Already at the Sydney Observatory photographs have shown that the southern portion of this Dead Sea of Space is not quite bottomless, although its northern part defies the longest sounding lines of the astronomer. There is a similar, but less perfect, coal-sack in the northern hemisphere.

It is with similar feelings that the astronomer regards certain places where from the peaks of the universe his vision seems to range out into endless empty space. He sees there the shore of his little isthmus, and, beyond, unexplored immensity.

Along the borders of these lanes the stars are ranked in parallel rows, and what may be called the bottoms of the lanes are not entirely dark, but pebbled with faint stellar points. One of them which skirts the two dark gaps and traverses the cluster along its greatest diameter is edged with lines of stars.