August 23, 



1883] 



NATURE 



403 



what is now middle Germany and middle Russia, the continental 

 and glacial origin of (he boulder clay being beyond doubt. His 

 remarks on the extension and mode of formation of the loess, 

 which appears with its characteristic features in the ravined parts 

 of the province along the valleys of the larger rivers, are also 

 worthy of notice. It has a continental origin, but rather aqueous 

 than atmospheric. 



A Fisheries Exhibition will be held in Lysekil in Sweden 

 early next month. 



Last week at Coblenz experiments were made with young 

 ravens with a view of replacing carrier-pigeons by them. The 

 ravens are not so subject to being attacked and destroyed by 

 birds of prey. The ravens were sent from Coblenz to a small 

 place on the Moselle near Treves, a distance of about forty miles. 

 The experiments proved euiinently successful. 



The additions to the Zoological society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two silver- backed Foxes (Cants chama i 9 ) 

 from South Africa, presented by Mr. John Maydon ; a Syrian 

 Bear (Ursus syriacus) from Thibet, presented by Mr. A. W, 

 Hicks Beach ; two Red-backed Shrikes (Lanius collurio), 

 British, presented by Mr. D. Bowl; a Sparrow Hawk (Accipiter 

 nisus), British, presented by Mr. F. Gurm ; two Spotted Sala- 

 manders (Salamandra maculosa), European, presented by Miss 

 Harris; two Russ's Weaver Bird, (Qtuica russi) from West 

 Africa, three Java Sparrow. (Padda oryzivora) fro 11 Java, two 

 Saffron Finches (Sycalis flaveola) from Brazil, two Umiulated 

 Grass Parakeets (Mclopsitlacus undulatus) from Australia, a 

 Gray-headed Love Bird [Agaporms cana) from Madagascar, a 

 Goldfinch (Carduclis elegans), two Bullfinches ( Pyrrhula europced), 

 a Chaffinch {Fringit I , a Lesser Redpole (Linola rufest ens), 



a Siskin (Chrysomitris spinas), British, an Indian Python 

 (Python molurtts) from India, deposited ; five Blue-headed 

 Pigeons (Statu, cnas cyanoccphalus) from Cuba, pui chased ; a 

 Quebec Marmot (Arctomys monax), two Gray Squirrels (Sciurus 

 1 iitereits) from North America, a Plantain Squirrel (Sciurus 

 plantani from Java, received in exchange ; five Common 

 Vipers (I'ipcra itrtis), born in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



Variable Stars. — The following are Greenwich mean 

 times of geocentric minima of Algol to the end of the present 

 year, which fall between about 6h. and 15b;. ; advantage has 

 been taken of the recent observations of Dr. Julius Schmidt, at 

 Athens in their calculation : — 



A geocentric minimum of U Cephei, Ceraski's short-period 

 variable, falls about Dec, 1, 17(1. 27m., and this phase takes 

 place earlier in the night, through the winter. On February 19 

 the calculated time is nh. 58m. We assume two periods of 

 this star to occupy 4"9S559d. 



Mr. Chandler having found that the period of Sawyer's 

 variable in Uphiuchus is only 2oh. 7m. 4i - 6s., this object goes 

 through its fluctuations in a shorter time than any other known 

 variable, R Muscae following next, according to Dr, Gould, with 

 a period of about 2ih. 20m. The variation of light of the 

 former star is stated to be about three fourths of a magnitude. 

 It is Lalande 313S4, Weisse XVII. 143, and Santini + 2°, 200. 

 Argelander and Heis call it 6m. The mean place for i8S3'o is 

 in R.A. 17I1. 10m. 357s., Decl. + 1° 20' 32". 



The observations of Hr. Schmidt and Mr. Sawyer show that 

 a maximum of x Cygni occurred on September 2"5, 1882, and 



the mean period during the last six or seven years having been 

 about 40S days, another maximum may be expected about 

 October 16. The best position of this variable will be that 

 given by a mean of Argelander's places in vol. vi. of the Bonn 

 observations, viz. for 



18550 ... R.A. 19I1. 44m. 5966s. ... Decl. + 32" 32' 59"'4. 



With Peters' constants we find — 

 Precession in R.A. 2'3o65s. Secular variation 4- O'ooi3s. 

