294 Mr Duiilop's Catalogue of Nebulae and 



which proceeds in a northerly direction from the body of the 

 nebula ; the bright star near the north extremity of the arm 

 is not involved in the bright nebula. Between the arms % and 

 X the nebula is very faint, and the bright accumulations of the 

 nebulous matter on the north side are all connected together 

 by nebulosity of various brightness, and are connected to the 

 main body by the arms x and X ; and I strongly suspect the 

 nebula at (p is connected by very faint nebula with the group 

 surrounding the 30 Doradus. The accumulation of the nebu- 

 lous matter at t, is connected with the preceding extremity of 

 the body of the nebula, by nebula increasing in brightness to- 

 wards the neck of the body, but I cannot say that the -^ is 

 connected with the g. Two arms proceed from the neck to- 

 wards the south, which are connected by faint nebula between 

 them, which gradually increases in brightness towards the 

 junction of the arms; between the arm ri and the body, the 

 nebulosity is faint, of various shades of brightness, and from 

 the arms n and v, to the head g, the nebulosity is of various 

 degrees of brightness. 



I have made a very good general representation of the va- 

 rious appearances of the Milky Way, from the Robur Caroli to 

 where it crosses the zenith in Scorpio. This was generally 

 made by the naked eye, except in particular places where I 

 suspected an opening or separation of the nebulous matter, 

 when I applied the telescope. However, the dark space on 

 the east side of the Cross, or the black cloud as it is called, is 

 very accurately laid down by the telescope ; the darkness in 

 this space is occasioned by a vacancy or want of stars ; it con- 

 tains only two or three of the 7th magnitude, and very few of 

 the 8th or 9th magnitude. I may here remark that the Ne- 

 bula Minor is not so bright as the Nebula Major. 



Neither of the two nebulae, Major and Minor, are at present 

 in the place assigned to them by Lacaille ; and it has been 

 suspected that nebulous appearances change their form and 

 also their situation. Yet, although the situation of these ne- 

 bulae, as given by Lacaille and compared with their present 

 situation, would be favourable to such a surmise, still we must 

 consider the dimensions of the instruments with which he made 

 his observations, and make a reasonable allowance. 



