Il6 



NA TURE 



[December 5, 1907 



iih. 30m. p.m. on November 27. The commencement of 

 the flight was estimated to lie half-way between a Cygni and 

 f UrsEe Majoris, and after pursuing a vertical path the 

 meteor died away before reaching the horizon. The colour 

 of the object was yellow, its shape that of a pear, a 

 round head followed by a tapering tail. The meteor 

 travelled slowly, and no persistent trail was observed. 



S.'Iturn's Rings. — A communication from Prof. Picker- 

 ing to the Asironomische Nachrichten (No. 4216, p. 267, 

 November 26) contains the following messages received 

 from Prof. Lowell : — " Condensations in Saturn's rings con- 

 firmed here and measured repeatedly. They are visible 

 symmetric and permanent. Outer situated near the outer 

 edge, ansa b, inner at middle of ansa c. A conspicuous 

 relative gap also delected and measured at 1-56 radius 

 from the centre of the planet. Ring easily seen. Placed 

 further south from shadow at west than east." This 

 message was dated November 7, and the following was 

 dated November 22 : — " Ring shadow on Saturn bisected, 

 black medial line, phenomenon explicable by extra-plane 

 particles only." 



The Recent Tr.\nsit of Mercliry. — No. 21 of the Paris 

 Comptes rendus (November iS) contains a number of com- 

 munications regarding the observations of the transit of 

 Mercury which took place on November 13. 



At the Nice Observatory the times of the contacts were 

 observed with several different instruments, and micrometer 

 measurements of the polar and equatorial diameters were 

 made. For several seconds " before " the second contact 

 black ligaments were seen by MM. Javelle and Simonin, 

 and before third contact ; the black disc of the planet was 

 seen to be surrounded by a whitish or yellowish appear- 

 ance. The measurements of the diameters are not con- 

 sistent for different observers, but they all agree in making 

 the polar diameter the shorter. M. Charlois saw very 

 distinctly the black ligament after the second and before 

 the third contacts, its thickness being less than the 

 diameter of the planet. The unsteadiness of the image 

 rendered the proposed astrophysical observations almost 

 impossible. 



At the Lyons Observatory observations of the times of 

 contact and measurements of the diameters were also made, 

 and none of the three observers was able to see any 

 peculiar feature on the planet's disc. 



_ M. Bourget, at Toulouse, found the planetary disc dis- 

 tinctly blacker than the nuclei of the neighbouring sun- 

 spots, and, at intervals, suspected that it was surrounded 

 by a slight, pale yellow border. 



At Marseilles, where a number of observations of con- 

 tacts and of diameters were made, M. Borrelly noted that 

 the disc was of a dark violet colour, and appeared to be 

 surrounded by a nebulous greyish ring of light nearly as 

 thick as the diameter of the planet. The same observer 

 believes he saw Mercury as a small dark disc surrounded 

 by a violet annulus about an hour before first contact. 

 Paying special attention to the matter, M. Esmiol was 

 unable to discern the slightest deformation of the horns 

 of the olanet as it crossed the sun's limb at entrv, but 

 saw a sharply defined ring, of about three seconds in'thick- 

 ness, around the dark disc of the planet during the whole 

 of the transit. 



With the smaller magnifications at the Bourges Observ- 

 atory, both the yellowish aureole and the luminous spot 

 were seen, but Abbf? Th. Moreux believes both of them 

 to be subjective phenomena. At the beginning of the 

 observations the bright spot was to the east of the centre, 

 but at the end it appeared to be to the west. With a 

 magnification of 325 it always appeared central. 



Comte de la Baume Pluvincl. who had set up special 

 soectroscopic apparatus at the Nice Observatorv, was un- 

 pble to find any modification of the solar spectrum near 

 the planet's limb, although he especially examined the 

 absorption bands of oxygen and water vapour, both 

 visually and photographically. 



.Arrangements were made for observing the possible 

 spectroscopic phenomena, visually and ohotographicallv, at 

 the Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington,' but 

 clouds prevented the observations being made. The planet 

 was only seen for a few seconds some little time after the 

 commencement of the transit, and appeared as a well- 

 defined black disc. 



SOME /DECENT WORK IN PALAEONTOLOGY. 

