182 



NATURE 



[Dec. 25, 1884 



Occultations of Aldebaran are on record as far back as the 

 year a.d. 491 ; it is stated in the Chinese Annals that the star 

 was occulted at Nankin on March 29. Apparently the first 

 occultation observed in Europe was found by Bullialdus in a 

 ■Greek manuscript, which thus describes it : — " Anno 225 Dio- 

 cletiani, Phamenoth 15 in 16, vidi Lunam sequentem claram 

 Hyadum post accensas lucernas, digiti unius ad summam semisse. 

 Videbatur autem occultasse ipsam. Stella quippe apposha erat 

 parti, per quam bisecatur limbus Lunse illuminatus." Bullialdus 

 makes the date A.D. 509, March II, and an approximate calcula- 

 tion shows that he is correct. New moon fell about 7I1. G. M.T. 

 on March 6. 



Encke's Comet. — This comet at its present return will be 

 observable in these latitudes in the early evening hours before 

 perihelion. The following ephemeris is for 6h. G. M.T. : — 

 R.A. Decl. Log. distance fn>iu 



1885 h. in. s. . , Earth Sun 



Jan. 1 .. z2 55 26 ... +3 57-8 ... 01526 ... 0-1309 



2 ... 22 56 iS ... 4 05 



3 ... 22 57 12 ... 4 3-4 



4 ... 22 58 7 ... 4 65 



5 ... 22 59 3 ... 498 ... O'I50O ... CII20 



6 ... 23 o i ... 4 i3'3 



7 ... 23 10... 4 169 



8 ... 23 2 o ... 4 20' 7 



9 ... 23 3 2 ... 4 247 ... 0-1462 ... 0-0917 



10 ... 23 4 5 ... 4 2S-9 



11 ... 23 5 10 ... 4 33-2 



12 ... 23 6 17 ... 4 37 7 



13 •■• 23 7 25 •■• 4 42"4 ... 0-1410 ... 0-0699 



14 ... 23 S 35 ... 4 47-2 



15 .. 23 9 46 ... 4 52-2 



16 ... 23 10 58 ... 4 57-3 



17 ... 23 12 12 ... 5 2'6 ... o 1344 ... 0-0463 



18 ... 2^ 13 27 ... 5 8-o 



19 ■ 23 14 44 ... 5 13 5 



20 ... 23 16 2 ... 5 191 



21 ... 23 17 20 ... 5 248 ... 0-1261 ... 0-0206 



22 ... 23 18 40 ... 5 30-7 



23 ... 23 20 1 ... 5 36 6 



24 ... 23 21 24 ... s 42-6 



25 .. 23 22 47 ... 5 48-7 ... 0-1158 ... 9-9926 



26 ... 23 24 11 ... 5 S4-S 



27 ... 23 25 37 ... 6 i-o 



28 ... 23 27 4 ... 6 7-2 



29 .. 23 28 31 ... 6 13 5 ... 01033 ••• 9'Q6i9 



30 .. 23 30 o ... 6 197 



31 ... 23 31 29 ... +6 250 



The intensity of light expressed in the usual manner is 0-27 on 

 January 1, and 0-51 on the last date of the ephemeris. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 An interesting | roject was laid before the Associated Swiss 

 Societies of Geography at their meeting at Berne last month, by 

 M. Mullhaupt. He suggested the formation of an international 

 geographical bureau for the following purposes: — (1) To carry 

 out "the resolutions arrived at by the International Geographical 

 Congresses. (2) To ma' e exchanges every month, or oftener if 

 need be, between the eighty odd geographical societies ; in place 

 of each society sending its own publications in eighty different 

 directions, it would only have to send them all at once to the 

 bureau, which would do so. This, he claims, would save both 

 time and money. (3) To publish, in the four or five principal 

 languages, a summary of the contents of the publications of the 

 various ge graphical societies ; instead of each society being 

 forced to do this for itself, a single examination would suffice to 

 put them all au connni! with what has been done all over the 

 globe. There w iuld in this way be the further advantage of 

 knowing what was published by societies like the Geographical 

 Society of Japan, the publications of which are in a language 

 not genera' ly known in Europe. M. Mullhaupt thought that 

 the idea was not a difficult one to lie carried out ; the expenses 

 would be shared by the numerous societies interested. These 

 contain approximately 38,000 active members, and doubtless the 

 countries having an interest in the pr gress of the geographical 

 sciences would take part in a central organisation of the nature 

 here suggested. 



