February i6, 1893J 



NATURE 



77 



one negative has been employed is due, as the authors say, to 

 pressure of other work and to necessary alterations in the in- 

 strument, but they hope to repeat the investigation next autumn. 

 In the table showing the positions, the authors compare their 

 results with those of Vogel and Pihl, and they find that a 

 small difference, depending on the adopted position of the funda- 

 mental star, is apparent between the former's declinations, while 

 Pihl's right ascensions differ slightly, though systematically, this 

 discrepancy being due very probably to the different methods of 

 determining the parallels. The memoir concludes with a map 

 showing the relative positions of the stars plotted direct from 

 the X and y coordinates. 



L'AsTRONOMiE. — The February number of this journal con- 

 tains many articles of interest. Prof. Stanislas Meunier gives an 

 account of a meteorite that fell in Algeria ; this meteorite has 

 proved to be of iron, containing as much as 91 "32 per cent., and 

 a polished surface, when treated with an acid, showed the well- 

 known Widmannstatten figures. M. Flammarion, in addition 

 to an account of " Les Pierres Tombees du Ciel," with reference 

 to " Les Anciens Volcans de la Lune," lately advocated by Prof. 

 Coakley in Astronomy and Astrophysics, gives the fourth 

 out of six chapters dealing with the question, "Comment 

 Arrivera la fin du Monde." M. J. Fenyi, director of the Ob- 

 servatory of Kalocsa, gives an account of the enormous solar 

 eruption (383,000 kilometres high) that occurred on October 3 

 last, while a short note on some curious appearances undergone 

 by comet Swift includes six drawings by M, Lorenzo Kropp, 

 taken between March 18 and April 25, and the three photographs 

 taken at the Lick Observatory by Mr. Barnard, all of which 

 indicate the results of tremendous actions, whether they be due to 

 the influences of different forces, "attraction, repulsion, chaleur, 

 electricite, or changements d'etat, qui ajissement sur ses 

 astres gazeux dans leur voisinage du soleil." M. Weinck of 

 Prague describes the results of his examination of the Lick 

 negatives with reference to the lunar crater Flammarion, and 

 gives a drawing (which, by the way, can be well seen by half 

 closing the eyes) of its surroundings, together with the three new 

 craters. This number also includes a general summary of the 

 meteorology of the preceding year, the results being given in 

 diagrammatic form, bringing out clearly the diurnal and monthly 

 changes. 



Jupiter's Fifth Satellite. — Mr. Barnard, who has been 

 continuing his observations with respect to the fifth satellite of 

 Jupiter, communicates the results he has obtained to the 

 Astronomical yournal (Nos. 285-86). The values of the 

 elongation distances deduced from the measures at elonga- 

 tions are, for eastern elongation, 48" '089 (± o*o6i), and for 

 western elongation, 47 "•621 ((± o'i76), the probable errors of a 

 single determination being ± o" "23 and ± o " 47 respectively. 

 These values are equivalent to the following distances : — 



E. elongation 112,500 ± 143 miles 

 W. „ 111,412 ±412 ,, 



The values for the period he gives as 



September lO-October 21 .. 

 September lo-October 28 

 September lo-November 20 



h. 



P^ 115723-72 

 P= \i 572330 

 P = \\ SI 2273 

 the mean, when proportional weights are applied, being — 

 iih. 57 m. 23*o6s. 

 Among some other figures which Mr. Barnard gives are : — 



Hourly motion 30°*iii 



Velocity in orbit 16 '4 miles per second 



Equatorial Hor. Par. 21° 51' 



Distance from surface of Jupiter 67,000 miles (about). 

