  For a given statistic, A, the cosmic distribution function, Upsilon(VA), is
the probability of measuring a value VA in a finite galaxy catalog. For
statistics related to count-in-cells, such as factorial moments, F_k, the
average correlation function, xiav, and cumulants, S_N, the functions
Upsilon(VF_k), Upsilon(Vxiav), and Upsilon(VS_N) were measured in a large
tauCDM simulation. This N-body experiment simulates almost the full ``Hubble
Volume'' of the universe, thus, for the first time, it allowed for an accurate
analysis of the cosmic distribution function, and, in particular, of its
variance (Delta A)^2, the cosmic error. The resulting detailed knowledge about
the shape of Upsilon is crucial for likelihood analyses. The measured cosmic
error agrees remarkably well with the theoretical predictions of Szapudi &
Colombi (1996) and Szapudi, Bernardeau & Colombi (1998) in the weakly
non-linear regime, while the predictions are slightly above the measurements in
the highly nonlinear regime. When the relative cosmic error is small, (Delta
A/A)^2, function Upsilon is nearly Gaussian. When (Delta A/A)^2 approaches
unity or is larger, function Upsilon(VA) is increasingly skewed and well
approximated by a lognormal distribution for A=F_k, or A=xiav. The measured
cumulants follow accurately the perturbation theory predictions in the weakly
nonlinear regime. Extended perturbation theory is an excellent approximation
for all the available dynamic range.
