178 THE OCEAN. 



awakens in the traveller a livelier lememLrance oi 

 the immense distance by which he is separated from 

 his country, than the aspect of an unknown firma- 

 ment. The grouping of the stars of the first magni- 

 tude, some scattered nebulw rivalling in splendour 

 the milky way, and tracts of space remarkable for 

 their extreme blackness, give a particular physio- 

 gnomy to the southern sky. This sight fills with 

 admiration even those who, uninstructed in the 

 branches of accurate science, feel the same emotions 

 of delight in the contemplation of the heavenly vault, 

 as in the view of a beautiful landscape, or a majestic 

 river. A traveller has no need of being a botanist 

 to recognize the torrid zone on the mere aspect of its 

 vegetation ; and, without having acquired any notions 

 of astronomy, he feels he is not in Europe, when he 

 sees the immense constellation of the Ship, or the 

 phosphorescent clouds of Magellan, arise on the 

 horizon. The heaven and the earth, everything in 

 the equinoctial regions, assume an exotic character."* 

 But of all the constellations that stud the sky of 

 the southern hemisphere, there is none that more 

 strikes a stranger than the Southern Cross. Its 

 beauty, as well as the singularity of its form, cannot 

 fail to inspire interest ; even though we be, through 

 the grace of God, furnished with ideas of true and 

 spiritual worship, that prevent our viewing it with 

 the superstitious reverence with which it is regarded 

 by the inhabitants of South America. It is not seen 

 above the horizon until we are within the tropics, 

 and scarcely appears to advantage until we approach 



* Personal Narrative, 1841. Vol. ii. p, 18. 



