84 



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Our Astronomical Column. 



The Total Solar Eclipse of September 20, 1922. — 

 Mr. A. R. Hinks read a paper at the meeting of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society on March 12 on the condi- 

 tions along the track of totality in this eclipse. The 

 nearest available station is in the Maldive Archipelago, 

 where the sun's altitude is 34!° and duration 4m. iis. 

 It is recomniended that an uninhabited islet be 

 Selected, as there is less risk of illness on, one of 

 these, the others having a bad reputation for Euro- 

 peans. Also it should be an islet in the centre of a 

 lagoon, as the outer ones experience vibration from 

 the surf, which would spoil fine definition. The 

 weather is likely to be clear but windy. 



Christmas Island, south of Java, is near the noon 

 point; the sun's altitude is 78^° and the duration 35m. 

 at the south point of the island. There are a flourish- 

 ing phosphate industry on the island, a monthly 

 steamer from Singapore, and good jetties and cranes 

 at Flying Fish Cove, whence there is a railway to the 

 south coast. Much of the island is covered with 

 forest (haunted by large land-crabs), so some clearing 

 might be necessary to give enough sky room for 

 adjusting the equatorial mounting which it is intended 

 to use here. The weather conditions in September 

 promise to be very good. 



The west coast of Australia offers difficulties, the 

 country being barren, and there being no port in the 

 neighbourhood of the track. The east end of the 

 track in Australia is in Queensland, just south of 

 Brisbane. The sun's altitude here is only 18°, but it 

 is possible to obtain an altitude of about 26° by travel- 

 ling by rail into the interior. 



The programme will include a repetition of the 

 investigation of the Einstein shift; there is a fair field 

 of stars round the eclipsed sun, though they are much 

 less bright than those of the eclipse of May, 1919. 



The Binary Star p Eridani. — ^This southern binary 

 star (R.A. ih. 36m. 45s., S. deal. 56° 36') was 

 first noted as double by Dunlop in 1826, and ob- 

 served by Sir John Herschel at the Cape, 1834 to 

 1836. It was for some time doubtful whether the 

 relative motion was not rectilinear, but curvature is 

 now definitely established. Mr. B. H. Dawson gives a 

 determination of the orbit in the Astronomical Journal, 

 No. 762, as follows: — Period 218-9 years, T 180614, 

 e 0721, a 8-025", 0) 301-40°, t ±114-26°, 5lio3°. There 

 is still much uncertainty, as only one quadrant has 

 been observed. The large size of a makes the pair 

 an interesting one. Apastron was passed in 1916, 

 and the stars are now 9" apart. Both are of magni- 

 tude 6-2 ; the proper motion of the middle point 

 between them is ■fo-o336s., +0-022", according to 

 Boss. • 



Faint Nebul.^. — Publications of the Yerkes Ob- 

 servatory, vol. iv., part 2, is occupied with an account 

 of a research on faint nebulae by Mr. Edwin P. 

 Hubble. Mr. Hubble took a series of photographs, 

 with the 24-in. reflector at the Yerkes Observatory, 

 of some rich nebulous regions, including seven well- 

 defined clusters, containing more than five hundred 

 nebulae. The measures for ascertaining their posi- 

 tions are given, but, owing ft) the bad figure of the 

 iniages in the outer parts of the field, the precision is 

 not considered very great. The exposures did not 

 gfenerally exceed two hours, as beyond that point very 

 little seemed to be gained. The average diameter of 

 the nebulas is about 25", but in certain regions, notably 

 in Perseus, they are distinctly smaller, about 15". 

 The question of the distance and status of these small 

 nebulae is discussed at some length, but the evidence 

 appears to be insufficient to decide whether they are 

 in the remoter parts of the galactic system or alto- 

 gether, outside it. 



NO. 2629, VOL. IO5I 



International Fishery Investigations. 



'■pHE first meeting since the autumn of 1913 of 

 ^ ' the International Council for the Exploration of 

 the Sea took place in the Surveyors' Institution, West- 

 minster, on March 2-6. The Council exists to con- 

 sider and conduct investigations into the fisheries of 

 the North Atlantic; to examine how far these fisheries 

 are being depleted by fishing; to investigate natural 

 methods, such as by breeding, etc., of keeping up 

 the stock; and in cases of certain future failure of 

 supply to suggest the necessary remedial measures. 

 The Council has been conducting researches for nearly 

 twenty years, but its operations during the war were 

 brought almost to a standstill. For the most part it 

 deals with the sea-fish common to all countries, but 

 a special sub-committee considers the salmon, and 

 a second the eel ; shellfish are not investigated. The 

 countries represented were France, Belgium, Holland, 

 Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Great 

 Britain, each country having two delegates, with 

 scientific experts from the fishery authorities of each. 

 France was represented for the first time, but Ger- 

 many and Russia dropped out of representation ; the 

 meeting was too hurriedly convened to allow of the 

 U.S. Congress appointing delegates, and there was 

 no representative of Canada, the eastern fisheries of 

 which are mainly coastal. Great Britain was repre- 

 sented by Mr. H. G. Maurice and Prof. D'Arcy 

 Thompson as delegates, Mr. Holt representing Ire- 

 land, while most of the scientific staffs of the three 

 countries took part in the deliberations of the com- 

 mittees, including Prof. Stanley Gardiner (temporary 

 Director of Fishery Research) and Comdr. Jones (of 

 the Scottish Office). 



March 2 was devoted to general business and the 

 formation of committees, the whole body meeting 

 together under the chairmanship of Prof. Petterssen 

 (Sweden). After a telegram of respectful homage had 

 been dispatched to the King, the chairman referred 

 in sympathetic terms to the troubles of the last years 

 and to the Increased importance to Europe of safe- 

 guarding its supplies of fish. Commodore Drechsel 

 (Denmark) and others spoke of the closure of the 

 greater part of the North Sea as the most gigantic 

 scientific experiment ever made in respect to the 

 closure, of areas, and one from which we might be 

 able to draw the most Important deductions In respect 

 to the conservation of our fish supply. Mr. Maurice 

 pointed out the difficulties under which all countries 

 are at the present time labouring, and appealed to all 

 to help in drawing up practical programmes of work 

 such as each country could guarantee to carry out. 

 The meeting then split into two committees for 

 fishery investigations and fishery statistics and for 

 hydrography and plankton (floating life in the sea). 



The committees met twice daily during the next 

 three days to draw up their programmes to be sub- 

 mitted on Saturday, March 6, to the whole body 

 of delegates. The main deliberations of the Fish 

 Committee were in respect to the plaice. All were 

 agreed that the fishery statistics of Western Europe 

 up to 1914 proved that there had been a most serious 

 depletiori of the stock of plaice on the fishing-grounds 

 of Western Europe, particularly in the southern half 

 of the North Sea. The apparently probable disappear- 

 ance of this fish, from the point of view both of the 

 industry and of the consumer, was felt to be so 

 calamitous that even the strongest measures were 

 thought to be justifiable. It was proposed that the 

 Council should, suggest to the diplomatists to negotiate 

 a size-limit and the permanent closure of certain 

 areas to provide a reserve, from which the young 

 plaice might snread so as to restock the open grounds. 

 It was pointed out that Denmark had already insti- 



