, and afterwards
partially described in All The Year Round, having
attracted the notice of Dr. H. Grimm, he sent
another copy of his Neapolitan tales to Dr.
Köhler, who makes them known through the
same medium. These tales we give here, told in
our own fashion, conceiving that, while, by their
resemblance in principle to many popular stories
of various countries, they may interest ethnologists,
they will be found sufficiently novel ia
some of their details to entertain tlie reader
who merely seeks amusement.

Three brothers, the two eldest of whom
hated the youngest with an intensity consistent
with that state of natural feeling which we find
represented in so many fairy tales, mustered
sufficient friendship to go out for a day's shooting.
Of course, they lost their way in a wood,
and of course the office of climbing a tree, and
endeavouring to ascertain their whereabout
devolved upon the youngest. A palace, splendidly
illuminated, presented itself to his gaze, and
thither they directed their steps. The knocks
which they inflicted with their guns upon the
door brought no response, so they made an
entrance by main force, and found a large empty
hall in which there was a well-spread table with
three plates, three goblets, and as many chairs.
They naturally availed themselves of an
opportunity so inviting, and when they had feasted
sufficiently, took their rest in an adjoining
chamber, which was furnished with three beds.
The two eldest, like dolts as they were, went