The detailed relationship between optical interstellar absorption lines and 21-cm. observations is investigated in this paper.

Dr Guido Münch, of the Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatories, provided the list of six intermediate-latitude stars shown in Table 1. The spectra of these stars all show complex absorption lines due to interstellar Ca 11. The 21-cm. line is measurable in four of the six regions, although the peak intensity is low in each case. It is noteworthy that for the first two stars on the list the radio velocity agrees closely with the velocity of an intense optical component. In view of the great difference in angular resolution, the failure to find correspondence in every case is not surprising.