of interest for our study is located between the 3rd and 4th quadrants at b$\approx75^{\circ}$; the reddening to this region is small, E$_{b-y}\leq0.017$, which translates into A$_B\leq$0.095. The stars studied by Knude (1996) are closer than 1.5 kpc (for main sequence A stars brighter than 11.5 mag), thus the color-dependent extinction of the VC galaxies we detected, which is equivalent to A$_B\approx$0.4 mag, should be produced by material more distant than 1.5 kpc.

If the cloud would be in the VC itself, its physical size would be $\sim$1.5 Mpc, very large indeed ! The issue of possible diffuse dust in clusters of galaxies has been studied by Ferguson (1993). He concluded, from the lack of a difference between cluster and field galaxies in the correlation of the Mg$_2$ index and (B–V), that dust is not present in the Virgo cluster (upper limit E(B–V)$<$0.06 mag.). A similar conclusion for a large number of Abell clusters, based on the (V–I) color indices of radio quasars seen in their background, was reached by Maoz (1995).

Not accounting for foreground dust may affect adversely some key observations. Our finding confirms the supposition of Zonn (1957) and Zonn & Stodolkiewicz (1958), that because of the 