Feb. II, 1875 J 



NATURE 



287 



were made at the Cape of Good Hope.) Its position, 

 according to the above data, is in the neighbourhood of 

 130 Tauri. Thence retrograding with a slow southerly 

 motion in decHnation, it passes through the constellation 

 Aries, in January 19 10, and is situate in Pisces until it 

 has approached our globe within the mean distance of the 

 earth from the sun, or until about the beginning of the 

 last week in May. Its apparent motion then rapidly acce- 

 lerates. On June 12 the calculated position is close to 

 the bright star Capella, and, five days later, on the con- 

 fines of Lynx and Leo Minor. At this period the comet 

 attains its least distance from the earth, which may be 

 taken as o'25. Descending pretty quickly towards the 

 equator, we find it in the neighbourhood of 84 Leonis at 

 the beginning of July, afterwards gradually losing itself in 

 the evening twilight. With the date for perihelion passage 

 assigned by Pontifcoulant, the comet would be most con- 

 spicuous in the first half of the month of June, in the 

 absence of the moon, which is full on the 22nd. 



Encke'S Comet has been detected very close upon the 

 calculated position at more than one of the private obser- 

 vatories in this country, but up to the interference of 

 moonlight it was extremely faint. We shall continue the 

 ephemeris ne.\t week. 



Antares. — The measures of this star communicated 

 last week by Mr. J. M. Wilson, of Rugby, are pretty con- 

 clusive as to a physical connection of the components. If 

 the angle and distance used as a starting-point (184S) in 

 our former notice be brought up to Mr. Wilson's epoch, 

 iS73'42, by applying Leverrier's proper motions in the 

 interval to the place of the large star, we have 



Angle . . . 287°-S. Distance . . . 3"'53. 



The observation gives the angle 25S°"6 (differing 19') 

 less than any yet assigned by previous measures ; but in 

 1845, Mitchel thought the small star was on the parallel 

 preceding, and all subsequent observations except the one 

 in question have placed the companion in the ii.p. quad- 

 rant, Da«'es in 1864 finding the angle nearly 276'. 



Lalande's Etoile SiNGULikRE. — On the 4th of 

 March, 1796 ("Histoire Celeste," p. 211), Lalande ob- 

 served meridionally a star of 67 magnitude, the position 

 of which for the beginning of the present year is in R.A. 

 8h. 13m. 3s., N.P.D. 68° 5i''5 ; on the 15th of the same 

 month he again observed the star, and the resulting 

 places for 1800 belong to Nos. 16292-3 of the reduced 

 catalogue. On March 4 he attaches this remark to his 

 observation — " Etoile singuliire." The observation of the 

 15th is without note. We have examined this star tele- 

 ■copically on several occasions, without being able to 

 detect any unusual appearance about it. The light is 

 yellowish. Has any reader of Nature had the curiosity 

 to look at it ? The remark is a strange one for the ob- 

 server of £0 many thousands of sta.s to attach, unless 

 there was really something singular in the star's aspect at 

 the time. 



NEWS FROM THE ''CHALLENGER"* 



THE CJiallmgerlth Port Nicholson on the 7th July, 

 1874, and proceeded under sail along the east coast 

 of New Zealand. On the 8th we rounded and trawled in 

 1,100 fathoms, lat. 40° 13' S., long. 177° 43' E., with a 

 bottom-temperature of 2^ C, and a bottom of soft greenish 

 ooze. Many animals were brought up by this trawl, re- 

 sembling closely those which we had taken at a corre- 

 sponding depth in other portions of the Southern Sea. On 

 the loth we again trawled and sounded in 700 fathoms 

 about forty miles to the east of East Cape. 



We then continued our course northwards towards the 



* " Report on the Cruise of H. JI.S. Challeii'rcy, fiom July to November 

 1874." by Prof. Wyrille Thomion, K.R.S., Director of the civlian Scien- 

 tific Staff. A paper, dated H.M.S. ChaUen^rr, Hong Kong, re.nd before the 

 Royal Society, Feb. ^. 