The last number (Band xi. No. S, ul the Veihandlun^m der 

 Giselhchaft fiir Erdkunde z« fitrl.n contains two papers on 



West Africa : one accompanied by an excellent map, by Herr 

 Flegel, of his recent journey along the Niger to Adamawa ; the 

 other, by Herr Reichenow, on the Cameroons, and the German 

 colony there. Dr. Lopez writes on the Argentine States, and 

 the importance of the German element in the foreign population 

 there. 



The investigation of the subterranean course of the Re a 

 River has been actively pursued for some time past by the Coast 

 Section of the German and Au Irian Alpine Society. The Reka 

 is that mysterious river which, co nlng fron the Schneeberg in 

 Carniola, 1 -ses itself in the caves of the Karst, and after a sub- 

 terranean course of more than thirty kilometres, breaks out of 

 the ground near San Giovanni di Duino, is then called the 

 Timavi, and eventually flows into the Bay of Monfalcone. 

 Already, on March 30 last, a ] art of this subterranean course 

 was investigated by a parly starling from the village of St. Can- 

 zian, where a celebrated cave is situated, into which the Reka 

 f lis with thundering noise when the water is high. In Septem- 

 ber a second exploration was made. The first subterranean cave 

 is crlled the Rudolfs lome ; it was from hie the explorers started 

 in two boats. First, they passed a canal about sixty metres in 

 length, very narrow, and bounded by rocky walls one hundred 

 metres in height ; then a large cave was reached, where the 

 party landed and fastened the boats, as waterfalls and rapids [.re- 

 vented further progress in boats. The underground journey v rs 

 now continued on the rocky banks, the river being crossed seve- 

 ral limes on ladders. Thus six waterfalls were passed, and a 

 seventh was reached. Altogether the explorers penetrated to a 

 distance of between two and three hundred metres underground. 



BULLETIN No. 5 of the U.S. Geological Survey is, Science 

 i<\, ir' s, a dictionary of altitudes in the United States, compiled 

 by Henry Gannett, chief geographer of the Survey. It is essen- 

 tially n extension of the " Lists of Elevations," prepared by the 

 same author for Hayden's Survey ; but, with the present broader 

 organisation of the Geological Survey, the lists now appropriately 

 include the whole country, while the earlier editions were con- 

 cerned chiefly with the region west of the Mississippi. A list of 

 authorities fills eight pages, and railroad abbreviations occupy 

 eight more ; then the States and stations foil iw alphabetically, 

 the number of altitudes given being about 18,000. It is stated 

 thar the collection of railroad profiles for Pennsylvania is exeep 

 tionally complete and admirably adjusted, making the portion 

 of the dictionary referring to that State by far the fullest and 

 most satisfactory. By an unfortunate oversight, it is not stated 

 whether the base level is high, mean, or low tide. 



At the recent meeting of the Ethnological Section of the 

 Imperial Russian Geogra: hical Society a paper was read d 

 scribing Adrianow's journey through the Altai Mountains in 

 1SS1. The traveller was only able to take four companions, on 

 account of the meagre funds at hi; disposal ; nevertheless he 

 was able to obtain excellent results, and to penetrate hitherto 

 unknown regions. Although the southern slopes of the Altai 

 Range have already been the object of investigation of various 

 students, such as Pallas, Ledebur, Humboldt, and others, the 

 eastern part of the region, the vast districts between the River 

 Tom and the Government of Yenisei, have been almost a terra 

 rnita. Adrian. .w': expedition started from the town >; 

 Kustnetsk, crossed the River Lebed, examined Lake Teletsk, 

 touched Chulshman, Jan, and Agalan, crossed the Shanshal 

 Pass, advanced to the River Kemchik, and sought for and 

 found the sources of the Yenisei. They travelled through the 



igion through which the river flows to the town of Yeniseisk, 

 where the expedition came to an end. Throughout the journey 

 Rus ians were found only around the sources of the Yenisi d 

 on the River Usg. The population of the Altais is compo-ed 

 of sectaries who emigrated thither during the last century ; tin ii 

 existence was wh illy unknown until 1S6S, when they were by 



lisc ivered by a Re i r who was surveying there. 



Adrianow met similar colonies at Tobut on Koko-nor. These 

 were founded in 1800. The colonists ate described as savage 

 and predatory. Resides these the traveller visited the so-called 

 Black Tartars, on the rivers Koudoma and Luida — a tribe which 

 has only once before been visited and described. They are 

 regarded as descendants of the great Finnish and Turanian 

 tribes, but hardly anything in an anthropological sense is known 

 about them. The travellers also brought back a considerable 

 number of pictures of monuments and works in stone, which 

 exist among the Sajans and in Mongolia. Those of monuments 

 to the dead are very interesting ; some of them are merely 



