August I, 1878J 



NA TURE 



359 



observatories of the southern hemisphere, where it is 

 important for the theory of this body that observations 

 should be continued as long as practicable. It was m 

 perihelion on July 26. At the next return in 1881, its 

 track in the heavens will be very favourable for obser- 

 vation in these latitudes. 



The Satellite of Neptune.— In the Monthly 

 Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society for June, Mr. 

 Marth has furnished data founded upon Prof. New- 

 comb' s tables, from which the position of the satellite of 

 Neptune may be readily determined for any time during 

 the approaching opposition ; but with the approximate 

 times of superior and inferior conjunctions (the angles 

 being 311° and 131° respectively) which are appended, 

 the part of the orbit in which the satellite must be found 

 is easily ascertained without calculation. As has been 

 known since the year 1853, the orbital motion of the 

 satellite is retrograde. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



The distinguished Italian traveller and naturalist, 

 Sig. L. M. D'Albertis, who has been exploring different 

 parts of New Guinea since 1872, and in 1876-77 made 

 two expeditions into the interior of that country by the 

 Fly River, has arrived in London with his large col- 

 lections in every branch of natural history. 



Dr. van der Horck, who lately made so valuable a 

 tour through Lapland to the Arctic Ocean, is at present 

 organising in Berlin an expedition for the especial purpose 

 of studying the question of the original settlement of 

 America by Asiatics. It is intended that the expedition, 

 which will last from three to four years, shall coast along 

 the entire eastern shore of Asia, up to the Polar Sea, 

 visiting all the chief islands by the way, and then, 

 crossing at Behring's Straits, follow the American coast 

 to San Francisco. The expedition will follow the cus- 

 tomary programme of a scientific voyage, making surveys, 

 dredging, collecting objects in natural history, &c. The 

 anthropological features will, however, be the most 

 important, and every effort will be put forth to collect 

 and classify all existing clues to a distant emigration from 

 Asia to America. It is hoped that evidences in this 

 direction may be found on the isolated groups of islands 

 in the more northerly regions. Ample funds have been 

 put at the disposal of the expedition, and it starts under 

 the auspices of the German government and the Berlin 

 Geographical Society. 



The services of the scientific element in the recent 

 Berlin Congress have been recognised by Her Majesty's 

 conferring the honour of knighthood on Mr. Edward 

 Hertslet, C.B., F.R.G.S., Librarian of the Foreign 

 Office and Keeper of the Archives, who perhaps had as 

 much to do with the settling of the boundaries of the 

 new states as the Prime Minister himself. 



The United States Coast Survey steamer Blake, which 

 returned some weeks ago from dredging operations in the 

 Gulf of Mexico, is now refitting for another expedition in 

 November. Capt. Patterson, of the Coast Survey, we 

 learn from the Tribune, says that the extensive and 

 accurate soundings of the Gulf taken by improved scien- 

 tific methods in the recent expedition, do not tend to 

 confirm the belief, long held, that the equatorial current, 

 after rushing from the Caribbean Sea through the channel 

 formed by the West India Islands and the northward 

 projection of Yucatan, makes the whole tortuous circuit 

 of the Gulf close by the shores of Central America, 

 Mexico, and the southern coast of the United States, 

 before emerging into the Atlantic between the point of 

 Florida and the Bahamas. The observations tend rather 

 to prove that the force of the incoming equatorial stream 

 expends itself in one direction against the mass of the 

 Gulf long before it reaches the Texas coast, and then 



turns directly toward and reissues into the ocean. The 

 old theory in regard to the current being unsettled, the 

 expedition now to be made will proceed to repeat certain 

 experiments, and to make others, with the view of either 

 confirming or destroying the latter hypothesis. Ex- 

 haustive observations will be made of the region of ocean 

 in and around the eastward islands of the Caribbean Sea, 

 through which the equatorial current makes its entrance, 

 as through a sieve, from the Atlantic into the long 

 channel, 1,500 miles long, formed by the West Indies on 

 the one side and Central and South America on the 

 other, and leading to the Gulf of Mexico. From the 

 experiments and observations of this expedition Capt. 

 Patterson hopes for results which will go far toward 

 laying at rest all merely speculative theories relating to 

 the Gulf Stream. In connection with the investigations 

 hitherto conducted by the Coast Survey expeditions in 

 the Gulf of Mexico, it has been ascertained that the vast 

 current of water pouring from the Gulf into the Atlantic, 

 through the Florida and Bahama gate, has neither the 

 same velocity nor the same temperature. It is believed 

 by Capt. Patterson and his associates that further atten- 

 tion to this curious fact may develop results having an 

 important bearing upon the science of climate and 

 meteorology, making predictions possible as to changes 

 in the seasons of the European countries affected by the 

 Gulf Stream from the observed quantity and temperature 

 of the flow through the Florida Straits. 



The Paris Geographical Society has recently received 

 some interesting intelligence respecting M. Savorgnan de 

 Brazza's explorations on the upper part of the River 

 Ogowd, in Western Equatorial Africa. Having learned 

 from the natives at Dum^that there were some falls on the 

 Ogow^, in the Aduma country, he got together with some 

 difficulty a party to show him their locality. On the way 

 up the river the inhabitants fled from their approach, as 

 they believed that white men brought small-pox with 

 them. On the fourth day the expedition encountered the 

 first rapids on the Ogowl after leaving Dum^ ; they be- 

 came more and more numerous, and the breadth of the 

 river diminished considerably. Further on sand-banks 

 extended across the river, which became a succession of 

 rapids in the country of the Atzianas. Among the. 

 Akanigues, higher up, the villages are described as very 

 numerous and close together, and the country well culti- 

 vated and mountainous ; the inhabitants collected on the- 

 banks to see the expedition pass. On the tenth day the 

 explorers arrived at the River Passa, which has a strong 

 current, and which is nearly as important as the Ogow^, 

 there become comparatively narrow. On the following, 

 day they found themselves face to face with a large sand- 

 bank and a strong rapid, which their guides declared to 

 be impassable. l3r. Ballay, one of the party, went by 

 land to Pubava, some twelve miles above the rapids, and 

 found that the Ogowd is not more than twenty metres 

 broad above the falls ; he thinks that the River Passa 

 will probably furnish a more convenient route to the east- 

 ward than the Ogowd 



As might be expected, Petermann's Mittheiltingen 

 for August is largely devoted to papers bearing on the 

 recent changes in the East. First we have an article, 

 written before the conclusion of the Berlin Congress, on 

 the territory claimed by Russia from Turkey in Asia. 

 Next comes an important study on the Kara Kum desert, 

 with reference to the proposed Central Asiatic railway. 

 Following this is a series of tables of population statistics 

 on the Sanjak of Seres, in Macedonia. There is also an 

 important paper on Herero Land, in South Africa, to 

 accompany a new map of the region, based on the obser- 

 vations of the Rhenish missionaries, especially those of 

 Herren Bohm and Bernsmann. The number concludes, 

 as usual, with Dr. Behm's admirable monthly summary. 

 Besides the map of Herero Land, there are maps of 

 Armenia, to show the region claimed by Russia, and of 



