On the latter, markings and streaks of strange variety
suggested, if they failed-to prove, the existence of frequent spiral
storms, disturbing, probably at an immense height above the surface,
clouds which must be utterly unlike the clouds of Mars or the Earth in
material as well as in form and mass. These markings enabled us to
follow with clear ocular appreciation the rapid rotation of this
planet. In the course of half-an-hour several distinct spots on
different belts had moved in a direct line across a tenth of the face
presented to us--a distance, upon the scale of the gigantic image, so
great that the motion required no painstaking observation, but forced
itself upon the notice of the least attentive spectator. The belief of
Martial astronomers is that Jupiter is not by any means so much less
dense than the minor planets as his proportionately lesser weight
would imply. They hold that his visible surface is that of an
enormously deep atmosphere, within which lies, they suppose, a central
ball, not merely hot but more than white hot, and probably, from its
temperature, not yet possessing a solid crust.
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