The general result derived from this immense labor was that the stars are fewest in regions the most distant from the galactic belt; while from these regions, which correspond to the pole of the Galaxy, they gradually increase in number in approaching the Milky-way. The star density was found to be extremely variable, and while some of the telescopic gaugings detected either no star at all, or only one or two, other gaugings gave 500 stars and even more. The average number of stars in a field of view of his telescope, obtained for the six zones, each of 15°, into which Herschel divided up the portion of his observing belt, extending from the Galaxy to its pole, is as follows: In the first zone, commencing at 90° from the galactic belt and extending towards it, 4 stars per telescopic field were found; 5 in the second; 8 in the third; 14 in the fourth; 24 in the fifth and 53 in the sixth, which terminated in the Galaxy itself. Very nearly similar results were afterwards found by Sir John Herschel, for corresponding regions in the southern hemisphere. From these studies, Herschel concluded that the stellar system is of the general form supposed by the Kantian theory, and that its diameter must be five times as extended in the direction of the galactic plane, as it is in a direction perpendicular to it. To explain the great branch sent out by the Galaxy in Cygnus, he supposed a great cleft dividing the system edgewise, about half way from its circumference to its centre. From suppositions founded on the apparent magnitude and arrangement of stars, he estimated that it would take light about 7,000 years to reach us from the extremities of the Galaxy, and therefore 14,000 years to travel across the system, from one border to the opposite one.