December 8, 1892] 



NATURE 



^ZZ 



Ephemeris. Berlin Midnight. 



Decl. Log A. 



0-2580 



0'2696 



Log r. 

 03958 



0-3981 



A New CoMtr (Brooks, November 20). — On the evening 

 of November 20 a telegram was received at Kiel announcing the 

 discovery of a new comet by Mrooks on November 20. Its 

 position on November 20875, Greenwich M.T. was given as 

 R.A. I2h. 57m. 403., Decl. + 13° 25'. Its physical appearance 

 was described as "circular, diameter equal to i', brighter than 

 a third magnitude star, some eccentric condensation, no tail." 



From observations made on November 21, 24, and 26, Prof. 

 Kreutz has found the following elements and ephemeris, which 

 has been communicated by a Kiel circular post-card : — 



EUinents. 

 T = 1893, January 6-953, Berlin M.T. 



1892. 



Dec. 8 



12 



16 



20 



24 



A New CoMEr. — The comet which on the 24th was dis- 

 covered l)y Mr. Freeman is now supposed mcst probably to be 

 a nebula. 



The Channels OF Mars. — In our Astronomical Column for 

 November 17 we referred to the most r.cent hypothe-e-; that 

 had been put forward with respect lo the doubling of the channels 

 on the surface of Mars. Another suggestion has lately come 

 under our notice, and this, although explaining the phenomena 

 in quite a different way, has a point or two in its favour. This 

 explanation appeared in ihe Shanghai Mercury on October 14, 

 and was written by Mr. T. W. Kingsmill, the following being 

 a brief summary of the main points : — 



As Mars revolves round the sun, under the rule of gravitalion, 

 she must have tides on her surface, and since her moons are not 

 sufficiently large to cause any sensible rise, her tides must 

 be mostly solar. Now the best views we have of this planet is 

 when he is in oppo.sition, that is when we are interposed 

 between him and the sun, so that we should always see him 

 best at high tide. The writer then makes rather a strong point 

 of the great eccentricity of the orbit of Mars, and the conse- 

 quent heavy fall which he makes when plunging towards the 

 sun. Situated further from the sun than we are, Mars of course 

 must be reckoned as an older member of our system, and since 

 he is smaller than our earth, it is only natural that his surface 

 crust would be thicker than ours. Granting this then the in- 

 ternal pulp would not have such a power to compensate for 

 this rapid fall, as our earth does internally, for there would not 

 be much of it, so that an external compensation, assuming the 

 crust 10 be too thick to alter its form, would have to take place 

 at the surface. On the surface of course the water is the only 

 available power, therefore we should expect, to put it in Mr. 

 Kingsmill's own words, "that the water in the ocean would be 

 l)rojected into the Martial hemispheres, and as the planet 

 approached the sun, solar tides would sweep round the planet ; 

 that the canals should sometimes appear and sometimes be 

 duplicated .... is only ^\\aX a priori might be anticipated." 



Those interested in this question will be glad to hear that 

 M. Stanislas Meunier {Comptes rendtis ior November 21, No. 

 21) has been continuing his experiments on this subject, which 

 we referred to a fortnight ago. He finds now that by employing 

 a metallic sphere instead of a polished mirror, and covering its 

 surface with the veil as he did his former experiments the 



NO. 1206. VOL. 47] 



results are more striking, and biing out more clearly the pheno- 

 mena really observed on the planet's surface. 



Astronomy and Astrophysics.— The November number 

 of Astronomy and Astrophysics, among many of its interesting 

 articles contains one by Prof. Pickering on the lunar atmo- 

 sphere, which will be read with much interest. Accompanying 

 the article is an illustration of the recent occultation of Jupiter, 

 at which time a dark band tangent to the moon's surface but on 

 the planet was both observed and photographed. Prof. Coakley 

 writes on the " Probable origin of Meteorites," the conclusions 

 which he draws referring their origin lo prehistoric lunar 

 eruptions. 



Prof. Hale, in addition to several articles on solar physics, 

 describes generally the proposed new giant Chicago refractor, 

 and from all accounts the observatory when finished and ready 

 for work will be operated by simply . pressing buttons; the 

 observing chair will be entirely eliminated, the floor of the 

 observatory, capable of motion in the vertical direction, serving 

 the purpoie. Mr. W. W. Campbell gives rather a lengthy 

 account of his observations on the spectrum of the lale Nova, 

 and the result may be summed up in the words, " While the 

 hypothesis of two bodies quite generally satisfies the observa- 

 tions, and has the further very gieat advantage of simplicity, 

 there are a few not unimportant points furnished by the photo- 

 graphs which favour the existence of three or four bodies, two 

 or three yielding bright line spectra and one a dark line 

 spectrum." 



A New Observatory. — M. S. de Glasenapp recently 

 announced to the French Academy of Sciences that a new astro- 

 nomical observatory has been erected at Abastouman, in the 

 government of Tiflis. The observatory has been called Geor- 

 gieioskaja, in honour of its founder, audit is situated at a height 

 of 1393 metres above the level of the sea, its terrestrial co-ordi- 

 nates being latitude + 41° 45' 43" longitude, east of Paris 2h. 

 41m. 58 -5s. At present it is provisionally supplied with a 

 refractor of about nine inches belonging to the St. Petersburg 

 University. Work has already Ik en begun, and from all 

 accounts the situation seems to be most favourable, many double 

 stars measures having been obtained, which in ordinary circum- 

 stances are accounted very difficult objects with such an aper- 

 ture. The observatory was opened on August 23 of this year, 

 and up to November 5 as many as 4C0 double stars have been 

 measured, omitting observations of the total lunar eclipse and of 

 some phenomena of Jupiter's satellites. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



Dr. Karl Diener has returned to Vienna from his geological 

 expedition in the Himalayas, which has resulted in important 

 additions to the data available for a geological description of 

 the great mountain system. In June the expedition commenced 

 work in North Kumaon, crossing the Utadurrha Pass (17,600 

 feet), and after more than three months spent amongst the 

 border ranges of Tibet, returned to India by the valley of 

 Alaknanda. For a month the party never camped at a less 

 height than 14,500 feet, and the highest summit reached was 

 over 19,000 feet. 



Dr. Nansen is threatened with a serious rival in Lieutenant 

 Peary, who has obtained leave from the United States Navy for 

 three years to be spent in Arctic exploration. The base of his 

 projected journey would be the farthest point reached by him 

 on his recent journey in Greenland, and "an incidental object " 

 would be to reach the pole by travelling over the frozen surface 

 of the sea which he believes to surround it. 



Frieurich Heller von Hellwald, well known as a writer 

 on geography and ethnology, died on November l,aged fifty years. 

 He was born at Padua, and grew up with an equal knowledge 

 of German and Italian, a fact to which much of his ultimate 

 success as an author may have been due. He was an officer in 

 the Austrian army, but devoted most of his time to historical 

 research and literary work. His earliest work, " Amerikanische 

 Volkerwanderung," appeared when he was twenty-four years of 

 age, and later hewiote on the Russians in Central Asia, the native 

 people of various parts of Asia, the history of civilization, and 

 other subjects. His "Die Erde und ihre Volker" formed the 

 basis of Stanford's " Compendium of Geography and Travel." 

 For many years Hellwald edited the geographical journal Das 

 Ausland. 



