TIE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER. 



AUGUST, 1867. 



NOTES ON STAK-STREAMS. 



BY EICHAED A. PKOCTOE, B.A., F.E.A.S. 



{With a Coloured Plate.) 



To those who rightly appreciate its meaning, the Milky Way is 

 the most magnificent of all astronomical phenomena. However 

 opinions may vary as to the configuration of the star- streams 

 composing this object, no doubt now exists among astronomers 

 that the Milky Way is really a bed of suns, some doubtless, 

 falling short of our own sun in brilliancy, but many probably 

 surpassing it. Around these suns, we may fairly conceive, 

 there revolve systems of dependent orbs, each supporting its 

 myriads of living creatures. We have afforded to us a noble 

 theme for contemplation, in the consideration of the endless 

 diversities of structure, and of arrangement, which must pre- 

 vail throughout this immensity of systems. 



I propose to examine what is known of this marvellous 

 object, and to present some considerations which appear to 

 me to have an important bearing on the views we should form 

 of its structure. 



As the complete figure of the Milky Way is not easily 

 gathered from most star-maps that I have met with, and is 

 incorrectly delineated in many, I have drawn out, in Figs. 1 

 and 2, that zone of the heavens which contains the Milky Way. 

 The advantage of selecting a zone, in this way, is that the 

 whole object can be presented with very little distortion. If the 

 strips represented in the figure were connected, and the long 

 strip thus formed were bent into a circular belt, the complete 

 figure of the galaxy (as exhibited on a celestial globe) would 

 be satisfactorily represented. Owing to the irregularity of the 

 object, it was not possible to include the whole (and also certain 

 stars necessary to the treatment of the subject), without selecting 

 a zone along which the galaxy is not absolutely central. I think, 

 however, that the reader will find little difficulty on this account. 



VOL. XII. — NO. I. B 



