Dec. 14, 1876J 



NA TURE 



147 



same result. On December 5 M. Cornu succeeded in making 

 several measures, though still much interrupted by clouds ; the 

 Bulletin states :—" II a constate la presence des trois lignes de 

 I'hydrogene, C, F et \ — 434 (echelle des longueurs d'onde) ; 

 la raie D, du sodium, la raie b du magnesium et deux autres 

 \ = 535 et A = 503. La premiere parait coincider avec la raie 

 1474 (echelle de Kirchhoff) ou A. = 532 observee pendant les 

 eclipses dans la couronne solaire ; ce qui ferait peut-etre penser 

 que la raie notee comme correspondant au sodium pourrait etre 

 celle de I'element solaire appele helium." 



There is a slight confusion about the declination of this star, 

 which, according to the lithographed Bulletin, M. Paul Henry 

 made three minutes less than Prof. Schmidt, while the declina- 

 tion, as reduced by the latter to 1855-0, differs more than a 

 minute from his declination for 1876 o, correctly carried back. 



The nearest catalogue star is one gam. = + 42°, No. 4,184, 

 in the sixth volume of the Bonn Observations, Aa = - 24-65., 

 A5 — + 4' 3", according to Prof. Schmidt's place. We find no 

 star in the position of the new one, in the Durchmusterung, nor 

 in Lalande, d'Agelet, Bode, Bessel, &c., nor Harding's Atlas. 



The remarkable star of 1866 (T Corona; Borealis) descended to 

 the limit of unaided vision in ten days from its discovery by Mr. 

 J. Birmingham, of Millbrook, Tuam, on the night of May 12, 

 when it appears to have become suddenly visible as a star of the 

 second magnitude : it is now a little over the eleventh magnitude 

 in Bessel's scale extended. 



The similar object of 1848, detected by Mr. Plind on the 

 morning of April 28, then of the sixth magnitude, and certainly 

 less than the ninth on April 4 and 5, attained its maximum about 

 May 7, and at that lime was a little brighter than 20 Ophiuchi, 

 rated a fifth magnitude by Argelander. The maximum brilliancy 

 assigned to this star in Schonfeld's last catalogue is one magni- 

 tude too low. It continued visible without the telescope to the 

 end of May. Last summer it was not over the thirteenth magni- 

 tude. 



[By observations at Mr. Bishop's observatory, Twickenham, 

 on the 1 2th inst., the position of the new star for 1876013 

 in R.A. 2lh. 36m. 50'35s. N.P.D. 47° 43' 4" ; Prof. Schmidt's 

 declination is in error. The star was of the seventh magnitude 

 and colourless ; the sky, however, very indifferent] 



The Oi'i'OSiTiON OF Mars, 1877. — In addition to the stars 

 observed by Bessel, which are mapped on the Astronomer- 

 Royal's Chart in the Monthly N'otices of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society, the follow irg lie near the path of the planet at this 

 opposition : — 



1. An uncatalogued star of the ninth magnitu<^e, the place of 

 which for 18770 is in R.A. 23h. 19m. 55-3s., N.P.D. 101° 21' 49"; 

 the planet in conjunction with this star, August 25-292, G. M.T, 

 5' 14" north. 



2. Lalande, 45504 — 7| mag. ; mean place, 1877-0, in R.A. 

 23b. 8m. 56"is., N.P.D. 102° 14' o" ; the planet in conjunction 

 with this star, September 5-224, 3' 10" north. 



On September 6415 Mars will be in conjunction with, and 

 2' 15", north of a tenth magnitude, the mean place of which is 

 in R.A. 23h. 7m. 46-4s., N.P.D. 102° 18' 6". 



There is every reason to expect that this favourable opposition 

 of Mars will be very completely observed with the view to 

 another determination of the solar parallax. 



NOTES 

 For the erection of a monument to Linnseus 36,000 crowns 

 have been received. The monument will be erected in Stock- 

 holm, and will be unveded on January 10, 1878, the hundredth 

 anniversary of the death of ihe great naturalist. 



