hounds of Hevelius, apparently pursuing Ursa Major round the pole of the heavens. The fine star Arcturus, of the first magnitude, is in this constellation, once supposed to be the nearest to the earth of the stellar host, but without authority.

Of the stars of the southern hemisphere, only a portion of course are visible to us, but these are by far the most important, and constitute the finest stellar objects upon which we gaze. There is the beautifully splendid Orion, visible to all the habitable world, because the equinoctial passes through the middle of the constellation, and when on the

meridian with us, we have at the same time the most remarkable asterisms in the firmament above the horizon. The outline of Orion is very distinctly marked by four brilliant stars which form a long square or parallelogram. The most northerly is Betelguese of the first magnitude; 71° westward is Bellatrix of the second; 15° to the south is Rigel, a splendid star of the first magnitude; and 81° to the east is Saiph of the third. The two former form the upper ends of the parallelogram, and the two latter the lower. In the centre are three stars of the second magnitude, in a straight line of about 3° in length, running from north-west to south-east. These form the well-known belt of Orion. The

uppermost of the triad being less than south of the equinoctial, is almost exactly vertical to the equator. South of the Belt, a row of smaller stars running down obliquely towards Saiph forms the Sword. This fine asterism, in connection with the groups in its neighbourhood, constitutes the richest part of the visible heavens. But the ancients regarded Orion with fear and trembling, referring to him without ceremony those squalls upon the deep which were observed to be periodical at his rising at certain seasons of the year. Hesiod and Homer, therefore, call him fierce; Virgil connects him with storms and tempests; Horace points to his severity and turbulence; and Polybius divides the blame of losing the Roman fleet in the first Punic war between the malignity of the constellation and the fool-hardiness of the consuls. Æneas accounts in this way for the storm which cast him on the coast of Africa when proceeding to Italy:

"To that blest shore we steer'd our destin'd way,
When sudden, dire Orion rous'd the sea:
All charg'd with tempests rose the baleful star,
And on our navy pour'd his wat'ry war."

Orion has the bright clusters of Taurus giving splendour to his vicinity on the northwest; Canis Minor with Procyon, a star of the first magnitude, on the east; and Canis Major, a little on the south-east, universally known by the brilliancy of Sirius, the most refulgent and perhaps the nearest object to us in the sidereal heavens. The old Egyptians observed the heliacal rise of Sirius, or the appearance of the star in the morning above the horizon just before the sun, to occur at a period which immediately anteceded the annual overflow of the Nile, and supposing the two coincident events to be physically connected, the dog-star was adored as the author of the fertility of their country. To the Greeks, his heliacal rising taking place at the most sultry time of the year, when disease was rife, seemed to authorise a reference of all the plagues of the season to his influence. Hence the description of

Brightest it shines, but ominous and dire

Disease portends to miserable man."

South-east of Canis Major is the asterism of the ship Argo, in which Canopus shines, the second of the stars in point of lustre, but invisible to all parts of the earth of higher latitude than the southern coast of the Mediterranean. An observer in the northern hemisphere can only see the stars as many degrees south of the equinoctial in the southern hemisphere as his own latitude lacks of 90°. All whose southern declination is greater never reach his horizon.

