Sept. ii, 1884] 



NA TURE 



479 



gold medals for geographical work have been awarded this year. 

 The first was granted to M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards for his 

 submarine investigations ; the second to M. Thouar for his jour- 

 ney to the Grand Chaco in search of the survivors of the Cre- 

 vaux Mission ; and the third to M. Charnay for his explorations 

 and archaeological discoveries in Yucatan. The last paper in 

 the number is composed of a series of extracts from the letters 

 of Abbe Desgodins on the boundary region between Thibet, 

 Burmah, Assam, and China. 



The Danish gunboat Fylla returned from the Arctic regions 

 to Orkney last week, having been sent out by the Danish 

 Government on an exploring and surveying expedition. She 

 has had a most satisfactory voyage, occupying nearly four 

 months, and extending along the whole coast of Greenland to 

 70° N. lat. Her work included a scientific exploration of 

 the inland glaciers in that country, and dredging, trawling, 

 and meteorological observations there and in Davis Straits, 

 Baffin's Bay, and Disco Bay. Many hitherto unknown speci- 

 mens were brought up by the dredging, the greatest depth being 

 900 fathoms. Valuable collections have been brought home by 

 the ship in all the scientific sections. The members of the 

 expedition speak in high terms of their collections, which include 

 a meteoric stone estimated to weigh about 2000 lb. 



Lieut. Greely, in connection with his paper at the British 

 Association, took occasion to say that the fact that had surprised 

 him was the discovery that when the tide was flowing from the 

 North Pole it was found by his observations that the water was 

 wanner than when flowing in the opposite direction. He took 

 trouble to have an elaborate set of observations showing this 

 wonderful phenomenon prepared, which would be eventually 

 published. To him the peculiarities were unexplainable. 



A correspondent of the Stan Jan/ writes: — " On July 26 

 the lighthouse-keeper at Cape Reykjanes, the south-west point 

 of Iceland, on scanning the sea with his glass, saw what he at 

 first took for a very large ship, but which a closer inspection 

 show-ed to be a new island. It had the form of a rounded 

 flattened cone, was of considerable size, and lay, according to 

 his estimate, about fourteen miles north-west of the volcanic 

 island Eldey, or the Mealsack (Melsekken), which lies eight 

 miles off Reykjanes to the south-west. Several earthquake 

 shocks had been felt during the preceding days, and they 

 have since occurred at intervals, but no other volcanic 

 manifestations heralded or attended the rise of the island 

 from the deep. Owing to the danger of approaching 

 the island in an open boat, no one has as yet attempted 

 to land on it. The light-keeper has observed it from day 

 to day when not prevented by foggy weather, and reports 

 no change in its appearance save that a large part of one side 

 of the cone appears to have slipped or fallen down into the 

 sea. From time to time since the colonisation of Iceland, vol- 

 canic islands have sprung up out of the waves in the n 

 hood of Reykjanes, only to disappear again after a brief period. 

 In the end of last century an iTand arose at or near the same 

 place as the present one occupies, and was taken possession oi 

 by the Danes, under the name of N>ce (New Island), but as 

 it consisted only of loose volcanic ash and pumice the action 

 of the wave- speedily broke it down, and after little more than 

 a month it disappeared as mysteriously as it had arisen." 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 Variable Stars. — Several papers upon these interesting 

 objects have lately appeared in the publications of scientific 

 bodies : — 



(1) "A Catalogue of known Variable Stars, with Notes," by 

 Mr. J. E. Gore, in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 

 vol. iv. Mr. Gore has brought together particulars relating to 

 about 190 s'ars, including their positions for 18S0, the limits of 

 magnitude, mean periods, and epochs of maximum and mini- 

 mum, for the most part taken from Schonfeld's Catalogue of 

 1S75 ! indeed, this Catalogue is the ^urce of much of the in- 

 formation contained in Mr. Gore's paper. His summary will 

 be very useful to those who are entering upon the study of the 

 variable stars ; some corrections are needed, but they are not of 

 very much importance. Observations by himself of several of 

 the stars are added in the notes following the Catalogue, and 

 others by various observers made since Schonfeld's last Cata- 

 logue was published. The positions as printed have a lame 



appearance, from being given to seconds of time in right ascen- 

 sion and to seconds in declination : if the right ascension of an 

 object is assigned to the nearest second of time, the more legiti- 

 mate expression of the declination is to the nearest tenth of a 

 minute. The reference to the fancied identity of "the Biblical 

 star of the Magi " with Tycho's celebrated star of 1572 seems 

 out of place. 



