314 COSMOS. 



and clusters of stars in the northern hemisphere alone, 

 viz.: 43 



.. 90 

 .. 150 

 .. 251 

 .. 309 

 ..181 

 . . 130. 



The actual northern maximum lies, therefore, between 12h. 

 and 13h., very near the north galactic pole. Beyond that 

 point, between 15h. and 16h. towards Hercules, the diminution 

 is so rapid that the number 130 is followed directly by 40. 



The southern hemisphere presents not only a smaller num- 

 ber, but a far more regular distribution of nebula. Regions 

 destitute of nebuloD here frequently alternate with sporadic 

 nebula3. An actual local accumulation, more dense indeed 

 than the nebulous region of Virgo in the northern heavens, 

 occurs only in the Great Magellanic Cloud, which alone 

 contains as many as 300 nebulae. The immediate polar 

 regions of both hemispheres are poor in nebula?, and to a 

 distance of 15 the Southern Pole is still more so than the 

 Northern, in the ratio of 4 to 7. The present North Pole 

 exhibits a small nebula, only 5 minutes' distance from it, 

 whilst a similar nebulous body, which Sir John Herschel has 

 aptly named Nebula polarissima Australia, (No. 3176 of his 

 Cape Catalogue, R. A. 9h. 27m. 56s.; N. P. D. 179 34' 14") 

 is situated at a distance of 25 minutes from the South Pole. 



3 I have based these numerical data on a computation of 

 the numbers yielded by the projection of the northern 

 heavens as given in Observations at the Cape, pi. xi. 



