MILKY WAY. 199 



turesque effect of the Milky Way, if I may use the expression, 

 is increased in both hemispheres by its various ramifications. 

 It remains undivided for about two-fifths of its length. Ac- 

 cording to Sir John Herschel's observations the branches 

 separate in the great bifurcation, at a, Centauri, 88 and not at 

 Cent., as given in our maps of the stars, or, as was asserted by 

 Ptolemy,* 1 in the constellation of the Altar ; they reunite again 

 in Cygnus. 



In order to obtain a general insight into the whole course 

 and direction of the Milky Way with its subdivisions, we 

 will briefly consider its parts, following the order of their 

 Right Ascension. Passing through y and CassiopeiaD, the 

 Milky Way sends forth towards < Persei a southern branch 

 which loses itself in the direction of the Pleiades and Hyades. 

 The main stream, which is here very faint, passes on through 

 Auriga, over the three remarkable stars s, 9, the Hredi of 

 that constellation, preceding Capella between the feet of Gemini 

 and the horns of the Bull, (where it intersects the ecliptic 

 nearly in the solstitial colure,) and thence over Orion's club to 

 the neck of Monoceros, intersecting the equinoctial (in 1 800) 

 at R. A. 6h. 54m. From this point the brightness considerably 

 increases. At the stern of Argo one branch runs southward to 

 y Argus, where it terminates abruptly. The main stream is 

 continued to 33 S. Decl., where, after separating in a fan- 

 like shape (20 in breadth) it again breaks off, so that there is 

 a wide gap in the Milky Way in the line from y to X Argus. 

 It begins again in a similar fan-like expansion, but contracts 

 at the hind feet of the Centaur and before its entrance into 



99 Outlines, 789, 791 ; Observations at the Cape, 325. 



90 Almagest, lib. viii. cap. 2, (t. ii. pp. 84, 90, Halma). 

 Ptolemy's description is admirable in some parts, especially 

 when compared with Aristotle's treatment of the subject of 

 the Milky Way, in Meteor, (lib. i. pp. 29, 34, according to 

 Ideler's edition) 



