470 



NATURE 



LjLMi 10, lyio 



water parting on this side they saw a precipitous slope on 

 the Tibetan side, not vertical as at the Sella Savoia, but 

 a very crevassed glacier. The Italian guides and porters 

 might have descended, but returning was the difficulty. 

 The Duke was under the impression they would see from 

 here the Oprang Valley ; however, he was surprised to find 

 a great glacier flowing south-east, separating Windy Gap 

 from a great mountain chain which appeared to connect 

 with Staircase Peak on the north ; this glacier received 

 numerous tributaries from the eastern face of the Stair- 

 case and mountains south of Windy Gap. The Duke says 

 that here are two important geographical problems to be re- 

 solved — how the chain is attached to Staircase Peak and 

 where the glacier the travellers saw emerges. From Windy 

 Gap and Sella Vittoria Sella the eastern peaks of Gusher- 

 brum were seen, and the Duke suggests that the glacier 

 from there and the Staircase was the one seen by Young- 

 husband from the Oprang Valley. A most plucky attempt 

 was made by the Duke and two porters to reach the top 

 of Staircase Peak, but after a night at 21,650 feet they 

 were baffled by a bergschrund, which they failed to work 

 round. From here K2 appeared more than ever in- 

 accessible ; it is recorded, also, that its northern face is 

 precipitous, also that towards the east chains and moun- 

 tains were lost in the distance. 



Rejoining his party on June 28, the Duke determined to 

 make a final eff'ort to ascend the Bride Peak (K6), 25,119 

 feet. Ascending the main Baltoro glacier, from Footstool 

 Camp of Conway, on July 3, he and Sella started for the 

 Kondus Saddle ; the view they obtained from this point, 

 20,772 feet, compensated them for all they had gone 

 through. To the south it lay over the Kondus Glacier, 

 embracing Peaks K7, K8, and Kg ; he noted that this 

 valley trends to the east, then bends to the north, coming 

 round Golden Throne and Hidden Peak, and perhaps joins 

 the pass at the head of the Ordoch Glacier of Young- 

 husband. 



Although the work was most severe and many camps 

 were in exposed and trying sites, great praise is due' to all, 

 and the account is written in a most natural, unpretentious 

 way. The value of the Italian guides on work of this 

 nature is well exemplified, for when they were on the 

 Chogolisa Saddle, and Sella had left for Rdokas, they 

 prevailed on the Duke to wait for fine weather and attack 

 the " Bride Peak," and the little party actually stayed 

 three weeks on this exposed ridge of 21,000 feet. 



The ascent was finally made, and a point 24,577 ^eet 

 reached, close below the summit, when, dense mist coming 

 on, and the remaining 500 feet being of a dangerous nature, 

 they reluctantly had to descend, having attained the highest 

 altitude yet reached by man. More it was impossible to 

 do. The Duke trusts some future traveller, profiting by 

 his labours, may some day reach the magnificent summit of 

 the Bride Peak (Fig. 2). The future surveyor who may be 

 sent there is taught a valuable lesson by these most capable 

 mountaineers towards the securing of an accurate plane- 

 table survey of the wonderful unknown country lying to 

 the eastward. With the numerous peaks fixed by the 

 triangulation, it is shown conclusively that the area occu- 

 pied by the Terim Gangrhi and glacier, together with the 

 Snowy Range from which the Remo Glacier descends, 

 could all be mapped and dozens of peaks fixed from points 

 already visited by the Duke of the Abruzzi and Dr. Long- 

 staff, supplemented by a few others at the head of the 

 Kondus Valley and those seen from the Mustakh Pass 

 crossed by Younghusband. 



H. H. GODVVIN-AUSTEN. 



FURTHER OBSERVATIONS OF H ALLEY'S 

 COMET. 



/\ NUMBER of further observations of Halley's comet 

 are recorded in Nos. 4415-8' of the Astronomische 

 Nachrichten. In No. 4416 (p. 401) Prof. Max Wolf gives 

 a sketch showing the position of the tail on May 12 at 

 i4h. 15m. (Konigstuhi M.T.). A slight curvature 

 was noted, the convex side being towards the north, 

 and the _ extremity of the tail lay on a line joining 

 o Equulei and j3 Aquarii. From this observation it was 

 deduced that the actual length of the tail was about 45 

 million kilometres (28 million miles), whilst that part 



NO. 2120, VOL. 83] 



through which the earth would pass, if passage took place, 

 was at least 3° broad. Observations extending from May 

 17 to 24 indicate that the halos observed at the Konigstuhi 

 Observatory on May 19 were more than twice as strong 

 as those observed on the other days. Dr. Cerulli directs 

 attention to an apparent shortening of the tail towards 

 I5h. (M.E.T.) on May 18, which he ascribes rather to 

 the alteration of direction, in regard to the line of vision, 

 than to the approach of daylight. 



