December 2g, 1892] 



NA TURE 



209 



berich's computations, will soon commence to decrease in bright- 

 ness. 



Berlin, Midnight, 



1892^ V , ^■^- O'^'- Logr. Log A. Br. 



' ^^ n. m. s. o / 



Dec. 30 ... 15 57 15 ••• 58 310 



31 ... 16 16 30 ... 60 21*3 ... 0-0820 ... 9'8589 .. 7*66 



Jan. I ... 16 38 18 ... t>2 19 



2 ... 17 2 46 ... 63 297 ... o"o8i2 ... 9*8530 ... 7-89 



3 ... 17 29 49 ... 64 417 



4 ... 17 59 o ... 65 345 ... 0-0807 ••• 9"8S2i - 795 



5 ... 18 29 40 ... 66 54 



Comet Holmes (November 6, 1892).— The following is a 

 continuation of the ephemeris of this comet for the present 

 week : — 



Berlin, Midnight. 



Decl. (app.}. Log r. Log A. 



'39^-3. IV.T^- 



0-4096 



0-41 19 



0-3284 



0-3400 



The Markings on Mars. — In No. 25 of the Publications 

 of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Mr. Schael>erle has a 

 preliminary noie on the question as to whether the darker and 

 the brighter areas on Mars are water and land or vice versd. 

 Having observed the planet from June li up to the present time 

 he has been led to the conclusion opposite to that of Schiapa- 

 relli, Flammarion, and other observers, and considers that afier 

 all the dark portions should be considered as land and the bright 

 as water. In raising such a question as this Mr. Schaeberle 

 has been very reserved, for should his opinion receive due atten- 

 tion, as of course it should do, and be corroborated, the planet's 

 surface will be looked upon in quite a different light than for- 

 merly. In this note he sets forth a few of his reasons for coming 

 to such a conclusion, and it may interest many of our readers if 

 we state some of them briefly. If the dark marking- be taken 

 as land, would not the iriegular gradations of shade be more 

 naturally ex|iected than if we consider them as fixed surface 

 features? "Light reflected from a spherical surface of water 

 in a slight state of agitation would vary uniformly in intensity. 

 At opposition, the centre of the planet would, for a water sur- 

 face, appear brightest. Observations show that within a certain 

 distance from the edge of Mars there is a gradual increase in 

 the steady lustre of the brighter areas towards the centre of the 

 planet." Assuming these dark areas to be water, then they 

 should thus be least dark near the centre, which is somewhat 

 contrary to observation. With reference to the "canals," he 

 says that they on this hypothesis " correspond to the ridges of 

 mountains which are almost wholly immersed in water," while 

 with regard to their observed doubling he reinaiKS that they can 

 be explained as "representing parallel ridges of which our own 

 earth furnishes examples." As a concluding argument he takes 

 an observed terrestrial observation, the view of the lower end of 

 San Francisco Bay from Mount Hamilton, San Francisco being 

 fifty miles away. At all hours of the day, he says, "the 

 surface of San Francisco Bay (as seen from the top of Mount 

 Hamilton) is much brighter than the neighbouring valley and 

 mountains at the samedistance." He further adds that the line 

 of sight makes an angle of more than 87° with the normal to the 

 surface of the bay, while the observer's po-ition " varies all the 

 way from being nearly in a direct line between the bay and the 

 sun to the position in which the !^un is nearly in the direction of 

 the bay." 



The Lick Observatory.— Miss Milicent W. Shinn is the 

 writer of a very interesting pamphlet on the history of the Lick 

 Astronomical Department of the University of California. In 

 these few pages she brings together much with regard to the 

 early events connectfd with the founding of the giant refractor 

 that is not generally known. For instance, it is turious to 

 read how Mr. Lick wished to be immortalized by leaving 

 i)equests for costly statues of himself and his family, and when 

 urging that such statues would be preserved for all time, was 

 answered by Mr. Staples that "more likely we shall get into a 

 war with Russia or somebody, and they will come round here 



NO. 1209, VOL. 47] 



with warships and smash the statues to pieces in bombarding 

 the city." Mr. Lick was so struck by this, that he asked, 

 " What shall I do with the money, then?" How this question 

 was answered is now well known, and astronomical science was 

 presented wiih the finest object-glass that was ever made. 



