April 2^, 1879] 



NATURE 



583 



with the X, y, z of the Nautical Almanac, have been found 

 from — o / 



X = r [9*94281], sin. {v + 207 51*8), 

 y = r [9-98498], sin. {v + 126 i8-6), 

 s = r [973737], sin. (z/ + 60 32-2). 

 Ephemeris for Greenwich Midnight 

 Right North Log distance Log. distance 



187P. Ascension. Declination. from Earth. from Sun. 



h. m. s. o / 



May I ... 5 45 30 ... 59 42'0 



2 ... 5 57 36 ... 60 38-4 ... 9-8459 ... 9*9366 



3 ... 6 10 31 ... 61 30-5 



4 ... 6 24 10 ... 62 17-8 ... 9-8422 ... 9-9494 



5 ... 6 38 31 ... 63 Q-i 



6 ... 6 53 37 ... 63 36-4 ... 9*8395 •■• 9*9621 



7 ... 79 19 ... 64 6-7 



8 ... 7 25 30 ... 64 30-5 ... 9-8381 ... 9*9745 



9 ... 7 42 5 ••• 64 47-3 



10 - 7 58 55 ••• 64 57-1 ... 9*8379 ••• 9*9866 



11 ... 8 15 50 ... 64 59-5 



12 ... 8 32 41 ... 64 549 ... 9-8388 ... 9*9984 



13 ... 8 49 16 ... 64 43-3 



14 ... 9 5 28 ... 64 249 ... 9-8409 ... o-o;oo 



15 ... 9 21 II 64 02 



16 ... 9 36 19 ... 63 29-6 ... 9-8441 ... 00213 



17 ... 9 50 46 ... 62 535 



18 ... 10 4 30 .. 62 12-4 ... 9-8484 ... 0-0323 



19 ... 10 17 28 ... 61 27-0 



20 ... 10 29 39 ... 60 37-8 ... 9-8538 ... 0-0430 



21 ... 10 41 5 ... 59 45-2 



22 ... 10 51 49 ... 58 497 ... 9-8602 ... 0-0535 



23 ... II I 52 ... 57 51-9 



24 ... II II 16 ... 56 52-1 ... 9-8675 ... 00637 

 \ 25 ... II 20 5 ... 55 50-6 



26 ... II 28 20 ... 54 48-1 ... 9-8757 ... 0-0736 



27 ... II 36 4 ... 53 44-9 



28 ... II 43 18 ... 52 40-6 ... 9-8848 .. 0-0833 



29 ... II 50 5 ... 51 36-2 



30 ... II 56 28 ... 50 31-8 ... 9-8942 ... 00927 



31 ... 12 2 28 ... 49 27-6 



The Double-Star, South 190.— Interest attaches to 

 this object for more than one reason. The principal star 

 possesses a large proper motion in which the companion 

 participates, while there is a much slower change of rela- 

 tive position in the same way that we observe in 61 Cygni. 

 Further, there would appear to be some evidence of varia- 

 bility of light in the principal star. Argelander in his 

 memoir on the proper motions of 250 stars, assigns 

 +o-o69is. in right ascension, and - i"-766 in declination, 

 or 2"-oi5 annually in arc of great circle, in the direction 

 151° 14'. If we compare Lalande's observation on May 

 22, 1798, with the observations made at Bonn in 1864, and 

 at Washington 1867-69, almost identical values with those 

 given by Argelander will result. The following figures 

 will sufficiently indicate the variation in relative position 

 that has occurred since Piazzi observed the star early in 

 he present century : — „ ^ 



Piazzi 1806-7 Position 251-4 Distance 9-40 



Herschel and South ... 1823-32 ,, 270-1 ,, 1082 



Herschel (Cape Obs.). 1836-46 ,, 277-4 1. 1208 



Jacob. .... .... 1856-37 „ 284-0 „ 13-35 



Stone (Cincinnati) ... 1877-37 >> 290-3 ,, 14-92 



The star forms one of Sir W. Herschel's catalogue of 

 145 new double stars, where the duplicity is stated to have 

 been discovered in 1785 ; at the epoch 1791-39 the angle 

 was estimated 270" — , distance IV'. ; an observation not 

 easily reconciled with more recent ones. 



