354 



NATURE 



{Feb. 9, 1888 



Feb. 



16 

 17 



Star. 



9 ... Mercury in conjunction with and 3° 8' north 



of the Moon. 

 12 ... Mercury at greatest elongation from the 



Sun 18° east. 

 o ... Mercury at least distance from the Sun. 



Variable Stars. 

 R.A. Decl. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



The PVench traveller, M. Thjuar, who was believed to have 

 perished on his way to the Gran Chaco, has returned to Port 

 Pacheco with his companions. This news was lately sent from 

 Buenos Ayres to Chuquisaca (Sucre). 



In the new number oi Appal achia Mr. F. H. Chapin describe^ 

 his ascent of a glacier on Mummy Mountain, Northern Colorado, 

 lying directly north of Long's Peak, and in line with the centre 

 of Estes Park. A single glance at the series of crevasses con- 

 vinced Mr. Chapin that it was really a glacier, and not a mere 

 accumulation of snow. To the same number Mr. S. H. Scudder 

 contributes a paper on the White Mountains as a home for 

 butterflies. 



In the paper contributed to the Berlin Geographical Society 

 by Dr. H. Meyer on his ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro, he 

 modifies his first statements as to the height which he attained ; 

 according to a statement of his companion. Dr. Meyer did not 

 get within 2000 feet of the top. 



In the new Bulletin of the American Geographical Society 

 will be found a useful paper by Mr. A. S. Packard, in which 

 he brings together a precis of what was known of Labrador. 

 Accompanying the paper is a good map, in which Mr. Packard 

 has embodied information hitherto unpublished. Dr. Fr. Boas 

 gives the results of his year's sojourn among the Eskimo. 



In the last number of the Proceedings of the Victoria Branch 

 of the Australasian Geographical Society will be found a 

 detailed account of Mr. Cuthbertson's expedition to explore the 

 highlands of British New Guinea. The accompanying map 

 gives a good idea of the nature of the country. Mount Obr<;e 

 was found to be only 8000 feet high, 2000 feet lower than 

 previous estimates. 



We learn from the Izvestia of the East Siberian Branch of 

 the Russian Geographical Society (vol. xvii. fasc. i) that the 

 vertical section of the Angara at i's issue from Lake Baikal is 

 17,920 feet, and that the volume of water discharged from the 

 great Siberian lake reaches 121,353 cubic feet per second. If 



this outflow were checked, the level of the lake would rise 

 7 feet in thirteen months. 



Dr. Robert Sieger contributes to'the Geographical Society 

 of Vienna University a paper in which he discusses what in- 

 formation exists as to the changes of level in the African lakes. 

 This shows clearly that for the last ten years at least these have 

 been lowering in level, and, in the case of Tanganyika, to the 

 extent of many feet. The changes which take place are almost 

 entirely dependent on rainfall, and the probability is that there 

 are periods of depression and periods of elevation. It is im- 

 portant that observations should be carried on both in African 

 lakes and African rivers for a period sufiiclently long to afford 

 data numerous enough to warrant any conclusion to be drawn. 



Prof. Euard Suss, the able author of "Das Antlitz der 

 Erde," recently read a paper to the Vienna Geological Society, on 

 the history of the ocean, which is to some extent supplementary 

 to that work. In this he points out that from the mouths of the 

 Ganges all round the Pacific c:)asts of Asia and America to 

 Cape Horn, the coasts are outlined by mountain-ranges which 

 close in upon each other in great curves. From Cape Horn, 

 again, all round the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans to the 

 mouths of the Ganges, the coasts are unconnected with mountain- 

 ranges, but are encircled by tablelands or broken mountain 

 patches. We have thus, then, so far as the structure of the ocean 

 basins is concerned, to distinguish between a Pacific and an 

 Atlantic type. As regards the age of the oceans. Prof. Siiss 

 concludes from the geological formations that the Pacific is 

 the oldest, next to that the Indian, and last of all the Atlantic. 

 The oceans, he points out, are areas of depression. Each new 

 depression would form a fresh receptacle for water, and so the 

 shore-line of the land would be lowered. Prof. Siiss seems to 

 maintain that it is to this, and not to the actual rising of the land, 

 that the elevation of the coast-line in certain regions is due. 



Mr. J. F. Needham has been engaged to conduct an ex- 

 pedition from Sadiya to the Hukeng Valley, and thence to 

 Bhamo on the Upper Irrawady. His previous achievements in 

 the Abor Hills, and the country lying between the Brahmaputra 

 and the Zayal Chu, and his success in conciliating the unfriendly 

 tribes on that frontier region, marked him out for selection as the 

 proper officer to conduct the present mission. 



The new part (Vos. 133-34) of the Zeitschrift of the Berlin 

 Geographical Society is mainly occupied with Dr. W. Sievers's 

 account of the residts of his exploration of the Sierra Nevada of 

 Santa Marta in the north-east of the United States of Columbia, 

 an excellent large-scale map accompanying tlie number. A 

 considerable section of the paper deals with the geology of the 

 region, after which Dr. Sievers treats of the surfice formation, 

 altitude.', climate, vegetation, and agriculture, the land-snails 

 population. 



News from Victoria, in the Cameroons, states that the 

 African traveller. Dr. Zintgraff", started for Rio del Rey in the 

 steamer Nachtigal, accompanied by thirty porters. He is on 

 his way to the Elephant Lake in order to esta'ihsh a scientific 

 station. The other half of the Expedition, under the command 

 of Lieut. Zeuner, is to proceed up the Mungo River to 

 Mundame, to reach the Elephant Lake from that part. 



OUR ELECTRICAL COLUMN. 



If a platinum plate be immersed in a porcelain or glass vessel 

 containing dilute sulphuric acid, and another similar plate be 

 immersed in another vessel containing caustic potash solution, 

 then if the two vessels be connected by a siphon tube or a 

 cotton wick, a current will be set up, but which rapidly 

 diminishes o.ving to the polarization of the metal plates by the 

 deposition of oxygen and hydrogen upon them. Becquerel 

 removed the hydrogen by using nitric instead of sulphuric acid, 

 and increased the current considerably. Dr. Alder Wright and 

 Mr. C. Thomson (Royal Society, February 2, 1S88) have been 

 examining this form of battery, and have found many other acids 

 which act in the same way, such as potassium permanganate, 

 potassium bichromate, potassium ferricyanide, and bromine dis- 

 solved in sulphuric acid, ferric chl.)ride, hydrochloric acid and 

 chlorine. Moreover, they have removed the oxygen by using a 

 concentrated solution of sodium hyposulphite made strongly 

 alkaline with caustic soda, strong caustic soda with pyrogallol, 

 cuprous chloride, ferrous sulphate, and ammonium chloride dis- 

 solved in ammonia. They also found the quantity of oxygen 



