398 
STAR STREAMS AND STAR SPRAYS. 
By RICHARD A. PROCTOR, B.A., F.R.A.S., Author of 11 Other 
Worlds,” “The Sun,” il Light Science,” &c. &c. 
T HE stellar heavens present us with a problem of vast 
difficulty — the problem of determining the laws according 
to which those myriads of orbs which the unaided eyes can see, 
or which the telescope reveals, are distributed throughout space. 
We can determine the laws of stellar distribution so far as they 
relate to the imaginary concave of the heavens. We could 
form a globe upon which millions of stars might be indicated ; 
or, better, we might mark these millions of stars upon the interior 
surface of a hollow globe ; and thus, so far as the apparent laws 
of stellar arrangement are concerned, we might actually render 
the eye cognisant of all which even the most powerful telescopes 
can reveal. But when this had been accomplished, we should 
have made but a short step towards the determination of the 
manner according to which the stars are distributed throughout 
space. We should have placed all the stars which the telescope 
reveals upon a spherical surface, whereas we know that they lie 
in reality on no such surface, but some at distances much 
vaster than the distances which separate us from others. We 
know that if we have to deal with a sphere of stars at all, it is 
a sphere full of stars, and not a spherical surface covered with 
stars, that we have to consider. But, in truth, we know that the 
space containing all the stars revealed by powerful telescopes 
may not even approach the form of a sphere ; and that within 
that space the stars may be distributed in the most irregular 
manner — here crowded most densely, here sparsely scattered, 
and throughout enormous regions mayhap altogether wanting ; 
in some places arranged into clustering aggregations, in 
others in streams, and elsewhere in fantastic convolutions or 
reticulations ; while, for aught that has yet been shown, the 
whole stellar region may be occupied more or less richly with a 
variety of forms of matter other than stars or suns, and even 
differing perhaps from any forms of matter with which we are 
acquainted. 