 A MONO palaeontological papers sent to us, the foUow- 

 ■^ ing have a faunistic bearing : — 



Mr. K. R. Cowper Reed (" Memoirs of the Geological 

 Survey of India," " Pala;ontologia Indica, " new series, 

 vol. ii., mem. 3, 1906) describes the lower Palaeozoic 

 fossils of the northern Shan States, Burma, and ( o'nts 

 out that we know very few fossils from pre-Devonian 

 rocks in southern Asia. The rich finds in Burma, which 

 have mainly become revealed through the survey by 

 Mr. T. D. La Touche, are consequently very welcome. 

 Dr. Bather has furnished thirty-four pages on the 

 cystideans, and Miss Elles has assisted in the description 

 of the graptolites, wliich are represented by three species 

 of Monograptus (p. go). The critical remarks on genera 

 by Dr. Bather and Mr. Reed render the memoir of general 

 importance. The Naungkangyi beds, which doubtless 

 include more than one stage (p. 83), are shown to have 

 aflinities with the Lower Ordovician of northern Europe. 

 La Touche believes the Nyaungbaw beds to be Upper 

 Ordovician ; but the fossil evidence is scanty. The 

 Namhsim Sandstones (p. 152) are correlated with the 

 European Wenlock. The Zebingyi beds, which contain 

 abundant Tentaciditcs elegans, side by side with Mono- 

 graptus, are of later age, and the fauna verges on that 

 of the Lower Devonian of Europe ; but the presence of 

 Monograptus leads Mr. Reed to regard these Burmese 

 strata as uppermost Silurian, the fauna heralding that 

 which afterwards spread into the Mediterranean or south 

 European province. The fine plates in the memoir are 

 from drawings by Mr. T. A. Brock. 



Dr. Carl Diener deals with the fauna of the Tropites- 

 limestone of Byans, on the south-west flank of the 

 Himalayas, adjoining Tibet and Nepal (ibid., ser. xv., 

 vol. v., mem. i, 1906). The author visited the sections 

 in 1892, and extensive collections have since been made 

 by the Indian Geological Survey in iSqq and 1900. The 

 cephalopod-fauna includes Atractites, Orthoceras, and ,1 

 fine series of ammonites, these last furnishing 155 species 

 out of 168 forms of all kinds known from this horizon 

 (p. 188). This fauna is now well illustrated. We have 

 already referred (Nature, vol. Ixxiv., p. 530) to the con- 

 clusion that in Byans, in one limestone band 3 feet in 

 thickness, the dissimilar Carnic and Noric faunas of the 

 Alps are both represented. Transitional types of 

 ammonites are not, however, discoverable, and the 

 apparent mingling of the faunas is held to be due to lack 

 of sedimentation, whereby a thin stratum represents a 

 prolonged epoch of Triassic time. 



In the succeeding memoir (ibid., mem. 2) Dr. Diener 

 describes " the fauna of the Himalayan Muschelkalk." 

 The beds are mainly of L"pper Muschelkalk age, yielding 

 numerous cephalopods. India is no longer inferior to 

 Europe in the number of species know^n from this stage. 

 Ten species of cephalopods, and three common species of 

 brachiopods (p. 135), are identical with those of Europe. 



Mr. H. Woods, working, like Mr. Cowper Reed, in 

 Cambridge, describes the Cretaceous fauna of Pondo- 

 land for the Geological Survey of Cape Colony (" Annals 

 of the South African Museum," vol. iv., part vii., 1906'). 

 He has also had the advantage of examining Mr. 

 Griesbach's collection in the Hamburg Museum. The 

 whole deposit in Pondoland is regarded bv Mr. Woods as 

 Upper Senonian. Mr. Brock must again be congratulated 

 on the beautiful plates accompanying the memoir. 



Mr. S. Tokunaga (Journ. Coll. of Science, Univ. of 

 Tokyo, vol. xxi., article 2, 1906), in a paper on fossils 

 from the environs of Tokyo, has made good use of 

 material close to the city itself, in beds hitherto regarded 

 as Pliocene. The fauna is almost entirely molluscan, but 

 the author has secured from it a few remains of Elephas 

 antiquus. Carefully comparing his results with those of 

 his predecessor Brauns. who wrote in iSSi, he is per- 

 suaded that the affinities with the European Crag beds 

 have been overstated ; and he brings the denosits round 

 Tokvo forward into post-Pliocene or " Diluvial " times. 

 The new species, and many already recorded, are figured 

 on five large plates. 



^^'e mav perhaos refer here to Mr. S-Imrhert's dis- 

 cussion of the Carboniferous and Permian bods of Russia. 



NO. 1988, VOL. 'J'j'] 



