20 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGRESS. 



case went to the Supreme Court of the United 

 States. These issues of railroad aid bonds form 

 a portion of the alleged public debt of the 

 State, to repudiate which amendment No. 1 

 was submitted to the electors in 1880, lost by 

 not receiving a constitutional majority, and 

 will be resubmitted at the general election in 

 1884. The significance of Justice Miller's de- 

 cision is in holding the railroads harmless, and 

 throwing the bonds back on the State, which 

 issued them under an act in whose passage the 

 State Supreme Court has decided the necessary 

 forms were not complied with. 



Miscellaneous. The Insane Asylum has been 

 completed, and a State Board of Health organ- 

 ized. The building for a branch normal col- 

 lege for the education of colored teachers, 

 near Pine Bluff, has been completed. 



In March a joint legislative committee re- 

 ported the net deficit of Gov. Churchill's ac- 

 counts, as State Treasurer during three terms, 

 to be $233,616.89, differing widely from the 

 previous report of a Senate committee, which 

 made the deficit about $114,000. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGRESS. 

 Solar Activity. The year 1883 has been char- 

 acterized by considerable disturbance of the 

 sun's surface. The " Comptes Rendus," vol. 

 xcvii, No. 4, describes in detail the phenomena 

 observed from the Irtth to the 23d of July a 

 period of very marked activity. At 4 o'clock 

 on the afternoon of the 16th, M. Thollon saw, 

 on the sun's eastern limb, a most brilliant 

 prominence, in which the spectroscope indi- 

 cated a violent displacement of the C line. At 

 gh. 20m. this displacement was so pronounced 

 that M. Thollon inferred an approach of solar 

 matter at the rate of 186 miles a second ten 

 times the velocity of the earth in its orbit. 

 Somewhat earlier in the afternoon a smaller 

 displacement was observed in the opposite di- 

 rection. On the 21st and 22d, a considerable 

 part of the sun's southern hemisphere gave 

 signs of great agitation. A large group, con- 

 sisting of spots too numerous to be counted, 

 was seen near the eastern margin, and a long 

 chain of spots, at almost regular intervals, 

 stretched across the disk, from limb to limb. 

 On the morning of the 22d a brilliant promi- 

 nence attracted attention, and a number of 

 metallic lines were strongly reversed. M. Thol- 

 lon says he had never, in so short a time, seen 

 so many large displacements of the spectral 

 lines. 



Total Eclipse of May 6, 1883. This eclipse was 

 observed at Caroline Island, in the South Pa- 

 cific Ocean, by parties from the United States, 

 Paris, and Vienna. The expedition sent by 

 the United States Government was under the 

 direction of Prof. Edward S. Holden, of the 

 Washburn Observatory, at Madison, Wis. Oth- 

 er members of the party were Lieut. Brown, of 

 the Navy ; Prof. Hastings, of the Johns Hop- 

 kins University; Prof. 0. S. Peirce, of the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey ; and Mr. 0. H 

 Rockwell, of Tarry town, N. Y. It had been 



hoped by astronomers that the question of the 

 existence of an intra-Mercurial planet would 

 be definitely settled, as a special search had 

 been arranged for by two parties of observers. 

 The state of the atmosphere was favorable, the 

 duration of totality was unusually long, and 

 Prof. Holden himself swept the region about 

 the sun with all possible attention. His search, 

 however, was entirely unsuccessful. The facts 

 of the case are thus exceedingly perplexing. 

 That fixed stars, whose positions were well 

 known, should have been mistaken for planets 

 by two experienced observers, such as Watson 

 and Swift, seems almost incredible. On the 

 other hand, it is at least equally improbable 

 that Professors Holden and Palisa, with more 

 time for the search, should have failed to de- 

 tect a planet, if any were visible. During to- 

 tality, M. Trouvelot noticed a reddish star of 

 the fifth magnitude not far from the sun 

 which he has not since been able to identify. 



Markings and Spots on Mercnry. " The Month- 

 ly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society " 

 for March, 1883, contains the results of the re- 

 cent observations of Mercury by Mr. W. F. Den- 

 ning, of Bristol, Eng., and Sig. Schiaparelli, of 

 Milan, Italy. The former saw several dark, 

 irregular spots on the mornings of Nov. 6, 7, 

 9, and 10, 1882; also a small bright spot and 

 a large white area. The south horn of the 

 planet was also seen on several mornings to be 

 very much blunted. Both Denning and Schia- 

 parelli find the markings on Mercury much 

 more distinct than those on Venus. They find, 

 moreover, that the former bears a more strik- 

 ing resemblance, in its physical aspect, to Mars 

 than to Venus. Without undertaking to give 

 an exact determination of Mercury's rotation- 

 period, Mr. Denning expresses the opinion, con- 

 curred in by Schiaparelli, that Schroeter's pe- 

 riod of 24"' 5 m - 30 s - is too short. The observa- 

 tions of these astronomers give promise that 

 this element, hitherto somewhat doubtful, may 

 soon be accurately found. 



The Transit of Venus on Dee. 6, 1882. The va- 

 rious expeditions sent to different parts of the 

 world to observe the transit of Venus in 1882 

 were generally successful. At the Naval Ob- 

 servatory, Washington, D. C., Prof. E. Frisby, 

 with the 26-inch equatorial telescope, observed 

 the four contacts as follows: 



First contact 8h. 56m. 45s. 



Second contact... 9 16 9 



Third contact 2 88 57 



Fourth contact 2 58 55 



Capt. Sampson observed with the 9-inch equato- 

 rial telescope as follows : 



Firstcontact 8h. 55m. 9'96s. 



Second contact 9 16 18-96 



Third contact 2 89 56-11 



Fourth contact Uncertain. 



The observations at Princeton, N. J., were re- 

 ported by Prof. Young in the " Sidereal Mes- 

 senger " for January, 1883. All four of the 

 contacts were observed. One hundred and 

 eighty-eight photographs were taken by Prof. 

 Bracket. The spectroscopic observations by 



