340 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



By Professor Eric Doolittle of the University of Pennsylvania. 



HE brilliant winter groups 

 have now begun their 

 steady declension toward 

 the west. We see the 

 great Dog Stars already 

 well past the meridian in 

 the early evening, while 

 Orion, Taurus and Gemini are nightly 

 sinking lower in the western heavens. 



hand. Already he welcomes the return 

 of Virgo, the first of the faint summer 

 groups, while north of this he sees the 

 great Bootes, which, with its most bril- 

 1'ant Arcturus, has now wholly entered 

 the evening sky. 



He knows that when the warm eve- 

 nings of June have come he will see this 

 beautiful golden sun high on the merid- 

 ian in the south, while below it there 



VtoreTH 



Figure 1.— The Constellations, March 1, at 9 P. M. '(If facing south, hold the mapupright; if facing'west, hold west 

 below; if facing east, hold east below; if north, hold the map inverted.) 



It is only Leo, the last of this bright 

 train, that is still mounting upward 

 towards its highest position in the sky. 



All of this tells the watcher of the 

 heavens that the end of winter is at 



will shine the bluish Spica, the brightest 

 star of Virgo, and the deep red Antares, 

 neither of which beautiful objects have 

 yet quite emerged from below our east- 

 ern horizon. 



