Atigtist 14, 1879] 



NATURE 



Zf>Z 



Pigeons and Weather Warnings 



In the Standard of the 5th instant is an account of a pigeon- 

 race from Penzance to London, a distance of 270 miles, whicli 

 was done by one bird in 5 hom-s 34 minutes, and by another in 

 5 hours and jg minutes. Might not the carrier-pigeon be em- 

 ployed to bring accounts of the weather 300, 400, or even 500 

 miles out in the Atlantic, being despatched on outward voyages 

 by ships leaving ports such as Queenstown, Southampton, Dart- 

 mouth, Plymouth, or Falmouth? The great difficulty in our 

 system of weather-warnings is that storms reach us unannounced 

 over the Atlantic, because stations are of course out of the ques- 

 tion on the ocean. If the daily sailings of steamers from various 

 ports could be utilised by means of pigeons, this void might to 

 some degree be filled. If it be true that many storms come to 

 us along the course of the Gulf Stream, a branch of it (Rennell's 

 Current) would be met a little beyond the Scilly Islands, say ico 

 miles farther out, or about 150 miles from Falmouth. If a bird 

 brought a weather- warning in three hours from what would appear 

 to be an important point, it would surely advance matters a good 

 deal. A great part of England can be warned from the Irish 

 coast, but Scotland has no advance-guard of this sort. Steamers 

 leaving Greenock for America could carry pigeons and send 

 warnings back, thus giving Scotland some protection. R, 



Putney, August 5 



Napoleon III, and the Nicaraguan Canal 



At p. 249 of Nature, vol. xx. it is made to appear 

 as if the circumstance of the connection of the late Emperor 

 of the French with the scheme of Central American canalisa- 

 tion through Nicaragua, was quite nnknown to the public. 

 But [it is well known that Prince Louis N. Bonaparte, whilst 

 at Ham, was in communication with Don Francisco Castillon, 

 envoy to Louis Phillippe from the Nicaraguan Government upon 

 this subject. After the escape of Louis Napoleon from Fr.ince, 

 he publicly advocated the project of the Nicaraguan Canal at 

 the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, ( Vide Proceedings 

 I. C. E., 1847, vol. vi. p. 427 ; vide " The Gate of the Pacific," 

 by Commander Bedford Pirn, pp. 1 1 8, et set/.) S. P. O. 



Vitality of the Common Snail 



At the beginning of July last year, I placed a couple of the 

 Helix aspersa into a closed pot of earth immediately after copu- 

 lation. They soon sealed themselves up, and so remained till 

 the middle of May of this year, when it was discovered that of 

 one of them that had died not a vestige was left except the 

 empty shelL The other had shrunk to about a third its former 

 hulk, but on being moistened and supplied with food, soon 

 began to eat and to thrive. It had to trust largely to chance 

 for its provender, but notwithstanding this, by the end of two 

 months it was as big as its present quarters would allow it to be. 

 The natural thing would have been to secrete more shell, for the 

 animal was not full grown. Instead of this, however, it burrowed 

 in the ground, nnd fell to laying eggs, the greater part of which 

 have hatched out — a little colony of vigorous young snails. Had 

 their parent been kept supplied with food and water after im- 

 pregnation, they would, of course, have begun life a year ago. 

 I wonder how high up in the animal scale such temporary sus- 

 pension of the earliest stages of development is possible ? 



