February, 1Q07.] 



KNOWLEDGE Sc SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



31 



activity in other reg-ions, especially in regions of 

 volcanic origin or geological weakness. It is an ascer- 

 tained fact that the vast hollow of the Pacific Ocean is 

 encircled in all latitudes by a ring- of volcanic foci, 

 whether active or dormant. 



It is interesting to notice that the situation of the 

 .Meutian Islands, is, in certain respects, very similar to 

 the situation of the British Islands, so that geographi- 

 cally, they represent our islands on the other side of 

 the Northern Hemisphere. The latitude of Bogoslof 

 proper is about 54° N., which is about the latitude of 

 York. Assuming-, as is indicated by the information 

 received, that the new island is about 120 miles farther 

 north, its latitude will be rather less than 56° N. This 

 is virtually the latitude of Edinburgh, the latitude of 

 the summi't of the Calton Hill being 5.^° 57' 23" N. In 

 longitude the .iMeutian Islands extend a great distance 

 both east and west of the i8oth meridian. That 

 meridian, as every schoolboy knows, is simply an ex- 

 tension of the meridian of Greenwich, the Greenwich 

 meridian and the iSoth meridian forming together one 

 great circle around the earth passing through both 

 Poles. 



The Bogoslof Islands themselves are, however, some- 

 what to the east of the 180th meridian, their longitude 

 being- about 168° W. 



The correspondence in the latitude and the similarity 

 in the longitude of the British Islands and the Aleutian 

 Islands are rendered the more noticeable in view of the 

 relative position of each group of islands to the great 

 continents. The British Islands, including the neigh- 

 bouring small islands, form (as regards longitude) an 

 archipelago lying between the continent of Europe and 

 the continent of Xorth ."Xmerica; while the Aleutian 

 Islands form an archipelago lying between the continent 

 of North .America and the continent of Asia. The 

 British Islands, however, are a consolidated group, 

 while the .Meutian Islands are a fragmentary chain. 

 The British Islands extend chiefly northward and south- 

 ward, while the Aleutian Islands extend eastward and 

 westward. The total area of the .Aleutian Islands is 

 estimated at about 6,391 square miles, while the United 

 Kingdom has an area of 120,677 square miles. Of 

 course, the area of each of the three islands forming 

 the Bog-oslof group is quite trifling, probably not more 

 than two or three square miles, if so much. 



The resemblance which the geog-raphical position of 

 this insig-nificant archipelago bears to the geographical 

 position of our own country bring-s into more striking 

 contrast the tremendous difference which, in almost 

 every other respect, exists between the British Islands 

 and the .'\leutian Islands. Although the latitude of 

 the Aleutian Islands is similar to our own, the climate 

 is very different, being more like that of Iceland than 

 that of Great Britain. The mean temperature in Una- 

 laska is 38.3° P., and, as is usual in the case of small 

 islands some distance away from any large extent of 

 land, the range of the temperature is not excessive. 

 In the British Islands the soil generally is good, and it 

 is highly cultivated; in the .'\leutian Islands the land 

 generally is rocky and barren, and fishing- and sealing 

 are almost the sole industries. In this country the 

 population is dense, and the people arc advanced in 

 civilisation; there the population is scanty, and the 

 pt'ojile are but partially cixilised. The crow-ning feature 

 of the strange contrast is supplied by Nature herself. 

 The complement of the British Islands, from a geo- 

 logical point of view, was made up untold centuries 

 ;igo; while the .'\leutian Islands are still on the increase, 

 having- grown by three since the time of the French 

 Re\'ohition, b\- two since the battle of Tel-el-Kebir. 



The La.te Miss Agnes M. Gierke. 



With the deepest regret we have to announce the death 

 of Miss .Agnes Mary Gierke, which took place on Sun- 

 day, January 20. Miss Gierke was sixty-four years of 

 age. 



In the columns of " Kxowledge," to which Miss 

 Gierke was so often an inspired contributor, it is hardly 

 necessary to speak of her commanding: gifts as an ex- 

 positor of science; it is hardly more necessary, in ad- 

 dressing an audience which embraces so many astro- 

 nomical readers, to refer to her position in the 

 astronomical world. It was said by an appreciative 

 critic of her work, in one of the obituary notices that 

 have already been written concerning her, that she was 

 not a practical astronomer in the ordinary sense. That 

 is quite true; and it is probably also true that the ab- 

 sence of the hard, grinding, day-by-day study of details 

 whi"h are an indispcn'-'ililc part of the equipment of 



rUiiUiijTajih bij Elliot tt Fry. 

 The Late Miss Agnes M. Gierke. 

 (Reproduced by permission of the '^ Daily Graphic.*') 



those who laboriously disclose the truths of science may 

 detract from the lasting value of some of her work. 

 But these qualities, the absence of which mars the man 

 of science, may make the philosopher; and, as the hand- 

 maiden of astronomy, as one who held a lamp aloft 

 that others might examine its discoveries and its 

 theories, Miss Gierke, in our belief, stands unrivalled 

 in her day. We may enumerate some of her works to 

 show the solidity of what she did :— " Problem.s in 

 Astrophysics," "A History of .Astronomy in the Nine- 

 teenth Century," "The .System of the Stars, Fhe 



Herschels and Modern .Astronomy," " Modern Cos- 

 mogonies " (which appeared in "'Knowledge"), and 

 unnumbered articles, essays, and reviews. But the 

 enumeration conveys little idea of the work that she did; 

 for she brought to bear on the systematisation of such 

 subjects as therein are indicated an unrivalled power of 

 interpretation. We gnitefully acknowledge the justice 

 of the appreciation iii the Times:—" No worker in the 

 vast field of modern sidereal astronomy opened by the 

 genius of Herschel and greatly widened liy the apjilica- 

 tion of the spectroscope to the chemical and physical 



