POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
411 
the same time the conviction that I was far from home, 
and those scenes which in memory were associated with 
starlight nights in my native land. . ^ 
Many of the stars which I had beheld in England 
were visible here: the constellations of the zodiac, the 
splendours of Orion, and the mild twinkling of the Plei¬ 
ades, were seen; but the northern pole-star, the steady 
beacon of juvenile astronomical observation, the Great- 
bear, and much that was peculiar to a northern sky, were 
wanting. The effect of mental associations, connected 
with the appearance of the heavens, is singular and im¬ 
pressive. During a voyage which I subsequently made 
to the Sandwich Islands, many a pleasant hour was spent 
in watching the rising of those luminaries of heaven 
which we had been accustomed to behold in^ our native 
land, but which for many years had been invisible.—- 
When the polar-star rose above the horizon, and Ursa- 
major, with other familiar constellations, appeared, we 
hailed them as long absent friends ; and could not but 
feel that we were nearer England than when we left Ta¬ 
hiti, simply from beholding the stars that had enlivened 
our evening excursions at home. 
But although, in our present voyage, none of these 
appeared, and the southern hemisphere is perhaps less 
brilliant than that of the north, it exhibited much to 
attract attention. The stars in the Fish, the Ship, and the 
Centaur, the nebulae or magellanic clouds, and, above all 
others. Crux, or the Cross of the South,'’ are all peculiar 
to this part of the heavens. This latter constellation is 
one of the most remarkable in the southern hemisphere. 
The two stars forming the longest part, having nearly,the 
same right ascension, it appears erect when in the zenith, 
and thus furnishes a nightly index to the flight of time. 
