PORTION OF THE COSMOS. NEBULAE. 251 



cap. 11), which appeared first in 1545, and was translated 

 into many languages, we learn that as early as the first half 

 of the sixteenth century meridian altitudes of the ." Cruzero" 

 were employed in determinations of latitude : measurement, 

 therefore, soon followed simple contemplation. The first 

 examination into the position of stars near the Antarctic 

 pole was made by means of distances from known stars 

 whose places had been determined by Tycho Brahe in the 

 Rudolphine Tables : the credit of it belongs, as has been 

 already remarked ( 444 ), to Petrus Theodori of Emden, and 

 Friedrich Houtman of Holland, who sailed over the Indian 

 seas in 1594. The results of their measurements were 

 soon adopted in the star-catalogues and celestial globes of 

 Blaeuw in 1601, Bayer in 1603, and Paul Merula in 1605. 

 These were the feeble commencements of investigations 

 into the topography of the southern heavens previous to 

 Halley (167 7), and previous to the meritorious astronomical 

 endeavours of the Jesuit Jean de Fontaney, of Eichaud, and 

 of Noel. The histories of astronomy and of geography, in 

 intimate connection with each other, bring before us the same 

 memorable epochs as conducive alike to the completion of 

 the general cosmical picture of the firmament, and of the 

 outlines of the terrestrial continents. 



The two Magellanic clouds, of which the larger covers 

 forty-two and the smaller ten square degrees of the celestial 

 vault, produce at first sight, as seen by the naked eye, the 

 same impression as would be made by two detached bright 

 portions of the Milky Way of corresponding dimensions. 

 In strong moonlight the smaller cloud disappears entirely, 

 while the larger one only loses a considerable portion of its 

 light. The drawing given of them by Sir John Herschel 



