94 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[February 1, 1887. 



maintains the conservative view of his earlier works. We 

 in England are well supplied with books which, like Tylor's 

 " Anthropology," render the present work superfluous, with 

 the exception that we have nothing like it in the collection 

 of illustrations conveniently grouped inside one cover. 



Avstraliana ; or, My Early Life. By Richmond Henty. 

 (Sampson Low & Co.) — There is a not unpleasant egotism 

 running throughout this book, the author of which can 

 boast of being the first white native of the first settlement 

 of Victoria. He has much of interest to tell us of the 

 aborigines of the Colony, upon whom the white man's fire- 

 water and other poisons have wrought theii- devastating 

 work, and of the early condition of the settlements at the 

 Antipodes. We wish that the space given to descriptions of 

 his visits to the Old World and to family afiairs, including 

 the uninteresting fact to outsiders that the author's marriage 

 took place in the presence of a large company at St. George's, 

 Hanover Square, had been filled with details of colonial 

 life. Upon this, however, the author has much to say that 

 will commend his book to intending emigrants. 



Historic Tovms : London. By W. J, Loftie. (Long- 

 mans.) — This is the first volume of a series which will treat 

 of our principal towns with reference to the special part 

 which each has played in the general history of England. 

 The scheme is an admirable one, in view of the growing 

 revival of that municipal spirit amongst us which has made 

 England the nur.sing mother of free governments, and the 

 present volume could not have been entrusted to fitter 

 hands, Mr. Loftie having proved himself in all respects a 

 worthy successor of the chroniclers of the annals of this 

 mightiest and most intere.Kting of the world's cities. We 

 especially commend this volume to young men. 



Very Short Stories. By Mrs. W. K. Clifford. (Walter 

 Scott.) — The authoress of " Anyhow Stories " gives fresh 

 evidence, in these peeps into the wonderment of child-life 

 and " snatches of mysterious song " which make up this 

 little book, of that weii-d power which attracts the old as 

 well as young to her stories. Thoughts, the significance of 

 which almost escape us in the simplicity of the language, are 

 scattered with no show of art amongst the prose and verse, 

 some of which is new, and the rest of which we are glad to 

 greet again in this cheap and tasty form. 



All Bound the Clock, by H. M. Bennett and E. E. 

 Mack ; Christmas Roses ; and Under the Mistletoe, by 

 L. Lanon and R. E. Mack. (Griflith, Fai-ran, & Co.)— If 

 our notice of these charming books for children is a month 

 too late to commend them as Christmas gifts, it may, in 

 separating them from the crowd, secure them merited atten- 

 tion from all well-disposed sisters, cousins, and aunts who 

 have birthday presents in view. The illustrations in each 

 book are of exquisite softness. 



The same publishers also send us a specimen of their 

 quaint and pretty Court Address Book, and of both Pettitt's 

 and Blackwood's Diaries. Messrs. Philips are to the fore 

 with a Jubilee Atlas, which suitably embraces maps of 

 Great Britain, India, and the Colonies. We have also 

 received Wltitaker's Almanack, with the present size and con- 

 tents of which indispensable annual we hope Mr. Whitaker 

 will rest as content as we are. St. Nicholas, which con- 

 tinues to be far and away the best magazine for young folks, 

 now passes into the enterprising hands of Mr. Fisher Unwin. 

 In Dickens's Christmas Carol and Chimes, Messi-s. CasseU 

 conclude the first year of their cheap and excellent weekly 

 issue entitled " The National Library." The most attractive 

 feature of the cun-ent number of Longman's Magazine is 

 Mr. Eider Haggard's " Allan Quatermain," a sequel to his 

 " King Solomon's Mines." Messi-s. Watson Brothers (Bir- 

 mingham) send us Parts IX. and X. of Mr. Teall's British 



Petrography ; and Mr. Cole his instalment of Stmlies in 

 Microscopical Science, both of which issues maintain their 

 high excellence in test and illustration. The current num- 

 ber of Walford's Antiqimrian opens with an interesting 

 paper, the first of a series, on " Domesday Book," and gives 

 a sprightly absti-act of that rare book of travels — •' Tom 

 Coryate's Ciudities." 



THE FACE OF THE SKY FOR FEBRUARY. 



By F.E.A.S. 



HE continued quiescence of the sun's surface 

 renders him a very uninteresting object in the 

 telescope. The night sky will be found depicted 

 in map ii. of " The Stars in their Seasons." 

