MAGELLANIC CLOUDS. 49 



er or with the Milky Way by any appreciable nebulous vapor. 

 If we except the cluster of stars in the constellation Toucan,* 

 Nubecula Minor is situated in a portion of the heavens bar- 

 ren of stars, and Nubecula Major in a less starless region. 

 The form and internal structure of the latter are so involved 

 that it presents many separate masses (as seen in No. 2878 

 of Herschel's Catalogue), which present an accurate image 

 of the aggregate condition of the whole clouds. The con- 

 jecture advanced by the meritorious observer Horner, that 

 the clouds were once parts of the Milky "Way, in which we 

 can, as it were, recognize their original place, is a myth, and 

 quite as unfounded as the assertion that they have exhibit- 

 ed, since Lacaille's time, a progressive movement — an altera- 

 tion of position. Their position was incorrectly given in con- 

 sequence of the indistinctness of their margins, when seen 

 through the older telescope having smaller apertures than 

 our more recently constructed instruments; and Sir Joh 1 . 

 Herschel states that the lesser cloud is inserted about lh. 

 Rt. Asc. out of its true position, in all celestial globes and 

 star-maps. According to him, Nubecula Minor lies between 

 the meridians of Oh. 28m. and lh. lorn., N. P. Decl. 162° 

 and 165° ; Nubecula Major in Rt. Asc. 4h. 40m. — 6h. 0m., 

 and N. P. Decl. 156° and 162°. In the former he has cata- 

 logued according to right ascension and declination no less 

 than 919 stars, nebulae, and clusters, and in the latter 244. 

 With a view of separating the three classes, I have counted 

 the objects in the catalogue, which I find gives for 



Stars. Nebulae. Clusters. 



Nubecula Major 582 291 46 



Nubecula Minor 200 37 7 



The inconsiderable number of nebulae contained in Nubecula 

 Minor is very striking, for we find that, compared to the neb- 

 ulae in Nubecula Major, they are only as 1 : 8, while the ra- 

 tio of the isolated stars is about 1:3. The catalogued stars, 

 almost 800 in number, are for the most part of the 7th and 

 8th magnitudes ; some few belong even to the 9th and 10th 

 magnitudes. There is in the middle of the larger cloud a 

 nebula, noticed by Lacaille (30 Doradus, Bode, No. 2941 of 

 Sir John Herschel's Catalogue), which is said to resemble no 

 other nebulous body in form. Although it occupies scarcely 

 ji „th of the area of the whole cloud, Sir John Herschel has 

 determined the position of 105 stars of from the 14th to th« 



* Cosmos, vol. iii., p. 142, and note. 

 Vol. IV.— C 



