138 



NATURE 



{Dec. 6, 1888 



«iomy in the United States, with especial reference to its earliest 

 •days ; indeed Prof. Safford in his address went back not merely 

 to the surveying work of Mason and Dixon, but even glanced 

 'lightly at the history of the institution w here the former had been 

 •trained — Greenwich Observatory. The Hopkins Observatory 

 ■was the work of the two brothers, President Mark Hopkins and 

 Prof. Albert Hopkins, the latter of whom worked with his own 

 hands at the ere tion of the building. Bith were gifted men, 

 and of advanced ideas, and their purpose in erecting the Obser- 

 vatory seems to have been the hope that the practical work of 

 observing would increase their students' interest in the science, 

 and develop their powers in fresh directions. It is still used by 

 the students for occasional star-gazing, but for scientific purposes 

 it has been superseded of late years by the meridian instrument of 

 the " Field Memorial Observatory." The Hopkins Observatory 

 was soon followed by others, at West Point, at Harvard College, 

 at Washington, and other places, but though there had been 

 previously one or two private observatories, and also a few 

 telescopes in the possession of some public bodies, a^, for 

 -example, at Yale College, yet until 1838 no permanent structure 

 had been erected for any public observatory, so that the credit of 

 being the pioneer of the lon^ and di-tinguished succession of 

 American Observatories belongs to the little building erected by 

 4he energy of Prof. Hopkins. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR THE 



WEEK 1888 DECEMBER 9-15. 

 /"pOR the reckoning of time the civil day, commencing at 

 ^ -*■ Greenwich mean midnight, counting the hours on to 24, 

 ■is here employed.) 



At Greenwich on December 9 

 Sun rises, 7h. 56m. ; souths, iih. 52m. 48*65. ; sets, I5h. 4901. : 

 right asc. on meridian, i yh. 7 •4m. ; decl. 22° 54' S. Sidereal 

 Time at Sunset, 2ih. 4m. 

 Moon (at First Quarter Decsaiber 10, yh.) rises, I2h. 36m.; 

 souths lyh. 43tn.; sets, 23h. om. : right asc. on meridian, 

 22h. 58-8m.; decl. 10" 51' S. 



Right asc. and declination 

 Planet. R^ses. Souths. Sets. on meridian. 



h. m. h. m. h. m. h. m. o / 



Mercury.. 7 I ... Ii 7 ... 15 13 ... 16 218 ... 21 23 S. 



Venus 10 41 ... 14 37 ... 18 33 ... 19 517 ... 23 4 S. 



Mars II 4 ... 15 19 ... 19 34 ... 23 34-3 ... 20 5 S. 



Jupiter.... 7 52 ... II 51 ... 15 50 ... 17 57 ... 22 27 S. 

 isaturn.... 20 53*... 4 19 ... 11 45 ... 9 32-1 ... 15 40 N. 

 Uranus... 2 39 ... 8 4 ... 13 29 ... 13 18-4 ... 7 37 S. 

 Neptune.. 14 54 ... 22 38 ... 6 22*... 3 54"6 ... 18 34 N. 



* Indicates that the rising is that of the preceding evening and the setting 

 <hat of the following morning. 



Variable Stars. 



SUr. 



R.A. 



U Cephei o 52-4 ... 8i 16 N. ... Dec. 9, 23 25 m 



„ 14, 23 5 w? 



Algol 3 0-9 ... 40 31 N. ... „ 9, 23 53 m 



,, 12, 20 42 w 



U * Orionis 5 49*2 ... 20 9 N. ... ,, 9, M 



T Monocerotis ... 6 I9'2 ... 7 9 N. ... ,, 11, 3 oM 



CGeminorum ... 6 575 ... 20 40 N , 9, 6 o m 



,, 14, 6 o M 



R Canis Majoris... 7 I4'5 ... 16 12 S. ... ,, 9, 19 9 m 



and at intervals of 27 16 



■T Canis Minoris ... 7 27'8 ... 11 59 N. ... Dec. 9, M 



ij Librae 15 \yo ... 19 59 S. ... ,, 12, m 



T Herculis 18 4*9 ... 31 o N. ... ,, 9, AI 



& Lyrse 18 46*0 ... 33 14 N , 13, 20 o m 



R Serpentis 19 io"i ... 19 3 S. ... ,, 13, M 



a Aquilse 20 6"5 ... 15 17 N. ... ,, 15, m 



T Vulpeculae ... 20 467 ... 27 50 N. ... ,, 9, 19 o m 



Y Cygni 20 476 ... 34 14 N 10, i 48 /« 



,, 13, I 42 m 



5 Cephei 22 25-0 ... 57 51 N. ... ,, 11, 6 oM 



,, 15, o o ni 

 M signifies maximum ; m minimum. 



