A dark cloud on the northern edge of the California Nebula (NGC 1499) has been mapped at 3' resolution in CO containing C-12 (C(12)O) and sampled in CO containing C-13 (C(13)O) and CS. The conversion of C(13)O to H2 column densities is discussed. Some velocity structure exists in each of two isolated fragments that are outlined by the C(12)O temperature contours. Irregularities of the southern cloud boundary (at the ionization front) are attributed to an instability that may result from the time-dependent flux of the runaway star Xi Persei, which ionizes the H II region. An unresolved globule or filament close to the ionization front may have become separated from the main cloud as the result of a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.
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Elmegreen et al. (1978) studied this question.