Augusl 14, 1879] 



NATURE 



365 



A PARAGRAPH recently weiU the round of English 

 and foreign papers and geographical journals, purporting 

 to give the population of Japan according to a census 

 taken in 187S. We have the best authority for stating 

 that no census has been taken in Japan since 187S, and 

 that the numbers given as for 1878 were really those of 

 1875. 



NORDENSKJOLD'S ARCTIC EXPEDITION 



LETTERS have just come to hand from the Swedish 

 North-east Passage Expedition in the neighbour- 

 hood of Behring Straits. The latest date is February 

 20, when all was as well as possible. We take the 

 following details from Prof. Nordenskjold's report, 

 addressed to Mr. Oscar Dickson, of Gothenburg. The 

 Vega and the Lena parted company on August 27 at the 

 mouth of the River Lena, the former shaping her course 

 for the New Siberian Islands. The air was calm, but for 

 the most part overcast ; the temperature as high as 4° C, 

 and the sea free from ice. On the 28th Semenoffskj or 

 Stolbovoj, the most western of the New Siberian Islands, 

 was sighted, and on the 30th Liakhoff's Island, but a 

 landing was not effected on account of the shallowness of 

 the water in its vicinity. On the 31st Svjatoi Nos was 

 passed without difficulty, the weather being fine, and the 

 land in the neighbourhood free of snow. The water was 

 slightly salt, and had a temperature rising to 4° C. The 

 weather continued fine until September i, the wind being 

 southerly, and the temperature of the air in the shade 

 5 "6° C. On the night before the second the wind became 

 northerly, and the temperature fell to — 1° C. The follow- 

 ing night there was a large fall of snow. Next day the 

 Bear Islands were reached. Tschaun Bay was passed on 

 the night before September 6, and Cape Schelagskoj 

 reached by 4 A.M. The nights now began to be so dark, 

 and the sea so filled with ice, that the Vega had to lie-to 

 at night, generally anchored to a large ground ice. Two 

 boats resembling the umia/cs of the Eskimo were now j 

 seen filled with natives, the first that had been encountered j 

 since the expedition left Chabarova at Jugor Schar. They 

 were received in a friendly way, but none of them could ! 

 speak Russian or any other language intelligible to the 

 Swedes. A boy could, however, count ten in English, 

 showing that the intercourse with American whalers was 

 greater than with Russian merchants. On September 6 and 

 7 the Vega steamed slowly along in a narrow open and ice-free 

 channel along the coast. On the 8th a landing was eftected 

 near a Tchuktch encampment, where the Swedes were 

 received in a very hospitable manner. They found in one 

 tent reindeer flesh boihng in a large pot of cast iron. 

 Another start was made on September 6, but a fog com- 

 pelled the Swedes to lie-to till the loth. Many excursions 

 were made on land. The strand was formed of sand 

 svhich, immediately above high water-mark, was covered 

 with luxuriant turf. Farther inland, a range of very high 

 hills was visible, and beyond that, at a considerable dis- 

 tance from the coast, snow-covered mountain-tops. The 

 low land consists of sand and clay beds, evidently raised 

 above the level of the sea very recently. No erratic blocks 

 were to be seen, from the absence of which Nordcnskjold 

 concludes that there is not at present to the north of this 

 any such glacial land as Greenland. The rocks here were 

 non-fossiliferou3. Few land plants could be collected on 

 account of the advanced season of the year, and in the 

 sea Dr. Kjellman dredged for algrc in vain. On land 

 many graves with burned bones were found. On the night 

 before September 10 the sea was covered with a very 

 thick crust of newly-frozen ice, but the Ve^a continued 

 her course. On the 12th, after passing Irkaipi, or the 

 North Cape, the yesscl had to be anchored to a block of 

 ice, where she lay till the i8th, when another advance 

 was made. After lying-to from September 24 to 26, the 

 Vega reached Cape Onman, and on the 27th Koljutschin 



Bay. The following day the cape to the east of this bay 

 was passed, and the Vega lay-to, anchored to a ground 

 ice, waiting for a favourable change, but no such change 

 took place. Northerly winds heaped greater and greater 

 masses of drift fee along the coast, and soon extinguished 

 all hope of getting free before the summer of this year. 



SIR THOMAS MACLEAR, F.R.S. 



THE last Cape mail brought intelligence of the death 

 of Sir Thomas Maclear, which took place at his 

 residence, Mowbray, near Capetown, on July 14. 



Sir Thomas Maclear was a son of the late Mr. James 

 Maclear, of the County of Tyrone, and was educated at 

 Winchester. He was originally destined for the medical 

 profession, but, after settling at Biggleswade, we find him 

 occupying himself in astronomical pursuits. He joined 

 the Astronomical Society in 1828, and erected a small 

 observatory at Biggleswade, which contained the Wollaston 

 telescope, lent by the Society, with which he observed 

 many occultations and other phenomena. He also 

 engaged upon astronomical calculations, chiefly for;the 

 prediction of occultations. In conjunction with Henderson 

 he computed the circumstances of the occultations of 

 Aldebaran for ten European observatories in 1829-31, and 

 himself calculated such of the occultations in 1833, about 

 100 in number, as were visible at Greenwich, for the 

 supplement to the Nautical Almanac of that year. On 

 Henderson's retirement from the direction of the Royal 

 Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope, Maclear was 

 appointed his successor, and entered upon the office in 

 January 1834. Of the gi'eat number of observations made 

 during his superintendence a portion only have as yet been 

 published. He entered upon an undertaking of the 

 importance of which there cannot be two opinions — the 

 verification of Lacaille's arc of the meridian, but it was 

 allowed to disorganise the regular work of the observatory 

 to a serious extent. The observations by Maclear and 

 his assistant in 1834 were speedily reduced and published, 

 and various series of observations of comets when beyond 

 reach at the northern observatories, have appeared in the 

 Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, where also 

 have been published his determinations of the parallax of 

 a and ^ Centauri, the latter of which had not been 

 previously investigated, and there are memoirs on other 

 subjects. The field work for the re-measurement of 

 Lacaille's arc was completed in 1847, but from various 

 delays the results were not published until 1866, when 

 they appeared in two quarto volumes, under the editorship 

 of Sir George Airy, The time occupied upon this work 

 prevented the reduction and publication of the meridian ob- 

 servations ; so that on Mr. Stone's arrival at the Cape in 

 1870 (as successor to Maclear on his retirement) he states 

 he found himself " confronted with the results of thirty- 

 six years of miscellaneous observing, in all stages of 

 reduction." 



Acting upon his official instructions Mr. Stone com- 

 pleted the reductions and published in several volumes 

 the results of the observations with the new transit-circle 

 from 1856 to i860 inclusive ; there remain still unpublished 

 the observations from 1834 to 1855 with the old instru- 

 ments, and those from 1861 to 1869 with the new one. 

 Of the large number accumulated in the former period, 

 the places of southern stars will still be of value for 

 proper motions, but Mr. Stone has expressed a doubt 

 whether " the immense number of observations of well- 

 known stars" made with the old instruments would now 

 repay the labour of reduction. 



Maclear was knighted in i860. He had been a Fellow 

 of the Royal Society since 1831, and was elected a Corre- 

 spondent of the Institute of France in 1863 in place of 

 the American astronomer Bond; in 1867 the Lalande 

 medal was awarded him by the Academy of Sciences, and 

 in 1869 he received one of the Royal medals annually 

 adjudged by the Royal Society. 



