NoVK.MBtR, 1901.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



Observatory. Greenwich, in the following tenns (Aug. 

 21): — " A carefnl consideration of tlio various negat'ives 

 led njo to tlie conclusion that the ' sharp penumbra. ' 

 round the .Vori? .< photographic image is not objective — 

 thit is. I do not consider it as a real ncbulositv. Its 



Sda]« ot Minut«s et Xn..- 



i 1' y *• 



Image ot thp Nova with All exposure 

 of li^'JO'' 1901. August 20. 



radiated structure laakes mc rather think that the 

 phenomenon might be due to a difference m the nature 

 of the yovd'x light, as compared to that of the other 

 stai-s." The answer was (Aug. 23) : — " Mr. Ellis noticed 

 last March that its image was much less shaqj than 

 other stars. I believe his photographs were taken with 

 a reflector, so, that a difference in the quality of its light 

 would not explain this, though it might in the case of 

 photographs taken with a refractx)r, as I believe yours 

 were. ' It will be seen that this reply of Mr. Crommelin's 

 hits at once upon the right interpretation, as drawing 

 attention to the possibility that -the Xovn might emit 

 rays for which the object glass is not corrected — an idea 

 which received an exioerimental corroboration, a few 

 houi-s later, at the hands of Prof. Max Wolf, of Heidel- 

 berg, who. by stopping one-half of his glass, so a.s to 

 give the exposed part a semicircular form, obtained a 

 semicircular " aureola " on the plate. In a recent letter, 

 Prof. Wolf attributes the lesser " aureola " to green 

 rays, the larger one to violet. The subject is worth 

 closer investigation, and it would be interesting to have 

 the opinions of our best authorities on it. 



Utttev. 



[The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for the opinions 

 or statements of correspondents.] 



AMONGST ANTARCTIC ICEBERGS. 



TO THE EDITORS OF KNOWLEDGE. 



Sirs, — Having quite lately returned to England from 

 New Zealand, via Cape Horn, I think an account of 

 our voyage — as it proved a somewhat eventful one — 

 may interest your readers. I was a passenger on board 

 one of the New Zealand Shipping Company's newest 

 and finest ships, and those who know that company, 

 will not need to be told we were in excellent hands with 

 the commodore of their fleet as our commander. We 

 left Wellington on Thursday afternoon, August 15th, 

 and put on an extra Friday, whieh we called 

 "Antipodes" (as we were crossing the Meridian which 

 passes through the Islands of that name), and thus 

 lived through the IGth day of the month a second time 

 in order to make our dates tally on arrival in England. 

 By Tuesday, 20th, therefore, we had made a six davs' 



run from New Zealand, and at mid-day we were at 

 56.14 S., 151.11-1 W.. with a light ea.sterly breeze, and 

 the sky overcast. Wc had nearly linislied dinner that 

 evening at about 7.15 oclock, when the captain and 

 the chief officer were both called away. News at sea 

 spreads like wildfire, and it wa.s but a few minutes 

 afterwards that everyone knew there was a very hu'ge 

 iceberg on our port side. It al.so requires but little to 

 get up excitement at sea; and we were niore or less 

 all taken by surprise, as it is the rarest occurrence to 

 pass an iceberg, even in thoso latitudes, in the monlli 

 of August or even in September, as it is then only just 

 past niid-wintei-. It. had been liiti iisilij cold all day. 

 with a feeling in the air which no doubt accounts For 

 the sailors' expression of " smelling ice." Very soon 

 we had another iceberg to our starboard. A few 

 minutes later and we had three about us. then seven. 

 and by the time wo turned in we had the uncomfort- 

 able, and somewhat uncanny knowledge that there were 

 no less than twelve icebergs /// ai;//// ; and this at night. 

 so how manv tliore may have been in reality, no one 

 can tell. 



There could be but (juc opinion as to what would 

 hapjicn had the ship run into an iceberg, as we were 

 then at least 1600 knots from land, and but few ships 

 pass that way. 



In the morning wc awoke to find ourselves siirnmnded 

 by seventeen icebergs, the number increasing through- 

 out the day, until at one moment I myself counted 

 thirty-two altogether, and there were floes of ice all 

 about us. 



On one occasion, during that first night, as we were 

 slowly coasting round a monster of about three miles 

 long, the captain suddenly discovered that it was joined 

 iiiu/er fJie irater In a berg on our other side. A great 

 block had probably fallen away. It was just towards 

 dawn and the light was so extremely bad that it was 

 just a mere chance that the rippling of water over the 

 covered ice showed our danger. To have continued 

 would have meant certain disaster. The starboard 

 engine was at once reversed so that the ship might 

 luin more quickly than she could have answered to 

 the rudder, and we rounded our adversary on the 

 southern side. We were amongst the icebergs alto- 

 gether about sixty hours, for it was not before Friday 

 at mid-day that we were finally cleai" of them. Not 

 only were they quite unexpected, but neither the 

 captain (in over fifty voyages round the world) nor any 

 of the officers in all their experience had ever come 

 across icebergs either in size or number to equal those 

 which made ours a record voyage. 



Some idea of the number passed in the space of two 

 days and a half may be formed when I say that 707 

 really large bergs were actually xightfil ; and it was 

 estimated that altogether we must have passed about 

 120i) of them. In size they were gigantic. Some were 

 one, two. and three miles in length, and one was five 

 miles long. In height they varied from 50 to 450 feet, 

 and one had a peak considerably higher. (These 

 measurement* were ta.ken by sextant.) When it is con- 

 sidered that only l/7th of an iceberg's bulk is visible 

 above water, some idea of their stvqicndous size may 

 be gained from the above measurements. The captain 

 could only suggest as a reason for their presence at 

 such ail unwonted time of year, and in such numbers 

 and magnitude, that some great volcanic disturbance 

 had taken place in the Antarctic regions, probably 

 caused by the active volcanoes, Mount Erebus and 

 Mount Terror, in whose neighbourhood hot springs are 