As regards variability the principal star was rated 4m. 

 in Argelander' s zone No. 295, on May 20, 1850 ; it is 

 S'gm. in the second Radcliffe catalogue, while the Wash- 

 ington observers call it 6 -6m. ; Lalande and Piazzi esti- 

 mated it 6m. Argelander calls the companion 8-4. The 

 position of South 190 for 1880 is in R.A. I4h. 50m. 27s., 

 N.P.D. 110° 52'-3. It is No. 11 86 in the Greenwich 

 catalogue for i860. 



The Minor Planet Hilda.— This small planet, the 

 most distant member of the group, which approaches the 



orbit of Jupiter within 0-85 of the earth's mean distance 

 from the sun, has been sought for unsuccessfully at Berlin, 

 near the calculated position ; there may now -probably be 

 a difficulty in recovering it. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



We hear that Sir Walter C. Trevelyan, who died lately 

 at Wallington, Northumberland, has bequeathed to the 

 Royal Geographical Society, of which he had been 

 for many years a trustee in conjunction with Lord 

 Houghton, the sum of 500/., in addition to a valuable 

 collection of books relating to the Faroe Islands, maps, &c. 



The geographical haze in which some of our daily con- 

 temporaries persist in enveloping themselves, appears to 

 be growing denser. The ". War at the Cape " is bad 

 enough, but the telegram received last week from a special 

 correspondent at Baku, informing a wondering public that 

 " Krasnovodsk has returned with General Lazareff, and 

 Lomakine' s reconnaissance to the confluence of the Attrek 

 and Sumbir [sic], &c.," fills the cup to overflowing. 

 Krasnovodsk, we thought, was the name of a town and 

 bay on the eastern shore of the Caspian, but the tangle is 

 above our powers to unravel. 



The new part of the Transactions of the Asiatic Society 

 of Japan is wholly occupied with Mr. John Milne's narra- 

 tive of his journey across Europe and Asia to the Land 

 of the Rising Sun. From some singular statements which 

 he makes, we suspect that Mr. Milne was not sufficiently 

 careful in making himself acquainted with the literature 

 of Chinese travel before leaving ; otherwise he would 

 hardly venture to assert that the journey from Peking to 

 Tientsin and overland to Shanghai has but seldom been 

 made by Europeans. Mr. Milne's views on the subject 

 of the rendering Chinese sounds are very remarkable. 



The Paris Society of Geography held its annual meet- 

 ing for the election of officials on Friday, April 18. 

 Admiral Laronciere le Nourry was returned president 

 almost without opposition. The great gold medallist is 

 Lieut, de Brazza, the Ogowe explorer. A gold medal was 

 also awarded to Lieut. Wyse, of the French Navy, for his 

 e.xploration of the Isthmus of Darien, for the construc- 

 tion of an inter-oceanic canal. The gold medal for Polar 

 exploration was awarded to Sir George Nares, Com- 

 mander of the last English Arctic Expedition, The Cross 

 of the Legion of Honour was also given to M. Brazza and 

 his fellow-explorer, Dr. Ballay. Lieut. Wyse and Lieut. 

 Reeks received a similar honour for the Darien explora- 

 tions. An address was given by Commander Perrier on 

 the determination of longitudes by electricity. A map 

 was distributed amongst members showing all the Euro- 

 pean and African towns whose longitudes have been 

 determined by that process. They number about one 

 hundred, ^extending from Oural to Valentia, and from 

 Lapland to Sahara. 



No. 3 of this year's Mittheilungen of the Vienna 

 Geographical Society contains an important paper, with 

 map, on the sources of the Dniester and the vaUey- 

 structure of the region of the Upper Dniester and 

 Strwcaz. The first number of this year's Boletin of the 

 Madrid Geographical Society contains, among other 

 things, the first part of an account of an excursion in the 

 La Plata Republics, by Capt. Carrasco y Guisasola. 



The just published Bulletin of the Antwerp Geogra- 

 phical Society contains, amidst a considerable variety of 

 matter, a paper by Mme. Dumas de Baiglie, entitled 

 "Les Voyageuses illustres." The Society about a year 

 ago resolved to admit ladies, and the author of this paper 

 is a membre associe, who seems very grateful for this 

 recognition of the rights of women. 



Among the new bills introduced into the first session of 

 the Forty-sixth U.S. Congress is one authorising the presi- 

 dent to establish a temporary colony at some point north 



