May 1 6, 1901] 



NA TURE 



63 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Comet 3(1901). — A circular from the Centralstelle at Kiel 

 furnishes the elements and a short ephemeris of the comet 

 computed by Prof. Kreutz from the Cape observations. 



Etements. 



T = 1901 .^pril 24'26i4 Berlin M.T. 

 w = 202' SO'^o'l 

 fl= 109 57-2 [• 1901-0 

 i = 131 260 J 

 log? = 9 '38848. 



Ephemeris for \2h. Berlin Mean Time. 

 1901. R.A. Decl. Br. 



May 16 



24 



The comet is rapidly diminishing in brightness, and is fol- 

 lowing a north-easterly path through the northern part of Orion. 



On the i6th it will be a short distance below Betelgeuse at 

 sunset, and on the 24th near the Eye of Monoceros. 



Variability of Eros. — A telegram from Prof E. C. 

 Pickering, through the Centralstelle at Kiel, announces that on 

 May 8 the variation in the light of the minor planet Eros was 

 zero. The determination was made by Prof. O. C. Wendell. 



Washino.tox Obser\atio.\s, 1891-92. — The astronomical, 

 magnetic and meteorological observations made at the United 

 States Naval Observatory at Washington during the years 1 89 1 

 and 1892 have recently been issued in one volume. After de- 

 tailed descriptions of the instruments employed, the observa- 

 tions and reductions are given for each of the chief instruments, 

 the transit circle, 26-inch equatorial, and 9'6-inch equatorial. 

 The meteorological observations include thos? of pressure, tem- 

 perature, wind, clouds, rain and snow. 



An appendix is added containing the second Washington 

 Catalogue of Stars, with the annual results upon which its com- 

 pilation is based. The star places are all reduced to epoch 

 1875-0. 



Stellar Photometry. — In Comptes rendus (vol. cxxxii. 

 pp. 1091-1094) M. B. Baillaud, of the Toulouse Observatory, 

 outlines a method he has recently developed for determining 

 the magnitudes of stars from the measurement of photographs 

 by means of a standard wedge photometer. Of course in this 

 case the images are black on a luminous background, and the 

 law governing the action of rhe wedge in the ordinary case of 

 extinction of bright points on a dark background is not applic- 

 able here. Using a series of determinations on stars of known 

 magnitude for the calibration and determination of constants, 

 M. Baillaud develops the formula necessary for computing 

 magnitudes by the method. On account of the spreading of 

 the images of the brighter stars, producing definite sized discs, 

 the method is less precise than for fainter objects, but it is 

 hoped that much of the uncertainty in these cases may be re- 

 moved by special expedients, and observations are in progress 

 for fully testing the possibilities of the method. 



New Nebul.b.— M. G. Bigourdan gives, in Comptes rendus 

 (vol. cxxxii. pp. 1094-1097), a list of fifteen new nebula; ob- 

 served by him with the west equatorial at the Paris Observatory 

 (aperture 0-31 metre), during the period 1897-1900. 



MUSK-OX AND BISON AT WOBURN ABBEY. 



■g V the kind favour of the Duchess of Bedford we are enabled 

 ■'-' to present our readers with a portrait of the young bull 

 musk-ox now living at Woburn Abbey, in its present condition. 

 The specimen is the survivor of a pair of yearling calves from 

 Clavering Island, East Greenland, purchased by the Duke of 

 Bedford in the autumn of 1S99. They are believed to have 

 been the first of their kind ever introduced into this country, 

 and although one of the pair survived its arrival only for a very 

 brief period, the other has continued to flourish and there is 

 every hope that it will reach maturity. It is now considerably 

 more than two years old, but although the horns are strongly 



NO. 1646, VOL. 64J 



curved they are still confined to the sides of the head and 

 display no signs of growing on to the forehead, in the middle line 

 of which their expanded bases should almost meet in the fully 

 adult bull. At the time when the photograph was taken the 

 animal was just beginning to shed its winter coat, the hair 

 hanging in fleecy rags on the sides of the face. The great 

 hump of hair on the withers forms a very noticeable feature in 

 the general aspect of the animal. 



The white patches on the face of the Woburn musk-ox forms 

 the chief distinctive feature of the Greenland race of the species, 

 which, it will be remembered, was named in this journal for 

 December 13 last Ovioos nioschatus wardi. It was at that time 

 considered probable that the white-faced form of the musk-ox 

 might be restricted to East Greenland ; but specimens brought 

 to the United States by Lieut. Peary from Grinnell Land and 

 Ellesmere Land have enabled Dr. J. A. Allen, in a recent issue 

 of the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 

 (vol. xiv. art. 7), to show that it has a much wider range, em- 

 bracing apparently the whole of such parts of Greenland as are 

 inhabited by these animals, together with the two countries 

 above named. In addition to the difference in colour, Dr. Allen 

 points out that the Greenland musk-ox differs from the typical 

 Ovibos moschatus of Arctic America by the form of the horns 

 and fore-hoofs. And he considers that it should be regarded as 

 a species rather than a race ; for this he takes the name Ovibos 

 •wardi, adding that if the Grinnell Land and Ellesmere Land 

 animal should prove distinct it might be named after the intrepid 



-Voung male Greenland MusU-o\ at Woburn .\bbey, photographed 

 by the Duchess of Bedford. 



American explorer by whom its skins w-ere sent home. For 

 our own part we see no reason to depart from the view that 

 the Greenland and American musk-oxen are local races of one 

 and the same species. 



Another feature of special interest in the magnificent collection 

 of animals at Woburn Abbey is the presence of representatives of 

 both the European and American bison. It is now many years 

 since these two splendid animals were seen side by side in the 

 Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, and even then they 

 were not shown in such favourable circumstances as are 

 those at Woburn Abbey, which occupy adjacent paddocks of 

 very large acreage. Of the American bison there is now a small 

 herd, including a magnificent old bull as well as several calves, 

 all of which are in splendid condition. When received, rather 

 more than a year ago, the European bison, of which there were a 

 bull and two cows, were very thin after their long journey from 

 Lithuania ; and one of the cows (whose skin is now mounted 

 in the Museum of Science and Art at Edinburgh) did not long 

 survive. The other cow and the bull have, however, greatly 

 improved in condition during the last lew months, and it is 

 hoped that they may breed before long. The bull serves to 

 show that, although in regard to its head and shoulders the 

 American bison is the finer animal of the two, yet that its miser- 

 ably weak hind-quarters render its whole appearance far inferior 

 to that of its European cousin. R. L. 



