January 31, 1895] 



NA TURE 



327 



tion due to gravitation to the amount of i/30,oooth of the 

 total force. 



The last number of the Izvisiia of the Russian Geographical 

 Society contains a very interesting account of Baron Toll's 

 expedition to Arctic Siberia and the New Siberia Islands. 

 Baron Toll was sent out by the Academy of Sciences to examine 

 the body of a mammoth which was said to have been dis- 

 covered on the banks of the Balakhna, a tributary of the 

 Khatanga Bay, and altogether to continue the work which had 

 been entrusted to Chersky, but wa-; interrupted by his death. 

 Lieut. Shileiko undertook the surveys, as well as the astro- 

 nomical and magnetical oliiervation-. After a three months' 

 journey the two explorers reached the village Kazachiye, at the 

 mouth of the Yana, in 71' north latitude. A visit to the mam- 

 moth soon proved that there was nothing left but a few pieces 

 of skin with its hair clothing, parts of the extremities, and a 

 broken skull of a young mammoth. A number of remarkable 

 explorations and surveys, astronomical and magnetical obser- 

 vations, and geological explorations were, however, carried 

 out. The chief geological result is the settling of the real 

 positions of the layers which contain relics of the mammoth. 

 Tbey are undoubtedly Post-Glacial, as they overlie the masses 

 of underground ice which form the chief rock of the great 

 Lyakhoff Island, and which, as Baron Toll's observations now 

 prove, are remains of the great ice-sheet which formerly 

 covered both the islands and the mainland, and whose moraines 

 have now been discovered on the mainland. Moreover, these 

 ice masses have the typical granulated structure of the glacier 

 ice, which proves that they have originated from the snow-cover, 

 and could not have originated from any sort of running water. 

 .A.S to the Post-Glacial layers which overlie the above, they con- 

 tain, be-ides shells of Cyclas and Valvata and well-preserved 

 insects, full trees of Alnus friiticosa, willows, and birch, fifteen 

 feet high, .ind bearing perfectly well-preserved leaves and cones. 

 The northern limit of tree vegetation thus spread during the 

 Mammoth period full three degrees of latitude higher than it 

 spreads now, i.e. up to the 74th degree, and the mammoths and 

 rhinocerosesof the time lived upon the patches of meadow clothed 

 with the above bushes. It is worthy of note, that the masses of 

 underground ice are not found in the lower parts of the Arctic 

 coast which are known to have been covered by the Post- 

 Pliocene sea, and that they only occur where the land rises a few 

 hundred feet above the present level of the sea — that is, .above the 

 evel of the Post-Pliocene ocean. 



After considerable delay, Murray's " Handbook for Hert- 

 fordshire, Bedfordshire, and Huntingdonshire" has been pub- 

 lished. Brief notes on the geology, botany, and antiquities of 

 these counties are given in an introduction. 



The Matriculation Directory (No. xvii.) of the University 

 Correspondence College has just been received. It contains 

 the examination papers (together with solutions) set at the recent 

 matriculation examination, and also articles on the special 

 subjects for next June, and for January 1896. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardensduring the 

 past week include a Macaque Monkey (Macacus cynoiKol»us, 9 ) 

 from India, presented by Miss Teresa M. L. Monteath ; two 

 Little .\uks(.l/i;/:i.'«/«ja//f) from Norfolk, presented respectively 

 by Mr. Hamon Le Strange and Colonel Feilden ; a Cardinal 

 Grosbeak {Cardinalii virgiitiaiiiis) from North America, 

 presented by Mr. F. Beresford Wright ; two Leopard Tortoises 

 (lesludo partialis), a Cape Bucephalus {Bucephalus capcnsis) 

 from South .\frica, presented by Mr. J. K. Matcham ; two 

 Mantells Apteryx (Aplery.x mantclli) from New Zealand, a 

 Black Iguana {Mctopoceros corniilus) from San Domingo, 

 deposited; a Hog Deer (CV/'J'K^ /;>;'< 7'/;K.t)t born in the Gardens. 



