28 COSMOS. 



the right foot of Bootes ; and more especially through the 

 head, wings, and shoulder of Virgo. This zone, which has 

 been termed the nebulous region of Virgo, contains, as al- 

 ready stated,^ one third of all the nebulous bodies in a space 

 embracing the eighth part of the surface of the celestial hem- 

 isphere. It does not stretch far beyond the ecliptic, extend- 

 ing only from the southern wing of Virgo to the extremity 

 of Hydra and to the head of the Centaur, without reaching 

 its feet or the Southern Cross. A less dense accumulation 

 of nebulae in the northern hemisphere, which extends further 

 south than the former, has been named by Sir John Herschel 

 the nebulous region of Pisces. It forms a zone, beginning 

 with Andromeda, which it almost entirely incloses, stretch- 

 mg beyond the breast and wings of Pegasus, and the band 

 uniting the Fishes, and extending toward the southern galac- 

 tic pole and Fomalhaut. A striking contrast to these accu 

 mulations presents itself in the barren region lying near Per 

 ECUS, Aries, Taurus, the head and chest of Orion, around Au 

 riga, Hercules, Aquila, and the whole constellation of Lyra.1 

 If we divide all the nebulae and clusters of stars contained 

 in the Northern Catalogue (of Slough), and classified accord- 

 ing to Right Ascension (as given in Sir John Herschel's Ob- 

 servations at the Cape), into six groups of four hours each, 

 we obtain the following result : 



R.Asc. Oh. 4h 311 



4 8 .... 179 

 8 12 .... 606 



fl.Asc.l2h. 16h 850 



16 20 121 



20 . . . . 239. 



By a more careful separation, according to Northern and 

 Southern Declination, we find that in the six hours' Right 

 Ascension from 9h. — 15h., there are accumulated 1111 neb- 

 ulae and clusters of stars in the northern hemisphere alone, 

 viz. :X 



error of the press, the words south pole and north pole have been con- 

 founded. 



* " In this region of Virgo, occupying about one eighth of the whole 

 surface of the sphere, one third of the entire nebulous contents of the 

 heavens are congregated." — Outlines, p. 596. 



t In reference to this barren region, see Observations at the Cape, 

 $ 101, p. 135. 



X I liave based these numerical data on a computation of the numbers 

 yielded by the projection of the northern heavens as given in Obtervor 

 lions at the Cape, pi. xi. 