Trinity College, Cambridge, August 7 James Ward 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



Variable Stars.— It may be hoped that some amateur 

 in the other hemisphere — the class of observation is hardly 

 suited to the professional astronomer, considering the 

 work that remains to be accomplished in the southern 

 heavens — may be keeping in view Lacaille's star, /x 

 DoradCis, which is certainly variable to a great extent, 

 and in a very long period. In the Catalogue published 

 by the British Association founded upon the observations 

 in Lacaille's Calum Ausirak Stelli/erum, the star is 

 rated 5 m., though in the Catalogue at the end of this work 

 we find it 6 m., the estimate applying to the year 1751, 

 and this is also the magnitude noted by Brisbane about 

 1825. The variability of the st.ar was first shown by the 

 late Capt. Jacob's observations at Madras early in 1850; 



he found no such conspicuous star as Lacaille and Bris- 

 bane had observed, but fixed the position of one which 

 nearly agrees with the Paramatta place, and which was 

 estimated 9"S ; this star was reobserved at Madras in 

 185s and rated 9'2. The next we hear of it is from 

 Moesta, who, observing at Santiago, states {Asttvn. 

 Nach., No. 1,545) that from February, i860, to January, 

 1865, he had found it 8^ or 9 on Argelander's scale. 

 Finally Mr. Stone observed the star at the Cape of Good 

 Hope in 1875 and estimated it a seventh magnitude, 

 which should induce a close watch upon it at the present 

 time. The star was formerly credited with a very sensible 

 proper motion, but it would appear from the modern 

 observations that this arose from an error in Lacaille ; 

 thus, bringing up all places to 1875 'o we have — 



There appears a suspicion of a similar case with regard 

 to the star Brisbane 5935, observed once at Paramatta 

 and estimated 6 m. This star does not occur in Lacaille, 

 but it was looked for in 1850 by Jacob, who found only 

 one 9'iom. near the place given by Brisbane, differing 

 however 4s. in R.A and i' 18" in N.P.D. Mr. Stone's 

 nearest star is Lacaille 7093. If the objects observed by 

 Brisbane and Jacob are. identical, proper motion as well 

 as variability will enter into the case. 



The observations of Julius Schmidt at Athens in 1878 

 again show great irregularity in the variation of R. Scuti, 

 the mean period he obtained for that year being 62"3 

 days, instead of 7ri days, as determined by Prof. Schon- 

 feld, and which was satisfactory in 1869. The last epochs 

 determined at Athens in 1878 were, for a maximum, 

 November 8, and for a minimum, October 1 1. The mean 

 period of a Herculis in the past year was found to be 

 97 '3 days, but the period varied from 86 to 113 days. In 

 such instances it is obvious that observations, made as 

 continuously as possible can alone determine whether the 

 fluctuations follow any definite law. 



The Minor Planets.— The discovery of a small 

 planet by Prof. Peters at Clinton, N.Y., on July 28, raises 

 the number of known members of the group to t'lvo 

 hundred, the object detected by the same astronomer on 

 July 16 proving to be an old acquaintance, — No. 77 

 \Friggd), which had not been recognised for upwards of 

 ten years. Of the planets discovered during the present 

 year, No. 193 (Coggia, February 28) has been named 

 Amlrosia, No. 196 (Peters, May \^\ Philomela, and No. 

 198 (Borrelly, June 13), Ampella. 



The Satellites Mimas and Hyperion.— According 

 to elements which have been previously used in this 

 column, Mimas would be found at its greatest eastern 

 elongation on August 20, at I3h. 47m. G.M.T., distant 

 30" from Saturn's centre or 8" from the extremity of the 

 ring ; the period of revolution may be assumed o'94243d. 

 It appears difficult to make reliable prediction of the posi- 

 tion of Hyperion from present uncertainty as to the 

 motion of the line of apsides. Prof. Asaph Hall adopts 

 a retrograde motion of less than 3° annually, but there are 

 indications that the true motion may be in the opposite 

 direction, and to a much greater amount. Mr. M.irth, 

 who has devoted so much time and labour to the motions 

 of the satellites of Saturn, was of opinion some ten years 

 since that the revolution of the lino of apsides of Hy- 

 perion would be found to be very rapid, through the 

 powerful action of the great satellite Titan. Three 

 periods of Hyperion are almost exactly equal to four 

 periods of Titan, if we adopt Prof. Hall's period for the 

 former. 