NO. 1318, VOL. 51] 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Natal Observatory. — Mr. NeviU's report upon the 

 work of the Natal Observatory, during the fiscal year ending 

 last June, has been issued. The staff of the Observatory con- 

 sists of an astronomical assistant, a meteorological assistant, 

 and a computor, all of them ladies. In spite of such limited 

 assistance, much important work has been accomplished. The 

 observations of Mars during the opposition of 1892 have been 

 completely reduced ; and as soon as the corresponding observa- 

 tions made at the northern observatories have been reduced 

 and published, it is proposed to compare the two series, and 

 obtain from them a new determination of the distance of the 

 sun. .\ contribution to the knowledge M the variation of lati- 

 tude is included in the report. Since 1884 a number of obser- 

 vations have been made, by Talcott's method, to determine the 

 latitude of the observatory. The observations invite con- 

 sideration, on account of the fact that they were made and re- 

 duced before any special attention had been directed to the 

 variation, 'arising from the suspected periodical inequality, in the 

 direction of the polar axis of the earth. The mean latitude, 

 deduced from the 1023 oiiservations made during the six years 

 1884-1890, was 29° 51' 46"68. The results obtained, from the 

 separate observations of each year, show a steady gradual de- 

 crease since 18S5. The observed latitude of the Observatory 

 seems to have reached a maximum in that year, and to have 

 steadily decreased since, at a nearly uniform rate of o"-27 pel 

 annum. The rate of decrease up to 1890, however, appears to 

 have quickly diminished, indicating a periodical irregularity in 

 the apparent value of the latitude of the Observatory. Mr. 

 Nevill remarks that a great deal of important work has accu- 

 mulated at the Observatory, but the Government of Natal will 

 not afford the necessary facilities for printing and publishing it. 



The New Dudley Observatory. — The disadvantages of 

 the old situation of the Dudley Observatory had long been 

 recognised, but it was not until 1892 that the generosity of 

 Miss Bruce and other " friends and neighbours of the observa- 

 tory," permitted the removal of the observatory to its present 

 more favourable site. From an account given by the Director, 

 Mr. Lewis Boss, in the Astronomical Jonrmil No. 334, we 

 learn that the observatory grounds consist of six acres, 

 situated in an area of about forty acres, designed to form part 

 of the paik system of the City of Albany. The buildings appear 

 to be all that can be desired, and many advantages will no 

 doubt be derived from the provision of dwelling accommodation 

 (or the observers. The Transit Circle provided in 1S57 has been 

 re-erected with sDme slight additions, and it is satisfactory to 

 learn that its large aperture of 0203 m. and focal length of 3 

 metres, is no detriment to its excellence. K new equatorial, 

 denominated the Pruyn, having an aperture of 31 centimetres, 

 has been presented by the sons of a former President of the 

 Board of Trustees. In this instrument, a photographic com- 

 bination is obtained by replacing the flint glass of the visual 

 telescope with a second one, and it is believed that this 

 arrangement will be a complete success. 



No elaborate programme of work is promised, but " the logic 

 of events and inclination invites the observatory to undertake 

 the comprehensive observation and discussion of stars known 

 to have sensible proper motions." The Transit Circle will 

 ace irdingly be devoted to this work, and the equatorial will 

 take a subordinate place, " though it is expected that the 

 zealous young assistants will continue to give a good .account of 

 themselves in work with this instrument, so far as circumstances 

 permit." 



The Milky Way. — Returning to the subject of the distribu- 

 tion of stars in the celestial sphere, C. F.aston {Ast. Nach. 3270) 

 has derived some results of considerable interest by limiting his 

 attention to twocompiratively small regions of the Milky Way, 

 one in .\quila, and another in Cygnus, the latter embracing a 

 specially daik as well as a notably bright region. For each of 

 these regions he finds that the general luminosity of the Milky 

 Way corresponds very much more closely with .Vrgelander's 

 stars of magnitudes 91 95, than with the siars of greater 

 brightness. .\ diagram in which all the stars of the Bonn maps 

 have been reduced to the corresponding number of stars of 

 mag. 9'5, shows very little similarity with the features of the 

 Milky Way. Extending his inquiries to the photographs taken 

 by Dr. Max Wolf, showing stars down to mag. 15, he shows 

 that the very feeble slats followed the same law of distribution 



