Now.9 1882) 
4 
the Dachstein glaciers, He found that the so-called Karlseisfeld 
has panes lost about 50-60 metres in thickness, the middle 
portion 40-50 metres, The decrease in the thickness of 
the ice is most noticeable in the high and steep devcent from the 
middle to the lower portion of this glacier, Here a piece of the 
glacier-bed—a rock of about 30 metres in height and 60 broad— 
has been laid quite bare, Up to 1856 the glaciers were steadily 
increasing, but since then the decrease has been equally 
inceswant, 
Im the ordinary air thermometer the pressure of the air in the 
thermometric bulb is generally mea-ured by means of a mercury 
manometer. M. Schneebeli, of Zurich (Archives des Sciences), 
employs, instead of the latter, a metallic manometer, of the 
Hottinger-Goldschmidt system. The bulb of the thermometer 
terminates in a capillary tube, to which the manometer is con. 
nected by means of another capillary tube of lead, The space 
between the latter and the elastic memb:ane of the manometer is 
filled with glycerine. M. Schneebeli believes the arrangement 
capable of being really serviceable to industry, because of the 
simplicity of is construction and of the manipulations required, 
A mere reading of the position of the manometric pointer gives 
the temperature, 
OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 
Comet 1882, b.—In consequence of cloudy mornings, it is 
stated that this comet was not seen at Melbourne until 5 a.m. on 
September 10; it was visible with the telescope till within one 
minute of sunrise, and its intrinsic brightness was estimated 
equal to that of the planet Jupiter. The tail was well defined 
and bright, but extending only over 3° or 4° at most. At 5h. 
24m. 519. a.m. its right ascension was gh. 45m. 46°61s., with 
0° 53' 36” south declination. 
At Adelaide the comet was remarked from the observatory on 
the morning of September 9, but Mr. Todd reports that a police- 
constable had seen it a few mornings previously. 
Prof. Kiced observed it at 11 a.m. on S-ptember 22, with the 
Valermo refractor of 0°25 m. ayerture; there was a trace of a 
tail towards the south-west. At the same hour on September 
23 Prof. Millosevich saw it at Rome, and describes it as ‘un 
fiocchetto di lana diseyualmente illuminato.” 
It appears by no means improbable that with our larger tele- 
scopes the comet may be visible till the end of the year, or later, 
About the time of new moon, or at midnight on Jaruary 8, its 
place will be in R.A. 6h. 53m., with 23° soath declination, 
distant from the earth 2°21, and from the sun 257, so that it 
will be upon the meridian at 11h. 40m. p.m., with an altitude 
of more than 15° at Greenwich. 
With regard to the distinguishing letter which has been 
attached to the comet in this column, Mr. T. W. Vackhouse 
writes from Sunderland :—‘‘ Surely it is a mistake to call the 
present comet ‘Comet 4 1882.’ Is not Well’s comet a; the 
comet seen in the eclipse, 6; the great comet,c; Barnard’s 
comet, d; and Schmidt's, ¢7” On this point we should reply 
that the main or indeed only reason for attaching letters to 
comets as they are discovered is to afford a ready means of dis- 
tinguishing them while they are under observation: when the 
orbits are catalogued the comets appear as I., II., III., &c., of 
a particular year. The comet of May 18 was only seen for a 
minute during the totality of the eclipse, having been looked for 
unsuccessfully morning and evening subsequently, at least by M. 
Trepied. It is not likely to be mentioned except in connection 
with the eclipse, and there is, consequently, no apparent utility 
in assigning a letter to it. We may take the opportunity to 
remark that M. Trepied, who did not regard this object as a 
comet while he had it in view, has informed us in conversation 
within the last fortnight that he is now quite convinced of its 
cometary nature, 
Tue Novemurr Mereors.—The first comet of 1866, in the 
track of which the periodical meteors of November are found to 
— wove, has probably just passed the aphelion point of its orbit, 
which is distant from the sun 19°673, the earth’s mean distance 
being taken as unity. It may be interesting to note the cha- 
racter of the shower under this condition, should it be repeated 
NATURE 
43 
when the earth arrives at the descending node of the comet’s 
orbit on the evening of November 13. 
