June 9, 1904] 



NA TURE 



is content to absorb the plaiil;to>i composed of extremely 

 small animals, which in some regions form a compact mass, 

 a real cloud ; and in order to keep out objects too large to 

 pass down its very small throat, its jaws are furnished with 

 the well known and valuable -Mhalehoiie, which acts as a 

 sieve. 



The Grampus, the Globiceps, and the Cachalot penetrate 

 to a depth probably much greater in search of cephalopods. 



Fig. =;.— Skeleton of an Orca. 



and they possess a dentition specially organised for seizing 

 the gelatinous flesh of the cephalopods. The scars which 

 they bear over the whole of their bodies are evidence of the 

 energy with which their victims defend themselves with their 

 suckers, often armed with formidable talons. 



The Orca, provided with a more compact dentition, pur- 

 sues the dolphins, of which it makes scarcely more than 

 three or four mouthfuls, showing thus a remarkable power 

 of digestion. 



The dolphins themselves are more eclectic, and I have 

 found in their stomachs several species of fish as well as 

 cephalopods, but in both of them the characteristics special 

 to great depths are wanting. 



The principal object which I had in view in capturing 

 the cetaceans, the knowledge of the beings living in the 

 abvsses, has been realised by the acquisition of a certain 

 number of new and very rare cephalopods. Some of these 

 are gigantic, and amongst them may be cited Lcpidotenthis 

 Grinialdii, one of the most remarkable animals of the sea 

 on account of its considerable size, and also because, though 

 it is a cephalopod, it possesses scales like a fish. 



The more we know of marine biology, and the more we 



llu. p.— P.irl of llie Kin of a Gigantic Cephalopod. 



Iiarn from it of the links which connect the creatures spread 

 over our planet, of the interpenetration of types, such as 

 that shown by Lepidoteuthis. as well as of the vital force, 

 the great power of reproduction, the number of individuals 

 in certain species, and the high antiquity of other. forms, we 

 seem to be justified in imagining that the sea may have 

 teen the cradle of organic life when the cooling of the atmo- 

 sphere determined the precipitation of the waters. 



NO. 1S06, VOL. 70] 



THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY. GREENWICH. 



'T'HE report of the Astronomer Royal to the Board of 

 Visitors of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, was 

 read at the annual visitation of the observatory on Saturday 

 last. Some of the results and observations described in 

 the report are referred to in the subjoined abstract. 



The progress made in the observation of the reference 

 stars for the astrographic plates (for which more than 

 10,000 stars are to be observed, three times above and twice 

 below pole) has been so satisfactory that it is expected 

 that sufficient observations of all the stars will have been 

 secured by the end of 1905, at which date it is proposed 

 to terminate the observations. The catalogue of the astro- 

 graphic reference stars will thus be completed in nine years, 

 a year earlier than was originally proposed. 



.\fter consultation with Prof. Albrecht, it has been 

 arranged to apply the correction for latitude deduced by 

 him from the provisional discussion of the international 

 series of observations to all observations of north polar 

 distance year by year, commencing with 1902, Prof. 

 Albrecht having arranged to communicate his results as 

 soon as practicable after the end of the year. This correc- 

 tion has been applied to all the north polar distances for 

 1902 and to the planetary observations for 1903, and is now 

 being applied in the star ledgers. 



Provision having been made for the comparison between 

 theory and the Greenwich meridian observations of the 

 moon from 1750 to the present time, the discussion of the 

 longitude of the moon 1750-1901, compared with revised 

 tabular places, has been undertaken by Mr. Cowell on a 

 plan devised by him, which enables the compIe.K calcula- 

 tions to be done in a very economical manner, the lunar 

 day being adopted as the unit of time. Mr. Cowell has 

 published explanations of his methods of analysis of the 

 moon's errors, together with some of the results obtained, 

 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 

 November, 1903, to May, 1904. 



The 28-inch refractor has been used throughout the year 

 for micrometric measurements of double stars. The total 

 number of double stars measured during the year is 512 ; 

 of these, 178 have their components less than i"o apart, 

 and 85 less than o"-5. The wider pairs consist of bright 

 stars with faint companions, stars of special interest, and 

 stars from Struve's catalogue which have not been measured 

 within the last thirty years. 



The occulting shutter has been used in the photography 

 of Neptune and its satellite with the 26-inch refractor, and 

 a good series of photographs has been obtained during 

 the opposition of 1903-4. During the year the following 

 photographs have been taken : — with the 26-inch refractor, 

 58 photographs of Neptune and satellite, 22 photographs of 

 10 double stars, 13 photographs for adjustments; with the 

 30-inch reflector, 117 photographs of 40 minor planets, 

 27 photographs on 27 nights of comet c 1903, 17 photo- 

 graphs on 12 nights of comet a 1904. 



The photographs of comets have all been taken with 

 short exposures, usually four on each plate, and are for 

 the purpose of determining positions. Four e.xposures have 

 also been given on each photograph of a minor planet, the 

 object being to obtain accurate determinations of position 

 on three or four nights for each planet during the opposi- 

 tion. In addition, the following photographs with long ex- 

 posures have been obtained : — of comet c 1903, comet a 

 1904, the great nebula in Andromeda, and the Pleiades. 



Considerable progress has been made with the measure- 

 ment of the long series of photographs of Eros taken during 

 the opposition of igoo-i. The measures have been made 

 with the new micrometer described in a communication to 

 the. Royal Astronomical Society on May 13. With the 

 magnification in use the probable error of the bisection 

 of a perfectly defined speck is +o"o2o; the probable acci- 

 dental error of a single measure of an image of Eros is 

 found to be +o"-o67 on an astrographic plate, and +o"o4C) 

 on a Thompson plate. 



Owing to the error inherent in the star-images, the prob- 

 able error of a position of Eros derived from a number of 

 measures of four images on one plate is not nearly so small 

 as the above measures suggest. Comparison of the posi- 

 tions of Eros for October 26 and 27 with the tabular 

 places of M. Loewy's ephemeris gives a probable error of 



