98 The Andes and the Amazon. 



peculiar privilege of beholding the stars of both hemi- 

 spheres, the guiding stars of Ursa Major as well as the 

 Magellanic Clouds and Southern Cross, not omitting that 

 black spot near the latter, " the unappropriated region in 

 the skies reserved by Manager Bingham for deposed Amer- 

 ican presidents." 



The zodiacal light here appears in all its glory. This 

 strange phenomenon has long puzzled philosophers, and 

 they are still divided. It is generally considered to be pro- 

 duced by a continuous zone of infinitesimal asteroids. The 

 majority place this zone beyond the orbit of the earth, and 

 concentric with the sun. But Rev. George Jones, of PhiU 

 adelphia, who has spent several years in observing this light, 

 including eight months in Quito, considers it geocentric, 

 and possibly situated between the earth and its satellite. 

 At ISTew York only a short pyramidal light, and this only 

 at certain seasons, is to be seen ; but here, an arch twenty 

 degrees wide, and of considerable intensity, shoots up to the 

 zenith, and Mr. Jones affirms that a complete arch is visible 

 at midnight when the ecliptic is at right angles to the spec- 

 tator's horizon. We have not been so foi'tunate as to see it 

 pass the zenith ; and Professor Barnard contends that it 

 never does pass. We may remark that the main part of 

 the zodiacal light shifts to the south side of the celestial 

 equator as we cross the line. To us the most magnificent 

 sight in the tropical heavens is the " Milky Way," especial- 

 ly near Sobieski's Shield, where it is very luminous. We 

 observed that this starry tract divided at a Centauri, as 

 Herschel says, and not at (3, as many maps and globes have 

 it. The brightest stars in the southern hemisphere follow 

 the direction of a great circle passing through £ Ononis and 

 a Crucis. 



Another thing which arrests the attention of the traveler 

 is the comparatively well-defined boundary-line between 



