270 THROUGH LIBRARY 'WINDOWS 



star." How bright and commanding and pic- 

 turesque! It is always in sight, fifty thousand 

 years ago it was in the form of a brilliant cross, 

 and what a spectacle it must have been, and 

 fifty thousand years hence it will have assumed 

 the form of a great steamer chair, somewhat 

 after the figure of Cassiopeia; so changeful are 

 the everlasting heavens. The "Great Bear" is 

 short one foreleg, but the map-makers are apt 

 to supply it despite the absence of available 

 stars. The handle of the dipper is the tail of 

 the bear, long enough for that of a cow, 

 stretched, presumably, when Jupiter lifted him 

 to the sky. So of the Ursa Minor, his tail is of 

 unusual length, a good illustration of the Dar- 

 winian law of adaptation to environment, 

 stretched in the long ages he has been swung 

 about the pole. It is interesting to study these 

 northern constellations, for they are the key 

 to the heavens. Polaris has been the "pole 

 star" for a thousand years, but is gradually 

 yielding his place of honor. Later on, i. e., 

 twelve thousand years hence, Vega, a first mag- 

 nitude star in Lyra, will be the brilliant north 

 star, and such will be her surroundings as 

 "Queen of the North," that section of the heav- 

 ens will blaze in wondrous beauty, a galaxy of 

 unexcelled splendor. 



