Dic. 12, 1878] 



NATURE 



123 



searches, in the first instance by Delaunay and afterwards 

 by Leverrier, Prof. Newcomb discovered that the wide- 

 spread belief that Cassini I. was director of the Observa- 

 tor)-, which is even stated to have been the fact in French 

 histories of astronomy, is an error. The establishment 

 appears to have been assigned for the common use of 

 the Academy of Sciences, and no such office as that of 

 director was known or recognised. Prof. Newcomb 

 suggests it may have been the celebrity of Cassini which 

 gave rise to the impression that he was director of the 

 Observatory. Of the astronomical records of that time 

 preserved in the archives a large portion were evidently 

 never intended to be understood or used except by the 

 observers themselves. The note-books have no titles, 

 no indications of the observer or indications of the instru- 

 ments employed, except in the case of clocks : each 

 obsen-er seems to have had his own instruments, with- 

 out any reference to or comparison with those of others. 

 In the earlier observations no designations even of 

 occulted stars were attached, so that it was necessary 

 for Prof. Newcomb's investigation to calculate the places 

 of the moon as affected by parallax for the times of 

 observation before the objects could be identified, an 

 operation which, though laborious, was always successful 

 except in the cases of a few small stars. Lalande, in his 

 notice of the work of Cassini I., does not call hjm 

 director of the Observatory at Paris. Louis XIV., he 

 -tates, applied to the Pope, Clement IX., for permission 

 or Cassini to pass some years in Paris, where the 

 Academy of Sciences was in course of formation, offering 

 him, through Colbert, 9,000 livres per annum for the 

 period of his residence in France. He arrived at Paris 

 on April 4, 1669, and his reception by the French king 

 vas such that he wished to remain permanently in the 

 ountry. The Pope offered opposition at first, which the 

 ving succeeded in overcoming, and Cassini was natural- 

 sed, and, as Lalande says, obtained a considerable 

 . jrtune. He commenced observations at the Paris Obser- 

 vatory in September, 167 1. 



The Second Comet of 1582.— In the list of cometary 

 radiant-points and meteor-showers in the Report for 1877 

 of the Luminous Meteors' Committee of the British 

 Association, the distance of this comet's orbit at the 

 ascending node from the earth's path is stated to be 

 " 00, and the conjunction with the cometary shower is 

 :.xed to November 9 for 1875. This is a mistake, which- 

 ever orbit of those calculated may be adopted for the 

 comet. Pingrd, in his CoiiietograpJtie, gave two sets of 

 elements, the second being calculated apparently with the 

 view to bring in Santucci's reported observation of a 

 comet on March 10, of which he was the only obsener. 

 Tycho observed the comet on May 12, 13, and 17, and it 

 is upon the obser\-ations on these three days that the 

 orbits depend. They were reduced with modern elements 

 by Mr. Hind {Ast'ron. Nach. No. 8S0), and from the 

 resulting positions, D' Arrest calculated elements in 1853. 

 In 1865 Mr. Marth, after rectifying one oversight in the 

 reduction, also computed an orbit, and his elements will 

 no doubt be preferable to the other systems, though they 

 do not differ materially from D'Arrest's in Astron. Nach., 

 No. 891. Mr. Marth' s elements are as follow : — 

 Perihelion passage 1582, May 6*4485 M.T. at Unmiburg. 



Longitude of perihelion 2551643) Equinox 



„ ascending node ... 227 13 33 of 15S2. 



Inclmation 61 25 ci 



Log. perihelion distance 9-22716 



Motion — retrograde. 

 Whence the comefs radius-vector at descending-node is 

 2"87,or the comet is far outside the earth's orbit at that 

 pomt in Its path. The radius-vector at the opposite 

 node IS o-i8, so that there is no near approach to our 



The comet of 1582 was observed by the Chinese for 



about twenty days from the day of discovery. May 20. 

 Their annals have no reference to Santucci's comet, the 

 existence of which is doubtful, but we follow Pingre in 

 designating Tycho's comet — the second of the year. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



At the meeting of the Geographical Society on Monday 

 evening, after a few remarks from the Earl of Dufferin, 

 who occupied the presidential chair for the first time, Mr. 

 C. R. ^Iarkham, C.B., read three papers on Arctic 

 matters. In the first he treated of the Swedish expedi- 

 tion, of the progress and results of which we have kept 

 our readers informed. The second paper was devoted to 

 the Dutch expedition in the Willem Barents during the 

 past season, the results of which are by no means in- 

 significant. Experience of the ice movements between 

 Spitzbergen and No\-aya Zemlya was acquired, and a full 

 hourly series of meteorological observations taken, as well 

 as deep-sea soundings with serial temperatures and 

 magnetic observations. Natural history collections were 

 also made, and Mr. W. G. A. Grant, who was in the 

 Pandora in 1876, succeeded, in spite of almost constant 

 fogs, in completing an excellent series of photographs. 

 Lastly, Mr. Markham dealt with the best route for future 

 Polar discovery, which he considers to be along the 

 west coast of Franz Josef Land. 



We have to hand a report on the results of the pre- 

 liminary polar expedition conducted by Capt. Tyson in 

 the Florence. The vessel wintered from October 10, 1877, 

 in lat. 66° 13', at the head of Cumberland Gulf, Amisto 

 Harbour. The published maps locate this place 2° further 

 north. Last winter was very severe, almost an unbroken 

 succession of storms of rain and snow. The Florence 

 was not frozen in until the latter part of November, and 

 after the middle of ^lay the ice was unsafe. The coldest 

 temperature was -52° F. on January 21 ; the highest, on 

 June 9, was 55°'5. The longest period of cold was from 

 March 5 to 13, when the thermometer averaged about 

 -40°. The variations of the thermometer were often 

 from 6"^ to 8^ in a single hour, when the wind was veering. 

 The site had never been visited by any naturalist, but the 

 fauna was found by Mr. Kumlein almost identical with 

 that of Baffin's Bay, with only a few notable and appa- 

 rently unaccountable exceptions. Some North Pacific 

 species and one European were found by Mr. Kumlein, 

 Birds do not occur in any notable number, except perhaps 

 the eider-duck. Some rare eggs were procured, and a 

 good series of skeletons of young and foetal seals. The 

 flora appears to be extremely meagre. The same species 

 were collected on the Greenland coast, in ,lat, 70^ N., 

 much more luxuriant and abundant. A considerable 

 collection of lichens was made, and a good series of 

 algae was collected. Cnly ten species of fishes were 

 met with, some of them, it is true, of interesting forms. 

 The family collected are of Silurian age. Esquimaux 

 skulls and old implements were procured. 



A good deal has been said of late as to the practica- 

 bility of opening trade-routes to the Chinese province of 

 Yiinnan from the side of Assam, Burmah, Tonquin, and 

 even Russian Turkestan, and it is, therefore, not unin- 

 teresting to note from the Pakhoi Consular Report that 

 the Chinese have a route thither through the south of the 

 empire, of which ' we believe foreigners have not heard 

 before. Communication between Pakhoi, on the southern 

 sea-board of Kwang-tung, near the Tonquin frontier, and 

 the province of Yiinnan is carried on by the west River pass 

 Nanning-fu to Peisi-ting, thence over the mountains, or 

 still by the West River, in very small boats, to Kwangnan- 

 fu, in Yiinnan. In addition to the natural difficulties of 

 the route, the border-land of the two provinces is a wild 

 and lonely region, infested by bands of robbers. The 

 valuable trade which will some day spring up with the 

 rich south-eastern part of Yiinnan, not devastated during 



