Nov. lo, 1887] 



NATURE 



The corrected 



shorter than the preceding one by 0*00045. 

 elements of the star will therefore be as follows : — 



1884 January i, oh. 54m. 43'6s. Paris M.T. + 2oh. 7m. 41 •6s. 

 (E - 1070) - O '00025. E. 



The New At.gol- Variable, Y Cygni. — In the same num- 

 ber of Gould's Astronomical Journal Mr. Sawyer states that he 

 has obtained observations of this star which render it probable 

 that the true period is id. I2h. ±, or half the period which Mr. 

 Chandler had adopted for it (see Nature, vol. xxxvi. p. 377)- 



Olbers' Comet, 1887. — The following ephemeris is in con- 

 tinuation of that given in Nature, vol. xxxvi. p. 588 : — 



Ephemeris for Berlin Midnight. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR THE 

 WEEK 1887 NOVEMBER 13-19, 



/"pOR the reckoning of time the civil day, commencing at 

 ^ Greenwich mean midnight, counting the hours on to 24, 



is here employed,) 



At Greenwich on November 13 

 Sun rises, 7h, i6m. ; souths, lih. 44m, 23-63, ; sets, l6h. 12m. : 



right asc. on meridian, I5h. i3-5m. ; decl, 17° 58' S. 



Sidereal Time at Sunset, I9h, 42m. 

 Moon (New on November 15, 8h.) rises, 4h, 13m. ; souths, 



loh. 6m. ; sets, I5h. 46m, : right asc, on meridian, 



I3h, 34 -4m, ; decl. 4° 48' S, 



Planet. Rises, 

 h. m. 

 Mercury., 8 16 . 



Venus 2 56 . 



Mars I 12 . 



Jupiter 6 52 . 



Saturn,... 21 21*. 

 Uranus ... 3 52 . 

 Neptune.. 16 40*. 



Souths. 

 h. m. 

 12 23 



8 52 

 7 48 



II 31 

 5 8 



9 28 

 o 21 



Sets, 

 h. m. 

 16 30 

 14 48 



14 24 

 16 10 



12 55 



15 4 



8 2 



Right asc. and declination 

 on meridian, 

 h. m. n / 



15 52-4 

 12 20-9 



11 16-3 

 15 0-5 



8 360 



12 568 



3 48-3 



21 13 S. 



I 39 S. 



6 30 N, 

 16 10 S. 

 18 59 N. 



5 23 S. 

 18 13 N. 



* Indicates that the rising is that of the preceding evening. 

 Occultations of Stars by the Moon (visible at Greenwich). 



Nov. 



Star. 



Mag. 



Disap. 



Reap. 



Corresponding 

 angles from ver- 

 tex to right for 

 inverted image. 



From Lynx 



Near « Leonis 



Near Ursae Majoris. 



The Leonids 



Near f Ursae Majoris, 



M signifies maximum ; m minimum ; ;«2 secondary minimum. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



The November number of the Scottish Geographical Mat^azine 

 contains an admirable paper by Mr. John Murray, on "Sonne 

 Recent Deep-sea Observations in the Indian Ocean," Mr, W, 

 W, Blair, C,E., contributes a useful paper on the " Cold Lakes 

 of New Zealand." Prof. Mohn sends a list of the highest peaks 

 in Northern Europe, with their heights from the latest determi- 

 nations. They are, with heights in feet : — Galdhoppigen, South 

 Norway, 8399; Glitter Tina, 8379; Snehaetten, 7566; Oraefa- 

 jokuU, 6427 ; Sulitelma, Northern Norway, 6178; Petermann's 

 Spitze, East Greenland, 11,418 ; Beerenberg, Jan Mayen, 8350; 

 Mount Misery, Bear Island, 1785 ; Hornsund Tind, Spitzbergen, 

 4560; Richthofen Mount, Franz Josef Land, 5184. Of these 

 mountains two are volcanic, OrtefajokuU and Beerenberg, 



The new number (9) of the Mittheilungen of the Vienna 

 Geographical Society contains a summary of our knowledge of 

 the physical geograpiy of the East Asiatic waters (the Western 

 Pacific and its offshoots) — currents, temperatures, &c. — by Lieut. 

 Adolf Glockner, 



In the September number of the BuUetin of the American 

 Geographical Society, Mr, R. E. Peary gives a detailed account 

 of his journey, in the summer and autumn of last year, into the 

 interior of Greenland. He entered in the neighbourhood of 

 Disco Island, considerably further north than the starting-point 

 chosen by Nordenskjold for his expedition. Mr. Peary's 

 experiences were somewhat similar to those of Nordenskjold. 

 His course throughout the journey was due east. He only 

 reached 100 miles from the edge of the ice-blink or interior 

 ice, his highest elevation being 7525 feet. Mr. Peary sums up 

 his observations of the character of the interior ice. The coast- 

 line shows a great diversity of features, dependent upon the 

 altitude, the season, and the elevation and configuration of the 

 adjacent mountains. Whenever the ice projects down a valley 

 in a long tongue or stream, the edges contract and shrink away 

 from the warmer rocks on each side, leaving a deep cailon be- 

 tween, usually occupied by a glacier ; and the upper surfaces, 

 disintegrated by the reflected heat from the mountains above, 

 and shattered by the daily change of temperature more perhaps 

 than by the forward flow, presents a chaotic labyrinth of cre- 

 vasses, gullies, and rugged pinnacles, increasing in magnitude 

 in direct proportion to the length of the tongue and its approach 

 to the sea-level. As to the features of the interior beyond the 

 coast-line, the surface of the "ice-blink" near the margin is a 

 succession of rounded hummocks, steepest and highest on their 

 landward sides, which are sometimes precipitous. Further in 

 these hummocks merge into long flat swells, which in turn 

 decrease in height towards the interior, until at last a flat gently 

 rising plain is reached, which doubtless becomes ultimately level. 

 In passing from the margin of the ice-blink to the remote inte- 

 rior, from one to five distinct zones may be noted, the number 

 and width varying with the season, the latitude, and the eleva- 

 tion. In winter the entire surface is undoubtedly covered with 

 a deep unbroken layer of fine dry snow. Late in the spring 

 the warmth of the sun at midday softens the surface of the snow, 

 along the land borders of the ice, and this freezes at night, form- 

 ing a light crust. Gradually this crust extends up the interior, 

 and with the advance of the season the snow along the border 

 of the "ice-blink" becomes saturated with water. A little 

 later the zone of slush follows the zone of crust into the interior^ 

 the snow along the border of the ice-blink melts entirely, form- 

 ing pools in the depressions, and streams which cut deep gulhes 

 in the ice ; water-cavities form ; old crevasses open, and new 

 ones appear. This zone rapidly widens, and extends mto the 

 interior in the footsteps of the others, and behind it the imme- 

 diate border of the ice gets ragged an 1 soiled ; pebbles, boulders, 

 and moraines crop out of its melting surface, and by the end of 

 the Arctic summer it is disintegrated and shattered by the heat, 

 and eroded by the streams, into impassable roughness, Mr. Peary 