Among the stars of the south with which the stay-at-home Europeans are only acquainted by report, the constellation of the Cross is described as pre-eminent -the most interesting object in the sky of that hemisphere on account of the associations connected with it by a Christianised imagination. It consists of four bright stars, to which the fancy readily gives a cruciform shape, the upper and lower being the pointers to the south pole. Von Spix and Martins, in their travels in Brazil, remark:- "On the 15th of June, in lat. 14° 6' 45", we beheld for the first time that glorious constellation of the southern heavens, the Cross, which is to navigators a token of peace, and, according to its position, indicates the hours of the night. We had long wished for this constellation, as a guide to the other hemisphere; we therefore felt inexpressible pleasure when we perceived it in the resplendent firmament. We all contemplated it with feelings of profound devotion as a type of salvation; but the mind was especially elevated at the sight of it by the reflection, that even into the region which this beautiful constellation illumines, under the significant name of the Cross, the European has carried the noblest attributes of Christianity, and, impelled by the most exalted feelings, endeavours to spread them more and more extensively in the remotest regions." Humboldt also refers to his first view of this constellation with peculiar feeling : "We saw distinctly, for the first time," he observes, "the Cross of the South, on the night of the fourth and fifth of July, in the sixteenth degree of latitude; it was strongly inclined, and appeared from time to time between the clouds, the centre of which, furrowed by uncondensed lightnings, reflected a silver light. The pleasure felt on discovering the Southern Cross was warmly shared by such of the crew as had lived in the colonies. In the solitude of the seas we hail a star as a friend, from whom we have been long separated. Among the Portuguese and the Spaniards peculiar motives seem to increase this feeling; a religious sentiment attaches them to a constellation, the form of which recals the sign of the faith planted by their ancestors in the deserts of the New World. The two great stars which mark the summit and the foot of the Cross have nearly the same right ascension; it follows that the constellation is almost perpendicular at the moment when it passes the meridian. This circumstance is known to every nation that lives beyond the tropics or in the southern hemisphere. It is known at what hour of the night, in different seasons, the Southern Cross is erect, or inclined. It is a timepiece, that advances very regularly nearly four minutes a day; and no other group of stars exhibits to the naked eye an observation of time so easily made. How often have we heard our guides exclaim in the savannas of Venezuela, or in the deserts extending from Lima to Truxillo, Midnight is past, the Cross begins to bend!' How often these words reminded us of that affecting scene, where Paul and Virginia, seated near the source of the river of Lotaniers, conversed together for the last time; and when the old

6

man, at the sight of the Southern Cross, warns them that it is time to separate!" Mrs. Hemans has entered into the feeling here described, and sung of the Southern Cross in the spirit of a settler in the New World from old Spain :

"But to thee, as thy lode-stars resplendently burn
In their clear depths of blue, with devotion I turn
Bright Cross of the South! and beholding thee shine,
Scarce regret the loved land of the olive and vine.

Thou recallest the age when first o'er the main
My fathers unfolded the ensign of Spain,
And planted their faith in the regions that see
Its unperishing symbol emblazon'd in thee.

Shine on my own land in a far distant spot,
And the stars of thy sphere can enlighten it not,
And the eyes that I love, tho' e'en now they may be
O'er the firmament wandering, can gaze not on thee!

But thou to my thoughts art a pure blazing shrine,
A fount of bright hopes and of visions divine;
And my soul, like an eagle exulting and free,
Soars high o'er the Andes to mingle with thee!"

-

To examine the stars hid by southern declination from our view, European astronomers have frequently visited localities beyond the equator, and two observatories, at Paramatta in New South Wales, and the Cape of Good Hope, are now sustained at the national expense. Sir John Herschel, upon returning from the latter in 1838, in addressing an assembly held to commemorate his successful enterprise, stated: "I believe there is scarcely a corner in that part of the southern sky which I have not twice searched over, with almost the power of a microscope; and it may easily be supposed, in the course of a rummage of that kind, what an extraordinary turn out there must have been, and what numerous objects worthy of attention must have shewn themselves; and often have I longed for some of those keen star-gazing eyes which I see now directed upon me. I need hardly say any thing on the subject of the southern constellations. They are extremely superb things."

To know the heavens at night so as to recognise the principal constellations and stars visible in our hemisphere — the first step of the tyro-seems at first a difficult undertaking. But a little practice, with the aid of good celestial charts, will soon make him feel at home in a cruise along the firmament. After becoming acquainted with the more remarkable groups, and their chief constituents, these will serve as an index to those that are less conspicuous. The maps accompanying this work, with the directions connected with them, will supply every requisite help for the purpose. In addition to this, the following tabular statement of the culminating of the principal stars, on the first of January, may be of service. The approximate time may be found for the first of February by subtracting two hours, and so on through the year. A star is said to culminate when it comes to the meridian, an imaginary line extending from the north to the south horizon, passing through the pole and the zenith. Its meridian passage is therefore its highest point in the heavens. The time is reckoned from mid-day to mid-day, and will suit to a few seconds for several years to come. The number of hours to the meridian subtracted from the time of culmination and added to it, gives the time of rising and setting:

