H Stat>Spectre 65 



reason of the earth-light. Gamma Gruis (nearly on 

 meridian ; altitude about one degree 27 minutes) 

 was distinct to unaided vision, and Gamma Sculp- 

 toris with opera-glass. 



Mr. Barlow utters the caution, however, that it is 

 only on very few nights in the year when such observa- 

 tions are possible. 



A STAR-SPECTRE 



I name it so because it is such to me. It comes 

 when the leaves begin to fall, and it goes while yet they 

 are still falling. Unobtrusive to coyness almost, it 

 nightly moves through its little arc in the dim southern 

 sky ; a brief spell of cloud or a thickening of the 

 vapours citywards o' nights, and lo ! the star-spectre 

 appears no more. Fomalhaut for it is of this bright 

 orb of the other hemisphere, the lucida of Piscis 

 Australis, that I speak is, from my latitude, extremely 

 susceptible of atmospheric variations. Scarce seven 

 degrees above my horizon, at most, does it come, and 

 it had need to be big and bright to be seen across the 

 city. 



Victor Hugo, in his Les Travailleurs de la Mer, tells 

 us in that weirdly Homeric combat between Gilliatt 

 and the devil-fish that "pour la pieuvre, comme pour 

 le taureau, il y a un moment qu'il faut saisir." My 

 opportune moment with Fomalhaut came one trans- 

 parent night in the middle of September, when I saw 

 the star flitting ghost-like just beyond the meridian. 

 Only for a few minutes did it remain in view. Yet I 

 have no envy of other and better-placed observers. 

 Who knows but that Fomalhaut may lack to them that 



