43« 



NATURE 



[September 3, 1891 



The University College, Bristol, has issued its Calendar for 

 the session 1891-92. While the College supplies for persons of 

 either sex above the ordinary school age the means of continuing 

 their studies in science, languages, history, and literature, it 

 claims especially to afford appropriate and systematic instruction 

 in those branches of applied science which are more nearly con- 

 nected virith the arts and manufactures. 



Sir William MacGregor, Governor of British New 

 Guinea, recently ascended Mount Yule, or Kovio, as he prefers 

 to call it. The Kovio range is volcanic and isolated from the 

 main chain, of which Mount Owen Stanley is the culmination. 

 The Kovio range is under 11,000 feet high, and is wooded to 

 the very summit. Native tracks lead through the forest to the 

 top of Mount Yule, on the south-west front of which there is a 

 magnificent series of cascades, having a height of 4000 feet in 

 all. A new river and a new lake were also discovered ; but the 

 animal life of the region was far from abundant. 



The last Bulletin of the Geographical Society of the United 

 States contains an interesting paper on the curious discovery of 

 human remains under the Tuolumne Table Mountain of Cali- 

 fornia. Bones of men and grinding instruments were there 

 found by Prof. Whitney, embedded in auriferous gravel under 

 lava at the foot of the mountain. Reoaains of plants belonging 

 to the Tertiary age, and the bones of extinct Mammalia, such 

 as the rhinoceros of the West and the American mastodon, are 

 also met with in the same strata. Pestles, mortars, and broken 

 spear-heads are the most remarkable of the implements dis- 

 covered. 



From the last Report of the Council of the North China 

 Asiatic Society of Shanghai we learn that the printers have now 

 in hand a most valuable work by Dr. Bretjchneider on the 

 " Botany of the Chinese Classics," the pabli;ation of which, on 

 account of its length and technical difficulties, has been much 

 delayed. Some time, however, must yet elapse before it can 

 be issued. Mr. Faber has undertaken the difficult task of cor- 

 recting the printer's proofs and adding many notes, which will 

 render the work the most comprehensive and useful book which 

 has yet appeared on Chinese botany. 



The new number of the Internationales Archiv filr Ethno- 

 graphie {^dSid.'\s., Heft 4) opens with an interesting paper by 

 Prof. A. C. Haddon, on the Tugeri head-hunters of New 

 Guinea. Mr. J. J. M. de Groot has an article on the wedding 

 garments of a Chinese woman, and Dr. Julius Jacobs discusses 

 >{in Dutch) the ideas of Dr. Ploss on the origin of circumcision. 



Messrs. West, Newman, and Co., have reprinted from 

 the Journal of Botany for 1891, a "Key to the Genera and 

 Species of British Mosses," by the Rev. H. G. Jameson. The 

 author explains that his work is not intended to take the place 

 of a more detailed text-book, but merely to serve as a clue by 

 which the student may ascertain in what part of his book he 

 -.should look for the description of any unknown specimen. 



We have received a Report on Astronomical Observations 

 for l886, by George H. Boehmer. Directors of observatories, 

 and astronomers generally, are earnestly requested by Mr. 

 Boehmer to criticize his work freely, and to send him such 

 corrections and additions as may seem to them necessary or 

 desirable. 



Messrs. W. Wesley And Son have published a catalogue 

 of botanical books which they are ofTering for sale. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 



past week include a Macaque Monkey {Macacus cynomoJgus ? ) 



from India, a Piuche Monkey {Midas cedipus i) from New 



■Granada, presented by Mr. H. Wather ; a Roseate Cockatoo 



NO. 1 140, VOL. 44] 



(Ciicattia roseicapilla) from Australia, presented by Mrs. Any 

 Jones, F.Z. S. ; a Slender-billed Cockatoo {Licmetis tenuii-os- 

 tris) from South Australia, presented by Miss Caplen ; a 

 Marbled Polychrus {Polychrus marmoratus), a Thick-necked 

 Tree-Boa {Epicrates cenchris) from Trinidad, presented by 



Messrs R. R. Mole and F. W. Urich ; a Salamander 



{Amblystoma punctatutn) from North America, presented by 

 Mr. J. H. Thomson; a Smooth Snake [Coronella Icevis), 

 European, presented by Mr. F. C. Adams ; a Great Kangaroo 

 {Macropus giganteus), a Greater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo 

