8 4 



NATURE 



[May 24, 1888 



upon this, mindful of the climatic features of the district, 

 and in view of the enumeration given of known inhabit- 

 ants of its waters, great expectations are conjured up, and 

 the importance of the enterprise upon which our friends 

 have embarked becomes self-evident. 



The station has been founded by the Department of 

 Education and the authorities of the Imperial University, 

 as a special adjunct to the biological laboratories of the 

 latter. As it is fair to assume that the governmental 

 body will, like all others, expect " something practical " 

 for its money, we anticipate that attention will early be 

 given to questions of economic importance. The Japanese 

 have a fishing population of more than 1,500,000 active 

 workers, while it is computed that 36,000,000 persons, in 

 all, are more or less dependent upon fish, as food. When, 

 in view of the total area and population of our own islands 

 as compared with those of Japan, it is remembered that 

 our own fishing population numbers little over 540,000, it 

 becomes needless to point out that the Japanese are par 

 excellence a fishing folk. They moreover appear to possess 

 an ancient but limited literature on the subject. 



The establishment, by the Japanese, of this and other 

 similar institutions has been necessitated by the adoption 

 of the products of Western civilization, almost, it would 

 seem, in return for that " devout and learned admiration " 

 so long accorded them by the Western nations. Rapid 

 indeed has been their progress under influences which 

 are bringing their wares into open competition with 

 Western markets, and who shall say but that we proud 

 Europeans may not yet be, perforce, to no small extent 

 dependent upon them for edible produce ? 



The founding of this marine station is, biologically, a 

 sign of the times. More than this, however. It is a 

 mo ement upon which, in the long run, the intellectual 

 as well as the commercial prosperity of a large section of 

 the community must depend ; for in the spread of that 

 true science which seeks to unravel the knowledge of 

 causes, there now lies the only sound basis for national 

 prosperity. Prof. Mitsukuri's association with the under- 

 taking is, in itself, a guarantee that these interests will 

 be upheld. His earlier work was executed under the 

 guidance of, and in fellowship with, American subjects 

 whose names will be for ever memorable in the history 

 of marine zoology : his association with them and with 

 the illustrious Balfour, and his acknowledged indebted- 

 ness to Dohrn, are, in themselves, auguries of success. We 

 note with much satisfaction that " arrangements will be 

 made by which students in the biological course of the 

 University will be required to pass at least one term in the 

 station " : workers will be thus assured, and we tender 

 them our sincere congratulations and hearty good wishes 

 for a prosperous development of their enterprise. It 

 must not be forgotten that the Japanese waters have 

 lately yielded us the interesting Chlamydoselache, and it 

 would be a most interesting circumstance should the far- 

 famed Hyalonema, to which Prof. Mitsukuri so frequently 

 reverts in his article quoted, receive final consideration at 

 the hands of his countrymen. 



The following is a brief description of the station 

 itself, extracted from the original article. " The building 

 is of plain wood, and one story high, except in the middle 

 part, which has a second floor. The main laboratory-room 

 (a), which occupies the whole sea-front, is 48 feet long, 12 

 feet wide at the two ends, and 18 feet in the middle, and 

 is able to accommodate about ten workers. A number of 

 small aquaria for the use of investigators will be placed 

 in this room. Of the rooms at the back of the main 

 laboratory, one (b) has a cement floor and is for assort- 

 ing and preserving specimens brought in from the sea. 

 Another (e) is to be used as the library-room, and a third 

 (c) as the store-room. The second floor over the central 

 part of the building is able to give sleeping accommoda- 

 tion for a few persons. From a tank placed outside the 



building, fresh sea-water is carried into the main labora- 

 tory-room and the assorting-room, and is delivered out of 

 many facets." G. B. H. 



THE AURORA IN SPITZBERGEN} 



THE best observations hitherto made on the aurora 

 borealis are those made at Bossekop, by Bravais, 

 during the expedition of the French corvette Le Recherche, 

 1838-40. Bossekop is also situated in the maximum zone 

 of the auroras, on the coast of Northern Norway. Con- 

 sidering that Spitzbergen lies a little north of the same 

 zone, and nearly on the same meridian as. Bossekop, it 

 was resolved that the observations of auroras should be 

 made with the greatest possible care at the Swedish In- 

 ternational Polar Station at Spitzbergen in 1882-83. This 

 work was confided to Mr. Carlheim-Gyllenskiold, and the 

 auroral observations are the most complete that have 

 been made by any of the international expeditions during 

 that year. The results are now printed, and form a large 

 quarto volume of 409 pages, with a great number of 

 tables, illustrations, and figures. The results confirm and 

 enlarge those of Bravais, and of other observers of this 

 brilliant phenomenon. 



(1) The first question is the determination of the mean 

 co-ordinates of the auroral arch. A mean of 371 mea- 

 surements gave the azimuth of the culminating point or 

 summit of the auroral arch in S. 24 12' E. As early as 

 1834, Argelander, in Abo, Finland, found that the azi- 

 muth of the culminating point of the auroral arch differs 

 about io° from the magnetic meridian. At Bossekop 

 the magnetic declination was N. io° 8' W., and the de- 

 clination of the culminating point of the auroral arch 

 N. 22° 4' W., the anomaly being, of course, about n° W. 

 The magnetic declination at Cape Thordsen was found to 

 be N. 12 45' W., and of course the auroral anomaly from 

 the magnetic meridian was 1 1° 27' W. 



(2) Eighty-seven measures on the position of the 

 corona borealis were made, and the position of the centre 

 of the corona was found nearly in the magnetic zenith, 

 and not in the same vertical as the highest point of the 

 arch. The means are : — 



Position of the centre of the , , 



corona H = 79 55 ... Az. = S. 7 12 E. 



Position of the magnetic zenith H = 80 35 ... Az. = S. 12 4 E. 



Position of the culminating 



point of the arch H = — ... Az. = S. 24 12 E. 



This confirms the measurements made during the past 

 century by Wilcke, Mairan, and others. 



(3) The breadth of the auroral arches varies with their 

 elevation above the horizon. The arches consist of rays 

 running in the direction of the breadth of the arch, and 

 converging towards the magnetic zenith. Thus they form 

 a long fringe of rays parallel to the dipping-needle, sus- 

 pended, like a curtain, from east to west, but with a small 

 extent of breadth from north to south. If this curtain of 

 rays moves from the horizon to the zenith, the breadth 

 varies according to the laws of perspective. The formula 

 gives the greatest breadth at a height of 45°. In the 

 neighbourhood of the zenith the arches are very narrow, 

 stretching as a luminous band across the heavens. 



(4) Besides the arches and rays, the auroral light some- 

 times formed a true spherical zone parallel with the earth's 

 surface, thus floating in space as a horizontal layer of light, 

 often crossed by several arches. This form is seldom to 

 be seen in lower latitudes. These auroral zones were 

 apparently much broader in the zenith than at their ex- 

 tremities nearer to the horizon. When such an auroral 

 zone was lying wholly over the heavens, with the excep- 



1 " Observations faites au Cap Thordsen, Spitzberg, par l'Expedition 

 Suedoise." Tome II. (i) Aurores boreales. Par Carlheim-Gyllenskiold. 



