STAR STREAMS AND STAR SPRAYS. 
403 
stars less systematically distributed, and in other cases mixed, 
up seemingly with other streams, either nearer or further off — 
the wonder rather is that any well-marked portion of any 
stream should be recognisable, than that no stream should be 
traceable over very large areas on the heavens, and still less from 
its beginning to its end. That the reader may form his own 
opinion as to the reality of the streams traceable among stars 
down to the fifth magnitude, I give the case of a star-group 
which is certainly not the most remarkable for streaminess, but 
chances to be more convenient for the purposes of illustration 
than most others. Fig. 1 presents the stars forming the 
Fig. 1. 
Showing the stars which form the connecting hand of Pisces, &c. 
connecting band of Pisces. The bright star in the lower left- 
hand corner is the knot of the band, one part of the band being 
formed by the curved stream of stars passing to the lower 
right-hand corner, the other by the curved stream passing, with 
an inflection near the double star in the figure, towards the 
upper right-hand corner. In this figure the fact that certain 
sets of stars lie on certain curved lines is of slight significance, 
for assuredly in any chance distribution of stars the like 
would be found ; the fact which is really significant is the 
paucity of stars on either side of the curved streams. We have 
certain lines along which the stars are plentifully strewn, while 
the adjacent spaces are relatively vacant. This feature, 
recognisable not only in this case, but in others, and even more 
