THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS. 345 



nebulse in Nubecula Major they are only as 1 : 8, while the 

 ratio of the isolated stars is about 1:3. The catalogued 

 stars, almost 800 in number, are for the most part of the 7th 

 and 8th magnitudes; some few belong even to the 9th and 

 10th magnitudes. There is in the middle of the larger 

 cloud a nebula, noticed by Lacaille, (30 JDoradus, Bode, 

 No. 2941 of Sir John HerscheFs Catalogue,) which is said to 

 resemble no other nebulous body in form. Although it 

 occupies scarcely -g^th f the area of the whole cloud, Sir 

 John Herschel has determined the position of 105 stars of 

 from the 14th to the 16th magnitude in this space. These 

 stars are projected on the wholly unresolved, uniformly bright 

 and unspeckled nebula. 91 



The Black Specks which attracted the attention of Portu- 

 guese and Spanish pilots as early as the close of the 1 5th and 

 the beginning of the 16th centuries, circle round the southern 

 pole opposite to the Magellanic Light- clouds, although at a 

 greater distance from it. They are probably, as already 

 remarked, the Canopofosco of the "three Canopi," described 

 by Amerigo Vespucci in his third voyage. I find the first 

 definite notice of these spots in the 1st Decade of Anghiera's 

 work, " De Rebus Oceanicis" (Dec. 1, lib. 9, ed. 1533, 

 p. 20, Z>.) " liiterrogati a me nautsG qui Vicentium Agnem 

 Pinzonum fuerant comitati (1499), an antarcticum viderint 

 polum; stellam se nullam huic Arcticoo similem, qua3 discern! 

 circa punctum ^polum?) possit, cognovisse inquiunt. Stel- 

 larum tamen aliam, ajunt, se prospexisse faciem densamque 

 quandani ab horizonte vaporosam caliginem, qua) oculos fere 



91 See Obscrv. at the Cape, 20-23 and 133, the beautiful 

 drawing, pi. ii. fig. 4, and a special map of the graphical 

 analysis. PL x. as well as Outlines, 896, pi. v. fig. 1. 