 While working at this satellite he has also been led to 

 measure the equatorial and polar diameters of Jupiter hims elf, 

 and the following numbers show the values he has deduced, the 

 observations being made through smoked glass : — 



Equatorial diameter 89,790 ± 65 miles 



Polar „ 84,300 ± 80 miles 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 

 The Times Berlin correspondent furnishes some interesting 

 [notes of Dr. Baumann's recent journeys in the region of the 

 ■ Nile sources, which confirm Mr. Stanley's identification of the 



NO. I 2 16, VOL. 47] 



Mountains of the Moon. In Urundi the kings were supposed 

 to be lineal descendants of the moon, and the white traveller 

 was hailed as being the returned ghost of a lately-deceased 

 chief. On September 11 the expedition crossed the Akenyaru, 

 which is not, as supposed, a lake, but a river, though the name 

 "Nyanza" is often applied to it. Dr. Baumann also dis- 

 covered that the so-called Lake Mworengo is in reality a river 

 which flows into the Akenyaru, and came to the conclusion that 

 there was no extensive sheet of water in Ruanda or North 

 Urundi. On September 19 Dr. Baumann arrived at the source 

 of the Kagera (Alexandra Nile), which rises at the foot of the pre- 

 cipitous and wooded hills which form the watershed between the 

 basins of Rufizi and the Kagera. This mountain chain is known 

 to the natives by the name of the " Mountains of the Moon," and 

 is held in peculiar reverence by them. Here Dr. Baumann main- 

 tains the real source of the Nile to be, for if "it be acknow- 

 ledged that the Kagera is the chief feeder of the Victoria 

 Nyanza, it follows that the headwaters of the Nile can be none 

 other than those of the Kagera itself in the Mountains of the 

 Moon in Urundi, within the boundaries of German East 

 Africa." 



The often-discussed scheme of an expedition to the North 

 Pole by way of Franz Josef Land has been revived by Mr. F. G. 

 Jackson, who proposes to lead an expedition next summer, if the 

 means for equipping a ship are forthcoming. Mr. Jackson'.s 

 plan is to travel with a small party, and establish a chain of depots 

 northward from the most northerly accessible landing-place in 

 Franz Josef Land. He would remain during winter in the most 

 advanced post, and push on each summer with dog-sledges, until 

 the pole is reached. The plan rests on the hypothesis of Franz 

 Josef Land extending to the pole, just as Dr. Nansen's rests on 

 the hypothesis of a transpolar current, but the evidence of the 

 great extension of the land is not very satisfactory. Mr. Jack- 

 son's previous Arctic experience is not stated, nor is there any 

 indication given as to whether he intends to travel at his own 

 expense or to appeal for pecuniary help. 



The British South African Company have reserved the 

 Zimbabwe Ruins and the area within a radius of one mile from 

 the top of Zimbabwe Hill for archaeological and scientific pur- 

 poses, and no settlements, farms, or mines will be permitted 

 within that radius. 



A beautifully illustrated report on the regulation of Swiss 

 torrents, by the late M. de Salis, has recently been published 

 by the Swiss Government. The natural erosion and surface 

 change which go on at the present day so rapidly among the 

 steep slopes of a mountainous country as to be frequently 

 cataclysmic in their intensity, have to be avoided or endured in 

 inhabited regions. A frequent source of floods is the damming 

 up of a large river by the mud and stones brought down by a 

 freshet in a small tributary. The method of combating this 

 effect is to build a succession of weirs, and cut a parallel canal 

 so that the sediment is caught and the overflow regulated before 

 the escaping water reaches the main valley. 



Mr. Mackinder's fourth Royal Geographical Society's 

 educational lecture, delivered last week, dealt with Central 

 Asian trade- and travel-routes, under the title of " The Gates of 

 India and China." 



TWENTY YEARS IN ZAMBESIA. 



A/r R. F. C. SELOUS, the famous hunter and explorer of 

 ^^ South Central Africa, gave a summary of his travels to the 

 Royal Geographical Society on Monday evening. His address 

 was illustrated by an exhibition of unusual interest in the tea- 

 room, where a large collection of stuffed specimens of the charac- 

 teristic African mammalian fauna was arranged. Photographs 

 and various objects illustrative of the rapid development of 

 Mashonaland since the Chartered Company took possession 

 were also shown. 



Mr, Selous commenced his African wanderings in 1871, and 

 except for occasional visits to England he has travelled and 

 traded in that continent ever since. In 1872 he and some com- 

 panions penetrated into Matabeleland to hunt elephants, and 

 had an amusing interview with the chief, Lo-Bengula. Although 

 at that time not an explorer in the scientific sense, the accurate 

 memory of his early wanderings over the country enabled Mr. 



