222 



NATURE 



\7an. 9, 1879 



magnitude. Taking a mean of the five observations of 

 position, and reducing to 1880, its R.A. is 7h. 35m. 8"os. 

 andN.P.D., 159° o' 46". 



We do not hear of recent observation of the nebula 

 situated near C Tauri, which was discovered by Chacor- 

 nac, and which was sufficiently bright from 1855, October 

 19, to 1856, January 27, to "cause surprise that it had 

 not been inserted by Mr. Hind upon his ecliptic charts," 

 though it was not perceived on the meridian even with 

 a refractor of 25 centimetres from 1853, December 3, to 

 1854, December 17. In 1855-56 the nebula was projected 

 upon a star of the eleventh magnitude, the position of 

 which for 1880 is in R.A. 5h. 30m. i6"os. and N.P.D. 

 68° 51' 29". Chacornac says: " Elle offrait une forme 

 presque rectangulaire, dont le plus grand cote soutendait 

 un angle de trois minutes et demie, et le plus petit un arc 

 de deux minutes et demie." D' Arrest, 1863, September 

 82, could not perceive any nebulosity about the star, nor, 

 1 165, January 25, "ccelo valde eximio." He notes that 

 the star is double, estimated distance 40". It precedes 

 f Tauri I2'5s., and is north of it 4' 28". 



Some years since the approximate places of three 

 nebulosities remarked with the comet-seeker at Cam- 

 bridge, U.S., by Mr. G. P. Bond, but subsequently 

 missed, were published. One seen 1850, February 27, 

 in R.A. oh, 47m. 41s. ± im., N.P.D. 26" 36' ± 19', could 

 not be found 1863, September 9. A faint and rather 

 large nebula, seen 1850, December 30, was not to be 

 found, 1863, August 17 ; R.A. I4h. 37m. ± 3m., N.P.D. 

 67° o' ± 30', and a third nebulosity resembling a comet, 

 oiaserved i85o,November 7, in R.A. 23h. 50m. 46s., N.P.D. 

 123° 24', requires verification ; the place is for 1850. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



Under the direction of the United States Hydro- 

 graphic Office, Lieut. -Commander F. M. Green, U.S.N., 

 and the officers under his command, have during the last 

 four years been engaged in determining exactly secondary 

 meridians of longitude by means of the submarine tele- 

 graph cables in the West Indies and South America. 

 The result of the West India ^work |;n 1874, 1875, ^^^ 

 1876 was the determining the latitude and longitude of a 

 large number of points in the West Indies with the 

 utmost possible exactness ; and during the past year this 

 work, of the greatest value to geographical and geodetical 

 science, has been continued by making a chain of tele- 

 graphic measurements from the Royal Observatory at 

 Lisbon, by way of Madeira, St. Vincent, Pernambuco, 

 Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and Monte-Video to Buenos 

 Ayres, there connecting with the observatories of Cordova 

 and Santiago. This chain is perfect, with the exception 

 of one link on the coast of Brazil, where the cable was 

 broken, necessitating the procuring of new cable from 

 England ; but its completion will be effected before the 

 computation of the observations already made can be 

 finished. The method used for determining the latitude 

 was in all cases that of the zenith telescope, brought to 

 great perfection by the United States Engineers and the 

 Coast Survey ; that for differences of longitude, the com- 

 parison by repeated telegraphic signals of two chrono- 

 meters at the ends of the telegraph cable, determining 

 their errors both before and after the comparison by 

 numerous transits of stars over the meridian. All that is 

 needed to make the work of the last year perfect and 

 complete is the telegraphic determination ot the differ- 

 ences of longitude between the Greenwich and Lisbon 

 observatories, and the completion of the imperfect link 

 on the Brazilian coast, both of which will be done during 

 the coming year. Until the observations have been care- 

 fully discussed, the results as compared with former de- 

 terminations cannot be known exactly, but a preliminary 

 computation indicates that the longitude of the coast of 



Brazil is laid down about three or three and a half miles 

 too far west, this westerly error being indicated in a less 

 degree in the longitudes of Madeira and St. Vincent. 



Lord Augustus Loftus has recently forwarded to 

 the Foreign Office, from St. Petersburg, a translation of 

 a Russian letter from Cabul, descriptive of the journey 

 of General Stoletoff's mission from Samarcand, which 

 supplies some notes of interest respecting the country 

 traversed. The road selected for reaching the Oxus was 

 through Huzar, Shirabad, and Chushkogosar, which was 

 traversed in five days. On this route the mission passed 

 through the famous defile known in ancient times under 

 the name of the " Iron Gates," and now called Burghasse 

 Khana. The mission crossed the Oxus in very primitive 

 boats, and marching by night, passed over a sandy arid 

 steppe, and next morning reached Kurshiak settlement, 

 situated in a cultivated country. They made three stages 

 before reaching Mizar and Sheriff, where great crowds 

 thronged the streets, and gazed with curiosity on the 

 people from the distant north. After leaving Tashurgan, 

 the party reached the spurs of the Hindu Kush, and 

 journeyed to Cabul during twenty days. Ascending at 

 first in gentle slopes, the Hindu Kush gradually rises 

 higher and higher, forming, amidst its frequent passes, 

 terraces of increasing height. After traversing a series 

 of such terraces, the mission reached the elevated Bamian 

 Valley (8,500 feet), near which are the Kalu and Great 

 Tran Passes (13,000 feet). Passing the famous Bamian 

 idols, chiselled on the face of the rock, they emerged 

 from the last-named pass, and then descended from the 

 Ugly Pass into the Cabul Darya Valley, at a place three 

 days' journey from the capital of Afghanistan. 



The French papers published last week news from the 

 Gaboon settlements stating that the Ogowe exploring 

 mission had arrived in Libreville, the head city of the 

 colony. A telegram read at the last sitting of the Paris 

 Geographical Society announced that M. Brazza, the 

 chief of the mission, had arrived in Lisbon with some of 

 his subordinates, on his way to Paris. It was expected 

 he would arrive in time for the meeting of the Society on 

 Tuesday. The exploration of the mission has lasted three 

 years, and many highly important results are said to have 

 been obtained. 



At the last sitting of the Paris Geographical Society 

 M. de Lesseps read a telegram received from Capt. 

 Roudaire, stating that he had found nothing but com- 

 pressed sand when boring to a depth of 30 metres in the 

 Gabes Isthmus, so that no real difficulty prevented the 

 opening of it for the intended Saharan Sea. 



On the authority of Mr. Oscar Dickson, it is stated 

 that the Nordenskjold expedition is wintering forty miles 

 north of Cape East in Behring Straits. This news has 

 been given to American whalers by a party of trustworthy 

 natives, and a number of whalers are said to be wintering 

 with the Vega. 



The just issued October Bulleihi of the Paris Geo- 

 graphical Society contains a long paper by M. L^on 

 Rousset, giving the results of a journey in the upper basin 

 of the Yellow River and the region of the loess which 

 overspreads so large an area of China, and of which Richt- 

 hofen makes so much in his great work on China. M. 

 Dutreuil de Rhins contributes a very useful account of 

 Annam and the province of Hud ; M. H. Harrisse dis- 

 cusses the question of the burial-place of Columbus, and 

 M. d'Abbadie concludes his useful description of the 

 instruments to be used in travel. 



A LITTLE work on Afghanistan has just been published 

 by Dr. Josef Chavanne, the author of the excellent work 

 on the Sahara. It is written with special reference to the 



