Page:ASC 1853 09 08 13-51.pdf/2

distinctly was 357; and my subsequent observations led me to draw the perfect corrections of my impressions on Sept. 26. I perceive however that I entered in my journal on that night a brief note which I overlooked with preparing my observations for the Royal Astronomical Society, and the Astronomical Nachrichten, referring to the brighter line at the interior edge of B; viz. - "The brighter line just at the interior edge of B is visible: it is very narrow." - This brighter line is well shown in the lithograph of my picture which accompanied my paper on Saturn in 1852, and appeared in No. 840 of the Astronomical Nachrichten. It also appears in W. Lassell's picture on the same page; and it is mentioned by him in his more detailed account of his observations at Saturn printed in No. 922 of the Astronomical Nachrichten; under date Dec. 6 (1852): but he had previously to that date received from me a copy of my picture from which the lithograph was drawn; and in my accompanying letter I had drawn his attention to that point. - This fact he does not allude to in his description.
The concentric bands of shading, of different degrees of darkness, on the surface of B, constitute a remarkable feature of that ring. - I just saw them distinctly on 26 Oct. 1851, and have detailed my observations in No. 793 of the Astronomical Nachrichten, as well as in a paper which was sent to the R. A. S. and printed in the No. 1 (p. 12) of Vol xii of the Monthly Notices under date Nov. 14, 1851. - See also the Monthly Notices for Nov. 12, 1852, p. 17, where, under date 1852, Sep. 20 and 25, I record observations of the streaky shading on B, to the brighter line at its interior edge. - W. Lassell also mentions these bands of shading in his observations at Malta on 29 Oct. 1852; but, as usual, does not refer to any previous observations of the phenomena, though he was fully aware of them. - It is remarkable that neither Hershel I nor Hershel II ever noticed these bands; - nor even Struve at Dorpat in 1826; but this negative evidence is of no great weight and cannot be deemed sufficient to prove that the phenomenon is variable.

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