446 
From Prof, A. Ricco, who writes from Palermo on February 28, 
we learn that he has found the spectrum to be formed of the 
three bands of hydrocarbons, with an extremely faint continuous 
spectrum of the nucleus ; the sodium line (D) was not present. 
The comet is receding from the earth as well as from the sun. 
The elements have but little similarity to those of any comet 
previously calculated. 
THE GREAT COMET OF 1852.—Prof. Julius Schmidt has pub- 
lished some particulars of his observations of this remarkable 
body since the commencement of the present year. On Jan. 3 
the tail was traced through upwards of 11° with the naked eye ; 
on the roth it was visible for 8°, on the 28th it had diminished 
to 54°, but was readily seen without the telescope; on the 30th 
its length was 3°. On February 5 a tail 2° in length was per- 
ceptible to the naked eye; Prof. Schmidt obtained his last dis- 
tinct glimpse of the comet without the telescope on February 7. 
Dr. B. A. Gould, director of the Observatory at Cordoba, 
who is now in London ex route for the United States, informs 
the writer, that on February 11, three days out from Rio Janeiro, 
he was satisfied of the visibility of the tail of the comet to the 
naked eye; its distance from the earth at this time was 2°48, and 
its distance from the sun 3°05. 
THE VARIABLE STAR U CEPHEI.—Mr. G. Knott secured a 
good observation of the minimum of this variable, at Cuckfield, 
on the night of March 2. An uninterruptedly clear sky enabled 
him to keep a watch on the star from 7h. 24m. to 14h. 30m. 
G.M.T. At about 8h. 15m. it began to fade from 7:2m., and 
at 14h. 30m. it had risen again to 81m. The observed time of 
minimum was 12h, 36m., or seven minutes earlier than the time 
assigned in the ephemeris in NATURE, and the magnitude at 
minimum was 9°45. The star remained at minimum for nearly 
24 hours. The low magnitude attained, Mr. Knott considers, 
is confirmatory of a suggestion he made from his earlier observa- 
tions, that at alternate minima the star touches a lower magnitude 
than at those which intervene. 
New NEBUL&.—M. Stephan, director of the Observatory at 
Marseilles, publishes a catalogue of fifty nebulz observed there, 
forty-five of which he believes to be new. A group of four 
pretty bright nebulz he gives as identical with 4, Nos. 2352, 
2356, 2358, and 2359, but their relative positions resulting from 
his observations are not in accordance with Sir John Herschel’s 
Catalogue. The Marseilles places and descriptions are— 
R.A. 1880’0. N.P.D. 
ies sare, SY ere a 
No. 42... 11 9 8°45...71 14 8:7 Assez belle, assez petite, 
ronde, condensation cen- 
trale. 
3» 43.--- II 10 28°49 ... 71 19 391 Assez belle, assez petite, 
ronde, conden-ation cen- 
trale. 
71 17 350 Belle, roide, assez éten- 
due, condensation gra- 
duelle centrale trés forte. 
71 11 46°7 Assez belle, ronde, con- 
densation graduelle cen- 
t ale assez forte. 
The catalogue is published in the Comptes Rendus del’ Académie 
des Sciences of February 26. 
” 
44\.c DI1O230:52)--. 
Abie 1 10140073) 
” 
GEOGRAPAICAL NOTES 
WE are now enabled, on the authority of Dr. Oscar Dickson, 
to give the following particulars of the programme of Nordens- 
kjold’s proposed expedition :—The expedition will leave Sweden 
early in May next, in all probability in the Government steamer 
Sophia, and if the state of the ice is favourable to a landing on 
the east coast this will be effected ; but as this is not expected to 
be the case until later in the season, Baron Nordenskjéld will | 
proceed to the west coast, not for geographical discovery, but to 
study the appearance and extent of the inland ice on this side 
before attempting to penetrate from the eastern side. There are 
also known to exist on the west coast some very large blocks of 
ironstone, perhaps of meteoric origin, which a party of the 
expedition will be despatched to examine. When these re- 
searches are finished, and the state of the ice more favourable, 
the vessel will make her way from Cape Farewell along the eastern 
shore in the open channel, which is generally found between the 
coast and the drift-ice. With regard to the ‘‘ break” or oasis, 
believed by Baron Nordenskjéld to exist in the interior of Green- 
NATURE 
[March 8, 1883 
land, to which we have previously referred, the explorer has 
been led to this conviction during his wanderings on the inland 
ice on a former occasion. fe maintains that not only the con- 
stant advance of the ice-mass, but the fact that the country does 
not rise continually in the interior, show that the whole land is 
not covered with perpetual snow and ice; and this theory, he 
states, has been further corroborated by the studies made by him 
and others of the temperature and moisture of the air on the 
inland ice. The expedition, which will be accompanied by a 
complete scientific staff, will also aim at studying the conditions 
of the drift-ice between Iceland and Cape Farewell, the fossil 
remains in Greenland, as well as the appearance and quantity of 
the cosmic dust there. One object will also be, if possible, to 
discover traces of the former Norse settlements. It is expected 
that the party will return in September next. We understand 
that the reason why Baron Nordenskjéld has not issued any 
official programme concerning his expedition is that, being occu- 
pied with preparations for his journey and public duties, he 
would not be able to enter into any critical controversies as to 
his plans and theory. 
