November 9, 1893] 



NA JURE 



Mrs. Fleming upon a photographic plate taken in July. The 

 telegram has been communicated to the observatories in the 

 southern hemisphere. 



"Astronomical Journal " Prize. — Owing to the fact that 

 during the past six months only one comethasbeen discovered, and 

 that its period of visibility was unusually short, and also to the 

 probable prevalence of a bad time of observini; weather daring 

 the winter, the period specified in the ofTer of this prize for 

 observation of comets has been extended by six months. Tiie 

 closing time for this prize will now take place September 30, 

 1894. 



Comet Brooks (October 16). — Last week we gave Bid- 

 schof's elements and ephemeris for this comet. This week, 

 for the sake of comparison {Aitroiioijiischen Nachriclilcn, No. 

 3194), we give the elements of the comet as obtained from 

 the observations made at Hamburg, October 17 ; Greenwich, 

 October iS ; Pola, October 19; .Strassburg, October 23, and 

 Vienna, October 24. They are as follows : — 



Elements, 

 T = 1893 September 19-209 M.T. Be/lin. 



w = 34^7 20-50 ) 

 45 = 174 53"20 iS93'o 

 i = 129 4577 ) 

 log q = 9 '9099 2 

 The current ephemeris is for I2h. Berliri mean time. 



Nov. 



•3 



a App. 

 1. m. s. 

 2 58 50 



o 53 

 2 59 



5 9 



7 22 



9 39 

 12 o 

 14 25 



S App. 



+ 30 27-2 



31 20'6 



32 14-8 



33 9 9 



34 5-8 



35 2-6 



36 0-4 

 36 59'i 



Br. 

 O 82 



o So 



Unit of brightness occurred on October 17. 



Moon Pictures. — In an article on the " Origin of the 

 Lunar Craters," which has appeared in the last two numbers 

 of Proinctheiis (Nos. 212, 213), the writer has been able to 

 secure some excellent illustrations. These pictures are copies 

 from photographs taken at Paris by the lirothers Paul and 

 Prosper Ilenr)-, and diustrate regions near the South Pole. 

 The current number of Knowledge also contains two fine re- 

 productions of lunar photographs obtained by MM. Henry, 

 illustrating an article by Mr. A. C. Ranyard, on the tints of the 

 lunar plains. 



Mete<:>r Showers during November. — During this month, 

 in addition 10 some minor shower-, Mr. Denning's table informs 

 us that there are two which are above the usual brilliancy. 

 The positions of the radiant points are as follows, the two most 

 brilliant being printed in heavier type : — 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



Some anxiety may have been caused amongst Dr. Nansen's 

 friends by reports published in an evening paper from the 

 slender testimony of some Samoyedes, that the Kara Sea was 

 unusually hampered by ice this season. The Nouvellcs 

 Geographiqttes, it is satisfactory to see, reports on the authority 

 of the captains of the Russian vessels carrying railway material 

 to the Yenesei, and of Captain Wiggins, that the navigation of 

 the Kara Sea was particularly easy this summer, the ice being 

 thin and not compact. The Hammerfest whalers also reported 

 that never within human memory has the sea been so free from 

 ice. At the end of December one vessel saw not a single ice- 



NO. 1254, VOL. 40] 



berg between Nova Zemlya and Franz Josef Land. In the 

 Kara Sea the cuirent, which is usually westerly at that season, 

 was this jear running norih-norlh-west, at the rate of a mile an 

 hour. '1 he note indicates that Captain Wiggins enlertaired no 

 doubt of Dr. Narsen having easily reached the New Siberian 

 Islands, which were to be his real starting-point. 



In continuation of the soundings of the English lakes recorded 

 in this column from time to time during the summer, Mr. E. 

 Ileawood, assisted by Mr. Shields, has last week made bathy- 

 metrical surveys of Ennerdale, Buttermere, and Crummock 

 Waters. 



The annual report of the Tyneside Geographical Society 

 shows that there is now a memberthip of loii, and the society 

 generally in a flourishing state. From its headquarters in 

 Newcastle the Tyneside Society extends its operations over a 

 coniiderable area, and has established a regular branch in the 

 city of Durham. 



Dr. John Murray, of the Challenge?-, has written an 

 elaborate paper on the first voyage of Columbus in relation to 

 the development of oceanography. It is published in the 

 current number of the Seotlish Geooraphical Magazine, illus- 

 trated by reproductions of a number of ancient maps. Dr. 

 Murray deals incidentally w iih the origin of the name America, 

 rejecting Horsford's fantastic guess that it came from the name 

 of the Norse explorer Erik the Red, and inclining towards 

 Marcou's theory of its native origin from the Amerrique tribe of 

 Indians in South America. As to Amerigo Vespucci's con- 

 nection with the rame, the author views it .as a playful nick- 

 name given to him on account of the similarity of his Christian 

 name, which was superseded hy A ifierira, just as he himself is 

 frequently called "Challenger Muiray" for the sake of distinction. 



THE EROSION OF ROCK-BASINS. 



T Na recent letter to Nature (vol. xlviii. p. 247, July 13, 1S93), 

 ■^ Sir H. Howcrlh attacks the ^iews of those extreme glacial- 

 ists who hold that a glacier is able, by means of the fragments 

 of rock frozen into its under surface, to excavate rock basins : 

 and with justice, so far as the larger fasins, such as tho-e of 

 the great .Swiss and Italian lakes are concerned, for it has beeii 

 frequently shown, especially by Prof. Bonney, that such a cause 

 is quite inadequate to account for the excavation of those basins. 

 It seems inconceivable that a glacier which is barely able to 

 move the \ooit debris lying in its path, should be able to plough 

 out hard rocks to any dei th whatever below the general valley 

 level. On the other hand, the frequent occurrence of rock 

 basins in regions which are now, or were in former times, 

 subjected to glaciation, is so remarkable, that it appears as 

 though there must be some connection between the two sets of 

 phenomena. 



Sir II. Howorth says that, "so far as we know, the mecha- 

 nical work done by ice is limited to one proces*^. The ice of 

 which glaciers are formed is shod with boulders and widi pieces 

 of rock which have fal'en down their crevasses. These pieces 

 of rock abrade and polish and scratch the rocky bed in which 

 they lie when they are dragged over it liy the moving ice. 

 Without this motion they can of cour.'e effect nothing either as 

 burnishers or excavators." But there is another agent of erosion 

 which is only called into play under the peculiar circumstances 

 afforded by glaciers, and one which, I venture to think, is suffi- 

 cient to account for the formation of these hollows. This is, 

 briefly, the action of the water, derived from the melting of the 

 surface of the glacier. It is now some five years since 1 had the 

 good fortune to be able to explore some of the large glaciers in 

 the higher regions of the Himal.iyas, and formed the conclu- 

 sions which I am now about to put forward ; but it seemed to 

 me so likely that they had occurred to others, and probably been 

 dismissed .as unsatisfactorj- — though of this I could not assure 

 myself, as it is long since I have had access to any library in 

 which pipers relating to such questions might be found— that I 

 hesitated to publish them. It seems, however, from the 

 remark in Sir II. Iloworth's letter, quoted above, that no 

 weight has hitherto been attached to this cause oferosion, how- 

 ever slight it may be, and therefore my observations inay pos- 

 sibly be of some value. 



Before going into details, I wish to draw attention to one or 

 two facts which have been overlooked by Sir H. Howorth, and 

 which have an important bearing on the discussion. In the 

 first place, whatever be the cause of motion, it is an undoubted 