Kermadec Islands, and on the 14th we took our usual 

 series of observations midway between Macaulay and 

 Raoul Islands in the Kermadec group. At this station 

 we trawled at a depth of 630 fathoms ; and we were 

 greatly struck with the general resemblance between the 

 assemblage of animal forms brought up in the trawl and 

 the results of a good haul in about the same depth off 

 the coast of Portugal or North Africa. Among the more 

 interesting objects were a very large and splendid speci- 

 men of a Hexactinellid sponge allied to PflliopOi^on, 

 several other fine sponges referred to the same group, and 

 three or four examples of two species of Pcntacritins new 

 to science, resembling generally P. astcria, L., from the 

 Antilles. We trawled on the following day in 600 fathoms, 

 forty-five miles to the north of Raoullsland, with nearly 

 equal success. On the evening of Sunday the 19th we 

 arrived at Tongatabu and called on the principal mis- 

 sionary, Mr. Baker, from whom we received every possible 

 attention during our short stay. After spending two days 

 in visiting different parts of the island, we left Tongatabu 

 on the 22nd of July, and after taking a few hauls of the 

 dredge in shallow water we proceeded towards Kandavu 

 in the Fijis. On the 24th we stopped off Matuku Island 

 and landed a party of surveyors and naturalists ; and 

 while they were taking observations and exploring on 

 shore we trawled in 300 fathoms, and received among 

 other things a fine specimen of the pearly Nautilus, 

 Nautilus pompiliiis, which we kept living in a tub for 

 some time in order to observe its movements antl 

 attitudes. 



On Saturday the 25th of July we arrived at Kandavu, 

 on the 2Sth we went to Levuka, and we returned to 

 Kandavu on the 3rd of August, where we remained until v 

 the loth. 



At Fiji the civilian staff were occupied in examining the 

 reefs and generally in obsei-ving the natural history of the 

 islands ; and in this we received all friendly assistance 

 from H.M. Consul, Mr. Layard, and from Mr. Thurston, 

 Minister of King Cacobau. During our stay, a mixed 

 party of naval and civilian officers went in the ship's 

 barge to Mbaw and visited the king. 



Between New Zealand and the Fiji group only two 

 .'O'.mdings were taken to a greater depth than i.ooo 

 fathoms._ Of these, one at a depth of 1,100 off Cape 

 Turnagain, New Zealand, gave a bottom of grey ooze, and 

 a bottom-temperature of 2" C. ; and the second at 2,900 

 fathoms, lat. 25° 5' S., long, i 72° 56' W., midway between 

 the Kermadecs and the Friendly Islands, gave "red 

 clay," and a temperature of o-'-, C. Four serial tempera- 

 ture-soundings were taken ; and the distribution of tem- 

 perature was found to correspond in its main features 

 with what we had previously met with in oceans communi- 

 cating freely with the Antarctic Sea. 



The dredgings, which, with the exception of one near 

 the New Zealand coast, were all at depths varying from 

 three to six hundred fathoms, yielded a great i;umb3r of 

 very interesting fjrms ; bjt, as I have .already remarked, 

 they tended to confirm our impression that even at these 

 comparatively moderate depths, at all depths, in fact, 

 much greater than a hundred fathoms, while species 

 differ in different localities, and different generic types 

 are from time to time introduced, the general character 

 of the fauna is everywhere very much the same. 



On the loth of August we left Kandavu and proceeded , 

 towards Api, one of the least known of the New Hebrides, '^ 

 where there is as yet no permanent missionary station. 

 On the i2th we sounded and trawled in 1,350 fathoms, 

 with a bottom of reddish ooze ; we sounded again on the 

 15th in 1,450 fathoms with red clay; and on the iSth, 

 after passing through the channel between Makuru and 

 Tvo-HiU Islands, we stopped off Api in twenty-five 

 fathoms, close to the edge of the reef and opposite a 

 landing-place. 



In order to receive, as far as we could, the good-will of 