On the morning of October 23, when the great comet was so 
favourably viewed in the vicinity of London, 4 number of bright 
meteors diverged from a point not far from the radiant of the 
November shower. 
GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 
ACCORDING to the Russian newspaper Sidir, the meteorologi- 
cal expedition to the mouth of the has started on board 
large boats provided with all nece-saries for buildiog 2 house, 
and for successful wintering. The station will be erected on 
the Tumanskaya branch of the Lena, if ithe water is deep 
enough in this branch to allow the ¢ of the boats. It is 
hoped that, with the a of the three summer month«, the 
reports of the station will reach Yakutsk regularly. They will 
be sent, first, by M. Jurgens to Bulan ; thence they will be for- 
warded to Nerkhoyansk, where they will be taken up by the 
post, which will run twice a month instead of once every four 
months as before. In the summer, the tundra being covered 
with water, messages can be sent only wd the Lena ; they will 
be taken by the merchants who leave Bulun for Yakutsk, as 
soon as the ice ig melted, and reach Yakutsk in the end of July; 
another message can be sent with the returning fishermen, who 
reach Yakutsk in September. 
Tue Germania, which conveyed the German North Polar Ex- 
pedition to Kinzawa in Cum nd Sound, bas returned to 
Hamburg. When the German‘a left Kinzawa on September 6, 
the observatory was completed, so that observations had already 
begun. Besides the two larger expeditions sent out by the 
Germin Government, Dr. Koch has also been sent to Labrador 
in order to establish metevrological observatorics among the 
missionary settlements of the Moravian brotherhood. Dr. Koch 
arrived at Hoffenthal Port on August 10, and was liberally sup- 
ported by the missionaries. All the stations set down in 
programme, viz.: Hoffenthal, Zoar, Nain, Ramah, Hebron, _ 
and Obak have now been established. A meteorological station 
has also been established on the Falkland Islands. It is to form 
an intermedisry between the stations on the South American 
continent and that on South Georgia, and also to help in render- 
ing more valuable the observations made on board of vessels 
passing through the neighbouring seas. Capt. Seemann, who 
was sent to the Falkland Islands by the Deutsche Seewarte, 
reports that work has begun. 
A pesparcu, dated September 19, has been received in 
Stockholm from the Swedish Meteorological Expedition at 
Smith’s Observatory, Spitzbergen. It states that observations 
are being regularly made, and that all was well with the 
members, 
Tue November part of Hartleben’s “ Deutsche Rundschau 
fiir Geographie und Statistik” contains articles on land forma- 
tions in the Sunda dis rict, by Jos. v. Lehnert ; on the position 
of women in the life of peoples, by Dr. M. Geistbeck; on the 
North Sea according to the investigations of the Norwegian 
Expedition during the years 1876 to 1878, by Dr. J. Chavanne; 
on the ethnography oF Central Asia, by Prof. Ujialvy ; on the 
transit of Veous and the solar parallax, by Dr. J. Holetschek; 
on the hydrography of Africa and the Welle problem, by J. 
Chavanne. ‘There is a good ethnographical map of Central 
Asia. 
A CATALOGUE of the fine commercial collections in the 
Oriental Museum in Vienna has been issued, as also a small 
volume of ‘* Neue Volkwirthschaftliche Studien iiber Constani- 
nopel und das anliegende Gebiet.” In the latter, especially, 
the ornithologist will find several things to instruct him. 
THE ene pe as Council of Paris bas granted unanimously a 
gold medal of 120/, toM. Savorgnan de brazza, for his dis- 
coveries in Tropical Africa, 
Lizut. Bove, together with the Italians of the Antarctic Ex- 
pédition scientific staff, arrived at Genoa all well. 
Tue well-known Bremen naturalist, Dr. Otto Finsch, to 
whose travels in Polynesia we recently referred, has just 
retuned to Berlin, During the last six months the traveller 
was in New Guinea, and instituted anthropological comparisons 
between the Papuans and the Eastern Melanesians. He is 
accompanied by a native of New Britain, aged fifteen, His 
