THE STARS FOR SEPTEMBER.

THE Great Bear (p. 182) is now approaching the north again, low down. The two forward stars of the Plough, or Dipper, a and B, can be seen in our northern map for the hours named, low down on the left; but I remind the learner that,

Fig. 25.-Aquarius, Capricornus, and Piscis Australis.

so far as the Plough is concerned, the picture illustrating the opening pages about "A Clock in the Sky," is the one to be studied. The Little Bear is now descending on the left or west side of the pole.

In the southern heavens (p. 183) we find two ecliptical constellations dividing the honours of the night, Sagittarius (the Archer) and Capricornus (the Sea Goat), Fig. 25. Sagittarius needs no special mention this month after what I said of him in the last section.

Capricornus was formerly the constellation entered by the sun on the shortest day of the year, when he is farthest south of the equator, and about to begin his return toward it. You will see that at present the constellation includes the ascending sign, marked - for Aquarius (the Water-Bearer) (The symbol is placed on the right or west of the division of the ecliptic to which it belongs.) A strange superstition was entertained by the old astrologers, that whenever all the planets come together in Capricornus there is a deluge. Some said, indeed, that the Flood had been occasioned by such a conjunction, and that when all the planets come together in Cancer the world will be destroyed by fire. I suppose the origin of the superstition was somewhat on this wise: They saw that when the sun, one of the planets of the astrological system, was in Cancer his rays were warmest ; when he was in Capricorn, his rays were feeblest, and the air usually damp and cold. If such effects followed when one planet was in these constellations, much more might heat be expected when several of the planets were together in Cancer, and floods of rain when several were together in Capricorn. But when all were together in either constellation, then the greatest heat or the worst floods possible might be expected. The tradition is a very ancient one indeed. Admiral Smyth attributes its invention to the astrologers of the Middle Ages; but in reality it was due to the Chaldean astronomers, and is found in company with a statement that they had observed the heavens for 470,000 years, during which time they had calculated the nativity of all the children who had been born. It is not absolutely necessary, however, that you should believe this. For my own part, I think it quite possible that they omitted some of the children born during that long period.

Capricornus is usually represented as a fish-tailed goat, the head and horns where the two stars a and B are marked, the feet (fore-feet) at y, the tail flourishing off toward y and 8.

Higher up in the heavens we see the fine constellation Aquila or "the Eagle," usually represented in modern maps as shown in Fig. 26. Formerly a figure of the Bithynian youth, Antinous, was included in this constellation; but he is now generally omitted. Parts of the Milky Way, near and in this constellation, are very bright, and even with a small telescope seem to be crowded with stars.

Close to Aquila is the pretty little constellation the Dolphin, called Delphinus, or, perhaps better,--as in my

This

atlas,-Delphin, which is as good Latin and shorter. little group really shows some degree of resemblance to the animal whose name has been given to it, though our modern maps do not picture a real dolphin, but a creature, as Admiral Smyth well remarks, resembling rather a huge periwinkle pulled out of its shell; and certainly not "very like a whale." He quotes a curious blunder of certain Orientalists, who, finding the old Hindu name of the group to signify a sea-hog, considered it was not meant to be a fish at all; but the Hindu "sea-hog" was the porpoise. Indeed, the French name, from which our word porpoise is derived, shows that the resemblance has struck others besides the