THE EVER-WIDENING WORLD OF STARS. 53 



John Herschel, sweeping over their neighbourhood with 

 his 18-inch reflector, was struck with the singular bar- 

 renness of the skies around them. With that expres- 

 sive verbiage which gives so great a charm to his astro- 

 nomical descriptions, he forces on our attention, again 

 and again, the poverty of the regions which lie around 

 the Nubeculse. ' Oppressively barren ' he describes 

 them in one place ; ' the access to the Nubeculse on all 

 sides is through a desert,' he says in another. And this 

 peculiarity, thus established by the certain evidence of 

 an observer so able and trustworthy, has been held by 

 many to imply in the clearest and most distinct manner 

 that there is no connection between the Nubeculae and 

 the stellar system. 



To me the evidence afforded by the barrenness of the 

 regions round the Magellanic clouds points irresistibly 

 in the opposite direction. Why should some outer 

 system, free as is assumed of all association with our 

 own, occupy that peculiarly barren space which so at- 

 tracted the attention of Sir. John Herschel ? But if 

 we look on the coincidence as striking in the case of 

 one, how much more remarkable will it appear when 

 the only two outer systems of the sort, thus brought 

 within our ken, are associated in this way with the most 

 singularly barren region in the whole heavens ! Surely 

 the more natural conclusion to be drawn from the 

 phenomenon is that the richness of the Magellanic 

 clouds and the poverty of the surrounding districts 

 'stand to each other in the most intimate correlation. 

 Is there not reason for concluding that those districts 



