Oct. 6, 1881] 



NATURE 



54' 



ciused the death of eleven persons and great injury to the Grand 

 Wosque and numerous dwelling-houses. The amount of damage 

 d»ne in the neighbouring villages is not known. 



A GEOGRAPHY of the almost unknown kingdom of Corea has 

 been compiled by a member of the suite of the Japanese envoy 

 to that country. Several valuable papers containing accounts of 

 travels in Corea have been read before the Geographical .Society 

 of Tokio, and have appeared in its Transactions. As they are 

 written in Japanese they are unfortunately all but inaccessible to 

 European geographers. 



The Prefect of the Seine has established a course of six lectures 

 for the teaching of micrography. An examination has been 

 instituted for inspectors intrusted with the care of detecting 

 trichinte in the substance of pork and ham of American Of 

 German origin. 



A CURIOUS experiment will be tried this week at La Villette 

 gasworks, Paris. Two balloons of equal size w ill be sent up at 

 the same time ; one of them will carry an experienced sculler, 

 who is confident that he will produce some efifect with a long oar 

 of his invention. 



Under the title of " School Physical and Descriptive 

 Geography " Mr. Stanford has issued a smaller and cheaper edi- 

 tion of the late Keith Johnston's " Physical, Historical, Political, 

 and Descriptive Geography," reviewed in these pages at the 

 time of its appearance. In the school edition the historical 

 sketch and the elaborately-printed maps have been omitted, 

 while all the strictly geographical information has been retained. 

 Ill this form it ought to find wide acceptance among all teacher^ 

 who aim at making geography both interesting and thorough. 

 No better text-book could be recommended. 



The subject of the address by Shadworth H. Hodgson^ 

 LL.D., before the Aristotelian Society on Monday evening will 

 be "The Practical Bearing of Speculative Philosophy." 



We have received from Rothschild of Paris an interesting 

 little volume on Pisciculture in France. It consists of two 

 parts — Pisciculture, Fluvial and Maritime, by Jules Pizzetta ; 

 and Oyster-Culture, by M. De Bon. 



In its summary of colonial intelligence the Colonies and India 

 mentions the discovery of a valuable coal-seam near Victoria, 

 Huon, Tasmania, which has been traced on the surf ace for .about 

 twenty yards, and increased in width from three to four feet, 

 when it was lost in a hill. The coal has been tried and found to 

 be of good quality. 



A VALUABLE archfeological discovery, which may be said to 

 equal that of the celebrated Kertch antiquities at the Hermitage 

 of St. Petersburg, has recently been made near the Cossack 

 village of Sewersk in the Sakuban district, in one of the kurdans, 

 i.e. the old tombs, in the steppes of Southern Russia. A number 

 of objects were found, but special attention was drawn to two 

 glass vessels, unfortunately broken, but the pieces of which still 

 give evidence of their remarkable ornamentation. They are 

 profusely covered with gold, the hoops containing large rubies 

 and bearing golden chains, by which heart-shaped pearls are 

 suspended. Another object of cylindrical shape, evidently a 

 cup-holder, consists of piu-e gold, and shows two griffins in bas- 

 reUef. Another important, object is a gold plate six inches in 

 diameter, with a fine bas-relief representing a whole epiiiode. 

 M. Felizin, an eminent Russian archaeologist, is of opinion that 

 the tomb in question must have been that of an important 

 personage of the Bosphorean kingdom, and that its origin dates 

 back as far as the period of King Perisad II., who 'began to 

 reign in the year 284 B.C. A gold coin which was found confirms 

 this view. 



An important discovery of very good rock-salt, aflfording a 

 sheet seventy-five feet thick, was made some days ago in the 

 district of Bakmut, in the Russian government of Ekaterinoslav, 

 at a depth of 430 feet. The discovery was made according to 

 the indications of the geologist. Prof. ErofeefF. 



The anniversary address of the Hon. Prof. Smith, president 

 of the Royal Society of New South Wales, contains an interest- 

 ing sketch of the history of the Society, both under its old name 

 of Philosophical Society as well as under its present designation. 



Messrs. Blackwood and Sons have issued a twelfth edition 

 of the "Elements of Agricultural Chemistry and Geology," by 

 the late Prof. J. F. W. Johnston and Dr. C. A. Cameron. 



In the report sent us of the meeting of the Natural History 

 Society of the Friends' School at York, and printed among our 

 Notes a fortnight ago, the Rev. T. A. Preston is referred to as 

 science master at Marlborough College. Of course this is a 

 mistake ; Mr. G. F. Rodwell has long held and still holds the post 

 referred to. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Tennant's Squirrel [Scturus tennan/i) from 

 Ceylon, presented by Mrs. S. A. Cottrell ; a Common Marmoset 

 {Hapale jacchns) from South-East Brazil, presented by Mr. J. N. 

 Palmer ; a Chacma Baboon {Cynocephalus porcatius) fromSout 

 Africa, presented by Mr. W. H. L. Long ; a Leucorj'x Ante- 

 lope [Oryx leucoryx) from Norlh Africn, presented by Mr. John 

 M. Cook; t*o Leopards (Felis pardus) from Ceylon, presented 

 by Mr. Eustace L. Burnside ; a Green Lizard {Lacerla z'iridis) 

 from Jersey, presented by Mr. James Thorn ; a Tarantula Spider 

 [Mygale, sp. inc.) from California, presented by Mrs. John 

 Leechman ; five Robben Island Snakes (Coronella phocarum) 

 from South Africa, presented by Rev. G. II. R. Fisk, C.M.Z. S. ; 

 two Greater White-crested Cockatoos (Cacattta cristala) from 

 Moluccas ; tn-o Common Cormorants (P/ialacrocorax carbo), 

 British, deposited ; two Blossom-headed Parrakeets (Palaorm's 

 eyanoetp/iaiits) from India, a Nose-horned Vipsr [Vipera nasi- 

 comis), a Crocodile {Crocodilus, sp. inc.) from West Africa, 

 purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 Comet V., 1863.— With reference to a rem.irk in this column 

 at p. Ill of the present volume of Nature, sug^^esting that a 

 further and more minute discussion of the elements of this comet 

 might be desirable, Prof. Valentiner, director of the Observatory 

 at Carisruhe, has been good enough to draw our attention to a 

 memoir bv himself upon the subject which we had overlooked ; 

 it is entitled " Determinatio orbitce Cometse V. anni 1863," and 

 was published at Berlin in 1869. The observations, about 130 

 in number, extend from 1S63, December 28, to 1864, March I, 

 and Prof. Valentiner forms nine normal positions upon them. 

 The perturbations of the earth and Jupiter are taken into 

 account (the comet having approached the former at the end of 

 January within about O'lS) and the following parabolic elements 

 result ; — 



Perihelion Passage, 1863, Dec. 2779992 M.T. at Beriin. 



Longitude of perihelion 60 24 26-4 \ M. Eq. 



,, ascending node ... 304 43 23-2 / 1864 'O 



Inclination 64 28 44'2 



Log. perihelion distance 9 '8873326 



Motion — direct. 

 The agreement with the observations is so close as to prove that 

 the orbit did not sensibly differ from a parabola ; the conjectured 

 identity with the comet of 1810 is therefore shown to be inad- 

 missible, notwithstanding the striking similarity of the elements, 

 as will appear from the comparison at p. ill. 



The New Comet.— Mr. S. C. Chandler, jun., has telegraphed 



to Lord Crawford's Observatory approxiniate elements of the 



^omet discovered by Mr. Barnard last month, from which it 



ppears that the orbit does not resemble that of any which has 



