October ig, 1893] 



NATURE 



601 



Ihe rapidly increasing number of amateurs. We are glad to say 

 that we have recently received the first (September) number, 

 and, as far as one can judge, the journal has a successful future 

 before it. The present number contains the first chapters of 

 some series of articles on various subjects. To give some idea 

 of the subject-matter and their writers, we may mention that 

 "The Spectroscope, and some of its applications," is dealt 

 with by Keeler; "Concerted Observation of the Aurora," by 

 Veeder ; "Shooting Stars: How to observe ihem, and what 

 they teach us," by Denning; " Nebuloe and Comet-seeking," 

 by Lewis Swift ; "The Moon," by W. W. Payne, &c. ; while 

 future numbers will contain a series of articles by Barnard, on 

 "Celestial Photography"; one by Elgar, on "The Moon"; 

 another by Hale, on "The Sun," and many others. The 

 treatment of the subjects is all that could be desired for those 

 not acquainted with technicalities, and the illustrations, which 

 include two excellent ones of the moon, are of the same style 

 as those familiar to readers of AUronomy and Astro-Physics. 

 The various tables, notes, &c., which complete this journal of 

 forty-eight pages, form a useful and important addition. 



Thk August Meteors. — The prevalence of fine weather 

 during the month of August afforded many observers excellent 

 opportunities of observing the Perseids, and it is not surpris- 

 ing to hear that so many observations were made. Astrono- 

 inische Nachrkkten (Xo. 3192) gives some of the results, 

 showing that at Warendotf, August 8-1 1, 410 paths were re- 

 corded, at Eversunital 72, Brilon 184, Arnsberg 114, Altona 

 Hamburg more than 400, and so on. Piof. Denza, in the current 

 number oi VAstiviioiiiie (No. 10, October), gives a list of some 

 of the observations made in Italy. He refers to the shower as 

 among " les plus eclantantes remarquees jusqu' a present," and 

 suggests that for the next few years it should receive special at- 

 tention. The radiant point he locates as a = 44°, 5 = + 55', 

 the number of meteors attaining their maximum on the night of 

 the loth to nth. Mr. Denning has also a few words to say (the 

 Observatory for October) with regard to this shower, commenc- 

 ing first with the inaccuracy shown in observing the Lyrids of 

 April, and pointing out "the same extraordinary diiTerences " 

 manifested in these Perseid observations. The accurate places, 

 as he believes, were obtained by Mr. Booth on August 9, 43' 

 and -)- 57°, and by Mr. Evershed on August :o, 44° -f 57". On 

 August 16 he himself deduced the radiant as 52° and + 57', a 

 value agreeing approximately with Kleiher's theoretical position 

 for that date, namely 54° + 59°. 



Astronomy of the Fellahi.n' of Palestine. — An inter- 

 esting paper by Mr. P. J. Baldensperger, on the beliefs of the 

 Fellahin of Palestine, is found in the] October report of the 

 Palestine Exploration Fund. It appears that the Fellahin know 

 the Pleiades by the name of Thureiyah. Besides this, many of 

 the conspicuous stars and constellations have received names. 

 The following are examples, though the list can be considerably 

 extended : — 



Banat Na'asch ... 

 Nijmetain el-Joz 

 Thureiyah 



Hareef el Thureiyah 

 Sawak el Thureiyah 



Iljiddi 



Nijmel el Danab 

 Ilsamak... 

 Ilmizane 



Nashallat il mizane 

 Sawak il mizane 



S'hele 



Tareek i-tubanet 



The Great Bear. 



Castor and Pollux. 



Pleiades. 



Auriga. 



Aldebaran. 



Vega. 



Denebola. 



Fomalhaut. 



Orion's Belt. 



Betelgeuse and Rigel. 



Sirius. 



Canopus. 



The Milky Way. 



he planet Jupiter is known as Nijmet el Gharara, Venus as 

 lorning Star, and Mars as Nijmet el Sha'ate. A number of 

 Urious stories and beliefs are connected by the Fellahin with the 

 ars, and a few with planets. 



GEOGRAPHICAL KOTES. 



