THE STELLAR UNIVERSE. 



389 



the two small stars, which were perfectly clear, and in the same situation 

 where, about thirty-seven years before, I had seen them involved in nebulosity. 

 If, then, the light of these three stars is thus proved to have undergone a visible 

 modification in its passage through the nebulous matter, it follows that its 

 situation among the stars is less distant from us than the largest of the three, 

 which I suppose to be of the eighth or ninth magnitude. The farthest distance, 

 therefore, at which we can place the faintest part of the great nebula in Orion, 

 to which the nebulosity surrounding the star belongs, can not well exceed the 

 region of the stars of the seventh or eighth magnitude." 



Fig. 14. 



In fig. 14, annexed, iff' represented a nebulous patch, differing in appearance 

 from those already described. It is taken from a telescopic drawing made by 

 Mr. Dunlop at Paramatta. Sir John Herschel, respecting these Megallanic 

 clouds, as they are called, says : 



" The nubecula, major and minor, are very extraordinary objects The 



