Sept. 16, 1886] 
NATORE 
469 
et quelquefois de la moitié du corps hors de l'eau. Elle était 
_ onde et €paisse et paraissoit plus massive que nos plus grandes 
f 
vaches. . . . Unde nos matelots nous assura que ces animaux 
avoient les pieds, comme vous pouvez voir dans la figure que 
voici.” 
This figu-e, however, except for the toes, which resemble fins 
or webbed feet, is unmistakably the hippspotamus! (See 
** Voyage et Avantures de Francois Leguat,” vol. i. p. 353 
Londres, 1798.) Leguat did not apparently consider it a 
manatee, for on p. 93 he gives a full description, with plate, of 
the lamentin or manati, which ‘‘se trouve en grande abondance 
dans les mers de cette Isle’’ (Rodviguez). The skin is 
“noiratre.” 
Pére Tachard plainly calls the hippopotamus the vache 
marine—he is speaking of the Cape: ‘‘on voit dans les grandes 
Rivieres un animal monstrieux, qu’on appelle Vache Marine, et 
qui égale le Rhinocéros en grandeur” (‘‘ Voyage de Siam,” 
yol. i. p. 78; Amsterdam, 1688). The plate accompanying is 
the hippopotamus, and we know that the Dutch colonists have 
always called this pachyderm the ‘‘ zee-koe.” 
Kolbe (‘* Caput bonae spei hodiernum,” p. 167, Niirnberg, 
1719) speaks of the ‘‘zee kuh,” the ‘“‘meer kuh,” the ‘‘zee 
pferd,” and the ‘‘kuh fisch,” all of which he appears to consider 
different names for the hippopotamus, notwithstanding that ‘‘in 
dem Tartarisch meere grosse Kiih-Fische schwemmern, die 
grosser als unsere Kiihe in Europa waren, aber weder Schuppen 
noch Horner hatten.” This must be the dugong, surely. 
Bogaerts (‘‘ Asia,” p. 105 ; Amsterdam, 1711) distinguishes 
between ‘‘zee-paarden” and “ zee-koien.” 
Dampier’s mention of the manatee is probably well known :— 
“* While we lay here (Blewfield River, between the Nicaragua 
and Veragna Rivers) our Moskito men went in their canoa and 
struck us some manatee or seacow. Besides this Blewfield 
River I have seen of the manatee in the Bay of Campeachy, on 
the coast of Bocca del Drago and Bocco del Toro, in the River 
of Darien, and among the South Keys or little Islands of Cuba. 
. . - I have seen them als» at Mindanea, one of the Philippine 
Islands, and on the coast of New Holland.” Then follows a 
full description (see Dampier’s ‘‘ Voyage Round the World,” 
vol. i. p. 33 e¢ seg., also pp. 2, 9, 41, 381, 463, and 547 ; London, 
1729). Dampier also points out that the so-callel manatee of 
St. Helena is really a ‘‘sea-lion.” 
Cape Town, August 4 W. HAMMOND TOOKE 
Time Reform in Japan 
THE following communication may perhaps interest your 
readers. 
On my return home from America and Europe, I presented a 
report on the resolutions of the International Meridian and Time 
Congress, held at Washington last year, to which I was sent as 
a delegate. A Committee was appointed to discuss the matter 
contained in my report, and reported favourably. The follow- 
ing decree was issued on July 12, 1886, under the Imperial 
seal :— 
(1) The meridian passing through the centre of the transit 
instrument at the Observatory of Greenwich shall be the initial 
meridian for longitude. 
(2) Longitude shall be counted from this initial meridian in 
two directions up to 180°, east longitude being + and west 
longitude - . 
(3) On and after the first day of the first month of the twenty- 
first year of Meiji (January 1, 1888), the time of the meridian 
of 135° E. shall be used as the standard time throughout the 
empire. D. Kikucar 
Science College, Imperial University, Tokio, Japan 
Tremblement de Terre du 5 Septembre 
L’&BRANLEMENT des couches terrestres, qui peut étre considéré 
comme la suite du trembleterre du 27 aoiit, a eu son centre dans 
le Piémont, dans les environs de Su-e, au pied du Mont-Cenis. 
