A WHIRLPOOL OF FIRE.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXII, Issue 63, 16 March 1910, Page 7

A WHIRLPOOL OF FIRE.

(By a Banker.)

The recent disturbance of the telegraphs throughout the world for a space of several hours is surmised by scientists to have been caused by a convulsive outburst of electric energy in the sun of exceptional magnitude, synchronising with a large "sunspot I —(apparently black, but really brighter /than the brightest flame we can produce)—a huge yawning gap hollowed deep down into the body of the sun; a terrible solar abysm (though not of exceptional magnitude) computed to have been of sufficient capacity to contain considerably more than a hundred globes equal in size to our earth. Perhaps the most startling and the most inconceivably magnificent spectacle which it is possible for man to witness, is one of these abysmal, fathomless gulfs in the glowing incandescent gases of the solar photosphere as viewed through one of the modern giant telescopes. Cyclones of wild fire whirl and rage in convulsive spasms; now sweeping around the fiery gulf with terrific energy; now gyrating and rotating, a very whirlpool of glowing tongues of flame; now with a throbbing quiver merging with the blazing turmoil of the encircling cliffs of fire. Hurricanes and tornadoes of mighty flames swirl hither and thither; vast jets of burning gases leap out of the abysm, high into the aether, and brilliant eddying cloud masses hover over the fiery disorder, whirled round and round and hither and thither by the cyclonic hurricanes and whirlwinds. And now—and this startling phenomenon, as observed shortly before the magnetic storm which occurred several years ago, was believed to be the immediate .cause of the "storm" —a vast, transplendent globe, or sphere of, doubtless, electricity, of a dazzling brilliancy far exceeding that of the sun itself issues from the wall of the fiery crater and flashes like a gigantic meteor across to the opposite side, literally a discharge of globe lightning, the nucleus of which must have been of a magnitude far exceeding that of the earth itself, and so intense that, if the thory be correct, it disorganised the electricity of this planet, and perhaps also of every other planet in the solar' system.

And if the energy of our own little luminary be so tremendous, what must be that of some of the giants of the stellar world—mighty Sirius, magnificent Arcturus, or fiery Aldebaran! And yet He who by His omnipotent fiat created them all, He "who made the worlds," in His infinite love towards His creatures, in order to save them from the punishment due to them for breaches of His eternal laws, Himself bore that punishment, thereby justifying and vindicating all who come to Him for a passport to the glory-land.