The inauguration of the Liebig monument in the new prome- 

 nade at Darmstadt, will shortly take place. Pupils, friends, 



and admirers of Liebig ' are invited to be present on the 

 occasion. 



M. DE Lessei's presented to the Academy of Sciences at its 

 last sitting, the final report of Capt. Roudaire, who has returned 

 from Tunis after having completed his survey of the Algero- 

 Tunisian depression. The project is now quite complete and 

 ready for execution. All the trigonometrical measurements have 

 been taken, and the preliminary steps for making an inland sea 

 have been considered. A commission, of which M. de Lesseps 

 is a member, and will most probably be the referee, was ap- 

 pointed by the President, Admiral Paris. The opposition 

 offered by some influential members of the Academy is now con- 

 sidered as being quite at an end. 



From the Tour die Monde -^^ learn that an American company 

 proposes to introduce fur seals from Alaska into Lake Superior. 

 The temperature of the lake is considered to be sufficiently cold 

 for the purpose, and the company hopes to obtain from Congress 

 and the Canadian Parliament an Act protecting the creatures 

 from slaughter for twenty years, after which time it is supposed 

 that they will be sufficiently acclimatised and numerous to form 

 subjects of sport. 



News has been received from Gen. Nansauty, the adventurous 

 observer who has located himself near the top of the Pic du Midi 

 for the purpose of taking meteorological observations during the 

 winter. He and his companions have been made comfortable 

 and secure, the only thing wanting being a telegraph to connect 

 the Pic du Midi with Toulouse as Puy-de-D6me has been with 

 Clermont. This will very likely be the work of next year. Up 

 to the end of last week the weather was very mild and almost no 

 snow had been observed. 



At the Arctic meeting of the Geographical Society on Tuesday 

 night, honoured by the presence of the Prince of Wales, Sir 

 George Nares and the other officers of the Expedition met with a 

 deservedly enthusiastic reception. Addresses were given by Sir 

 George Nares and Captains Stephenson and Markham, in which 

 details were given of the work of the Expedition. Sir G. Nares gave 

 a clear account of the currents of the Atlantic and Pacific in their 

 bearing on the condition of the ice in the Arctic regions. We may 

 now consider the Polar basin, he stated, as a locked -up bay con- 

 tinuing out of the narrowed North Atlantic Channel, with a warm 

 stream of water constantly pouring into it between Spitzbergen 

 and Norway, and a cold icy one as constantly running out between 

 Spitzbergen and Greenland, and also through the very narrow straits 

 between Greenland and America ; the first conveying an enormous 

 source of heat towards the north, the latter causing the intense cold 

 of Canada and that on the east coast of Greenland and North 

 America. In the Polar Sea, near the infl )W of the warm water, 

 we should naturally expect to meet the lightest ice and an early 

 season ; near the outlets the heaviest ice. And such is found to 

 be the case. Heavy ice has been traced all the way from 

 Behring Straits eastward to Bank's Land, and from there, west 

 of Prince Patrick Island, to Ireland's Eye, from which point it 

 is lost ; for the sledging parties under Admirals Richards and 

 Osborn, journeying along the north shores of the Parry 

 Islands, found light ice. It is therefore concluded with cer- 

 tainty that some protecting land exists to the northward. 

 From the Alerfs winter quarters the heavy Polar ice was traced 

 by Aldrich for one-third of the distance towards Ireland's Eye, 

 leaving 400 miles still unknown ; to the eastward, Beaumont 

 proved that it extends for 100 miles, leaving about 500 miles still 

 unexplored between his farthest and the farthest of the Green- 

 land Arctic Expedition under Koldewey. We have now 

 a distinct knowledge of the nature of the ice in the Polar Sea. 

 Whether that sea extends to the Pole or across the Pole, 

 we cannot, according to Sir George Nares, be absolutely 

 certain, but by reasoning, we may safely predict that a very 



