field = 588;
and R. A. = 16h 10m, N. P. D. = 113 deg. 4', number of stars = 1.1.

The number of stars in certain portions is very great. For example, in
the Milky Way, near _Orion_, six fields of view promiscuously taken gave
110, 60, 70, 90, 70, and 74 stars each, or a mean of 79 stars per field.
The most vacant space in this neighborhood gave 60 stars. So that as
HERSCHEL'S sweeps were two degrees wide in declination, in one hour
(15 deg.) there would pass through the field of his telescope 40,000 or
more stars. In some of the sweeps this number was as great as 116,000
stars in a quarter of an hour.

When HERSCHEL first applied his telescope to the Milky Way, he believed
that it completely resolved the whole whitish appearance into small
stars. This conclusion he subsequently modified. He says:

"It is very probable that the great stratum called the Milky Way is
that in which the sun is placed, though perhaps not in the very
centre of its thickness.

"We gather this from the appearance of the Galaxy, which seems to
encompass the whole heavens, as it certainly must do if the sun is
within it. For, suppose a number of stars arranged between two
parallel planes, indefinitely extended every way, but at a given
considerable distance from each other; and calling this a sidereal
stratum, an eye placed somewhere within it will see all the stars in
the direction of the planes of the stratum projected into a great
circle, which will appear lucid on account of the accumulation of
the stars, while the rest of the heavens, at the sides, will only
seem to be scattered over with constellations, more or less crowded
according to the distance of the planes, or number of stars
contained in the thickness or sides of the stratum.

"If the eye were placed somewhere without the stratum, at no very
great distance, the appearance of the stars within it would assume
the form of one of the smaller circles of the sphere, which would be
more or less contracted according to the distance of the eye; and,
if this distance were exceedingly increased, the whole stratum might
at last be drawn together into a lucid spot of any shape, according
to the length, breadth, and height of the stratum.

"Suppose that a smaller stratum should branch out from the former in
a certain direction, and that it also is contained between two
parallel planes, so that