March i, 1888] 



NA TURE 



423 



difficulty by a busy man who does not live in London, it has 

 been taken over by Mr. Topley. The " Record " is to be brought 

 up to date by giving the titles only of papers, &c., for the years 

 1880 to 1887. The portion for i88o to 1884 is finished, and in 

 great part printed ; and so large is the amount of geological 

 literature that in this contracted form (without abstracts) two 

 volumes will be needed for the five years. 



Recent Shanghai papers contain the report of the " Chinese 

 Scientific Book Depot," an institution which was established 

 three years ago for the purpose of facilitating the spread of all 

 useful literature in the native language throughout China, and 

 especially of books, maps, and other publications of a scientific 

 or technical character. It does not publish works, but has merely 

 organized a system by which the translations and compilations 

 on scientific subjects issued by the various Departments of the 

 Chinese central and local Governments, by missionary and other 

 philanthropic Societies, are more widely distributed amongst the 

 Chinese people. The demand for such boo!<s is fast increasing, 

 and the establishment of the central depot, with branches at the 

 more important cities, suggested itself three years since. Self- 

 support has been the motto of the institution, and, in order to 

 overcome Chinese prejudices, everything smacking of foreign 

 influence has been eliminated as far as possible. During the 

 second year a branch was opened at Tientsin, and subsequently 

 Hangchow, Swatow, Pekin, Hankow, Foochow, and Amoy 

 were similarly provided. During the three years about ;^25oo 

 worth of books, maps, &c., have been sold, some of them 

 finding their way to the most distant parts of China, Corea, and 

 Japan. Taking the average price per volume at 4/. to 5;/., this 

 would give a circulation of about 150,000 volumes of useful 

 literature, chiefly of a scientific and educational character. The 

 shops have also served to some extent as reading-rooms, where 

 inquirers after Western knowledge have been able to sit down 

 and examine any works in which they felt interested. The 

 number of scientific and other treatises already translated or 

 compiled and published in Chinese under foreign management 

 amounts at present to over 200. To these have been added 

 about 250 of the most useful native works, including scientific 

 treatises by the early Jesuit fathers. 



Sir Edward Birkbeck, President of the National Sea 

 Fisheries Protection Association, is now promoting in Parlia- 

 ment a Bill, the object of which is to secure reasonably cheap 

 and rapid transport for common kinds of sea fish, in quantities 

 of I cwt, and upwards, from the coast to the various inland 

 centres of population, and thus, by securing a plentiful distribu- 

 tion, to render an ine timable benefit alike to the poor of our inland 

 towns and villages and the fishermen of our coast. The Bill 

 does not attempt to interfere with the rates now charged by rail- 

 way companies for prime fish, nor with quantities of less than 

 I cwt. of common fish. Sir Edward Birkbeck should have no 

 great difficulty in securing sufficient support for so moderate and 

 good a measure. 



Dr. F. Nansen, of the Bergen Mu?eum, Norway, who thinks 

 of journeying across Greenland next summer from east to west, 

 intends to land on the east coast at Cape Dan (66° N.), and 

 proceed in a north-westerly direction to Disco Bay. He 

 will be accompanied by three men — a Norwegian soldier well 

 known for his prowess on Ski, or snow-runners, and two Lapps, 

 probably the same who accompanied Nordenskiold. In order 

 to qualify himself for the contemplated task, Dr. Nansen is 

 preparing to travel on Ski from Bergen to Christiania, right 

 across the mountains of Central Norway, a feat never before 

 accomplished by anyone. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include an African Civet Cat {Viverra civetta) from 



South Africa, presented by Capt. Webster, R.M.S. Hawarden 

 Castle ; three Barred Dores {Geopelia striata) from Batavia, 

 Java, presented by Mrs. G. A. Thomson ; a Cape Crowned 

 Crane {Balearica chrysopelargus) frono South Africa ; a Gold 

 Pheasant {l/iaumaUa picta) horn China, deposited ; a Common 

 Wolf (Cams tupttsQ) European, received in exchange; two 

 Red Kangaroos {Macropus rufiis), two Suricates {Suricata. 

 tetraiiactyla) born in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Solar Activity in 1887. — The decline in the three orders 

 of solar phenomena, spots, faculae, and prominences which had 

 been so marked during 1886, and particularly during the latter 

 part of that year, continued in 1887, and although there was no 

 spotless period so long continued as that of November 1886 (see 

 Nature, vol. xxxv. p. 445), the mean spotted area for the year 

 just passed has been much below that for the year precedin;| it,, 

 and faculse and prominences have shown a similar falling off. 

 During the first four months of 1887, sunspots were both few 

 and small, and there were several intervals of a week or longer 

 in which no spots were seen at all ; January 9-18, February 

 7-16, March 3-9, April 4-1 1, being such intervals. There was also 

 very little on the sun from March 10-15, and from March 27 to^ 

 April 18. But after this a revival set in and a fine group of spots, 

 was seen on the sun. May 14-23, appearing again in the three fol- 

 lowing rotations, June 5-18, July 3-14, and July 30-August 9. 

 The days of greatest spotted area during the year were July 6, 7, 

 and 8, but after this the spots began to decrease again, and were 

 few and small in September, October, and November. August 23 

 to September 12 was a very quiet period, spots only being seen 

 on about four days ; and October 6-17, October 28 to November 

 4, and November 21 to December i, were spotless intervals. 

 The last month of the year, however, showed a second rally, a 

 fine group of spots being observed during its first fortnight, and 

 another appearing as the first passed off at the west limb. 

 On the whole the mean daily spotted area for 1887 was about 

 two-fifths of that which it was for 1886. Comparing the results 

 for 1885, 1886, and 1887, with the years preceding the last 

 minimum, 1885 shows a somewhat greater mean daily spotted 

 area than 1874, 1886 than 1875, and 1887 than 1876. If, there- 

 fore, the decline continues to proceed as during the last cycle,, 

 the next minimum will fall early in 1890. 



The following figures, taken from Prof. Tacchini's tables, as 

 given in the Comptes rendus, may be compared with those given 

 for 1885 and 1886 (Nature, vol. xxxiii. p. 398, and xxxv. 



p. 445) :— 



Sunspots. Faculae. 



In general accord with the above figures are Wolf's " relative 

 numbers." These are given below for 1886 and 1887, together 

 with the monthly means of the variations in magnetic declination 

 as observed at Milan. The agreement in the general form of 

 the curves for spot numbers and magnetic variation has not been 

 so close in 1887 as in some previous years, nor is the calculated 

 mean value for the magnetic variation so near the observed as m 

 1885 and 1886; the values calculated by M. Wolf's formula 

 being 6'-79 for 1886, and 6'-2i for 1887, but the. observed being 

 6' -72 and 6'-6l. 



