28 COSMOS. 



the right foot of Bootes ; and more especially through the 

 head, wings, and shoulder of Virgo. This zone, which has 

 been termed the nebulous region of Virgo, contains, as al- 

 ready stated,* one third of all the nebulous bodies in a space 

 embracing the eighth part of the surface of the celestial hem- 

 isphere. It does not stretch far beyond the ecliptic, extend- 

 ing only from the southern wing of Virgo to the extremity 

 of Hydra and to the head of the Centaur, without reaching 

 its feet or the Southern Cross. A less dense accumulation 

 of nebulae in the northern hemisphere, which extends further 

 south than the former, has been named by Sir John Herschel 

 the nebulous region of Pisces. It forms a zone, beginning 

 with Andromeda, which it almost entirely incloses, stretch- 

 vng beyond the breast and wings of Pegasus, and the band 

 uniting the Fishes, and extending toward the southern galac- 

 tic pole and Fomalhaut. A striking contrast to these acc^ 

 mulations presents itself in the barren region lying near Per- 

 seus, Aries, Taurus, the head and chest of] Orion, around Au- 

 riga, Hercules, Aquila, and the whole constellation of Lyra. f 

 If we divide all the nebulae and clusters of stars contained 

 in the Northern Catalogue (of Slough), and classified accord- 

 ing to Right Ascension (as given in Sir John Herschel's Ob- 

 servations at the Cape), into six groups of four hours each, 

 we obtain the following result : 



R. Asc. Oh. 4h 311 



4 8 .... 179 

 8 12 . 606 



R.Asc.l2h. 16h 850 



16 20 121 



2D . 239. 



By a more careful separation, according to Northern and 

 Southern Declination, we find that in the six hours' Right 

 Ascension from 9h. 15h., there are accumulated 1111 neb- 

 ulas and clusters of stars in the northern hemisphere alone, 

 viz. :J 



From 9h. lOh 90 



10 11 150 



11 12 . 251 



Froml2h. 13h 309 



13 14 ..... 181 



14 15 . . 130. 



error of the press, the words south pole and north pole have been con- 

 founded. 



* " In this region of Virgo, occupying about one eighth of the whole 

 surface of the sphere, one third of the entire nebulous contents of the 

 heavens are congregated." Outlines, p. 596. 



t In reference to this barren region, see Observations at the Cape, 

 $ 101, p. 135. 



t I have based these numerical data on a computation of the numbers 

 yielded by the projection of the northern heavens as given in Obterva- 

 tiont at the Cape, pi. xi. 



