The Milky Way. 



At a distance of five degrees of longitude from our 

 North and South Poles, we see in the sky an immense 

 ring, of somewhat branching form, surrounding our earth 

 and the visible spheres. This formation is composed of 

 myriads of big and little stars, and has a whitish appea- 

 rance, from which it is called in the language of astro- 

 nomy f the Milky Way . Through all the thousands of 

 years of our earth's historical existence the Milky Way 

 has remained unchanged. The question arises what phe- 

 nomenon can this be which remains apparently unchan- 

 ged in form and place for thousands of years, when our 

 earth is travelling all the time through space at the rate 

 of 28 versts a second and other solar systems and fixed 

 stars visibly change their positions from month to month? 



The clearest explanation of this phenomenon is affor- 

 ded if we take for purposes of illustration some terre- 

 strial analogy. Let us suppose that we have. rowed out 

 in a boat to the centre of a lake and find ourselves 

 there suddenly surrounded by an enormous flight of 

 birds of passage on the wing. Myriads are filling the 

 air over our heads, and darkening the atmosphere around 

 us, and at the same time all the lake on all sides is 

 sprinkled over with those who have taken to the water 

 on their way. What do we see in this picture ? In the 

 birds on the wing we see various points of figured lines 

 while in the flocks which are swimming on the water 

 we see also an irregular branching ring similar to what 



