192 THE OCEAN. 



unknown firmament. The grouping of the stars of 

 the first magnitude, some scattered nebulas rivalling 

 in splendour the milky way, and tracts of space 

 remarkable for their extreme blackness, give a par- 

 ticular physiognomy to the southern sky. This 

 sight fills with admiration even those, who, unin- 

 structed in the branches of accurate science, feel 

 the same emotions of delight in the contemplation 

 of the heavenly vault, as in the view of a beautiful 

 landscape, or a majestic river. A traveller has no 

 need of being a botanist to recognize the torrid zone 

 on the mere aspect of its vegetation ; and, without 

 having acquired any notions of astronomy, he feels 

 he is not in Europe, when he sees the immense con- 

 stellation of the Ship, or the phosphorescent clouds 

 of Magellan, arise on the horizon. The heaven and 

 the earth, everything in the equinoctial regions, as- 

 sume an exotic character."* 



Butof all the constellations that stud the sky of 

 the southern hemisphere, there is none that more 

 strikes a stranger than the Southern Cross. Its 

 beauty, as well as the singularity of its form, cannot 

 fail to inspire interest; even though we be, through 

 the grace of God, furnished with ideas of true 

 and spiritual worship, that prevent our viewing it 

 with the superstitious reverence with which it is 

 regarded by the inhabitants of South America. It 

 is not seen above the horizon until we are within 

 the tropics, and scarcely appears to advantage until 

 we approach the equator. As the two brilliant stars 

 which form the top and bottom of the Cross, have 



* Personal Xurrativc, 1814. Vol. ii. p. 18. 