Le phenoméne a été composé des secousses suivantes, qui ont 
toutes été tres-faibles dans la Suisse. 
Secousses préparatoires. 4 septembre, 11th. 35m. soir (heure 
de Berne) Colombier (Neuchatel) ; 5 septembre, Sh. 16m. soir, 
Briangon (Hautes-Alpes, France). 
Grande secousse. 5 septembre, 8h. 55m. soir. Nous en 
avons des observations de Bienne, Berne, Lausanne, Morges, 
Geneve, Vevey, Aigle, Villars-sur-Ollon, Bex, Mouthey, Trois- 
torrents, Sion, Saviese. 
Secousses consécutives. 5 septembre, 11h. 55m. soir, Geneve ; 
6 septembre, 4h. rom. matin, Mouthey (Valais) ; 7 septembre, 
oh. 43m. matin, Genéve. F.-A, ForEL 
Morges, 12 septembre 
Lunar Rainbow 
A BEAUTIFUL lunar rainbow was plainly visible here for a 
few moments last evening. The eastern sky being clear, the 
moon looked fully out from behind dark clouds in the west at a 
moment when rain was falling lightly. Turning quickly away 
from her light, in the hope of seeing a bow, I was not dis- 
appointed. A semicircle of pale, whitish light, was projected 
against the eastern sky, much smaller in diameter, apparently, 
than a sun-bow, and without any traces of colour. 
Reflecticg on the circumstance that repeated efforts have 
never, previously, enabled me to see a lunar bow, although the 
conditions necessary for its formation are common enough, Iam 
tempted to think that the phenomenon can only be seen when 
the atmosphere is unusually clear. The light issuing from the 
bow is so faint that the slightest mistiness of the air intervening 
between itself and the spectator is probably sufficient to, practi- 
cally, extinguish it. Last night the air here and over the 
Channel was extraordinarily pellucid, lights on the French coast 
which are hardly ever seen being plainly visible, while others, 
nearer neighbours, flashed with most unusual brilliancy. 
D. PIDGEON 
Arthur Villa, Hythe, Kent, September 6 
Aurora 
THE aurora seen in Ireland on July 27, and described in 
Narure, August 5, p. 312, was visible in this vicinity. It was 
the finest observed thus far this year, with the exception of that 
of May 8. Other dates on which the aurora has been seen in 
this locality recently are as follows: June 29, June 4, and 
April 14. It has been noted that these appearances of the 
aurora have been coincident with the return of the disturbed 
area on one side of the sun (see NATURE, July 22, p. 278), and 
likewise with widespread and violent storms. 
Lyons, New York, August 25 M. A. VEEDER 
THE SOLAR ECLIPSE OF AUGUST 29 
“THE following communication, dated Grenada, Sep- 
tember 5, is published by the 7zmes from its 
correspondent with the Eclipse Expedition. It should 
be compared with the communication made by Prof. 
MacAlister to Section A at the Birmingham meeting of 
the British Association (NATURE, September 9, p. 441), 
and with the article in the same number (p. 437), describ- 
ing the arrangements for observation. 
“The observations of the corona during the last two 
eclipses, including that observed in Egypt, have been 
confirmed by the present. Capt. Darwin’s observations 
with the coronagraph seem disappointing, the glare of 
irradiation from the body of the sun, and not the true 
corona, being visible on his plates. The bright lines seen 
in the spectra of the prominences are displaced in sucha 
direction as to prove that there is in them a downrush of 
gas towards the sun. 
“The curious prolongation of the corona observed 
on several previous occasions to occupy the sun’s 
equatorial plane, does not appear in any of the photo- 
graphs taken, though it was visible at all the stations 
except Mr. Lockyer’s.” 
PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE SOLAR CORONA 
NDER the above title we have received the follow- 
ing communication with reference to the results of 
the recent eclipse observations :— 
Accounts have appeared in your journal of my 
attempts to photograph the corona of the sun without 
an eclipse. Many of the plates obtained presented 
appearances which seemed not to myself only, but 
to several scientific men who must certainly be con- 