Herr A. Miethe records that, at the photographic observa- 

 tory of the Royal Technical High School, Berlin, on 

 May 24, the nucleus of the comet was seen to occult the 

 85 magnitude star A.G. Lpz. I. 4615; for 28-1 seconds 

 the star was lost in the brightness of the nucleus, but at 

 gh. om. 40-5S. (M.E.T.) it was again seen amongst the 

 matter streaming out from the nucleus. It then appeared 

 as an absolutely sharp, bluish point of light, and suffered 

 no apparent alteration beyond a slight twinkling. Herr 

 Osthoff records some cloud observations made at Cologne 

 on May 19, but found nothing which might be ascribed 

 to the action of the comet's tail; the 22° halo around the 

 sun is accepted as the natural result of the presence of 

 the cirrus clouds observed. 



Observations made at Warsaw on May 26 indicated that 

 the axis of the tail, in the plane of the comet's orbit, made 

 an angle of 11° with the radius vector at distance o-i8 

 from the head. Computations by Dr. Banschiewicz show 

 that this would mean a delay of o-6-o-7d. in the passage 

 of the earth through the tail after the conjunction of the 

 comet with the sun. 



No. 23 of the Comptes rendus, for June 6, contains 

 several further reports of observations of the comet. 



MM. Luizet and Guillaume (p. 1492) give a resume of 

 their observations since early in December, 1909, directing 

 special attention to the changes which took place in the 

 form of the nucleus, the structure of the various parts of 

 the head, and the extent of the tail after the beginning of 

 March. On May 15 it was noted that the pronounced 

 flattening of the nucleus was in a direction perpendicular 

 to that observed on May 14. 



MM. Cirera and Ubach give the results obtained at the 

 Observatoire de 1 Ehre (Spain), during the period May 

 1 1-26, from observations of terrestrial, atmospheric, mag- 

 netic, and electrical phenomena. Some disturbances were 

 recorded on May 18 and 19, but the authors believe that 

 tiiey were not connected in any way with the comet, 

 although they hesitate to pronounce definitely on the sub- 

 ject until the results have been more fully considered. 



M. Comas Sola, of the Fabra Observatory, describes 

 (p. 1496) a very brilliant projection of gas from the nucleus 

 on May 31. A photograph, exposed for eighty-three 

 minutes, showed that this projection extended some million 

 kilometres from the nucleus, in the direction opposed to 

 that of the sun. A condensation in this projection gave 

 tile appeal ance of a second nucleus, which, on June 2, was 

 about 40" from the primary nucleus, and was some three 

 magnitudes fainter. Between these two nuclei there 

 appeared to be an alignment of very feeble stellar points, 

 but these were so faint as to be doubtfully seen. A photo- 

 graph taken, with ninety minutes' exposure, on this date 

 showed, among other interesting details, a long aigrette 

 emerging from the nucleus and forming a medial line in 

 the tail. On June 4 the secondary nucleus was invisible, 

 but the primary was accompanied by four condensations, 

 which travelled rapidly away from it. In no minutes the 

 principal one of these was displaced 5-9'', in regard to the 

 priinar\-, in the direction of the tail. 



M. Giacobini also directs attention (p. 1496) to the 

 breaking up of the nucleus on June 2. To him it appeared, 

 that the comet had split into two nebulosities, each having^l 

 a nucleus, the only difference between their aspects being [ 

 that one was considerably fainter than the other. He J 

 also remarks on the rapid alteration of the form of the^ 

 nucleus since May 24. Prior to that date it had been dis- 

 tinctly nebulous and elliptical, but since then it has appeare(f 

 as a sharply defined point. 



As mentioned previously in Nature, M. Jean Mascarl 

 travelled to Teneriffe to observe the comet, and set up his 

 instruments on the spot occupied by Piazzi Smith in 1858. 

 He now describes (p. 1497) the instruments and the observ-.| 

 ing conditions during his two months' sojourn at theJ 

 station. At an altitude of 2715 metres he was well abovej 



