570 NATURE 
numbers, when the maximum occurs, and the brighter 
meteors, both Perseids and non-Perseids, should be in- 
dividually recorded as regards their apparent paths 
amongst the stars and their durations of flight. 
PHotomMetric TEsts OF SpEcTROscoric BINARIES.— 
Mr. Joel Stebbins gives an account of his photometric 
tests of spectroscopic binaries (Astrophysical Journal, 
vol. xxxix., No. 5), and it is interesting to note that 
the attempt has been successful. His first experiments 
were made in 1904, with a visual photometer ; but, not 
succeeding in finding any new variables, he laid the 
problem aside for a time. The perfection of the 
selenium photometer has led him to renew the tests 
and the results are described in his paper. Using a 
telescope of 12-in. aperture, he has limited himself 
in the first instance to stars brighter than third mag- 
nitude, and arranged his programme of binaries so 
as to observe them at the proper times. Then he 
computes from the spectroscopic elements the instants 
when the longitude from the node is equal to 90° or 
270°, and observes at these times. The observations 
are most difficult because of the exacting requirements, 
and only work on the very first-class nights is pos- 
sible. Mr. Stebbins has considered that the most 
favourable cases for inquiry are the systems of short- 
period and large range of velocity, or those which have 
a large value: for m*, sin *i/(m,+m,). So. far his 
observations have led him. to discover four eclipsing 
stars, while sevet: other stars are considered as con- 
stant. The following table summarises his results :— 
Eclipsing Stars. 
Star Period @ Spectrum mia sin’ 7 
; (724 +72)? 
B Auriga 55 jes 2-00." 4.2.6" si AO - & (O:5e 
Oy @rionis —..., 25:5 (Be hot aes Oe] Bs) wae’ 4 0:00 
a Virginis eae AOU 9 este? Jas @ "OO 
e Corone . 1 MeL ies oy tee cA) sae j 10°06 
Constant Stars. 
a Andromedz 9667-22. Ao ae OATS 
a Aurige . 1O2:02. '%..28' eGo ao Ones 
z Orionis ... 29740. YOES Soe e Lote 
a, Geminorum ... 2:93 “i. Ao +» 0:0097 
a, Geminorum ... 0:22". ca AG 22th  OFOOR5 
¢ Ursz Majoris... 20:54 — 22.0 Ap J.5))) VOrAG 
2 -Scorpiie.. £0 he. 6339" San ot Jo Toe 
LaTITUDE VARIATION 1913-0 TO 1914-:0.—Prof. Al- 
brecht communicates to the Astronomische Nachrich- 
ten, No. 4749, provisional results of the International 
Latitude Service for the period 1913-0 to 1914-0. The 
information is presented in a form similar to those 
previously published, and so is familiar to readers of 
this column. Since 1912 the amplitude of variation 
has become rapidly reduced. A useful diagram 
accompanies the communication displaying graphic- 
ally the track of the pole from 1909-0 to the beginning 
of the present year. 
A CLosE COMPANION TO 7 ArGus.—Mr. R. T. A. 
innes publishes in the Monthly Notices for June (vol. 
Ixxiv., No. 8, p. 697) some details about the magni- 
tude of » Argus and the discovery of a close com- 
panion. The former observations were made as it 
was reported that this star had become a naked eye 
object in 1913, but it is shown here that since 1899 
the magnitude (7-7 about) has not changed, no varia- 
tion greater than the errors of estimation being 
detected. On June to Mr. Innes found that » Argus 
was not a single star, but had a faint companion 
north following (74°, 1”, mags. about 8-0 and 10-5). 
Mr. Innes recalls an observation of his made in 1go0, 
when he found the star single, and he refers to Prof. 
See’s unsuccessful search in 1897 for duplicity. Thus 
he concludes that there is a fair a priori probability 
NOs 232 5,uNOL. OR) 
[JuLy 30, 1914 
that the companion is in orbital movement, and sug- 
gests that the outbursts of light which have occurred 
in the past have been caused by periastral grazings. 
Two other observers corroborated the presence of this 
companion, and it was further noticed at the same 
time that » Argus appeared fuzzy, it being impossible 
to focus this star sharply while neighbouring stars 
of much the same hue, as well as. those both redder 
and yellower, could be sharply focussed. 
RELICS OF A: LOST (CULTURE, IN; 
ARIZONA. 
ne J. WALTER FEWKES gives a detailed and 
fully-illustrated account of his archzological 
investigations of the Casa Grande, and in the Upper 
Verde River and Walnut Creek valleys, Arizona, in 
the Twenty-eighth Annual Report of the Bureau of 
American Ethnology, 1g06-7 (1912). Immediately 
after the discovery of Casa Grande by Father Kino 
in 1694, there arose a legend, which became _per- 
sistent, that it was one of the halting-places of the 
Aztec .on their way south. There is, however, no 
evidence to connect the inhabitants of this building 
with any of the tribes of the Mexican plateau. 
The ruins consist of four compounds and several 
‘*clan houses.’’ The compounds are surrounded by a 
rectangular wall and contain numerous buildings; in 
one there is a large castle-like building, the Casa 
Grande. The builders evolved two distinct types of 
architecture: (1) ‘‘great houses,’’ with thick walls, 
apparently constructed by many persons—features 
which point to these structures as devoted to public 
purposes; (2) one-room habitations with wattle walls, 
provided with a central fire-place in the floor, and with 
a doorway in the middle of one of the long sides. 
The presence of stone idols (of which many are 
figured) indicates a well-developed ceremonial system. 
While the inhabitants possessed effective weapons in 
the form of spears and bows and arrows, they were 
essentially agricultural, cultivating fields of maize, and 
possibly beans, squashes, and the like. They also 
gathered mesquite beans. They wove various fibres 
into coloured belts and cloth, and raised cotton. They 
made basketry and unglazed pottery, which they 
decorated with symbols. In disposing of their dead 
they practised both cremation and inhumation. 
Dr. Fewkes concludes that the whole drainage 
system of the Gila river was inhabited by an agricul- 
tural people in a homogeneous stage of culture. 
Throughout this region existed minor divisions of a 
common stock. The Pima aame Hohokam, or 
Ancients, may be adopted to designate this ancestral 
stock, to whom may be ascribed the erection of the 
casas grandes on the Gila. These ‘‘ great houses” 
were places of refuge, ceremony, and trade. They 
were inhabited by, and ruled by, chiefs, whose names 
are known to the present Pima. The people lived in 
small huts of perishable character, not unlike the 
Pima jacales of historic times. In the course of time 
a hostile faction bent on pillage came into this region 
from the east and west and drove the agriculturists 
out of their casas grandes, or, at least, broke up the 
custom of building such structures. But, although 
dispersed, the ancient house builders were not exter- 
minated ; some of them became refugees and migrated 
south into Mexico, some followed the course of the 
Verde and the Tonto into. the northern mountains; 
but others, perhaps the majority, gradually lost their 
former culture, and remained in the Gila valley, 
becoming the ancestors of the present Pima, Papago. 
and Kwahadt (Quahatika). Those who went north- 
ward later built pueblos, now in ruins, in the Little 
Colorado valley. Their descendants ultimately joined 
De ete Ry! ae 
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