* Mr. Gore's new variable discovered in 1885. This star has hitherto been 

 more generally known as T Orionis, but ns Mr. Chandler gives it the above 

 -denomination in his new Catalogue of Variable Stars, reserving T Orionis for 

 the tenth magnitude variable in the ^reat Orion nebula discovered by Bond 

 in 1863, it will be well fjr observers, m order to avoid c jnfus.on, to f^^Uow his 

 nomenclature. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



The rumour brought from the Cameroons as to the position of 

 Mr. Stanley is too vague to be of much value. He is said to be 

 behind " the Oil Rivers and the Niger," annexing territories 

 wholesale for the British Crown. He may possibly enough be 

 coming out in this direction. If so, he must have been with Emin, 

 for it is inconceivable that, if able to get so far, he would fail in the 

 chief object of his mission. If he has been with Emin, that must 

 have been some time ago, and surely some word of it would have 

 oozed out. We should not be surprised to find Mr. Stanley 

 coming out by the West Coast ; it would be quite in accordance 

 with the purpose he had of settling, if possible, the problem of 

 the Shari and Welle. He may have sought to discover the 

 parting that separates the basins of Lake Chad and the Congo, 

 and the upper waters of the Binue. If he has really been on the 

 Binue, we should have expected some definite news from the 

 officials of the Royal Niger Company. 



Though Mr. Joseph Thomson was summoned home from 

 Morocco to lead an expedition to Emin Pasha, we regret to 

 learn that the British East African Company are hesitating to 

 carry out the purpose they entertained when they telegraphed 

 for Mr. Thomson. 



M. Rabot, in describing to the Paris Geographical Society 

 the results of a visit which he recently made to Western Green- 

 land, states the following conclusions : — In comparing the inland 

 ice of Greenland with the glaciers of Lapland, it appears to him 

 absolutely certain that the latter are nothing more than inland 

 ice in miniature. The Lapland glaciers are simply the remains 

 of the Glacial period in Scandinavia, which have persisted to the 

 present time owing to special circumstances. The great glacier 

 of Jakobshavn, on the west coast of Greenland, has been 

 advancing during the last few years. Its front edge is at present 

 3 kilometres in advance of the point where it was seen by Lieut. 

 Hammer in 1878. The drift ice of the south-west coast trans- 

 ports only a very small quantity of material. M. Rabot saw only 

 one piece among fifty or sixty which bore debris of detritic 

 origin, while traversing pack-ice 60 miles broad. Only one 

 piece was black with earth. 



In connection with Dr. Nansen's journey across Greenland, a 

 paper by Dr. Rink, in No. 137 of the Zeitschr'.ft of the Berlin 

 Geographical Society, is of interest. Dr. Rink discusses the 

 data which have been obtained by the various Danish Expeditions 

 to Greenland, as well as by the parlies which at different times 

 have attempted to cross the land. He enters in some detail 

 into the general subject of glaciation, and the relation between 

 glaciers and icebergs. He seems to be of opinion that the ice 

 of Greenland is shrinking, as he points out that there are evi- 

 dences that at one time the ice covered the whole of the coast- 

 land, which is at present frse, as well as the peninsulas and 

 islands in its vicinity. 



The same number contains a paper, by Dr. von Danckel- 

 mann, on the a'titudes of the country at ths junction of the 

 Kassai and Congo. 



In No. 8 of the Verhandlungen of the Berlin Geographical 

 Society, Dr. Schweinfurth gives a useful sketch of his explora- 

 tions in Egypt during the past fifteen years. In a letter to the 

 President, in the same number, Dr. Hettner describes his 

 observations on the Peruvian coast between Mollendo and 

 Arequipa. 