The best time for a survey of the heavens is during the long nights of winter in the absence of the moon; but in seeking to find his way among the stars by the aid of a celestial chart or globe, the student must bear in mind, that while their relative positions and distances are given, the constellations are continually varying their direction by reason of the apparent revolution of the sphere, after the manner of Ursa Minor swinging round Polaris, as represented in a previous diagram. By alignment, or drawing imaginary lines from star to star, forming a variety of geometrical figures, a general knowledge of them may be speedily acquired. Having become acquainted with the seven stars which compose the triangle and square of Ursa Major, his circumpolar neighbours are readily found by this method. Thus, while a straight line through the side of the square formed by the Pointers leads to Polaris, another through the top of the square inverse to the triangle leads to Capella, and from the first star of the triangle nearest the square a line carried through Polaris conducts to the bright cluster of Cassiopeia. From Capella a direct line through Polaris passes to the two stars Alwaid and Etamin in the head of Draco. Through the side of the square opposite the Pointers a line continued southward conducts to Regulus, east of which is Denebola, the two principal stars in Leo. Denebola forms an extensive square, with Cor Caroli occupying the northern point, Arcturus the eastern, and Spica Virginis the southern, in the interior of which is a cluster of small stars, the Coma Berenices of Tycho Brahe. The line joining Arcturus and Spica Virginis is also the base of a conspicuous triangle, of which Antares in Scorpio is the vertex to the east; and a large right-angled triangle is very nearly formed by Arcturus, Polaris, and Vega. Another remarkable figure, called the great square of Pegasus, is composed by the four leading stars in that constellation. Every one is familiar with the belt of Orion. A straight line drawn through it northerly leads to Aldebaran, and southerly to Sirius. The star north-east of the belt, Betelgeuse, forms a triangle, with Pollux at the northern, and Procyon at the eastern point. By the practice of alignment, guided by a good map, the leading objects of the firmament will soon be recognised,

ance.

nor is any costly observatory necessary in order to cultivate a more intimate acquaintFerguson sought fellowship with the stars lying on his back in the fields when a shepherd boy, and measured their relative distances by means of beads upon a thread. Harding discovered one of the asteroids from the house-top. Upon the bridge of Prague, which now spans the Moldau with its sixteen arches, Keppler was accustomed to watch the stars; and Lalande, in his old age, often took his station upon the Pont Neuf, for the same purpose, ready to accommodate a passing Parisian with a peep at Algol.

CHAPTER VIII.

NUMBER, DISTANCE, AND MAGNITUDE OF STARS.

HE prevailing ideas of men concerning the multitude of the stars, though founded upon wrong premises, are yet in harmony with the literal fact, for the conclusion drawn from the hasty observation of the eye, which a persevering survey would at once disprove, is itself established by telescopic examination. So enormous is the number of the stars, yet so completely incalculable are they, as to admit of their being joined with the sand upon the sea-shore, as a figure of speech denoting a numeration which we cannot define. The common phrase of the Sacred Volume, the hosts of heaven, alludes to their multitude; and the fact is advanced as an illustration of the infinite grasp of the Creator's mind, that he is acquainted minutely with these multitudinous. worlds, which immeasurably exceed our utmost estimates. "He calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth." The earliest catalogue of the stars, that of Ptolemy, enumerates only 1,022: that of Ulugh Beigh, the grandson of Tamerlane, made at Samarcand, contains 1,017: but a comparison of the ancient with modern catalogues exhibits a striking difference in the assigned richness of the asterisms, of which a few samples may be advanced.

Upwards of two thousand stars have however been counted within the trapezium or unequal square of Orion, and the telescope multiplies them in the heavens without end, revealing points of light profusely distributed throughout all space, every point a sun attended probably by a train of planets, a reasonable inference from the constitution of the solar universe. Lalande in the last century registered the positions of fifty thousand, the various astronomers of Europe upwards of a hundred thousand, and Struve alone has since observed no less than a hundred and twenty thousand stars. But this is only a feeble approximation to the whole amount within telescopic range, which a moderate com