Mr. Lick's deed prescribed that the Observatory should be 

 "made useful in promoting science," and up to the present 

 these words have been carried out to the letter. The big 

 telescope has not been preserved fjr one side of astronomical 

 science, but has dived into all branches, as every asironoiner is 

 aware Not only have minute double stars been observed and 

 measured, but the spectroscope has been employed, from which 

 excellent results have been published, while lunar photograph^, 

 equalling, if not excelling, those that had been previously 

 obtained have brought to light much to set us thinking about. 

 Jupiter's fifth moon is perhaps the latest arrival of which we 

 have heard, and this, following just 300 years after Galileo's 

 discovery, would alone render ihe Obstrvatory famous. That 

 the Lick Astronomical Department, during the few years of its 

 existeiice, has done an immense amount of good work, especially 

 when one takes into account the comparatively small staff on 

 hand, cannot be denied, and we hope the day will come when 

 the number of such telescopes will be increased, for the ever- 

 opening fields of lesearch point out how necessary they are. 



Washington Magnetic Observations. — The United 

 States Naval Observatory has quite recently published their 

 magnetic observations that were made during the past year, 

 prepared on the same plan as that for 1889-90. The observa- 

 tions for 189 1, as Mr. Hoogewerff (who was in charge for the 

 greaier part of the year) informs us, are belter than those of 

 former years, owing to the fact that the reductions took place 

 at no very distant dates from the observations, the experience 

 thus gained helping to correct and guard against conditions 

 which might have tended to give rise to errors. The introduc- 

 tion contains a description of the buildings, methods of observ- 

 ing, to^'ether with the personnel during the year, concluding 

 with a description of the tabular results. The tabular results, as 

 usual, show the mean hourly readings for the elements for each 

 month. Table I. containing the mean values for the four years 

 1888-91. 



Simultaneous with this volume was also issued the meteoro- 

 logical observations and results for the year 1888. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



A SPECI.\L number of the Mouvement Geographique is 

 devoted to a series of important despatches from M. Alexandre 

 Delcommune, chief of the Lomami expedition of the Katanga 

 Company. Entering the Lomami from the Congo, the pariy 

 left the river on May 13, 1891, and explored the entirely 

 untraversed territory between its upper valley river and that of 

 the Sankuru as far as 8° S. Thence they tu'-ned eastward and 

 reached Lake Kassali on the Lualaba, and struck south through 

 Garenganze's country to Bunkeia. Making a circuit through 

 Katanga and westward, they found the Lualaba near its source, 

 and following it for 200 kilometres, discovered a grand gorge at 

 Nzole, where the river flowed in a succession of wild cataracts 

 between cliffs nearly a thousand feet high, and not more than 

 forty yards apart. From the rapids they returned to Bunkeia, 

 travelled north-eastward over the plateau, cro-sing the 

 Luapula at its outflokv from Lake Moero, and ultimately reached 

 Lake Tanganyika. The difficulties overcome were very great, 

 and the sufferings of the caravan have rarely been surpassed 

 even in the grimmest records of African tiavel. 



Amongst the English travellers who have recently arrived in 

 London are Mr. Selous, the famous South African hunter, and 

 Ml. Conway, who has probably climbed higher than any other 

 European in the Karalsoram range. Both gentlemen will read 

 papers to the Roy;d Geographical Society early next year 



The arrangements for the Royal Geographical Society's even- 

 ing meetin.;s after Christin.as are unusually varied. Mr. Ho*e 

 will describe his journey up the Barram river in Sarawak lo 

 Mount Dulit, at the first meeiing in January. The second 

 meeting will be devoted to the Ishnd of Vezo, when Prof. Milne 

 and Mr. Savage Landor will read pipers. I'ajieri by Captain 

 Bower and the American traveller. Mr. Rockliill, on Tibet, will 

 be given la'.ir ; and Lieutenant Peary will personally describe 



