152 



SCENERY OF THE HEAVENS. 



tropic, or winter solstice, and therefore called the " Southern Gate of the Sun." Now, 



in consequence of the precession of the equinoctial 

 and solsticial points, the sun is in the sign Capricorn 

 at midwinter, but does not reach the constellation 

 until the middle of January. 



AQUARIUS is more easily recognisable by the eye, 

 having four stars distinctly forming the letter Y 

 about the urn which the water-bearer is pictured 

 emptying of its contents. The Arabs, not being 

 allowed by their prophet to depict the human figure, 

 represented this asterism by a mule carrying water- 

 barrels, and for the same reason they changed the 

 twins Gemini into peacocks. 



PISCES is a loose assemblage of small stars, diffi- 

 cult to be traced, occupying a large triangular space 

 in the heavens. This is now the first constellation 

 in order in the zodiac, that which presides over the 

 vernal equinox, a position to be occupied for cen- 

 turies to come, but ultimately resigned to Aquarius, 

 after a tenure of office extending to somewhat more 

 than two thousand years. It will be seen, that the 

 most imposing of the zodiacal asterisms are those 

 which the sun now traverses in our summer months. 

 They are then lost to us by reason of his effulgence, 

 but are splendid objects during the long nights of 

 winter. The time, however, will arrive, when the 

 sun's high road will lie through these asterisms in 

 winter, and Taurus, Gemini, and Leo, will be lack- 

 ing in our heavens during the winter nights, appear- 

 ing in the nights of summer, but with less splendour, 

 owing to the strength and duration of the twilight. 



Directing attention to the constellated groups of 

 the northern hemisphere, the most conspicuous and 

 splendid is Ursa Major, supposed to have derived its 

 name from its situation near the north pole, and from 

 its constant visibility in our unclouded night sky, 

 because the polar regions are the haunts of the bear, an animal which neither makes 

 extensive journeys nor rapid marches. It is singular that the Iroquois, a savage tribe in 

 the back settlements of America, should have designated this region of the heavens by 

 the name which the earliest Arabs of Asia applied to it, the Great Bear two nations, 

 far remote from each other, employing a title which is purely arbitrary, as the group of 

 stars exhibits no resemblance to the animal. The asterism, however, figured as well to 

 the ancient eye under the form of a waggon drawn by a team of horses, and the name of 

 Charles's Wain is still its popular denomination in some of our rural districts, from the 

 Karl-Wagea, or peasant's cart of our Gothic ancestors. Before the invention of time- 

 pieces, when the peasantry practised star-gazing to ascertain the time of the night, the 

 position of this constellation was their common guide : hence the carrier's remark in 

 Shakspeare, " An't be not four by the day, I'll be hanged, Charles's Wain is over the 

 new chimney, and yet our horse not packed!" This is also the Helice of classical 

 literature intro.duced in the celebrated description of the night in the "Argonautics:" 



