THE "COAL SACK."

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3366, 19 December 1919, Page 5

THE "COAL SACK."

.>~ ' """"‘ A3"DEAD SEA- OF THE SKIES.

Wilien the adventurous navigators first sailed into ._these southern seas, w-hich to us are so familiar, but which to them was. shrouded in mystery, they took back to Europe many a strange story of that unknown ocean and of the countries which had lain ‘sleeping for ages in its embrace, writes -a. correspondent in an Australian paper. They told not only of that mystic constellation, never seen in Europe, ssymbol of their -religious faith: before which they had bowed themselves, but also something lying close to that stellar cross which they had beheld with superstitious awe——‘a black starless patch of sky which seemed not so much a. vacancy has some iable vrealiity. Though that black patch adjoining the Southern Cross no longer awakens fear as we behold it, yet even to modern astronomy the Wonder and mystery of the “coal sack” still remains. The darker the night, pro-

vided thait. the heavens are clear, the blacker “seems this strange patch of sky compared with that surroundfng it. It is as if, from the dimly lighted deck of a mo-dern vessel, we were looking down into the utter darkness of the unlighhted hold.

The “coal sack” is all the more remarkable because it is surrounded by multitudes of stars; for the neighbourhood of the ‘Southern Cross is one of the richest of the heavens.’ Even to the unaided eyes this is ‘apparent, but when this celestial locality is swept by a small zustronomical telescope, the stars are seen to lie in drifts and clusters, «sparkling like jewels in 3. pendant, thick as coins in a b:tnker’s counter. But at the edge of- the “coal sack” this wealth of stars stops, and, except for one faint star just visible, the heavens seem bankrupt; we ‘are confronted with !a. “lagoon of darkness.” Here we come upon the Dead Sea of the Skies Not quite bottomless, however, are some parts of the “coal sack.” The telescopes reveals faint glimmers of light, but in other parts no ray meets our. search; we seem to have found “the outer darkness.” ‘Here is the n‘let.ropolig -of -the empire of night.

, There are other “Goal Sacks” in the heavens, but none to compare with that adj'acent to the Southern Cross. What. is this uncanny pl1€I1OIY1(311?0i11L.3 We will quote the words of Professor Barnard, who says: “The sky Ais broken up into numerous black cracks and crevices, and looking at these peculiar features I cannot well see how one can avoid the concluS__ion that they are necessarily real: vacancies through which we look out in the blackness of space.” Thisis indeed an arl'e.s.tingthought, It means that, despite its hundred millions suns or so——from Sirius = the brightest. to those so far distant that even the. most powerful telescopes fail to reveal them to the ~keenest eye——our universe is not unlimited. There is “the last star,” and we are wrapped with the eternal night of unknown space. Our universe is but an island upon whose shores break for ever the waves of this Black Sea. It is a town with its last house and its last. lamp beyond which lies the bleak black girdle of cou:ntry into which none can Venture. The “Coal‘Sack” -‘may then be the l'a.l‘gest of the windows through which we look out upon the absolute night. What then, are those faint points of light which glimmer in some parts of the “Coal Sack?!” Perhaps through the dark window pane of the “Coal Sack” we see the nearest lights of a universe not our own. “Behold, we know not anything.”