Oct. G, 1882.] 



KNOVVI.EDG: 



311 



charm. ^L Cygni, a close and unequal pair, will require a 

 high power to see it. 2° South-west of e is 49 Cygni, shown 

 in Fig. 54 ; while 3° south of t lies 52, in which the corn- 

 Fig. 54. 



ponents are a little more widely separated. In both cases, 

 as is common in this constellation, the diversity of colours 

 is very beautiful If we draw an imaginary line from a 

 through I' Cygni, we shall come upon a star (marked, but 

 not numbered, in the Map on p. 214) which must always 

 possess the highest interest for all astronomical students. 

 This is'J&l Cygni, the very first of those suns which fill the 



selection of them for description difficult ; but the beginner 

 may hunt up M. 39 (roughly, half-way between a and u 

 Cygni) to commence with, fi Cygni is a very pretty triple, 

 the colour of the close pair presenting a pleasing contrast. 



{To be continued.) 



THE HERRIiS'G KING. 



THE attention of scientists has frequently been called to 

 the band fishes (J'(mioidci), more on account of their 

 odd form than for their value as a food fish. Their body 

 is of an extraordinary length, and is flat, like a band or 

 ribbon, and is covered throughout with small, beautiful, 

 bright and shining scales. The dorsal tin extends over the 

 entire back, and the ventral tin is missing altogether, or 

 consists of a few long, thin, or fragile bone spurs, which are 

 in the front part of the body near the pectoral fins. 



Among the band fishes, the herring king, which is found 

 in the northern seas, always creates more or less of a sensa- 

 tion every time one is caught, and that is seldom and far 





universe, whose distance from the earth was determined by 

 the illustrious P.cssol. We need occupy no further space 

 in a purely practical paper like this, than to say that, so 

 stupendous is the interval separating our solar system from 

 this oViject, that light (travelling lSG,.'iSO miles a second) 

 takes something like si.x years to pass across it ; so tliat the 

 student whom our description may tempt to look at this 

 interesting object, will see it (not as it is to-night but) as it 

 was six years ago, when the light which enters his tele- 

 scope left it ! Gl Cygni is shown in Fig. 55. Cygnus is so 

 crowded with beautiful fields of stars as to render any 



between. As this fish lives in the greatest depths of tlio 

 ocean, it very rarely occurs that one is waslied ashore. It 

 was first discovered on the Norwegian coast in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Bergen, in 1776, and as the lierring were passing 

 along the coast at the time, the new fish was named the 

 Herring King. Later this fish was observed on the Scan- 

 dinavian and Scotch coast, and lat«'ly a specimen was 

 caught at Stavanger, and was preserved in an almost 

 perfect condition. The most striking feature is the 

 exceedingly great length, as most of tlie specimens caught 

 measured from 9 to 18 feet in length. The head is 



