470 



NATURE 



\_March 14, 1889 



At Greenwich on March 1 7 

 Sun rises, 6h. iim. ; souths, I2h. 8m. 23"5s. ; sets, l8h. 7m. : 

 right asc. on meridian, 23h. 49 •4m.; decl. I'g'S. Sidereal 

 Time at Sunset, 5h. 48m. 

 Moon (Full on March 17, I2h.') rises, i8h. lom. ; souths, 

 oh. 42m.*; sets, 6h. 58m.*: right asc. on meridian, 

 I2h. 24-6m. ; decl. 2° 39' N. 



Right asc. and declination 

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



h. m. h, m. h. m. h. m. q , 

 Mercury.. 5 32 ... 10 29 ... 15 26 ... 22 9-6 ... 12 51 S. 



Venus 6 55 ... 14 44 ... 22 33 ... 2 25'i ... 19 21 N. 



Mars 6 53 ... 13 38 ... 20 33 ... i 19-3 ... 8 8 N. 



Jupiter.... 2 50 ... 6 46 ... 10 42 ... 18 26-2 ... 23 o S. 

 Saturn.... 13 47 ... 21 25 ... 5 3*... 9 77 ... 17 44 N. 

 Uranus... 20 14*... i 39 ... 7 4 ... 13 18-3 ... 7 34 S. 

 Neptune.. 8 27 ... 16 11 .. 23 55 ... 3 52-3 ... 18 32 N. 



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

 southing and setting those ol the following morning. 

 Mar. h. 



18 ... 21 ... Mercury at greatest distance from the Sun. 

 20 ... 10 ... Sun in equator : day and night of equallength. 



Variable Stars. 

 Star. R.A. Decl. 



h. m. „ ^ . h. m. 



CGeminorum ... 6 57-5 ... 20 44 N. ... Mar. 19, 2r 10 m 



R Canis Majoris ... 7 145 .. 16 11 S. ... ,, 19, 18 49 m 



and at intervals of 27 i6 



LJ Monocerotis ... 7 25-5 .. 9 33 S. ... Mar. 19, ;// 



V Cancri 8 15-4... 17 38 N. ... ,, 23, M 



S Cancri 8 37-6 .. 19 26 N , 21, 6 16 m 



K Leonis 9 41-6 ... 11 57 N. ... ,, 23, M 



\V Virginis 13 20-3... 2 48 S. ... ,, 23,23 oM 



U Coronse 15 137 ... 32 3 N. ... ,, 17, 22 15 m 



P Lyrae i8 460 ... 33 14 N , 17, 20 o m 



,, 21, I 30 w., 



Y Cygni 20 47-6 ... 34 14 N. ... ,, 17, 18 ofw" 



and at intervals of 36 o 



5 Cephei 22 25-0 ... 57 51 N. ... Mar. 17, 20 o Af 



,, 23, 5 o M 



jT/ signifies maximum ; m minimum ; m^ secondary minimum. 

 + Y Cygni should be 'watched with especial care, as the time of minimum 

 is su'-ject to considerable uncertainty. 



Meteor- Showers. 

 R.A. Decl. 



Near B Ursae Majoris 

 ,, iS Ursse Majoris 

 ,, I Herculis ... 



144 

 162 

 263 



.. 50 N. 

 .. 57 N. 

 .. 47 N. 



March 20. 

 Slow. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

 The paper on Monday night at the Royal Geographical 

 Society was by the Hon. G. Curzon, M.P., and dealt with the 

 Trans-Caspian Railway, over which Mr. Curzon recenlly travelled 

 from the Caspian to Samarcand, a distance of 900 miles. Mr. 

 Curzon described the structure of the railway, the engineering 

 and other difficulties met with, the geographical features of the 

 country traversed, and referred in some detail to the political, 

 civilizing, and commeicial results of the undertaking. The line 

 is on a 5-foot gauge, which is uniform with the railway system 

 of European Russia, but not with that of British India. The 

 rails are of steel, from 19 to 22 feet long, and are laid upon 

 wooden sleepers at the rate of 2000 sleepers to every mile, being 

 simply spiked down without chairs or bolts. Every piece of 

 timber, iron, and steel employed was brought from the forests or 

 workshops of Russia, for the most part down the V'olga and 

 across the Caspian. The line is a single one from start to finish, 

 except at the stations, where there are invariably sidings, and 

 sometimes triangles, for an engine to reverse ; it is laid upon a 

 low earthwork or embankment thrown up with the soil scooped 

 out of a shallow trench on either side. The permanent way is 

 not metalled. It has been claimed that this railway is an astonish- 

 ing engineering phenomenon, inasmuch as it traverses a country 

 previously believed to be inaccessible to such a method of 

 locomotion. But Mr. Curzon maintains, apart from the local 

 lack of material due to the appalling dearth of the country, it is 

 probably the easiest and simplest railway ever built. The 

 region which it traverses is as flat as a billiard-table for almost 

 the entire distance, the steepest gradient being i in 150. 



