Nov. 29, i884J] 



NA TURE 



115 



Dec h. 



2 ... 9 ... Mercury in conjunction with and 3° 23' south 



of the Moon. 



3 ... 17 ... Jupiter in conjunction with and 2° 38' south 



of the Moon. 

 3 ... 18 ... Mars at least distance from the Sun. 

 6 .. 2 ... Venus in conjunction with and 2° 4' south 



of the Moon. 

 t) ... 22 ... Mars in conjunction with and 0° 15' south 



of the Moon. 

 8 ... 23 ... Jupiter in conjunction with the Sun. 



Saturn, December 2. — Outer major axis of outer ring = 42" '8 : 

 outer minor axis of outer ring — 10" "O : southern surface visible. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



A I- the usual meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on Mon- 

 day, Mr. J. Thomson read before a large audience a paper on " A 

 Journey to the Atlas Mountains." lie gave a most interesting 

 account of the scenes visited, in the course of his trip, by himself 

 and his companion, Mr. Harold Crichton-Browne. Describing 

 some of the practical results, he said they had ascended and 

 crossed the Atlas Chain in no fewer than six different places 

 besides making various subsidiary trips into the lower ranges. A 

 large series of barometric and boiling-point observations have been 

 taken, which would assist in forming a more accurate idea of the 

 general ele^'ation of the range. Several glens had been explored, 

 and the head-wateisof some important streams had been mapped 

 out. New and important light had been thrown upon the 

 geological structure of the mountains. A small collection of 

 plants from the higher altitudes had been made, and finally a 

 series of photographs (which were exhibited) of the mountains, 

 the inhabitants, and their houses have been obtained. He had 

 reached an altitude in the mountains 1300 or 1500 feet higher than 

 any other traveller. 



The December meeting of the Royal Geographical Society 

 will be held on Monday, the 17th, at the University of London, 

 instead of Monday, the lotb, as announced in the sessional 

 programme. Colonel K. G. Woodthorpe will read a paper on 

 explorations on the Chindwin River, Upper Burmah. 



The Russian Expedition for the exploration of Til)et, organized 

 by the late General Prjevalsky, is, notwithstanding the death of 

 the famous explorer, to be despatched on its mission. This an- 

 nouncement was made by M. Semenow, the Vice-President 

 of the Russi.in Geographical Society, at a meeting held by the 

 Society in honour of General Pr'eval ky. 



THE RENAISSANCE OF BRITISH 

 MINERALOGY.-^ 

 A N ideal Pre.Mdential address should treat, not of a special 

 ''"^ point in the science of interest to a section only of the 

 Society, but of the science in its broader aspects ; and the simplest 

 permanent arrangement of this kind is that which makes it deal 

 with the progress of the Society or of the science during the 

 interval which has elapsed since the delivery of the next 

 preceding address. 



But in the case of our own Society we labour under special 

 disadvantages, whether the address is to be on a specific subject 

 or on the progress of the science. Not only is the Society small, 

 but the number of its members able to devote any large part of 

 their time to pure mineralogy is far smaller still. Hence if a 

 set address were expected from the President we should be un- 

 necessarily limited in our selection for that office. Many of our 

 ablest members, men who would make the best of Presidents, 

 men of wide culture and extensive general knowledge, men en- 

 dowed with ideas and the power of expressing them, men who 

 would bring to us a large experience obtained on the executive 

 of other and larger Societies, though willing, nay anxious, to help 

 us in the management of the affairs of the Society, would be pre- 

 vented from giving us their services in the chair, owing to the 

 sheer impossibility of devoting the requisite time and thought 

 to the preparation of a purely mineralogical address such as 

 they would consider worthy at once of the Society and of their 

 own reputation. 



Again, the number of our London meetings has been up to the 

 present only three a year, and, as far as we can see, it is not yet 

 desirable to increase their frequency. To set aside annually one- 

 third, or even one-fourth, of the time of the Society for con- 

 sideration of the views of the President, or of the progress and 

 past work of the Society, would seem to be wanting in regard for 

 proportion. A few minutes spent by the members in turning 

 over the pages of the Magazine will give a better idea of the 

 work of the Society, and be at the same time more exhilarating, 

 than any summary a President can make. A report by the 

 Council on the finance and general business, as brief as it can be 

 made, seems to me sufficient for all reasonable purposes, and 

 least wasteful of the time of the members and officers. 



I have referred to the Magazine, and have said that a good 

 idea of the work of the Society may be obtained in a few minutes 

 by turning over the pages of one of its volumes. It may be cast 

 in our teeth that the volume is small, bat we can proudly and 

 truly retort that few volumes of the same size furnish so vast an 

 amount of heavy reading. The density, indeed, is prodigious — 

 not that of lead, but of gold, refined gold. The voUime is 

 intended for transmission to all posterity, and not as a mere 

 addition to the ephemeral literature and scientific gossip of a too 

 prolific century. The present generation, by its careful use of 

 the volume, will doubtless help it to reach its destination. 



Bulky publications are, indeed, matters for shame rather than 

 pride: they are the immediate ruin of a .'mall Society, a 

 perennial burden to librarians, and, as their contents are never 

 completely indexed, a terror to subsequent investigators. The 

 Ancients not unwisely refrained from the invention of printing ; 

 they recognized that their duty to themselves was to read only 

 what was worth the vast labour of transcription, and that their 

 duty to posterity was to transmit to it only their masterpieces ; 

 when even these became burdensome, an incendiary, doubtless a 

 librarian, quickly reduced their volume. But for us Moderns the 

 cost of multiplication of copies has become so small that every- 

 thing, good or bad, is printed and preserved ; and it becomes 

 necessary to spend the greater part of one's life in. the prepara- 

 tion and study of indexes rather than of the literature itself. It 

 would be an immen^ie boon to mankind if some impartial and 

 perfect tribunal could be empowered to do on the large scale 

 what the curate and barber did so satisfactorily with Don 

 Quixote's books on the small scale— distinguish the worthy from 

 the worthless, and relentlessly annihil.ite that which ought not to 

 cumber our shelves or demand even a passing glance. 



I have said that the number of our members is small. I 

 am not sure that it would be politic as yet to increase it. 

 Members who have a living interest in mineralogy are most 

 valuable, and of such we cannot have too many ; but mere 

 subsctibers of paltry gold would eventually be a source of weak- 

 ness. After encouraging the Society to extravagant expenditure, 

 they would fall away and leave it in the lurch. 



' Extracted fron 

 the .innual meetin 



an addresi by Mr. Fletcher, the retirin? President, 

 of the Mineralogical Society, October 30, tB88. 



