160 



SCENERY OF THE HEAVENS. 



of the South Pole. It then takes a northerly direction, and divides into two branches 

 before again passing the ecliptic into the northern hemisphere. The eastern branch 

 streams over the bow of Sagittarius, through Aquila and part of Cygnus. The 

 western branch passes over the tail of Scorpio, the right side of Ophiucus to Cygnus. 

 The two branches unite in that constellation, and pass to Cepheus, the point 

 from whence we started, where the stream has its greatest breadth for a considerable 

 space. 



By some of the pagan philosophers the Via Lactea was regarded as an old disused path 

 of the sun, of which he had got tired, or from which he had been driven, and had left 

 some faint impression of his glorious presence upon it. Its stellar composition was, 

 however, suspected long before it was proved, but its multitudinous host of stars remained 

 a secret till Herschel turned his mighty instrument at Slough upon the silvery belt. In a 



single spot he counted between five and six 

 hundred without moving his telescope ; and 

 in a space of the zone not more extensive 

 than 10 long by 2^ wide, he computed 

 that there were no fewer than 258,000. 

 "What Omnipotence !" was the involuntary 

 exclamation of Schroeter of Lilienthal, upon 

 examining a part of the same magnificent 

 girdle. Though the whole number of stars 

 which the naked eye discerns on an ordinary 

 night is small, yet, leaving the common 

 haunts of men, and gazing upon the celestial 

 vault at a high elevation in the atmosphere, 

 largely improves the appearance of old fami 

 liar stellar faces, and many are caught 

 sight of which were before wholly invisible. 

 Visiting the peaks of lofty mountains, the 

 unaided eye of the adventurer who is 

 there at night forms fresh acquaintances 

 among the stars, and its friends of long standing glitter with a brilliance which the 

 denser regions of the atmosphere render obscure to the dwellers below. The son of 

 Marshal Ney remarks, in a personal narrative of the ascent of one of the Pyrenean 

 summits : " How glorious were the heavens on that night ! Ye who have never 

 bivouacked on the Cardal know not what a fine night is." Brydone observes of the top 

 of Mount Etna : " We had now time to pay our adorations in a silent contemplation of 

 the sublime objects of nature. The sky was clear, and the immense vault of the heavens 

 appeared in awful majesty and splendour. We found ourselves more struck with 

 veneration than below, and at first we were at a loss to know the cause, till we observed, 

 with astonishment, that the number of stars seemed to be infinitely increased, and the 

 light of each of them appeared brighter than usual The whiteness of the Milky Way 

 was like a pure flame that shot across the heavens, and with the naked eye we could 

 observe clusters of stars that were invisible in the regions below. We did not at first 

 attend to the cause, nor recollect that we had now passed through ten or twelve thousand 

 feet of gross vapour, that blunts and confuses every ray before it reaches the surface of 

 the earth. We were amazed at the distinctness of vision, and exclaimed together, ' What 

 a glorious situation for an observatory ! Had Empedocles possessed the eyes of Galileo, 

 what discoveries must he not have made !' We regretted that Jupiter was not visible, as 

 I am persuaded we might have discovered some of his satellites with the naked eye, or at 



