SEPTEMBER 18, 1913] 
NATURE 
87 
observatory lies between 31° and 41° S. declination, 
and the photographs have been taken and measured 
under the direction of Mr. W. Ernest Caske, the 
Government Astronomer for Western Australia. 
Vol. ii. contains the measures of rectangular co- 
ordinates and magnitudes of 20,211 star images, R.A. 
6h. to 12h., on plates with centres in declination | 
—32°, and vol. iii, those of 20,988 images, R.A. 12h. 
to 18h., on plates with centres also in declination 
—32°. 
The completed work will be a valuable contribution 
to the great international scheme, initiated so many 
years ago. Incidentally a number of double stars were 
met with during the measurement of the zone plates, 
and these, 242 in number, have been collected and 
published in a separate catalogue, forming Bulletin 
No. 1. The reduction of the measures was undertaken 
by Mr. Nossiter, acting first assistant. 
Tue EXTENSION OF THE ZONE TIME SysTEM.—Brazil 
has now officially fallen into line by adopting standard 
time. The country has been divided into four zones, 
and the legal time for each respectively will be two, 
three, four, and five hours slow on Greenwich. The 
islands of Trinidad and Fernando Noronha fall in the 
first zone. The western side of the second zone is a 
line from Mount Pecuary Grevaux, on the French 
Guiana boundary, by the rivers Pecuary and Javary 
to the Amazon, and by Xinsu to the Matto-Grasso 
boundary. The fourth zone includes the western part 
of Amazonas, the Acre territory, and other territory 
recently ceded by Bolivia. 
Hinp’s Nesuta.—M. Borrelly has communicated to 
the Academie des Sciences (Comptes rendus, vol. clvii., 
No. 7) a brief note stating that the nebula discovered 
by Hind in the year 1845 (No. 6760 in Dreyer’s 
N.G.C.) and suspected of variability of brightness 
seven years later by d’Arrest, now appears to be in a 
period of maximum. For the first time since 1867 
it is easily seen with a comet-seeker of 63 in. aperture. 
Tue Royat OsservatTory, CaPE oF Goop Hope.— 
The annual report of his Majesty’s Astronomer at the 
Cape of Good Hope for the year 1912 has been re- 
ceived. In connection with the reduction of the cir- 
cumpolar observations made in the previous year some 
interesting determinations of personality have been 
made. It appears that, while with the older methods 
of observing, transits of equatorial stars are 
mostly recorded late, transits of slow-moving circum- 
polars are anticipated by o-3s. The astrophysical 
work has been actively advanced, both in the observa- 
tory and laboratory. Provisional spectroscopic deter- 
minations of solar parallax and the constant of aberra- 
tion, based as the measures of 800 plates, yielded 
8-802"+0-004" as the value of the former, and 
20-47"+0-01" for the latter. In the laboratory it has 
been found more convenient to employ the spark 
spectrum obtained from the cores of lead pencils as a 
comparison spectrum in preference to the spectra of 
iron or titanium. 
A CURIOUS METEORIC DISPLAY. 
HE universal disappointment experienced by 
keen meteor observers on the expected return of 
the November Leonid meteor swarm in 1899, the 
swarm which created such a stir of excitement at its 
appearance in the year 1866, is no doubt responsible 
for the apparent lack of interest taken in the an- 
nouncements of probable meteoric displays to-day. 
Many of us thought that this celebrated display, due 
possibly to planetary perturbations, might be 
accelerated, and so were careful to keep a good look- 
out in the appointed month in 1897 and 1808, and 
NO. 2290, VOL. 92] 
| their non-appearance in 1899 suggested that possibly, 
| for a similar reason, the swarm might have been 
belated, and so watched at the correct season for the 
overdue display. The expected event did not take 
place, and faith was lost in the predicted times of 
these space wanderers. 
Our interest is, however, again wakened by what 
is described as ‘‘an extraordinary meteoric display” 
which was seen over a very extensive area in the 
United States of America and Canada on the even- 
ing of February 9g this year. The magnitude of the 
display was such that a very great number of people 
distributed in the path of observation had their atten- 
| tion drawn to it, and its peculiar nature’was so marked 
that nearly every observer remarked similarly of the 
extraordinary feature of the event. 
Fortunately Prof. C. A. Chant, of Toronto, although 
not an eye-witness of the phenomenon, undertook to 
collect all the available information of this very excep- 
tional, if not unique, occurrence. In the May-June 
number of the Journal of the Royal Astronomical 
Society of Canada he presents a very judicious sum- 
mary of the observations made, and accompanies this 
with extracts from letters received from observers. 
The sum total of the discussion of the data is to 
show that the apparition took the following form :— 
As seen from western Ontario there suddenly ap- 
peared in the north-western sky a fiery red or golden- 
yellow body, which quickly grew larger as it 
approached, and had attached to it a long tail; 
observers vary in their descriptions as to whether the 
body was single or composed of three or four parts 
with a tail to each part. 
This body or group of bodies moved forward on 
an apparently perfectly horizontal path ‘‘ with peculiar, 
majestic, dignified deliberation; and continuing its 
course without the least apparent sinking towards the 
earth, it moved on to the south-east, where it simply 
disappeared in the distance.” After this group of 
bodies had vanished, another group emerged from 
precisely the same region. ‘Onward they moved, at 
the same deliberate pace, in twos or threes or fours, 
with tails streaming behind them, though not so long 
or bright as in the first case.” This group dis- 
appeared in the same direction. A third group fol- 
lowed with less luminosity and shorter tails. 
In reading some of the communications from the 
numerous observers, the extraordinary feature of the 
phenomenon seems to have been the regular order 
and movement of the groups. Thus some compared 
them to a fleet of airships with lights on either side 
and fore and aft; others to a number of battleships- 
attended by cruisers and destroyers; others again to 
a brilliantly lighted passenger train travelling in sec- 
tions and seen from a distance of several miles. 
Such descriptions indicate that the display was of 
a very unusual kind, very different from the usual 
quick-moving and scattered bodies. It may be of 
interest to reprint here in full one of the accounts. 
Mr. J. G. MacArthur writes :— 
‘““There were probably thirty or thirty-two bodies, 
and the peculiar thing about them was their moving 
in fours, threes, and twos, abreast of one another. 
and so perfect was the lining-up you would have 
thought it was an aerial fleet manoeuvring after rigid 
drilling. About half of them had passed when an 
unusually large one hove in sight, fully ten times as 
large as the others. Five or six would appear in two 
detachments, probably five seconds apart; then another 
wait of five or ten seconds, and another detachment 
would come into view. We could see each detachment 
for probably twenty or twenty-five seconds. The dis- 
play lasted about three minutes As the last detach- 
ment vanished, the booming as of thunder was heard 
—about five or six very pronounced reports. It 
