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Written for Burke’s Weekly.
A STAR LESSON.
BY AN EX-BOY.
“ Night is the time to watch
O’er ocean’s dark expanse—
To hail the Pleiades, or cateh
The full moon’s earliest glance.”
»’ %
VERY boy or girl, perhaps,
knows the Seven Stars. But
does every one know that thej r
are in the Constellation Taurus ? The
ancients seemed to think they could
find all sorts of animals in that part of
the sky, and among the rest traced out
the neck, head and forelegs of a bull.
They therefore called a number of the
stars in that region Taurus, which is
the Latin name for bull. The Seven
Stars (or Pleiades, as they are called)
are in his neck. Ilis head is turned
down towards the horizon. You can
easily trace a large V down below the
Seven Stars, with the sharp point turn
ed towards the south. This cluster is
called the Hyades, and forms the face.
1 he bright fiery star in the lower line
of the V is the southern eye, and called
Aldebaran. This long hard word is
said in Arabic to mean “the hind
most,” as if this bright star was driving
the Pleiades before it. About halfway
_£rom Aldebaran to the- nnlnt n£ t-ha v
a beautiful litwle double
star, yi'lie legs of Taurus are down to
the-ssuth, and are not marked by any
special stars. There are two fine stars
which mark the tips of his tremendous
horns. They are almost in a line with
the sides of the T towards the north,
about twenty degrees from its southern
point. The two stars are about ten
degrees apart, and point nearly north
and south. Jupiter passes between
them (not far from the southern one)
in his backward motion about Ist De
cember, and again in his forward mo
tion about 6th April next. If you can
find these, you will have a good idea of
the outline of this fine Constellation
which adorns our fall and winter sky.
As it is very important to get as clear
a notion as possible of degrees in the
sky, let us mark off a few spaces for
easy reference.
The sides of the Y are about Jive de
grees long. The tips of the horns about
ten degrees apart. From Aldebaran to
the Seven Stars about -fifteen degrees.
From the point of the V to the tip of
the horn about twenty degrees.
The Constellation just above Taurus
is called Aries the Ram. If you start
from Jupiter (about the middle of De
cember), and draw a line to Pleiades,
and keep on in the same direction about
as far beyond them, you will be near
two rather bright stars about five de
grees apart, pointing north-east and
south-west. These are the eyes of
Aries. His body extends eastward
BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
nearly to the Seven Stars. This clus
ter has no remarkable stars in it; but
you ought to know it, as it is in the
pathway of the Sun, Moon and Planets.
The Moon passes through Aries and
Taurus every month. Sometimes it
passes over Aldebaran, and again it
passes as far north as Seven Stars.
We call them Seven Stars, but who can
see more than six? That beautiful lit
tle cluster has attracted attention in all
ages. Children and Astronomers have
gazed at them with curiosity, awe and
wonder.
Turn now to your Bible, and in, the
book of Job (chap. 68, ver. xxxi ) read
this strange verse:
“ Canst thou bind the sweet influ
ences of the Pleiades?”
Confession of faults makes half amends.
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The Mammoth Trees cf California.
-
Sacramento city, in a gently
sloping, heavy-timbered val
ley, are the largest and tallest trees in
the world. It is rightly called “ The
Mammoth Tree Grove.” One of these
giants of the forest was felled, not by
chopping it down, but by boring it off’
with pump-augurs, and it employed five
men for twenty-two days constantly at
work to effect it. Its height was three
hundred and two feet, and its circum
ference at the ground was ninety-seven
feet. Upon the stump, on the 4th of
July, thirty-two persons were engaged
in dancing four sets of cotillions at one
time. The bark was eighteen inches in
thickness, which gave it a diameter of
over thirty feet. But monstrous as were
the dimensions of this tree, at a short
distance from it lies the prostrate and
majestic body of a still larger one. This
is known as the “Father of the Forest.”
It is now half buried in the soil. It mea
sured in circumference one hundred and
ten feet; it was four hundred and thirty
five feet in height; it is tjwo hundred
feet to the first branch ; th& centre of it
is now hollow, and a person can walk
erect through it as though it were a
large tunnel. A short distance from
these immense trees is a double tree,
called the “Siamese Twins,” which, as
their name indicates, has one large stem
at the ground thus forming a double
tree, forty-one feet in diameter. The
height is about three hundred feet.
Ihe bark of one of these immense
trees was taken off in sections, and car
ried to London, where it was set up in
the Crystal Palace, and attracts much
attention. Nothing like it was ever
seen before on the other side of the
great waters. Here is a picture of it.
Some Day,
fEAIt ganma's gone away up high ! ”
Said Eddy, pointing to the sky;
“ The angels took gar ma away;
vßut s k e Y come back again some
QJ Then, with a face all rad : ant
** With sunny joy and sweet content,
In happy mood resumed his play,
Whispering of "ganma” and "some day.”
Dear trusting child ! oh, would that I,
Like thee, could look “away up high,”
And smiling thus go on my way,
Assured ’twill all be well " some day! ”
Anna Cleaves.
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