556 



NATURE 



{April 17, 1879 



lished in Nature, vol. xix. p. 527, with Dr. Schulze's 

 elements, only with the perihelion passage assumed 

 March 30-5716 G.M.T., the differences from observation 

 are Aa = - 2'-i and AS = + \'-}>. This position, there- 

 fore, with others obtained by Prof. Strasser and Dr. 

 Tempel, show that when the mean anomaly is so altered 

 as with the other elements of Dr. Schulze's orbit to bring 

 about an exact agreement between the observed and cal- 

 culated geocentric longitudes, there is still an outstanding 

 difference between the latitudes of from one to two 

 minutes, which indicates that, notwithstanding the appa- 

 rently careful computation of the perturbations since the 

 comet's last appearance in 1873, the elements determining 

 the position of the plane of the orbit are susceptible of 

 correction. The ephemeris we gave last week will, how- 

 ever, amply suffice for readily finding the comet, and we 

 shall continue it for May in our next. 



Mr. Tebbutt, of Windsor, N.S.W., writes that, aided 

 by Dr. Schulze's ephemeris, he found the comet on 

 February 22, and observed it again in the fading twilight 

 on the following evening. It could hardly be seen with a 

 telescope of less than four inches aperture. It had the 

 appearance of an elliptic nebulosity, the major axis of 

 the ellipse extending in the direction of the parallel of 

 declination. 



New Minor Planets.— Prof. Peters, of Clinton, New 

 York, notifies his discovery of No. 194, on March 22, in 

 R.A. i2h. iim., Decl. -f 9° 31', magnitude 10-5. No. 192 

 was found by M. PaHsa at Pola on February 17, and No. 

 193 by M. Coggia, at Marseilles, on March i. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



At the meeting, March 22, of the Russian Geographical 

 Society, Col. Petroussevitch read a very interesting paper 

 on his exploration of the Amu-daria, from Chardjui, in 

 Bokhara, to the delta of the river, and on its former beds. 

 M. Petroussevitch has arrived at the conclusion, based on 

 a thorough levelling of the country, that the turning of 

 the waters of the Amu-daria into the Sara -kamysh depres- 

 sion through one of the former beds, would not meet with 

 great difficulties. This depression being, however, very 

 wide and deep, the waters of the Amu River once arrived 

 there, would form a great lake, and it would be difficult 

 to direct them further to the Caspian. For this last 

 reason it would be better to open a way for the waters of 

 the Amu along one of its former beds which run south- 

 east from the lake Sara-kamysh. All explorations make 

 it very probable that in this way the Amu-daria could 

 easily reach the Caspian. The Russian Trade Society 

 sends, next summer, an expedition for the study of the 

 lower parts of the Amu-daria, of the best direction for a 

 railway to Central Asia, and of the possibility of a canal 

 between the Amu and the Caspian. Several officers of 

 the Russian general staff, with geodesists, a geologist, a 

 botanist, an archaeologist, and an artist will be members 

 of this expedition. They will start from the Ural River, 

 passing through Kara-tugay, Tashkent, and Samarkand ; 

 further they will go down the Amu to the Uzboi. 



Under the title of "L'Afrique Centrale en 1522," M. 

 A. J. Wauters, Assistant-Secretary of the Belgian Geo- 

 graphical Society, has drawn up an interesting memoir, 

 in which he has gone with much care into the doctrine of 

 Portuguese geographers respecting the discovery of Central 

 Africa in the sixteenth century. M. Wauters was induced 

 to study the subject by the recent discussions in regard to 

 the geographical data furnished by the gi-eat globe in the 

 Lyons Library, and if anything were required to dispose 

 of its claims to originality, this memoir does it most 

 effectually. He traces back the idea of a great central 

 lake, under the name of Saphat or Sachaf, to the days of 

 Martin Hylacomilus and Gerhard Mercator, so that the 

 data on which it was based must have been known 



previous to the year 1522, M. Wauters' s memoir appears 

 in the current number of the Bulletin of the Belgian 

 Geographical Society, and is illustrated by a facsimile 

 map. 



A Lisbon paper gives the text of a letter which Major 

 Serpa Pinto addressed to Sir Theophilus Shcpstone from 

 Shoshong, Bamangwato country, on January 2, and which 

 adds some information to that already made public re- 

 specting his adventurous journey. He states that he 

 went beyond the Zambesi and purposed proceeding to the 

 east coast through the country of the Choculumbes, when 

 successive obstacles obstructed his passage. Having lost 

 all his resources and being abandoned by his carriers, he 

 found himself in the greatest difficulties, when fortunately 

 he heard of a missionary who had arrived at the Upper 

 Zambesi, and he resolved upon finding him. After a 

 journey of 200 miles he found the missionary, M. F. 

 Coillard, a Frenchman of the Evangelical Mission of 

 Sesuto, Basuto-land, director of the station of Lesibo. 

 His strength being exhausted, Major Pinto was taken 

 seriously ill, but on his recoveiy succeeded in reaching 

 Shoshong with M. Coillard and accompanied by eight of 

 his followers, the only ones who continued faithful. 



The Danish Government has appointed Lieut. Jensen 

 to explore all the fjords in Greenland from Holsteinborg 

 to the coast facing Disco. The explorations will bear on 

 the moving ice-fields which send so many icebergs into 

 the Polar Ocean. 



Mr. im Thurn paid a second visit to the Kaieteur 

 Falls, on the Potaro River, British Guiana, in February 

 and March last, when the river was in full flood. Referring 

 to our remarks on his previous visit, he states that he by 

 no means intended to depreciate the grandeur of the fall. 

 At his last visit he found it " so infinitely more grand, so 

 infinitely more beautiful, that it is painfully hopeless to 

 try to express in words anything of its beauty and 

 grandeur." Mr. im Thurn' s brief account contains 

 several interesting notes on the botany and zoology of 

 the region traversed. 



THE WOLF FISH 



OF late the wolf fish [Anarrhichas lupus) has been 

 somewhat plentiful in the Frith of Forth. A speci- 

 men which lived in the Edinburgh Aquarium for a little 

 over a week, came into vc.\ possession a i&w days ago, 

 and I have thought that an account of the dental arma- 

 ture of this curious fish may prove interesting to readers 

 of Nature. The wolf fish is a near relative of the 

 Blennies. In this fish we see the same elongated 

 dorsal fin, and the same anal fin as in the Blennies ; 

 but the dental arrangements of the wolf fish are of a 

 much more specific and unusual kind than are seen in 

 the former group. The specimen dissected measured 

 twenty-five inches from the top of the nose to the ex- 

 tremity of the caudal fin. It was therefore by no means 

 a large specimen, since from six to seven feet is not 

 an unusual length for the sea wolf to attain. Its dark 

 grey body was faintly banded with brown, but the 

 head was beautifully and distinctly marbled with black 

 on a grey ground. The aspect of the mouth, provided 

 with its well marked teeth, partakes somewhat of a feline 

 look, and has suggested the name "sea cat," often 

 applied to it on these northern shores, where the fish 

 is frequently eaten, it somewhat resembling the cod 

 in taste. The appearance of the mouth is highly charac- 

 teristic. In front of both jaws is found an array of 

 sharp incisor teeth. The upper jaw bears five of these 

 pointed teeth, the two lateral teeth being large, and the 

 central three teeth small. The lower jaw possesses six 

 teeth of similar pattern, the two central teeth being larger 

 than the four lateral ones ; and when the jaws are closed 



