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 its surface, for high air currents on the light torrid side probably flow rapidly to the dark, cold side, with the cold air near the surface of the dark, cold side flowing with equal rapidity to the torrid side. This state of affairs may tend to equalize the intensity of the two extremes of climate. Being almost 30 million miles closer to the sun than the earth, Venus may have a higher temperature than the earth, although the heat may be somewhat modified by the clouds which are always in the sky.

Sometimes a faint, grayish light has been observed on the dark side of the planet when it is nearest the earth. This was at one time thought to be a reflection from a cold and frozen hemisphere, but a more likely suggestion hints that it may be an electrical manifestation in the planet's atmosphere, similar to our Aurora.

Venus completes its orbit in 7½ months, its year being rather shorter than ours.

The question of the existence of life not only on Venus, but on the other planets, is always a subject of general interest. Professor Barnard of the Yerkes Observatory had the following convictions on the subject:

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are considered, he says, to be worlds of the future, their low density and other considerations leaving little doubt of their unripeness for life. Perhaps millions