448 
NATURE 
[| Marcu 7, 1907 
STARS HAVING PEcuLIAR SrEcTRA.—Circular No. 124 of 
the Harvard College Observatory contains the particulars 
of a number of variable stars and other objects which the 
Henry Draper memorial photographs, examined by Mrs. 
Fleming, show to have peculiar spectra. 
The chief peculiarities are bright or multiple hydrogen 
lines, as, for example, in the spectrum of B.D.+47°-939, 
a 4-5 magnitude star in Perseus, in which H@ is bright 
and the lines Hy and Hé appear to be double, probably 
because fine bright lines are superposed on them. A star 
in Scorpio, of magnitude 7-1, is found to have a spectrum 
similar to that of ¢ Puppis. Several of the variable stars 
mentioned show a range of about five magnitudes. 
SIMULTANEOUS DISPARITION OF JUPITER’s Four SATEL- 
LITES.—From a study of the phenomena of Jupiter’s 
satellites, Signor Enzo Mora finds that on October 3, 
1907, all four of the larger moons will be invisible, for 
several minutes, at the same time, and, as this is a rare 
occurrence, he directs attention to the matter in No. 4148 
of the Astronomische Nachrichten. From 7h. 48m. to 
7h. 54m. (Greenwich Civil Time) No. 1 will be eclipsed 
and occulted, No. 2 will be in transit, No. 3 will be 
eclipsed, and No. 4 occulted. The satellites will again 
be invisible at 9 p.m. on the same evening. The last time 
this phenomenon occurred was October 21, 1895, and, 
after October next, it will not occur again until October 
22, 1913. 
PHoToGrapHs oF Farnt Stars.—In Circular No. 123 of 
the Harvard College Observatory Prof. E. C. Pickering 
outlines a plan by which the information to be gathered 
from photographs of stellar regions, taken by numerous 
observers in various countries, may become readily avail- 
able to anyone in search of such information. For stars 
of the thirteenth magnitude and brighter, the Harvard 
collection of photographs largely supplies the necessary 
data. For example, for each of the stars of magnitude 
5-0 and brighter, some 2000 in number, the collection con- 
tains about one thousand photographic images taken during 
the last twenty years; similarly, for the thirteenth magni- 
tude stars, about five million in number, there are about 
200 images of each. 
Prof. Pickering now suggests that anyone having in their 
possession photographs which might furnish useful inform- 
ation, such as the earlier appearance of Nova, variable 
stars, &c., should publish particulars of the same, or should 
forward to him the necessary information in order that it 
may be included in a publication which the Harvard 
authorities are preparing, and so become available 
generally. 
MopgL To ILLUSTRATE EFFECTS OF THE Eartn’s Rota- 
TION.—In No. 7 (February, 1907) of the Comptes rendus 
M. G. Blum describes a simple apparatus for reproducing 
the phenomena observed in the Foucault-pendulum experi- 
ment for showing the earth’s rotation. Briefly, the 
apparatus consists of a sphere, representing the earth, and 
a small pendulum which may be made to oscillate on its 
surface in any latitude. The sphere rotates on an axis, 
and is slotted along a meridian so that the gallows carry- 
ing the pendulum may be clamped on to it at different 
points representing different latitudes. The oscillation of 
the pendulum—which consists of a thin wooden rod with 
a small wooden bob—is produced by a coiled spring, and 
always takes place in a plane normal to the sphere. With 
this apparatus the rotation of the plane of oscillation with 
regard to that of the sphere may be shown to be equal 
in period and opposite in sense at the poles, and to have 
a slower period as it approaches the equator, the change 
being so marked that it can be readily seen and its nature 
recognised. ; 
PROMINENCE OrsERVaTIONS (1906).—No. 1, vol. xxxvi. 
(1907), of the Memorie della Societa degli Spettrosco pisti 
Ttaliani contains a posthumous note of Prof. Mascari 
giving the results of the solar-prominence observations 
made at Catania during the first half of 1906. Three 
hundred and forty prominences were observed on eighty- 
seven days, giving a daily frequency of 3-91. In the 
northern hemisphere the daily frequency was 2-32 and the 
mean heliographic latitude 31°-6, the corresponding figures 
for the southern hemisphere being 1-59 and 209-2 re- 
spectively. 
