264 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



base runner and catcher off third, while 

 in the great square of Pegasus the catcher 

 is off first and a base runner oft' third. 



I will leave for the more imaginative 

 and descriptive powers of the baseball 

 editor the first report of a championship 

 game between the Cygnus and Pegasus 

 Clubs of the Heavenly League, as well as 

 the detailing how the heavenly home runs 

 are made. But may I suggest that, as a 

 pastor in the East preached an eloquent 

 sermon in favor of baseball on Sunday, 

 the aforesaid absolutely indispensable 

 editor collaborate with this pastor, or at 

 least borrow from him some appropriate 

 descriptive phrases illustrating this nota- 

 ble event? 



Another point made plain in the Pro- 

 fessor Doolittle diagram is the fact that 

 there are a number of "dippers" in the sky 

 besides the Great and Little ones. Even 

 the great square of Pegasus, baseball 

 diamond that it is, is a dipper with a 

 handle, the latter being furnished by An- 

 dromeda, and LTrsa Major and Ursa 

 Minor are also both dippers, and so is 

 Draco. 



I wall not further encroach upon your 

 valuable space more than to ask your 

 readers to get out your November number 

 and study the diagram for the purpose of 

 seeing how near they can come to the 

 conclusions here arrived at. And if they 

 want to see a picture of the writer it will 

 be found on page 197 of the same number, 

 as I nominated the big tree that took the 

 prize as the largest in the L^nited States. 

 The other man is Mr. Dixon, owner o'" 

 the tree. 



What is Beyond our Universe? 



There is a definite thinning out of 

 the stars as we penetrate to vast dis- 

 tances into the star cloud ; evidence 

 which has convinced us, contrary to 

 our former belief, that we are reach- 

 ing or have reached in some directions, 

 the true limit or boundary of our immense 

 universe. 



Almost infinitely extended though 

 our wonderful universe is, when we 

 have reached its boundaries it is im- 

 possible for our minds to stop there. 

 Whether beyond is infinite but empty 

 space, or whether one universe suc- 

 ceeds another, absolutely without end, 

 one conception is as utterly beyond the 

 powers of our little minds as the other. 

 But if, having seen that our Milky 

 Way universe is limited, we shall ever 



discover that there is another, almost 

 infinitely distant one, its existence, so 

 far as we can now see, can only be re- 

 vealed to us by its disturbing pull upon 

 our own vast cloud of suns. And this 

 slight but continuous disturbance of 

 our system as a whole will, if ever, 

 only be revealed to us by the exceed- 

 ingly accurate measures belonging to 

 the science of astronomy of position. 

 — Eric Doolittle, C. E., Professor of 

 Astronomy. 



Distance and Number of Stars. 



At present we know the distances of 

 some three hundred stars, and it can- 

 not be doubted that in the course of a 

 few years this number will be increas- 

 ed to many thousands. So accurate 

 is the new method that if a star is no 

 farther than 163 light years away its 

 distance can be thus directly measured. 



But the great cloud of suns around 

 us contains millions upon millions of 

 objects. The latest estimate from 

 Cambridge is that the number of vis- 

 ible suns in our universe is no less than 

 1,600,000,000. Though w^e can direct- 

 ly measure the distances away of but 

 a few thousands of these can we reach 

 no reasonable conclusions in regard to 

 the true distances, sizes and distribu- 

 tion of the others? We can indeed ac- 

 quire much reliable information on 

 these points, but it must be obtained 

 indirectly. And our greatest source of 

 information comes from the so-called 

 Proper Motions of the stars. — Eric 

 Doolittle, C. E., Professor of Astron- 

 omy. 



On almost any moonless night wdien 

 the sky is perfectly clear, and the soft 

 shades of twilight have vanished, a 

 most enjoyable half-hour or hour may 

 be spent in gazing upon the immense 

 deep blue expanse above, bedecked 

 with roving planets and scintillating 

 stars. The beautiful constellations — 

 strange groupings of the brighter stars, 

 handed down from the antiquity of the 

 ages — are always present in God's 

 great outdoors, and are ever changing 

 as the months go by, constituting a 

 scene of marvellous and impressive 

 splendour, and at the same time afford- 

 ing an unfailing field for study, of the 

 highest interest and utilitv. — "The 

 Call of the Stars" (Kippax). 



