286 



NA TURE 



\yan. 19, 1888 



others, as bearing a wonderful resemblance to the Chinese, and 

 if, instead of wearing their hair cut round their heads so as to 

 form a kind of mop, they wore pigtails, the casual observer 

 would scarcely be aisle to tell where the difference lay. The 

 hideous custom for which the Botocudos have always been so 

 famous, viz. that of wearing huge lip- and ear-ornaments of 

 wood, is fast dying out, and at the present time is only to be 

 met with among some of the older members of the tribe?, who 

 retain all the habits and manners of their primitive forefathers 

 intact. ' 



The January number of Fetcrmann s Mitteilungen contains 

 a paper by Count Pfeil, describing his journey last summer in 

 East Africa, from Pangani along the Pangani River, south through 

 Useguha to the Kingani River, and north to Bagamoyo. Dr. 

 Henry Lange briefly describes the legion watered by the Rio 

 Tubarao and Rio Ararangua in Brazil. Dr. H. Fritsche con- 

 tributes a series of astronomico-geographical and magnetic ob- 

 servations at thirty-one places in North- West Russia and North 

 Germany in 1885-6-7, and Mr. S. Brooke gives a short acoimt 

 of an excursion he made into the West Australian desert, starting 

 from Israelite Bay on the south coast. 



In the January number of the Scottish Geographical Magazine, 

 Mr. John Murray publishes the final results of his long research 

 on the height of the land and the depth of the ocean. The 

 paper consists mainly of a series of elaborate measurements 

 giving the detailed data on which he founds his general con- 

 clusions. The conclusions to which Mr. Murray comes are of great 

 interest, but they are too important to be stated in a note. The 

 mean height of the land of the globe he estimates at 2252 feet. He 

 finds that 84 per cent, of the land of the globe lies between the 

 sea-level and a height of 6000 feet. The mean depth of the ocean 

 again is 14,640 feet. In contrast with the land, only 42 per 

 cent, of the waters of the ocean lie between the surface and a 

 depth of 60CO feet ; while 56 per cent, of the ocean waters are 

 situated between depths of 6000 and 18,000 feet. The total 

 area of the dry land Mr. Murray makes to be 55,000,000 square 

 miles, while that of the ocean is 137,200,000 square miles. The 

 bulk of the dry land above the sea is 23,450,000 cubic miles, and 

 the volume of the waters of the ocean 323,800,000 cubic miles. 

 The amount of matter carried from the land each year in suspension 

 and solution, he estimates at 37 cubic miles ; it would thus take 

 6,340,000 years to transport the whole of the solid land down 

 to the sea. Should the whole of the solid land be reduced to 

 one level under the ocean, then the surface of the earth would 

 be covered by an ocean with a uniform depth of about two 

 miles. The volume of the whole sphere, IMr. Murray estimates 

 at 259,850, 117,778 cubic miles. With the data now published 

 should be compared Mr. Murray's Aberdeen lecture (Nature, 

 vol. xxxii. p. 581). .^^^.»tv -•.-■•■ -T.' . ''*H«-''' ^.5--'^ 



f- In the last number of the Comptes rendus of the Paris Geo- 

 graphical Society, M. Chaffaujon gives a detailed narrative of 

 his recent journey up the Orinoco. The section of greatest 

 interest is that which relates to the upper course of the river, 

 M hich M. Chaffaujon found to be all wrong on existing maps. 

 This he has traced with much care. He examined also with 

 care the outlet of the Casiquiare, by which the river is con- 

 nected with the Rio Negro and the Amazons. He finds the 

 bank of the river here to be mostly gravel, and in the rainy 

 season the river coming down from the mountains with consider- 

 able force impinges against the bank, and forces a passage out. 

 He states that the place of outlet seems to be shifting down- 

 wards every year. 



THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE MOON, 

 JANUARY iZ. 



A TOTAL eclipse of the Moon offers some special advantages 

 -^"^ for the exact determination of the diameter and distance 

 of our satellite. Observations of the bright limbs are exposed 

 to considerable errors from the eff"ect of irradiation, and liable 

 to be aff"ected by personal habit in the observer. The method 

 of occultationshas, under ordinary circumstances, proved scarcely 

 more successful, owing chiefly to the fact that immersion and 

 emersion so seldom take place under similar conditions. But 

 in a total eclipse of the Moon, the disappearances and reappear- 

 ances occur at limbs under similar illumination, and since the 

 diminution of the Moon's light allows much fainter stars to be 

 seen close to the Moon than can usually be obsei-ved, a much 



greater number of observations can be made than under ordinary 

 conditions, and the eff'ects of local irregularities of the Moon's 

 circumference can be eliminated by observations made at a 

 great number of points. If, then, as many Observatories as 

 possible would combine to observe the occultations of the 

 small s-tars passed over by the Moon during its eclipse, the 

 labours of a few hours would give materials for a better deter- 

 mination of its diameter and parallax than could otherwise be 

 obtained from the observations of many years. In view 

 of these advantages, and noting too how hitherto they had 

 been neglected by astronomers. Dr. DoUen, of Pulkowa, pub- 

 lished a paper in the Astronoinische Nachrichten, No. 2615, 

 previous to the eclipse of October 4, 1884, in which he gave a 

 catalogue of n6 stars which would be occulted during that 

 eclipse, and begged for the co operation of as many observers 

 as possible. Unfortunately, the weather in many places was 

 very unfavourable, and even where the sky was clear an unfore- 

 seen hindrance to observation was experienced in the unusual 

 faintness of the eclipsed Moon. The part of the sky, too, 

 through which it was passing was bare of stars above the 9th 

 and loth magnitudes. Still the results were sufficiently success- 

 ful to encourage Prof. Struve and Dr. DoUen to repeat the 

 attempt, especially as under several aspects the approaching 

 eclipse of January 28 presents more favourable conditions than 

 that of October 4, 1884 : the magnitude of the eclipse will be 

 somewhat larger, and the duration of the total phase a few 

 minutes longer. Accordingly, Dr. Dollen has drawn up a 

 catalogue of 300 stars which will be occulted, whilst Prof. 

 Struve has computed by a graphical method the times of dis- 

 appearance and reappearance, and the position-angles of the 

 occulted stars, for 120 Observatories, which he has invited to co- 

 operate with him in the work of observation. The experience 

 gained during the 1884 eclipse has led Dr. Dollen to include only 

 those stars occulted during the total phase or immediately before 

 and after, but he has thought it well to give stars down to 

 the nth magnitude. 



Of the 300 stars given in Dr. Dollen's catalogue, the 

 majority of course will not be seen to be occulted from any 

 part of this country. The following, however, may be observed 

 here : — 



No. 



R.A. 



Decl. 



No. 



Decl. 



The positions given are the apparent positions for January 28, 

 1888, and are expressed for R.A., as well as declination, in 

 degrees, minutes of a degree, and hundredths of a minute. 



The following are the times of disappearance and reappearance 

 as furnished by Prof. Struve for the stars which will be occulted 



