THE APPAEENT POSITION OF THE ZODIACAL LIGHT. 



149 



midway between o- and ^ Leonis, and afterwards to Coma Berenices. The other 

 cokimns are divided into groups of three for the successive hours of right ascen- 

 sion. In each group the first column gives the number of square degrees crossed 

 by the line, the declination of the southern border of the first square, in Italics 

 if negative, and the mean number of stars to the square degree. The vacant 

 spaces show that the course of the lines sometimes carries them beyond the 

 adopted limits of declination. 



TABLE V. 



In S*", 9'', and lO*" thei'e is a slight maximum of stars, -which appears later in 

 the series of lines in each successive hour. If the position of the lines is exam- 

 ined, it will appear that the maximum approximately follows the course of the 

 ecliptic. The lines run northward in ll"" and 12'', so that for these hours no in- 

 dication is given in Table V. of the relative frequency of stars near the ecliptic, 

 and it only appears that the stars of the Durchmusterung are relatively few upon 

 the coui'se of the supposed band. If other observers should consider that any 

 band of faint light occurs there, the possibility of a diflfased nebulosity in this 

 part of the sky (which abounds in telescopic nebulae), might be suggested. 



Another faint band of light -^ appears to me to be situated south of y8 and 

 7) Virginis. This region is too near the southern limit of the Durchmusterung to 

 allow the distribution of stars in it to be well studied from that catalogue. But 

 so far as evidence can be obtained from it by the method above explained, it 

 would seem that along the line passing approximately through /3 and rf Virginis 



1 Astronomische Nachrichten, CIX. 262. 