 ,, Decl. +8" -870. ,, 4- o"-298 i 



Whence for the beginning of the year 18S4 the position becomes 

 R.A. 19I1. 46m. 6 - 5s. Decl. 4- 32° 37' 15". 



The confusion that has taken place as to the identification of 

 the true variable x C'ygni is almost ludicrous. Flamsteed at- 

 tached Bayer's letter to his 17 Cygni, being misled, as Argelan- 

 der has shown, by the variable siar being faint when he observed. 

 In 1816 Olbers referred, in Lindenau's Zcitsc/trift fur Asttonomie, 

 ii. 1S5, to the misunderstandings and complications that had 

 taken place through Flamsteed's mistake, pointing out that 

 Pigott first gave the correct position of Bayer's x > >t was soon 

 after determined by Koch, and was observed by Lalande in his 

 zone of August 13, 1793. Further, in 1818, Bessel in the 

 Fundamenta Aslronomitz, in a note to 17 Cygni, wrote, " Flam- 

 stadias hanc stellam per x designat ; sed Stella a Bayero ita 

 dicta alia est neque reperitur in eatalogo." Notwithstanding 

 these rectifications, Baily, in the British Association Catalogue, 

 falls into Flamsteed's error, calling No. 6784, 17 x Cygni, and to 

 this circumstance is perhaps to be attributed the confusion in 

 recent popular English treatises as to the identification of Kirch's 

 variable. 17 Cygni is a double star (2 25S0), without any claim 

 to the letter x ; Bayer's x is Kirch's variable, and totally distinct 

 from Flamsteed's 17. 



A minimum of R Leporis may be expected about December 

 14 ; Mr. Sawyer f und the star at a maximum about January 25, 

 1882. 



The Great Red Spot upon Jupiter's Disk. — Prof. A. 

 Ricco, of the Observatory at Palermo, in a communication to the 

 Meniorie d<lla Sociela dtgli Spcttroscopisti Kaliani, gives inter- 

 esting details of his observations on the features of Jupiter's 

 disk, during the last opposition. The red spot had become very 

 faint, indeed barely distinguishable in April and May, and was 

 invisible at the commencement of June. Mr. Marth, in bis 

 " Ephemeris for Physical Observations of Jupiter" for the ap- 

 proaching opposition, has retained the same daily rate of rotation 

 adopted in the ephemerides for the last two oppositions, re- 

 marking that even if it should be found that the great reddish 

 spot has entirely faded away, it is still desirable that its place 

 should be specially watched, and hence it has nut been advisable 

 to make any alteration in the data for the ephemeris at present. 



The Minor Planet, No. 234. — Prof. Peters notifies hi- dis- 

 covery of a new minor planet on August 12, and strange to say 

 he estimates it as bright as the ninth magnitude. Its place at 

 iSh. 51m. Greenwich M.T. was in R.A. 2ih. 20m. 50s., 

 Decl. - 12 29'. 



No. 175 Andromache, to which reference was lately made in 

 this column, has so far escaped observation, though carefully 

 sought for at Rome. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 Prof. Ali>honse Milne-Edwards, chief of the French 

 deep-sea expedition in the Talisman, writes from St. Vincent, 

 Cape Verde Islands, under date July 28, that the expedition had 

 met with complete success. After having investigated the deep- 

 sea fam a of the African coast to a distance of some leagues from 

 Dakar, the expedition proceeded to Santiago and St. Vincent, 

 sounding all the way. The island of Branco, where no naturalist 

 had evir been, was investigated, the great lizards of the island 

 receiving special attention in their native habitat. The coast is 

 so rocky the naturalists had to swim ashore. The island is ex- 

 tremely volcanic, with scarcely any vegetation, although the 

 lizards are herbivorous. The Talisman -was about to proceed 

 on the last section of herVoyage, the investigation of the Sargasso 

 Sea. 



The Austrian corvette Tola arrived at Hamburg on the 19th 

 from Jan Mayen. The Austrians, who were entertained at a 

 banquet by the Geographical Society of Hamburg, have brought 

 home a large quantity of natural history specimens and photo- 

 graphs, and express themselves highly pleased with the results 

 of their expedition. 



