THE MAOELLANIC CLOUDS. 343 



and scattered stars, stellar swarms and globular clusters of 

 stars, and both oval regular and irregular nebulae more closely 

 thronged together than in the nebulous zone of Virgo and 

 Coma Berenices. The nubeculee cannot, therefore, from this 

 condition of complicated aggregation, be regarded, as has too 

 often been done, either as exceedingly large nebulae, or as 

 detached portions of the Milky Way. For with the excep- 

 tion of a small zone, lying between the constellation Ara 

 and the tail of the Scorpion, globular stellar clusters and oval 

 nebula3 are of rare occurrence in the Galaxy. w 



The Magellanic Clouds are not connected with one another, 

 or with the Milky Way, by any appreciable nebulous 

 vapour. If we except the cluster of stars in the constel- 



who was greatly esteemed by Dominique Cassini, and to 

 whom we are indebted for many valuable astronomical ob- 

 servations in India and China wrote as follows, so recently 

 as 1685. "Le grand et le petit nuages sont deux choses 

 singulieres. Us ne paraissent aucunement un amas d'etoiles 

 comme Praesepe Cancri, ni meme une lueur sombre, comme 

 la nebuleuse d'Andromede. On n'y voit presque rien avec 

 de tres grandes lunettes, quoique sans ce secours on les voye 

 fort blancs, particulierement le grand nuage." " The large 

 and the small cloud are both very remarkable objects. They 

 do not appear a mere mass of stars, like Pra3sepe in Cancer, 

 nor are they a faint light, like the nebula in Andromeda. 

 Very little is to be seen within these bodies even with large 

 instruments, although when observed without such optical 

 aid they appear very white, and this is especially the case 

 with the large cloud." Lettre du Pere de Fontaney au Pere 

 de la Ckaize, Confesseur du Roi, in the Lettres Edifiantes, 

 Recueil vii. 1703, p. 78; and Hist, de lAcad. des Sciences 

 dep. 1686-1699 (torn. ii. Paris, 1733), p. 19. In my 

 description of the Magellanic Clouds, in the text, I havo 

 exclusively followed Sir John Herschel's work. 

 M Cosmos, vol. iii. p. 196, and note 