NO. 1949. VOL. 75] 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, 
SUNSHINE and Snowfall in 1906.—In Symons’s Meteor- 
i ological Magazine for January, Mr. R. H. Curtis gives 
an interesting summary, with map, of the bright sun- 
shine over the British Isles, registered by the Campbell- 
Stokes (burning) recorder. The year was one of the 
sunniest on record; the most favoured region was the 
English Channel, all stations from Torquay to Lowestoft 
recording approximately 2000 hours of sunshine. At inland 
stations the amount became less, yet, broadly speaking, 
all the region south of a line drawn from the Humber to 
the Bristol Channel received 200 hours more than the 
yearly average. In north-west Scotland the amount was 
below 1200 hours, which was not far from the average of 
that district. The most brilliant months (relatively to their 
possible amounts) were February, April, June, July, and 
September; the most sunless months were May and 
November, in both of which the amounts recorded were 
generally below the average. 
The snowfall is preliminarily dealt with by the editor, 
with especial reference to the storms between December 
25-30, which occurred over nearly the whole of the British 
Isles. Considerably more than half the kingdom received 
above 5 inches, and some districts, especially north-east 
England and the southern uplands of Scotland, from 1 foot 
to 2 feet in depth. In the south of Scotland trains were 
blocked ; Aberdeen was isolated for several days, and a most 
serious railway collision occurred near Arbroath. Although the 
greatest amounts recorded were in Scotland, Dr. Mill points 
out that the severity of the storm in Ireland, where more 
than a foot was recorded in the north and west, was note- 
worthy, owing to its usual immunity from heavy snow- 
falls, an amount of 5 inches over wide districts being very 
unusual there. 
Rainfall of Scotland in May, 1906.—In discussing this 
subject in the Journal of the Scottish Meteorological 
Society, Mr. A. Watt shows that the rainfall of Scotland 
in that month was of a very exceptional character; in the 
eastern districts, generally, the fall was much the heaviest 
in May during the last fifty years. The rainfall on the 
east coast was heavier than that on the west; only a few 
scattered stations towards the north-west did not receive 
as much as 3 inches, about nine-tenths of the mainland 
received at least 4 inches, while a large area in the south 
and south-east and other isolated parts received 6 inches 
and upwards, or about thrice their normal amount. A 
note by Mr. R. C. Mossman on the conditions experienced 
by himself in the Greenland Sea during the month in 
question shows that the weather there was unusually in- 
clement; the characteristic features were high barometric 
pressure, accompanied by strong north-west and north 
winds and gales, very low mean temperature, and densely 
overcast skies. Mr. Mossman states that there can be 
little doubt that the Arctic anticyclone was the dominating 
factor in the production of the abnormal rainfall in Scot- 
land, and also of the unusually high temperatures observed 
in Russia at the same time, referred to in Mr. Watt’s 
paper. 
The Atmosphere in the Tropics.—In the Proceedings of 
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for December, 
1906, Mr. A. L. Rotch gives the results of the Franco- 
American expeditions undertaken at the expense of M. 
Teisserenc de Bort and himself to prove, by means of 
kites and unmanned balloons, the direction of the upper 
return currents above the trade-wind region of the North 
Atlantic. For this purpose M. Teisserenc de Bort pur- 
chased and equipped the steam yacht Otarta, of 350 tons, 
and expeditions were made in the summer of 1905 and in 
the winter (February) of 1906. With regard to the results 
of the first expedition, Mr. Rotch states:—(1) north of 
Madeira and near the Azores the upper winds are chiefly 
from west and north-west; (2) winds blowing towards the 
equator are from north-east to east in the lower region, 
and generally from north-west to north-east above 1000 
metres; (3) the return currents from the equator, or anti- 
trades, are formed by winds having a southerly com- 
ponent, being generally south-west in the latitude of the 
Canaries, and south-east near the Cape Verdes. As most 
of the observations of direction of the upper currents found 
by Prof. Hergesell during the cruises of the Princesse Alice 