There are no tunnels, only a few insignificant cuttings, and but 

 three bridges — across the Tejend, acro>s the Murghab at Merv, 

 and across the Amu-daria. The two main difficulties arose from 

 scarcity of water and superabundance of sand. The former was 

 not difficult to overcome, and the various means employed to check 

 the destructive effects of sand will no doubt prove efficacious, 

 though constant watchfulness along the whole line will be required. 

 The really formidable sands are limited to three districts : (i) 

 the first thirty miles from the Caspian ; (2) the stretch between 

 the Merv Oasis and the Oxus ; and (3) the stretch between the 

 Oxus and Bokhara. Here no vegetation is either visible or, with 

 rare exceptions, possible ; the sand, of the most brillant yellow 

 hue, is piled in loose hillocks and mobile dunes, and is swept hither 

 and thither by powerful winds. It has all the appearance of a sea 

 of troubled waves, billow succeeding billow in melancholy 

 succession, with the sand driving like spray from their sum- 

 mits, and great smooth-swept troughs lying between, on which 

 the winds leave the imprint of their fingers in wavy indentations, 

 just like an ebb tide on the sea-shore. Near the Caspian the 

 permanent way was soaked with sea-water so as to give it con- 

 sistency ; in iither parts it was covered with a sort of armour- 

 plating of clay. Elsewhere, and in the more desolate regions, 

 other plans were adopted. Light wooden pali ades, 3 or 4 feet 

 high, made of pine laths, were driven into the tops of the dunes 

 and formed a barrier against which th- winds might pile the 

 sands with impunity. Nar eries for suitable desert plants were 

 started in the Persian Mountains, and the product of these, 

 tamarisk, wild oats, &c., were planted on the sand-hillocks con- 

 tiguous to the line. Here, too, was planted that strange and 

 interesting denizen of the wilderness the Saxaotil {Hai'xylou 

 ammodcndroh), which with a scanty and often ragged upper- 

 growth, strikes its sturdy roots deep down into the sand, and 

 sonif-ihow or other derives sus'enance from that to which it give.*, 

 stability and permanence. Fascines of the branches of this 

 plant were also cui, laid at right angles to the rails along the 

 edge of the earthwork or embankment, and covered over with a 

 layer of sand. In spite of all these precautions, the santi. 

 must always constitute a serious danger to the line. In re- 

 ferring to Merv, and the miles and miles of ruins of the various 

 old Mervs, Mr. Curzon gives the area of the oasis as 1600 

 square miles, with a population of noi more than 100,000. The 

 desert by which the oasis is sui rounded is ajjpalling. East ann. 

 west, and north and south, stretches a troubled ocean of sand, 

 each wave arrested, as it were, in mid career, when just curving to 

 fall. Mr. Curzon never saw anythmg more melancholy than this 

 wilderness with its sickle-shaped d nne-like ridges of >and, suc- 

 ceeding each other with the regularity of infantry files. Each 

 has the appearance of being cloven through the crown, the side 

 facing towards the north-east, whence the prevailing winds blow, 

 being uniform, convex, and smooth, while the southern face is 

 vertical and abrupt. With regard to the famous bridge over the 

 Oxus, Mr. Curzon s'ates that its total length is 2000 yards, and 

 that it rests on more than 3000 piles. The level of the rails is 

 about 30 feet above low, but only 5 feet above high, water. 



To the March number of the Scottish Geographical Magazine, 

 an instructive paper on the Islands of Melanesi i is contributed by 

 Dr. R. H. Codrington. Mr. Ravenstein, in a paper accompanied 

 by a map, on Lake Bangweolo, corrects the configuration of the 

 lake based on a w rong interpretation of Livingstone's observa- 

 tions. Comparing them wiih subsequeni. results, Mr. Ravenstein 

 shows that the length of the lake is north and south, and that 

 the Luapula issues from its south-west corner. Mr. Ralph 

 Richardson brings together a useful collection of data on the 

 Edinburgh earthquake of January last. 



The Foreign Office has just published some extracts from a 

 journal kept by Mr. W. J. Archer, British Vice-Consul at 

 Chiengmai, or Zimme, of a visit to Chiengtung, in May and 

 June 1888. Mr. Archer traversed the little-l<nown and moun- 

 tainous region lying between the Rivers .Salween and Cambodia,, 

 taking altogether thirty-six days for his journey both ways. 

 P"rom Chiengmai to Chienghai there are only a few towns, some 

 of them inhabited by Luwas, the aborigines of the country. 

 The hills, which abound in tigers, are uncultivated, but the 

 valleys and low-lying grounds appeared well tilled, and bearing 

 good crops of rice and paddy. North of Chienghai he saw the 

 effects of attacks by the dacoits on the villagers. The former 

 were Ngios from the Chiengtung territory, led by a Lao. Mr. 

 Archer says that he was surprised to see what little traffic there 

 was on the road, but this, perhaps, was due to some extent ta 



