THEBANDSOFORION 163ityontheheavens isnottobe attributedtoa mere
casualarrangement,butistobetakenasindicatinga
communityoforigin. Insomecasestherecanbeno
doubtthatthisisso. InthegreatgroupofOrion,for
instance, to which I have already referred, modern
researchesdemonstratethatthe several starsofthat
grandconstellationpossessa structurewhichmaybe
described as peculiar to themselves, inasmuch as a
similarstructurehasonlybeenobservedinoneother
star intheskyexcept thoseof Orion. Inthis case
wehavetheevidencenotonlyofjuxtapositioninthe
heavens, butalso of an alliedmaterial composition.
Underthesecircumstancesitseemsalmostimpossible
todoubtthatthegloriousassemblageofstarsforming
theconstellation ofOrion does really represent por-
tionsofamightysystem. Ifanyfurthercorrobora-
tionsofthisviewberequired,itmaybeobtainedfrom
recentdiscoverieswithrespecttothepeerless nebula
bywhichOrionismostfamiliartoastronomers. The
beautiful photographs which have been obtained by
Mr.RobertsandbyMr. Commonhavetendedtodis-
close ever wideningboundaries to the great nebula
whensufficientlylongexposure hasbeengiven. We
thusseethattheglowinggasencroachesonthesur-
roundingspacetoanextentmuchwiderthanmereeye
observation would have indicated. Several of the
brightstarsarealreadyseentobeinvestedwithwhat-
evergloryresidenceintheinteriorofaglowingnebula
may confer. Addingthis circumstance to those we
havealreadymentioned ofjuxtapositionand ofma-
terial congruity, it seems impossible to doubt that