May 12, 1870| 
NATURE 
29 
make a second search for a common ground on which the 
Colleges may be brought to agreement. Meantime, the 
very general interest excited on the subject throughout the 
University is an encouraging sign that the just claims of 
Physical Science will before long be satisfied. 
SEDLEY TAYLOR 
THE TRANSIT OF VENUS AND THE 
ANTARCTIC REGIONS 
R. NEUMAYER has recently been in London, look- 
ing after apparatus, and making arrangements, for 
the proposed Austrian expedition preparatory to the one 
to the Southern Seas for the purpose of observing the 
Transit of Venus in 1874. The object is one in which 
every English man of science will feel a warm interest. 
The lethargy of our own Government has been described 
by German astronomers and naturalists by the expressive 
but not complimentary term “ Philistinism.” 
At the sitting of the Vienna Academy of Sciences on 
March toth, Dr. Neumayer submitted a proposal for 
the preparatory arrangements for the observance of the 
Transit. A map of the circumpolar regions shows that 
the best points in the Southern Hemisphere for these 
observations will be the region south of the Indian Ocean, 
near the circumpolar district. Dr. Oppolzer has estab- 
lished that the most favourable localities for observing the 
immersion, both as to parallax and altitude, can be con- 
nected by a curve passing by the great gulf of Australia 
to the Macdonald Islands, and from these to a point 
situated in 36° 52’ S. latitude, 43° 23’ E. longitude. The 
points best adapted for observation of the ezerszon will 
also be found in a curve passing from the centre of the 
Indian Ocean to a point situated in 180° E, long., and 79° 
S.lat.; and from there to another point, 64° 55'S. lat., 
and 244° 39’ E. long. The point of intersection of these 
two curves (48°5’ S. lat., 99° 3’ E. long.) will evidently be 
the one most favourable for the observation of the transit 
in its totality. In this case, the factor of the parallax 
and of the altitude will be 07°67, and 48°'0 for the immer- 
sion ; and 0°47 and 62°'5 for the emersion. The nearest 
station to this point will be the Macdonald Islands, situ- 
ated nearly in 53° S. lat., and 12° E. long. (from Green- 
wich). M. Neumayer, who visited these islands in 1857, 
was struck with their relatively high temperature ; and 
has ascertained, by a close examination of the tables of 
temperature published by the authority of the Dutch 
Government, that the current of Agulha must terminate 
near them. The summer and winter isotherms confirm 
these facts, and there can be no doubt that it is under 
the meridian of the islands of Macdonald and Kerguelen 
that the most favourable region must be sought for 
a route towards the South Pole, in the same manner 
as Sir James Ross followed, with the same object, 
a new current which set out from the shores of 
New Zealand. The map of the southern circumpolar 
reyions, published by Petermann, furnishes very pre- 
cise information for the equatorial limit of the floating 
ice, the curve shewing two points of depression towards 
the pole; one under the meridian of Kerguelen’s Land, 
the other under that of New Zealand. It may, however, 
be said that because floating icebergs have once or twice 
been found in a locality, these are not sufficient definitely 
to fix the relations of the flaating ice, which depends espe- 
cially on currents, and which secondary causes, such as 
winds, can draw into regions ordinarily free of ice. It is 
the frequency of the ice that must settle the limits in such 
cases. At the points which have been named the limit of 
floating ice bends back upon itself as high as 60° S, lat. ; 
and this is an important fact for the determination of 
the warm currents setting from the north. The position 
of the limit of maximum density of sea-water, and the 
presence of spermaceti whales (Physeter macrocephalus) 
which, as is well known, seek in preference warm 
waters, on the coasts of Termination Land, permit the 
supposition that the current in question continues towards 
the South Pole as far as that Jand and Kemp Island. 
Admiral Sir John Ross also saw spermaceti whales at 
the approach towards South Victoria; while Wilkes, 
Dumont d’Urville, and. Ross, only met with few and 
isolated individuals in the intermediate seas. M. Neu- 
mayer thinks that it will be advisable to despatch a 
small reconnoitring expedition without delay to these 
regions, and to establish a scientific station on the Mac- 
donald Islands, the first object of which should be to 
determine the absolute longitude, to serve as a basis for 
Delisle’s method. It would be occupied during the 
months of November, December, January, and February, 
with a series of meteorological observations, and with 
everything relating to physical geography. He proposes 
that, for this purpose, the Academy should make applica- 
tion to the Government for the fitting out of the expedi- 
tion, the expense of which would amount to 35,000 florins 
(87,500 francs.) This has been granted, and the expedi- 
tion will sail equipped for physical and natural history 
observations, 
THE NATURAE HISTORY OF THE 
ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION* 
HE Abyssinian campaign will always be an interesting 
little episode in history. Unlike so many of our 
military expeditions in bygone times, it was vigorously 
conceived, energetically carried out, and successfully con- 
cluded, and will, we can entertain no doubt, effectively 
protect us against a repetition of the outrage which led 
to its organisation, But even if no other advantage 
resulted from it, the acquirement of so much additional 
information, both in regard to the zoology and geology 
of Abyssinia, as is contained in the work before us, would 
in great measure reconcile all enthusiastic naturalists 
to the additional trifle of income-tax they have had to 
pay as their contribution to the expenses of the war; and 
to all such, we would recommend Mr. Blanford’s book, as 
enabling them at a small outlay to recompense them 
selves for the annoyance they have experienced. 
The author left Bombay for Abyssinia in December 
1867, and did not return till the following September, after 
an absence of nine months and a half, eight of which were 
spent in Africa. Upon the whole, he appears to have 
enjoyed unusual advantages in the collection of objects of 
natural history. He has collected no less than 1,700 speci- 
mens of Vertebrata, representing 350 species, besides about 
3,500 of Mollusca and Articulata, representing about 
500 species. The work is divided into three parts: the 
first being a personal narrative, the second devoted to the 
Geology, and the third to the Zoology of the regions 
traversed. 
On arriving at Malkatto, in Annesley Bay, he at once 
set to work to collect specimens. In the vicinity he found 
larks, chats, shrikes, wagtails, white-breasted crows, kites, 
and vultures, constituting the commonest land birds, whilst 
on the shore there were abundance of gulls, pelicans, terns, 
ring-plovers, curlews, egrets, stints, and sand-pipers, with 
a little green bee-eater, which frequented the mangroves. 
Further inland, amongst the thorny acacia trees, he ob- 
tained a lovely little Nectarinia, the long-tailed robin, a 
weaver bird (Ayphantornzs galtiula), and two species of 
Avadavats (Pytelia citerior and Estrelda rhodopyga). 
Amongst the Mammais were hyznas, jackals, gazelles, 
hares, and Jerboa mice, which, finding unwonted supplies 
of food in the commissariat stores, increased and multi- 
plied until the ground around the huts and tents was 
riddled with their holes. The only common reptiles were 
* “ Observations on the Geology and Zoology of Abyssinia made during 
the progress of the British Expedition to that country in 1867-68." y W.T, 
Blanferd, F.G.S., late geologist to the Ab osriman Expedition, with 
illustrations and geological map. (London, Macmiislan and Co., 1870.) 
