“Wednesday, November 5th--The weather was fine during the previous night, and we had a clear view of the Magellan Clouds and of the Southern Cross. The Magellan Clouds consist of three small nebulæ in the southern part of the heavens--two bright, like the Milky Way, and one dark. They are first seen just above the horizon after crossing the southern tropic. When off Cape Horn they are nearly overhead. The Cross is composed of four stars in that form, and it is said to be the brightest constellation in the heavens.” That is all, and the reader’s dissatisfaction is not confined to the evidence of the writer’s lack of familiarity with the stars, but becomes yet keener when he reflects upon the brilliant picture which Mr. Dana’s powers of description should have enabled him to make of those strange sights of the southern sky, which, in his day, were so rarely seen by northern eyes. On the equator above Fomalhaut, and close to the meridian, appears a curious group of stars in the form of a letter Y. They mark the hand and urn of Aquarius, the “Waterman.” A few degrees westward from this figure shines the Alpha (α) of the constellation, bearing the strange name Sadalmelik, the “King’s Luck,” or “Lucky One.” It is situated in the Waterman’s right shoulder, while Beta (β), some twelve degrees farther west, marks the left shoulder. Beta’s distinctive name is Sadalsuud, the “Luckiest of the Lucky.” Several other stars in this constellation have names implying good-fortune. The Arabs saw the Y-shaped figure, already referred to, as a tent, and the star Gamma (γ) in this group is called Sadachbiah, from an Arabic phrase which Professor Whitney translates “Felicity of Tents.” Upon this R. H. Allen remarks that the star probably got its name from the fact that it rose with its companions in the morning twilight of spring, “when, after the winter’s want and suffering, the nomads’ tents were raised on the freshening pastures, and the pleasant weather set in.” The star Zeta (ζ), in this same figure, is a long-period binary, probably 750 years, and a beautiful telescopic object, the distance being a little more than 3″, while the two stars are nearly equal, and very white, although one of them seems whiter than the other.