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NATURE 



\_yan. 16, 1879 



waste " in contradistinction to " commercial waste," 

 should be allowed to go on. If his argument is a sound 

 one, a tenant is justified in only getting such coal as is most 

 cheaply obtained, and in leaving buried in the bowels of 

 the earth, unattainable by future generations, valuable ma- 

 terial merely because the getting of it would involve more 

 cost than would attend the raising of coal from thicker 

 and more cheaply workable seams. When a tenant rents 

 all the coals under a given acreage of ground his interest 

 in the property is temporary and limited. It is therefore 

 to his interest to raise only such coal as can be most 

 cheaply raised in the shortest space of time. It is not 

 necessary that the raising of the coal which he thus 

 abandons should involve an actual loss to the tenant. It 

 is enough for the argument that he would have to raise 

 it at a diminished profit, which he wiU certainly not do if 

 he is permitted to devote the same time and labour to 

 such coal as will leave him more profit. Of course free- 

 dom of trade and labour suggest that a man should be 

 allowed to pursue the course most profitable to himself, 

 but seeing the vital importance of our coal supply to our 

 existence as a manufacturing nation, it does appear to 

 me that the coal-raiser should be prevented by the lord 

 -of the manor primarily — or, if he fails to do his duty, by 

 the legislature — ^from thus wasting the chief instrument 

 in the production of our national wealth — even if such 

 interference involved some reduction of his profits, or of 

 some addition to the price of coal. 



I need not say more to show the interesting character 

 of the contents of this unpretending volume. It is most 

 creditable to its authors, and I shall be much surprised if 

 its merits do not meet with a wide recognition. 



W. C. Williamson 



ASCENSION 

 Six Months in Ascension; an Unscientific Accoicnt of a 

 Scientific Expedition. By Mrs. Gill. (London : John 

 Murray, 1878.) 



THOSE who know anything of Ascension will wonder 

 how on earth any one could find sufficient material 

 during even a six months' stay to write a volume of 300 

 pages upon it. We doubt if any one but a lady 

 circumstanced as Mrs. Gill was could have made a 

 readable story out of the barren materials to be 

 found on this land-ship of an island, as it really is, 

 to all intents and purposes; and she has managed 

 to write a thoroughly interesting narrative. If every 

 scientific worker were as fortunate as Mr. Gill in having 

 so sympathetic a companion and coadjutor to tell all the 

 circumstances of his work, the world might think a great 

 deal more of those apparently dry figures and easily- 

 expressed results, which seem to have no touch of nature 

 about them. To those who see only the scientific side 

 of the matter, it may seem a very simple and very 

 pleasant thing to watch the stars night after night ; let 

 such read Mrs. Gill' s book, and perhaps they will have 

 more sympathy and perhaps a little pity for astronomers 

 sent on scientific expeditions to remote islands. 



Mr. Gill, as many of our readers will remember, spent 

 the last six months of 1877 on the Island of Ascension 

 for the purpose of observing Mars in opposition, an 

 opportunity occurring then such as would not occur again 

 during the century. Lord Lindsay lent his celebrated 



heliometer, the Astronomical Society granted 500/., and 

 the Admiralty did all in their power to make Mr. Gill's 

 sojourn on Ascension as pleasant and successful as pos- 

 sible. In an introductory chapter Mr. Gill gives an 

 exceedingly interesting sketch of the principal previous 

 attempts which have been made to measure the distance 

 of the sun, and the results that have been come to with 

 regard to that hitherto rather inconstant " constant." 

 The perusal of this chapter will not only be instructive 

 to the general reader, but must greatly increase the in- 

 terest of the subsequent narrative, showing as it does the 

 important results that depended on the success of the 

 expedition, the human side of which is so graphically 

 described by Mrs. Gill. She herself gives a brief but 

 very successful explanation, in popular language, of how 

 the sun's distance is measured. 



As outgoing vessels seldom touch at Ascension, the 

 expedition, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Gill, with their 

 heavy baggage, were detained for some time at St. 

 Helena, a detention which both seem to have enjoyed. 

 Mr. Gill succeeded in finding what he, with considerable 

 probabihty, surmises to have been the site of the obser- 

 vatory used by Halley, in 1677, to observe the transit of 

 Mercury, and make his catalogue of southern stars. 

 They of course saw all the lions of the island, and Mrs. 

 Gill's descriptions are so clear and fresh that even those 

 who have read much about St. Helena will find in them 

 much to interest. Even when Ascension was reached, it 

 was no easy matter to land through the great "rollers " 

 which are so characteristic a feature of some Atlantic 

 islands. We hear a good deal about these puzzling 

 phenomena, which are so difficult to account for, but 

 which Mrs. Gill is inclined to think are probably due to 

 the cause suggested by Capt. Evans. That keen-sighted 

 hydrographer thinks these rollers are probably the far- 

 reaching result of the breaking-up of the continents 

 of ice in the Antarctic regions, miles and miles 

 of which break off, and, plunging into the sea, 

 give rise to huge submarine waves, whose strength 

 is not expended even when they reach Ascension 

 and St. Helena, Mrs. Gill's description of life in 

 Ascension, and especially of the life of the "expedition," 

 is given with a good-natured and graphic pencil. At first 

 the observatory was established on an admirable piece of 

 ground at George Town (or "Garrison," as it is called on 

 the island), on the West Coast, where a very nice cottage 

 was allotted to the astronomer and his wife. Her house- 

 keeping difficulties are amusing enough to read of, though 

 at first awkward enough to one unaccustomed to garrison 

 or rather naval life. Ascension is to all intents and 

 purposes one of her Majesty's ships at anchor, and ever>- 

 thing is conducted exactly as on shipboard. All food and 

 drink are served out at fixed time as rations, and as 

 supphes are at all times Umited, there is ample room for 

 economical management, and little room for luxury and 

 extravagance. The new-comers soon became accustomed 

 to the routine of the land-ship, and after a day or two got 

 comfortably settled in their cottage, and had the helio- 

 meter and other instruments most satisfactorily located 

 on their solid asphalte floor. But, unfortunately, this 

 happy state of things was not without a cloud — a real 

 genuine cloud — which threatened to frustrate the great 

 object of the voyage and all the preparations. This 



