THE SOUTHERN CROSS. 248 
The Southern Cross consists of four stars, and: their rélative 
positions, when seen upon the meridian, is indicated by the fol- 
lowing: eS ad 
* 
* 
Were the upper and lower stars connected by a straight line, 
and the remaining two also connected by a straight line, the form 
of the cross would be apparent. When, in looking at the stars, 
this symbolic form is suggested to the observer, then (as in the 
case of seeing the face of a man in the moon) the resemblance is 
ever afterwards so vividly impressed on his mind, that the stars 
never fail to remind him of the cross whenever he sees them oc- 
cupying a similar position. When they are not upon the merid- 
jan the form of the cross is not revealed. 
Nassau being some distance north of the equator, the star gazer 
from that point can only see the cross when the stars which com- 
pose it occupy a position near the southern horizon, and he is 
consequently obliged to look at it through a large extent of the 
earth’s atmosphere, resting so near to the land and sea as to be 
charged with their vapors. He who desires to see at Nassau the 
Southern Cross, will be more likely to have his wishes gratified 
if he makes his observations from some elevated position, where 
the air is particularly clear and the wind is blowing with some 
force from the north. 
It was upon a favorable evening in March, 1879, that on going 