(2) " Recent Observations of Variable Stars," presented by 

 Prof. Pickering to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

 The author had previously issued a pamphlet and a circular from 

 the Harvard College Observatory, in the hope of promoting a 

 more systematic observation of the variable stars, and in response 

 has received communications from a number of observers who 

 have expressed their willingness to join in his scheme of observa- 

 tions. In the paper in question Prof. Pickering has brought 

 together the results of observations of variable stars for 1S83, 

 so far as he had them at hand, to show the nature of the in- 

 formation which he desires to obtain in order to be in a position 

 to issue a further circular early in 1885. It should be mentioned 

 that Mr. S. C. Chandler is preparing a bibliography of the 

 variables, which will eventually furnish the means of forming a 

 catalogue of all the stars now known to be in a state of change, 

 to a much more reliable extent than hitherto ; such a work can- 

 not fail to be of vast assistance to any one desirous of looking 

 up the history of particular stars, which is now an operation 

 attended with much trouble and uncertainty. With regard to 

 his next circular, Prof. Pickering hopes that observers of vari- 

 able stars, whether professional or amateur, will be generally 

 disposed to furnish information on the following subjects — 

 (a) the meth id of observation, if photometric, some account of 

 the instrument, and the manner of using it ; if not photometric, 

 whether the observations are made by Argelander's method, or 

 by direct estimation of magnitude ; (l>) stars observed in iS84, 

 with the number of nights on which each was observed ; (c) the 

 time and form of publication contemplated by the observer ; 

 (d) plans for 1SS5, naming the stars selected and the number of 

 nights on which it is proposed to observe them. This informa- 

 tion it is desired to receive at Harvard College Observatory by 

 February I, 1885, as well as any material which may be useful 

 towards making the table for 1883 more complete. Prof. 

 Pickering's first table gives the positions of the variable stars for 

 1875, with the limits of magnitude and the periods ; also the 

 discoverer and year of discovery, with references to observations 

 made in the years 1880-83. In a second table is a list of 

 suspected variables extracted from Mr. Chandler's unpublished 

 catalogue. 



3. The Rev. T. E. Espin publishes in the Transactions of the 

 Liverpool Astronomical Society " A Catalogue of the Magnitudes 

 of 500 Stars in Auriga, Gemini, and Leo Minor," which have 

 been determined from photographs taken by means of the equa- 

 torial stellar camera at the Society's Observatory. The appa- 

 ratus was placed at the disposal of the Society by Mr. Howard 

 Grubb. The magnitudes determined from the photographs are 

 entirely based on those of Argelander. It is stated that the 

 deduced magnitudes of 341 stars out of the 5 00 agree within 

 o"4 m. with those of Argelander, while in twenty-five cases the 

 differences exceed a whole magnitude. The nebula? M 35 and 

 51 have been photographed after exposures of 2I1. 55 m ' ar "l 

 2I1. 0111. respectively, as also the cluster Praesepe, of which the 

 photographs show the smallest of Argelander's stars, and some 

 which do not occur in the Durchviusterung. Two stars are 

 noted as presenting indications of variability : viz. 41 , 1222 in 

 Auriga, which was 8'6 m. on March 10, but was not found on a 

 plate taken a few nights afterwards ; and ■$■£, 1S95 in Leo Minor. 

 Mr. Espin concludes with the remark, " The difficulty of re- 

 ducing the stars to Argelander's scale is complicated, from the 

 fact that near the minimum visibile the bluer stars alone are 

 photographed, the yellowish ones disappearing. " 



Comet 1SS4 /' (Barnard). — The following positions for Berlin 

 midnight have been calculated by Herr Stechert from his 

 elements (Nature, p. 431). 



R.A. Decl. 



Light 



Sept. 15 ... 19 21-4 



17 ... 19 29-3 



19 ... 19 37'i 



21 ... 19 447 



23 ... 19 52'2 



25 ... 19 59\5 



27 ... 20 67 



Distance from 

 Earth 



-29 23 ... 0703 ... 076 

 28 43 ... 



25 I ... 0729 ... C69 

 27 19 ... 



26 35 ... 0759 ... 0-62 

 25 52 ... 



-25 8 ... 0792 ... 0-55 



