444 NEBULA BOUND j ABGUS. [SECT, xxxvu. 



this nebula. Nor is it easy for language to convey a full 

 impression of the beauty and sublimity of the spectacle it 

 offers when viewed in a sweep, ushered in as it is by so 

 glorious and innumerable a procession of stars, to which it 

 forms a sort of climax, justifying expressions which, though 

 I find them written in my journal in the excitement of the 

 moment, would be thought extravagant if transferred to 

 these pages. In fact, it is impossible for any one, with the 

 least spark of astronomical enthusiasm about him, to pass 

 soberly in review with a powerful telescope, and on a fine 

 night, that portion of the southern sky which is comprised 

 between the 6th and 13th degrees of right ascension, and 

 from 146 to 149 of north polar distance. Such are the 

 variety and interest of the objects he will encounter, and 

 such the dazzling richness of the starry ground on which 

 they are represented to his gaze." In that portion of the 

 sky there are many fine double stars -rich starry clusters ; 

 the elegant cluster of variously coloured stars round AC 

 Crucis ; a large planetary nebula with a satellite star ; an-: 

 other of a bright blue colour, exquisitely beautiful and 

 unique ; and, lastly, rj Argus itself, the most extraordinary 

 instance of a variable star in astronomical history. 



It frequently occurred, during Sir John Herschel's survey 

 of the southern heavens, that some parts of the sky were 

 noted for deeper blackness than others, though no stars 

 could be seen ; and it frequently happened that far from the 

 Milky Way, or any large nebula or cluster of stars, there 

 were some indications of very remote branches of the Milky 

 Way, or of an independent sidereal system or systems, 

 bearing a resemblance to such branches. These were indi- 

 cated by an exceedingly delicate and uniform dotting or 

 stippling of the sky by points of light too small to admit of 

 any one of them being steadily and fixedly viewed, and too 

 numerous to be counted even if possible to view them. The 

 truth of this existence was felt at the moment of observa- 

 tion ; but the connexion, though often renewed was not 