 {Cacatua galerita) from Australia, deposited. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Stars having Peculiar Spectra. — From a communica- 

 tion by Prof. E. C. Pickering to Astronomische Nachrichlen, 

 No. 3054, it appears that the hydrogen lines G and h are 

 bright in a photograph of the spectrum of a third-type star, 

 D.M. + 39° 4851 (R.A. 22h. 247m., Decl. + 39° 48', 1900), 

 taken on July 6. And an examination of the photographs of 

 this region taken on different dates has confirmed the long- 

 period variability of which this spectroscopic appearance is now 

 recognized as a distinctive feature. The seventh magnitude star 

 D.M. - 10° 5057, whose approximate position for 1900 is 

 R.A. I9h. 177m., Decl. - lo° 54', has been previously an- 

 nounced as having a spectrum of the fourth type, but later 

 photographs show that the lines in the spectrum are not those due 

 to hydrogen, but are sometimes seen to be broad bands, and at 

 other times as doubles. These peculiarities, however, cannot 

 be made out in the visible spectrum of the star. 



Photography of Solar Prominences. — At the meet- 

 ing of the Paris Academy of Sciences on August 17, M. Des- 

 landres exhibited soaie of the results he has obtained since May 

 in the photography of bright lines in solar prominence spectra. 

 The negatives exhibit good reversals of H and K, and the first two 

 lines of the ultra-violet hydrogen series. And M. Deslandres 

 finds from a direct comparison with a Giessler tube that the 

 bright line a little less refrangible than H is really due to 

 hydrogen. It is proposed to construct an apparatus by means 

 of which the prominences at all points on the sun's limb may 

 be photographed and their velocities determined. That two 

 observers, Prof. Hale and M. Deslandres, should have been 

 simultaneously working to attain the same object is somewhat 

 remarkable. From the various papers published by the former 

 gentleman, it appears that he obtained the first reversals of H 

 and K in prominence spectra about the middle of April, and the 

 first photograph showing the form of a prominence on May 7. 



Encke's Comet {c 1891). — The following ephemeris is from 

 one given by Dr. Backlund in the Bulletin Astronomique for 

 August : — 



Ephemeris for Berlin Midnight. 

 1891. R.A. Decl. Log r. Log .i. 



h. ra. s. o ' // 



Aug. 28 ... 5 2 29 ... -t- 35 8 o ... 0-0563 ... 0-0454 



Sept. I ... 6 31 22 ... 35 9 5 •■• 0-0316 ... 0-0229 



,, 5 ... 7 2 24 ... 34 43 5 ... 0-0045 ... 0-0025 



.. 9 ••• 73536 ... 3340 9 ... 9 '9749 ••• 9*9850 



„ 13 ... 8 10 25 ... 31 58 4 ... 9-9424 - 9-9719 



„ 17 .. 8 45 49 ... 29 29 7 ... 9-9060 ... 9 9638 



,, 21 ... 9 20 59 ... 26 16 9 ... 98655 .. 9-9626 



,, 25 ... 9 55 o ... 22 25 7 ... 9 8200 ... 9-9677 



,, 29 ... 10 27 27 ... 18 4 7 ... 9-7689 ... 9-9727 



Oct. 3 ... 10 58 18 ... 13 22 6 ... 9-7120 ... 9 9983 



„ 7 ... II 27 55 ... 8 27 2 ... 9-6503 ... 0-0223 



„ II ... II 57 2 ... + 3 23 2 ... 9-5897 ... 0-0498 



,, 15 ... 12 26 30 ... - I 44 4 ., 9-5744 ... 0-0783 



,, 19 ... 12 56 53 ... 6 46 I ... 9'5136 ... 0-1050 



„ 23 ... 13 27 41 ••• II 24 3 ... 9-5634 ... 0-1278 



,, 27 ... 13 58 6 ... 15 26 8 ... 9-6187 ... 0-1472 



„ 31 ... 14 27 27 ... -18 49 3 ... 9-6809 ... 0-1646 



The comet is now in Auriga, which is in the north-east about 



10 p.m. On September 8 it passes about 2° north of Castor. 



A New Asteroid (ms).— On August 12, Dr. Palisa observed 

 what may be a new asteroid, or, according to Dr. Berberich, it 

 may turn out to be identical with (i«) or (291). 



