90 



NATURE 



\_Nov. 20, 18S5 



But none of the stars visible upon the nebula show diffused or 

 ill-defined borders ; so that they are probably neither in the 

 nebula nor behind it, but before it, and forming part of the 

 Milky Way. And as the two new stars alluded to are also 

 well and clearly defined, he argues that they also are connected 

 with the Milky Way, and not with the nebula, which he regards 

 as lying behind it. 



The Nice Ouservatory. — The great objective of 30 inches 

 diameter, intended for the Nice Observatory, and the glass for 

 which was supplied by M. Fell, has just been completed by the 

 Brothers Henry, and has been placed in the hands of M. Gautier, 

 who is constructing the equatorial, which he hopes to finish by 

 April ne.\t. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR THE 



WEEK, 1885, NOVEMBER 29 TO DECEMBER 5 



(For the reckoning of time the civil day, commencing at 



Greenwich mean midnight, counting the hours on to 24, is here 



employed.) 



At Greaimich on November 29 

 Sun rises, 7h. 43m. ; souths, iih. 48m. 3573. ; sets, I5h. 54m. ; 

 decl. on meridian, 21° 34' S. : Sidereal Time at Sunset, 

 2oh. 29m. 

 Moon (at Last Quarter) rises, 23h. l6m.* ; souths, 6h. 9m. ; 

 sets, I2h. 49m. ; decl. on meridian, 6° 58' N. 



3 23 

 5 39 

 3 o 



Pheiioinena of Jupiter's Satellites 

 lec 

 3 



I. tr. ing. 

 I. tr. egr. 

 I. occ. reap. 



I 53 II. eel. disap. 



7 o II. occ. reap. 

 ... S 9 III. tr. ing. 

 ... 2 8 II. tr. egr. 



7 3 I. eel. disap. 

 la of Jupiter's Satellites are such 



Mars in conjunction with .and 3° 23' north 



of the Moon. 

 Jupiter in conjunction with and o* 20' north 



of the Moon. 



Mercury at greatest elongation from the Sun, 

 21° east. 



^/signifies 



The spectrtim of R Andromedre R. A. oh. 17m. 58s., Decl. 

 37° 56' -4 N. deserves attention. The star is now approaching 

 its maximum. 



The following circular has been sent out from Lord Crawford's 

 Observatory, Dun Echt : — " Considering the great uncertainty 



which envelopes the fate of Biela's comet, it seems desirable to 

 call to mind that about midnight on the 27th inst. the earth will 

 be in the path of the meteors seen to radiate from near 7 Andro- 

 meda; on November 27, 1872. The comet's periodic time, and 

 presumably that of the meteors being about 6-6 years, nearly 

 two periods will have elapsed since the meteoric shower of 1872. 

 If, therefore, the meteors are very widely distributed along the 

 comet's orbit, there is a chance that they may again appear in 

 considerable numbers this year. In 1892, and still more in 

 1905, there is a probability of a return of the display of 1S72. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



Lieut. Greelv has been lecturing in Scotland on the Arctic 

 Expedition of which he was the commander. At Dundee, on 

 Monday night, having described the retreat from Discovery 

 Harbour, Lady Franklin Bay, he went on to speak of the results 

 of the Expedition, which could be done only in a general 

 manner. The temperature observations, he remarked, were 

 mainly important in determining the fact that Grinnell Land 

 had the lowest mean temperature in the globe, about 4' F. , or 

 20° C. below zero. This was in accordance with their expecta- 

 tions. The tidal observations, only roughly reduced by him at 

 Conger, confirmed the work of 1S75-76, but a lar^e number of 

 simultaneous readings at seven .special stations in the Polar Sea, 

 Robesoir and Kennedy Channels, should enable tidal experts to 

 determine quite accurately the shape and direction of the tidal 

 wave, an important element in the theoretical determination of 

 the configur.ation of lands and sea-bottom to the north. In 

 (jrinnell Land the discovery of coal not only at various points 

 along the sea-coast, but at others in the interior, proved con- 

 clusively the changed climatic condition, as did the fossil forest 

 found near Cape Baird in 81° 30' N. Discoveries of Eskimo 

 remains were of interest as showing the possible extent of this 

 immigration of a new race into the Polar Basin. The Lieutenant 

 next spoke of geographical discoveries. The furthest point seen 

 by Beaumont was Cape Britannia, nearly 50 miles beyond 

 the extreme point actually attained by that heroic officer. 

 From Britannia Island Lieut. Lockwood and Sergeant 

 Brainard pushed on 100 miles further, and passed a day 

 and a half at Lockwood Island, the furthest point by land 

 or sea ever attained by civilised man, in 83' 24' N., 

 40° 46' W. From an elevation of nearly 3000 feet it was 

 evident that no land existed within a radius of sixty miles to the 

 north or north-westward, but to the north-east the Greenland 

 coast yet trended, ending to the eye at Cape Washington in 

 83° 35' N. To Greenland was thus added 125 miles of new 

 coast excluding the fiord lines, and from Cape May the mainland 

 was carried a degree of latitude to the northward. In carrying 

 Greenland 10° of longitude ftirther to the eastward, Lieut. Lock- 

 wood left but 16° for his successors to fill in. The new land is 

 composed of high precipitous promontories along the coast, and 

 equally broken country inland, in which but three glaciers were 

 seen, none discharging. It was evident that the inland ice-cap 

 of Greenland stopped far to the southward of the 82nd parallel. 

 In short, there existed from Robeson and Kennedy Channels, 

 westward to Greely Fiord and the Polar .Sea, a series of fertile 

 valleys clothed with vegetation of luxuriant growth, whereon 

 were large herds of nrask oxen. He desired to say a few words 

 as to his discoveries concerning the much-talked-of palceocrystic 

 ice, especially the floebergs from 100 to 1000 feet thick. The 

 opinion advanced by Sir G. N.ires that this ice formed over the 

 Arctic Ocean was not borne out by facts, and he could not commit 

 himself to the judgment that this sea was for ever tinnavigable, 

 for they knew that a quantity of the ice changed from year 

 to year, and little of it was seen by Lieut. Lockwood to 

 the northward of Cape May. Dr. Moss was certainly correct as 

 to the universality of stratification in this ancient ice, and he 

 concurred in the opinion that its salinity was due to efflorescence 

 and infiltration. There was no doubt in his mind that these 

 floes were simply detachments of slowly-moving glaci.al ice-caps 

 from an ice-covered land in the neighbourhood of the Pole. 

 Lieut. Lockwood found small floebergs, perhaps 100 to 200 feet 

 thick, detached from the adjacent ice-caps. In Kane Sea he 

 visited a floeberg a third of a mile wide, a quarter of a mile 

 long, and from a fifth to a sixth of a mile thick. The proof .as 

 to its terrestrial origin no one would dispute ; on its surface were 

 two valleys about 30 feet deep, along which were the medial 

 moraines of the glacier — fully 100 large stones polished and 

 worn smooth in places by the parent ice. He thought it doubtful 



