January, 1907 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



acted very powerfully on the lunar surface, and showed 

 a variety of details not marked in Beer and Madler's 

 map. 



The accompanying sketch which is a copy of the one 

 made by Dr. Woods, a physician, 60 years ago at Parsons- 

 town (now called Birr), shows the original instrument 

 with its machinery. The tube is 26 feet long, and the 

 whole is supported on 4 wheels running on the iron circle. 

 The pivot on which it turns, the wheel and axle for rais- 

 ing or lowering the instrument, the counterpoises, and the 

 observer's gallery will be easily recognized. It certainly 

 was then regarded as the finest instrument in the world, 

 until it was surpassed and thrown into comparative in- 

 significance by the mighty 6 feet speculum, erected close 

 by, and which remains to this day the largest of its kind. 

 This was completed in 1842. It was very pleasing to 

 note that the whole of the machinery, buildings, and 

 everything connected with both of these instruments was 

 done by local artisans and under the immediate superin- 

 tendence of the great astronomer, who died October 31st, 

 1867. Looking at the original and the modern 3 feet tele- 

 scope, we see that many alterations and improvements 

 have been made. Under the present Earl it wears an 

 entirely different aspect to that which it wore in that 

 memorable month of September, 1839. Of late years it 

 has been employed very largely for planetary observations. 

 From i8Si to 1886 the planet Jupiter especially was the 

 object upon which a great amount of attention was be- 

 stowed. When it was first completed it was mounted as 

 a Newtonian on an altazimuth stand, but as that was not 

 altogether suitable for observations requiring absolute 

 accuracy, it was afterwards mounted equatorially, which 

 renders it adapted for photographic and spectroscopic 

 work. Here it may be observed that a most important 

 achievement in astronomical science was made by 

 means of this 3 feet reflector. It was for a long 

 time a debated question among scientists, "Does 

 the earth receive any heat from the Moon? ' It 

 was at last decisively settled by the aid of this 

 instrument that lunar heat does enter our atmo- 

 sphere, though the amount is extremely small, being 

 about one twenty-thousandth part of a degree (Fahr.), 

 and to the labours and observations of the present 

 holder of the title this addition to our scientific knowledge 

 is due. These lunar heat observations are still being 

 pursued. 



Such is a brief account of the history of this remark- 

 able instrument, and though not to be compared with its 

 powerful 6 feet neighbour, still it has rendered, and will do 

 so under the present skilful management and direction, 

 ever-increasing help in research into the vast domains 

 of the Universe. 



Who's Who (or 1907.— We have received a copy of TF/io's 

 IVhii for 1907 (.\. and C. Black ; los. 6d.), which has been 

 revised, corrected, and considerably aup^mcntcd. It is so 

 entirely trustworthy and complete a book of reference thai 

 it inspires one with a feeling of wonder as to what the 

 world's workers did without it in the years prior to its 

 publication. It now numbers 2,000 pages and more than 

 ten times that number of biotjr.'iphies. \o praise roiild be 

 too hijijh for its thorouf^^hncss and completeness. 



Who's Who Year Book, pulili^hcd by tlie saiiie publishers 

 at tlie price of .-i shillintf, supplements the larger volume 

 witli a valuable collection, in tabular form, of scientific, 

 official Parliamentary, social, university, ;uid nrtistic in- 

 formation. It is a compressed directory. 



A New Volcanic Island. 



The Third Bogoslof. 



Some weeks after the Californian earthquake, the 

 officers and crew of the U.S. Fish Commission Steamer 

 Albatross, while on their way, under Captain L. \l. 

 Garrett, to investigate, with Professor Charles H. 

 Gilbert, the fisheries of Japan, passed the group of 

 islands known as the Bogosiofs, and to their astonish- 

 ment, perceived that a third island had been added to 

 the other two. Professor Gilbert, in a personal letter 

 concerning the first sight of the island, on May 28, 

 writes : — 



When I saw the Bogosiofs in 1890 there were really two 

 small islands about I5 miles apart, one of them steaming 

 and the other cooled off. [.As will presently appear, all three 

 of the islands were of volcanic origin, one having arisen 

 more than a centur)-, and the other twenty-three years, ago.] 

 This has been the condition for a number of years, so the 

 hot one had received the name of Fire Island, the cold one. 

 Castle Island. When they came in sight yesterday, we were 

 astonished to find that Fire Island was no longer smoking, 

 and that a very large third island had arisen half-way be- 

 tween the other two. It was made of jagged, rugged lava, 

 and was giving off clouds of steam and smoke from any 

 number of little craters scattered all over it. .\round these 

 craters, the rocks were all crusted with yellow sulphur. 



In a later letter, written from ^'okohama. Dr. Gilbert 

 said : — 



I wrote you a full account of Bogoslof, but the letter 

 seems to have miscarried. Our discovery seems to have 

 been corroborated later by some revenue cutter, but if the 

 newspaper report agrees with their findings, very extensive 

 changes took place in the interval between the two visits. 

 When seen by us, the new cone, occupying much of the 

 space between the two older ones, was somewhat higher 

 than either, but was certainly far from qoo feet high — 300 

 feet would be an extreme figure. There was no evidence of 

 a central crater. The steam and fumes were given off 

 most abundantly from cracks and fumaroles on the slopes. 

 .About these were heavy incrustations of sulphur. We saw 

 no indications of boiling water, nor did we believe that 

 landing would be impossible. 



.As we have said in parenthe,sis, all three of the Bogo- 

 siofs, which are about uo miles south of the PribvlofT 

 Seal Islands, have risen from the sea. hot and steaming, 

 in historic times. The Pribyloff Islands, as Professor 

 Starr Jordan remarks in an article on the Bogosiofs, in 

 the Popular Science Monthly (New York), had an origin 

 similar to that of the Bogosiofs. That thev are of 

 volcanic origin, their composition leaves no room for 

 doubt. Of the older Bogosiofs, one of which has for 

 twenty years been known as New Bogoslof, Dr. Grove 

 Gilbert, writing seven years ago, and noting the rapid 

 disintegration of the islands, predicted that in this 

 century the name Bogoslof would. attach onlv to a reef 

 or shoal, were it not for the possibility of new orup- 

 tion.s. 



It may be noted as a curious example of scientific 

 prescience that Dr. Gilliert went on to say : — " The 

 pulse of the volcano is so slow that we have noted only 

 two beats in more than a century, but such sluggish- 

 ness must not be taken as a symptom of death, or even 

 decline, for volcanic organisms are characteristically 

 spasmodic in their activity. I-ong liefore the sea has 

 established its perfect sway the arteries of the mountain 

 may again be opened and a new and larger island put 

 forth to contest its supremacy." The pulse of the 

 volcano has certainly quickened, and the floor of the 

 Behring Sea in this region s«vms tn l>e still unsettled, 