Ir appears from a letter of Dr, L, E. Regel to the Secretary 
of the Russian Geographical Society, that this Central-Asian 
traveller successfully pursued his explorations during last summer. 
He left Samar-land at the end of June last, and to reach Hissar 
he chose the shortest route, z7é@ Penja-kent. This route, by 
which the expedition visited the Fan River and Lake Iskander- 
kul, and crossed the Mur Pass, was very difficult; but the 
botanical collections and the geographical results were all the 
richer. Inthe centre of this region is situated a great mountain 
| range, whose summits—the peaks of Kuli-kalan and the Chandar 
and Bodhan Mountains—are seen from Samarkand. To the 
south of this range runs the Saridagh valley, beyond which rises 
the Hissar range proper; to the north it has the Kul-i-kalan 
plateau and the valleys of a tributary of the Voron and the 
Pasrut River. The plateau of Kul-i-kalan has a circumference 
of about thirteen miles, and is dotted with five lakes 10,000 feet 
above the sea-level. The mountains around it have no real 
glaciers, but there are old moraines which can be traced also 
along the tributary of the Voron, which is fed by on: of these 
lakes. We have here a separate Alpine landscape, the mountains 
of which are mostly fossiliferous limestones (sandstones with casts 
of thick fossil trees are found in the Pasrut valley), and witha 
vegetation not only richer than that of any other part of the basin 
of the Zarafshan, but also more varied as to its distribution. The 
forest vegetation is richest in the zone between 4000 and 8co0o 
feet above the sea-level: M. Regel found there apple, cherry, 
and nut trees, together with the 47cha. The upper zone, where 
the Archa also predominates, contains birches, willows, and an 
arborescent Ephedra ; it reaches 10,500 to 11,000 feet, and the 
vegetation altogether goes highcr up than the limit of perpetual 
snow. The Mur Pass—about 14,000 feet high—is very steep ; 
the expedition had to cross snow-fields for nearly four miles, and 
found on the southern slope immense accumulations of snow, 
which probably is due to the foggy climate of Hissar,, although 
the amount of rain is small in this region. The vegetation of 
the southern slope is very rich and much like that of Karateghin. 
The range is composed. of syenite ; the next range, of the same 
height, between Khoja-Hassan and Hakimi, consists of granite, 
syenite-gneiss, and fussiliferous slates. Between Hakimi and 
Karatagh there is a series of lower parallel ridges, consisting of 
fossiliferous sandstones. The same sandstones are met with 
also between the two main ranges; they contain fossils at 
Khoja-Hassan. Changing his former plan, M. Regel proceeded 
further directly to Kala-i-Khumb, while his topographer was 
despatched to Kulab, va Hissar, the two to meet in the Darvaz. 
The remainder of M. Regel’s letter gives several interesting 
topographical details, and information about different routes, as 
well as an enumeration of the chief questions that must be 
resolved as to the topography of this region. 
We announced last week that a Danish expedition would 
explore the east coast of Greenland during the summer. The funds 
required for this expedition were voted by the last Danish 
Parliament, and it will consist of two lieuteuants in the navy, 
G. Holm, and T. Garde, with two scientific men, but the 
remaining members will be natives of Greenland. The expedi- 
tion will only employ boats for their purpose. 
Tue Ural Mountains are again becoming the field of explora- 
tion for Russian geologists and geographers. We learn from 
the Zsvestia of the Russian Geographical Society that M. Nasi- 
