SECT. XXXVI. MAGELLANIC CLOUDS. 417 



northern hemisphere. It occupies the constellations Leo, Leo 

 Minor, the body, tail, and hind legs of Ursa Major, the nose of 

 Camelopard, the point of the tail of Draco, Canis Venatica, Coma 

 Berenices, the preceding leg of Bootes, and the head, wings, and 

 shoulder of Yirgo, which is the richest part. There is a lesser 

 nebulous region in this hemisphere, but entirely separated from 

 the preceding, which occupies the chest and wing of Pegasus, the 

 constellations Pisces and Andromeda. If we could imagine the 

 ring or zone of the Milky Way to encircle or coincide with the 

 horizon, the great nebulous mass would form a canopy over head, 

 descending down to a considerable distance on all sides, chiefly 

 towards the north pole ; and the richest part, which is in Virgo, 

 would then be directly over head in the north pole of the Milky 

 Way, that is in 12 b 47 m right ascension, and 64 north polar 

 distance. 



With the exception of the Magellanic clouds, there is a much 

 greater uniformity in the distribution of the nebulas in the south- 

 ern hemisphere than in the northern. They are separated by 

 spaces of vacuity of greater or less dimensions. One of these 

 barren regions extends for nearly fifteen degrees all around the 

 south pole, and close on its border ; the lesser of the Magellanic 

 clouds occurs completely insulated ; while the greater Magellanic 

 cloud is in connexion with something approaching to a zone of 

 connected nebulous patches which extends along the back of 

 Doradus, through a portion of Horologium and Eridanus, part of 

 Fornix, and over the paws of Cetus to the equator, where it 

 unites with the nebulous regions of Pisces. 



The Magellanic clouds form two of the most striking features 

 in the southern hemisphere ; both of these nebulas are visible to 

 the unassisted eye, being nearly of the same intensity as the 

 brighter portions of the Milky Way ; but the smaller is entirely 

 effaced by moonlight, and the larger nearly so. They are altoge- 

 ther unconnected with the Milky Way and with one another. 

 The Nubecula Major is far superior to the Nubecula Minor in 

 every respect, though they are similar in internal structure. 

 The former consists of large tracts and ill-defined patches of irre- 

 solvable nebulas, and nebulosity in every stage of resolution, up 

 to perfectly resolved stars like the Milky Way ; and also of regu- 

 lar and irregular nebulas, properly so called ; of globular clusters 

 in every stage of resolvability ; and of clustering groups suffi- 



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