NUMBER, DISTANCE, AND MAGNITUDE OF STARS. 



161 



southern hemisphere, struck with the superior brilliancy of that part of the Milky Way 



_ which traverses the southern sky, 

 remarks : "I think it is impos- 

 sible to view this splendid zone, 

 with the astonishingly rich and 

 evenly distributed fringe of stars of 

 the third and fourth magnitudes, 

 which form a broad skirt to its 

 southern border like a vast curtain, 

 without an impression, amounting 

 to a conviction, that the Milky Way 

 is not a mere stratum, but an an- 

 nulus; or at least that our system 

 is placed within one of the poorer 

 and almost vacant parts of its gene- 

 ral mass, and that eccentrically, so 

 as to be much nearer to the parts 

 about the Cross than to that diame- 

 trically opposed to it." 



Though the whole number of 

 stars which the naked eye discerns 

 on an ordinary night is small, yet, 

 leaving the common haunts of men, 

 and gazing upon the celestial vault 

 at a high elevation in the atmo- 

 sphere, largely improves the appear- 

 ance of old familiar stellar faces, and 

 many are caught sight of which 

 were before wholly invisible. Visit- 

 ing the peaks of lofty mountains, 

 the unaided eye of the adventurer who is there at night forms fresh acquaintances 

 among the stars, and its friends of long standing glitter with a brilliance which the 

 denser regions of the atmosphere render obscure to the dwellers below. The son of 

 Marshal Ney remarks, in a personal narrative of the ascent of one of the Pyrenean 

 summits: "How glorious were the heavens on that night! Ye who have never 

 bivouacked on the Cardal know not what a fine night is." Brydone observes of the top 

 of Mount Etna : " We had now time to pay our adorations in a silent contemplation of 

 the sublime objects of nature. The sky was clear, and the immense vault of the heavens 

 appeared in awful majesty and splendour. We found ourselves more struck with 

 veneration than below, and at first were at a loss to know the cause ; till we observed, 

 with astonishment, that the number of stars seemed to be infinitely increased, and the 

 light of each of them appeared brighter than usual. The whiteness of the Milky Way 

 was like a pure flame that shot across the heavens, and with the naked eye we could 

 observe clusters of stars that were invisible in the regions below. We did not at first 

 attend to the cause, nor recollect that we had now passed through ten or twelve thousand 

 feet of gross vapour, that blunts and confuses every ray before it reaches the surface of 

 the earth. We were amazed at the distinctness of vision, and exclaimed together, * What 

 a glorious situation for an observatory ! Had Empedocles possessed the eyes of Galileo, 

 what discoveries must he not have made ! ' We regretted that Jupiter was not visible, as 

 I am persuaded we might have discovered some of his satellites with the naked eye, or at 