M. A. Hautreux has been engaged this summer (Bulletin of 



he Bordeaux Society of Commercial Geography, 1893, No. 14) 



B investigating the difficult question of the currents of the Bay 



pf Biscay, by means of specially contrived floats consisting of 



Iwo bottles attached by a cord a metre in length. The lower 



ottle being weighted with water keeps the upper one, contain- 



NO. 1 25 1, VOL. 48] 



ing air, from being driven by the wind, nnd the whole drifts 

 along with the superficial layer of water. The results obtained 

 seem to point to the absence of any current northward along the 

 coast of the bay. From all points of the line at which floats 

 were discharged west of France they showed a tendency to drifc 

 rapidly south-eastward towards the south-eastern angle of the 

 bay. The observations will be continued, and the result will be 

 of value in furnishing additional information to sailors of the 

 landward drift that has so often proved fatal to vessels on the 

 north coast of Spain. 



The Queensland Branch of the Royal Geographical Society 

 of Australasia has adopted a resolution approving of Sir Thomas 

 Mcllwraith's proposal to adopt an hour-zone system of time 

 reckoning for Australia and New Zealand, with the isoih 

 meridian (ten hours from Greenwich) as a unit, and urging the 

 other branches of the society to take the matter up. The 

 meridian of 150° E. runs through Cape Howe in the south-east 

 of Australia and through the south-east of New Guinea, audits 

 lime would hold for the capitals of the three eastern colonies 

 and Tasmania. The next hour interval westward (135° E.) 

 would include the whole of South Australia, and the third 

 (120° E.) would hold good for Western Australia. Eastward 

 the time of the 165th meridian would apply to the south island 

 of New Zealand, and that of the 180th meridian (twelve hours 

 from Greenwich) to the north island and to Fiji. 



Globus announces that an exploring and surveying expedition, 

 to which five Germans are attached, has been organised in 

 Brazil to study the less known parts of the Amazon basin and 

 collect information as to ethnography and natural history. The 

 expedition was intended to leave Santos in August, and cross 

 the plateau of Matto-Grosso towards the upper waters of the 

 Amazon, where surveys and scientific collections will be made. 



The last number of the Moiivement Gcografhique gives a 

 sketch-map of Lake Leopold II. , which lies south of the 

 Congo. It has been resurveyed, in April 1892, by Mr. Mohun, 

 the United States Consul to the Congo State, who was accom- 

 panied by M. De Meuse. The lake extends from i°5' .S. to 

 2°45' S., and its outflow drains into the Congo from the southern 

 end. The lake receives no important streams, but is fed by 

 drainage from extensive marshes which stretch away from its 

 north-western end. The water is shallow, but rises I '5 metres 

 in the rainy season, inundating a large area of countiy. The 

 deeply-indented bays serve as harbours for the canoes of the 

 warlike slave-hunting races who inhabit the surrounding 

 country, their villages being hidden deep in the forests at some 

 distance from the shores ol the lake. 



The new session of the Royal Geographical Society will be 

 opened by an address on "Geographical Desiderata " by the new 

 President, Mr. Clements R. Markham, F. R. S., on November 

 13. At the second meeting a paper on the Antarctic regions is 

 expected from Dr. John Murray, of the Challenger, which will 

 be followed by a discussion. Other papers which are being 

 arranged for will be announced later. Mr. Mackinder will give 

 the second course of his educational lectures on the relations of 

 geography to history after Christmas, and a course of educational 

 lectures on the principles of commercial geography is now being 

 given, under the auspicesof the Society, by Dr. H. R. Mill, in 

 the London Institution. 



I 



THE HARVEIAN ORATION} 



T is now 237 years since the illustrious Fellow of this College 

 whose name we are met to commemorate, provided, when 

 two years before his death he conveyed his estate at Burmarsh to 

 the College, that : — 



" There shall be once every year a general feast for all the 

 Fellows ; and on the day when such feast shall be kept, some one 

 person of the said College shall be from time to time appointed 

 by the President and two Eldest Censors and two Eldest Elects 

 for the time being of the said College (so that the person so to 

 be appointed be not in that behalf appointed two years to- 

 gether), who shall make an Oration publicly, in the said Col- 

 lege, wherein shall be a commemoration of all the benefactors 

 of the said College by name, and what in particular they have 

 done for the benefit of the said College, with an exhortation to 

 others to imitate those benefactors, and to contribute their en- 



1 Delivered by Dr. P. H. Pye-Smith, F.R.S., at the Royal College o 

 Physic-ans, on Wednesday, October i8th. 



