XVII The Milky Way
Like a great river returning into itself, the Galaxy encircles the starry heavens, and those who know only its northern course have no idea of its brilliance and wonderful complexity in its brightest part.
Its light is soft, milky, and almost uniform, between Cygnus and Sirius, but when it enters Argo it becomes extremely broad, and spreads out like a river on a flat marshy plain, in many twisting channels with spaces between. Where Canopus shines on the bank there is a narrow winding ford right across its whole breadth, as if a path had been made by the crossing of a star.
After this it suddenly becomes extremely narrow, but so bright that all the light which was shining in the broad channel seems to be condensed in this narrow bed. In the brightest, richest part the Great Nebula of Argo is easily distinguished by the naked eye. Contrasting with this and other bright condensations are black gaps, the largest and blackest of which is the well-known Coal-Sack near the Southern Cross.