 Minima of Algol will occur at Ih. 12m. A.M. on 

 the 8th, at lOh. Im. p.m. on the 10th, at 6h. 50m. 

 P.M. on the 13th, and at other times too incon- 

 venient for the ordinary amateur obser%-er. Mercury 

 is an evening star, and at the end of the mon'h 

 on very clear evenings may be detected with the naked eye a little 

 above the horizon, somewhat to the south of west. Venus is an 

 evening star too, and, like Mercury, may be seen for a short time 

 after sunset at the end of February. Mars is invisible, and -Jupiter 

 does not rise until between ten and eleven o'clock at night, even at 

 the end of the month. Saturn is visible all night long, and is a 

 splendid object in the telescope. He is quite close to the star 

 5 Geminorum (" The Stars in their Seasons,'' map ii.). Uranus is 

 out of sight. Neptune remains in the position some 65° south, and 

 just to the west of the Pleiades, to which reference has been made 

 more than once lately in these columns (" The Stars in their 

 Sensons," map i.). The moon enters her first quarter at 8h. 26-8m. 

 a.m. on the 1st, and is full at lOh. 43 3m. on the morning of the 

 8th. She enters her last quarter at Ih. 32m. a.m. on the 15th, and 

 is new at 9h. 40-2m. P.M. on the 22nd. Of the eight occultations 

 of stars by the moon which will happen during February, four only 

 occur at times convenient for the amateur. They are as follow : — 

 On the evening of the 3rd at 6h. 26m. P.M., B A.C. 1526, a star of 

 the 6th magnitude, will disappear at the moon's dark limb at an 

 angle of 122° from her vertex, reappearing at her bright limb at 

 7h. 24m. P.M. at a vertical angle of 233°. On the 6th, 3 Cancri, a 

 6th magnitude star, will disappear at the dark limb at tlh. 17m. p.m. 

 at a vertical angle of 77°. It will reappear at the bright limb at 

 lOh. 27m. P.M., at an angle of 239° from the vertex of the moon. On 

 the 7th, 54 Cancri, of the 6ith magnitude, will disappear at the dark 

 limb of the moon at 4h. 2ym. P.M., at an angle of 77° from her vertex. 

 It will reappear at her bright limb at 5h. 14m. P.M., at a vertical 

 angle of 195°. Lastly, on the 11th, 46Virginis, a 6th magnitude star, 

 will disappear at the bright limb of the moon at llh. 17m. p.m., at a 

 vertical angle of 23°, to reappear at her dark limb at 19 minutes 

 after midnight at an angle of 226° from her vertex. At noon to-day 

 the moon is in Aries (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxiii.), which 

 at midnight she quits for Taurus. She is travelling across Taurus 

 until 5h. 30m. P.M. on the 4th, at which hour she arrives on the 

 boundary of the northern extension of Orion. When by 5 o'clock 

 in the morning of the 5th she has traversed this, she emerges in 

 Gemini (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxiv.). Her passage through 

 Gemini occupies her until Sh. 30m. P.M. on the 6th, when she enters 

 Cancer ; which she quits in turn for Leo, at 6h. A.M. on the 8th. 

 She is crossing Leo until 3h. P.M. on the 10th, passing at that hour 

 into Virgo (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxv.). She remains in 

 Virgo until 2h. p.m. on the 13th, when she enters Libra (" The 

 Seasons Pictured," plate xxvi.). In the course of her journey 

 through Libra, she comes at 8h. 30m. A.M. on the 15th to the 

 western edge of the narrow northern strip of Scorpio. By 6 o'clock 

 the same evening she has crossed this and entered Ophiuchus. 

 Passing through this part of Ophiuchus and a little bit of the 

 extreme southerly part of Serpens, she enters Sagittarius at noon 

 on the 17th. At midnight on the 19th she leaves Sagittarius for 

 Capricornus ("The Seasons Pictured," plate xxi.). Skirting the 

 boundaries of Capricornus and Aquarius, after the early morning of 

 the 21st, she finally enters the last-named constellation at 4h. A.M. 

 on the 22nd. At 6h. A.M. on the 24th she passes out of Aquarius 

 into Pisces (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxii.). She is journeying 

 through Pisces until noon on the 27th, when she quits that great 

 straggUng constellation for the north-west corner of Cetus. By 

 4h. A.M. on the 28th her journey across this is completed, and she 

 has left it for Aries ("The Seasons Pictured," plate xxiii.). She is 

 still in Aries at midnight on the 28th. 



