Sept. 26, 1872] 



NATURE 



441 



natural productions of the colony. He had previously travelled 

 through Venezuela, Brazil, and the Amazons \'aUey, and had 

 sent considerable collections of plants both to this country and 

 to Germany. His journal has been printed in the Gcorgdcnvn 

 Gazette, and we hope to give extracts from it on a future 

 occasion. 



The Council of the Vienna Exhibition have decided on 

 having a permanent aquarium erected in that city, and the plans 

 of Mr. II. Driver, C.E., who erected the aquarium at the 

 Crystal Palace last year, have been approved. 



We understand that it is not the intention of the Board of 

 Managers of the London Institution to fill up the vacancy occa- 

 sioned by the decease of Mr. J. C. Brough, F.C.S. until after 

 November. 



The NrMca^tle Chronicle states that some gentlemen con- 

 nected with the mining interest have for several days been prose- 

 cuting their inquiries in the neighbourhood of Waterford with 

 reference to the existence of coals in that portion of county Kil- 

 kenny which lies between the Suir and the Barrow, and has a 

 communication with both of these important rivers. The geologi- 

 cal maps give no indication of coals in this locality, but the result 

 of inquiries prosecuted with much intelligence has led to the dis- 

 covery of a coal bed of immense dimensions in this district, about 

 two miles from WatcrforJ, and within easy access to the river 

 Suir. The coal seam to the thickness of 10 ft. lies immediately 

 under the Old Red sandstone, the lower strata being a very fine 

 outcrop of silicate of magnesia. Tlie coal shales come to the 

 surface at the cross road, about half a mile beyond the chapel of 

 Sheverne. The arrangements are in a state of great forwardness 

 for an immediate start, and a number of English miners are daily 

 expected. If the hopes of these parties — and they appear to be 

 well founded — are realised, it %\\\\ afford a vast amount of em- 

 ployment, and will give the south of Ireland an almost unliaiited 

 supply of fuel. We need hardly point out that our Newcastle 

 contemporary must have fallen into an error in speaking of the 

 coal-seam being found nii.ler the Old Red sandstoii". 



We are glad to see that Professor Piazzi Smyth, Astrono- 

 mer Royal for Scotland, has at last got the reward of his 

 twenty years' persevering and creditable importun'.ty in the 

 shape of a new equatorial telescope for the Royal Obser- 

 vatory on the Calton Hill, Edinburgh, for which Government 

 last year granted 2,300/. Hitherto, as the Seotsnian ju»tly re- 

 marks, the Metropolitan Ob3ervat(3ry of Scotland has been in 

 the position of the meanest appointed Government astronomical 

 institution in Scotland. To accommodate the new telescope, it 

 i> necessary to raise the dome of the Observatory, and Mr. James 

 Fergusson, author of the " History of Architecture," who was 

 consulted on the matter, his decided that the new dome could 

 not be raised more than fourteen inches — that being the largest 

 increase that could be aesthetically allowed in conjunction with 

 the rest of the Observatory, which, viewed as a piece of architec- 

 ture, is considered to be the very gem of the works of the late 

 William Playfair. In consequence of this the Astronomer Royal 

 has had a difficult task in endeavouring to arrange a form of 

 equatorial instrument which would give a greater amount of 

 power within a smaller line or compass thin was ever attained 

 before. The new telescope will have an aperture of two feet 

 upon a focil length of only ten feet — a larger diameter in propor- 

 tion to focil length than any astronomical telescope yet intro- 

 duced into any observatory ; and it will no doubt be by far the 

 most powerful instrument ever erected under so small a dome. 

 Altliough the telescope will be much more powerful than any 

 ever before placed in the Observatory, it is still not such as wis 

 desired cr considered almost necessary in the present sta'.e of 



science. The instrument, which is being built by Mr. Howard 

 Grubb of Dublin, is to be constructed on M. Foucault's compara- 

 tively new principle of having the speculum of glass coated with 

 puresilver. The instrument is to be employed both forphotography 

 and spectroscopy. Both these classes of research require the 

 seemingly impossible accompaniments^that the telescope must 

 have the utmost amount of firmness, and also have the most ac- 

 curate possible movement at the same rate at which the stars change 

 their position in the sky. Notable feature; in the new telescope 

 will therefore be the remarkably perfect clockwork apparatus, 

 the several devices connected with the prisms of the spectroscope, 

 the means by which not merely celestial objects will be kept in 

 view, but those by which the rays of chemical flames will be 

 brought into comparison with the light of the stars. The ex- 

 tremely delicate measuring apparatus to be applied to the 

 respe<-tive subjects as they appear on the spectrum will also be 

 noteworthy. December next is the time fixed for the completion 

 of the new instrument, liut meanwhile active preparations are 

 being made in the Royal Observatory for its reception. Tne 

 new dome, it is expected, will be erected in the course of this 

 month, while the weather is yet fine. This dome, which is 

 also being built by Mr. Howard Grubb, will be of iron in- 

 stead of wood, and that for two reasons : first, because it will 

 afford a greater amount of space in the interior of the instrument 

 room ; and second, because it will enable such an arrangement 

 being made for the slmtter as will allow of an opening several 

 feet in breadth, whereas the opening in the old dome was only a 

 few inches wide. AIthoui;h the arrangements of the Observatory 

 are, during operations, necessarily somewhat upset, observations 

 continue to be made by Prof. Piazzi Smjth and his assistants. 



In accordance with the decision of the Scientific Association 

 of France, systematic and simultaneous observations on shooting 

 stars have been made during August in various places in France, 

 Italy, and at Alexandrii. The chronometers of the various 

 stations were compared by telegraph, the signals being given 

 from Bordeaux, Lyons, Marseilles, and Paris. The results of 

 the simultaneous observations at the various stations are recorded 

 m the Bulletin Ilebdomadaire, from which we learn that on the 

 nights of August 9, 10, and 11, observations were made at 

 twenty-two stations ; Alexandria and Moncalieri being those from 

 which the greatest number of shooting stars were seen, 2,042 

 having been noticed during the three nights at the former, and 

 2,049 at the latter place. It will be remembered that in No- 

 vember last the whole of the shooting stars did not come from 

 Leo, as it was expected they would, and that the observers noticed 

 radiant points in Taurus, Gemini, &c. Somewhat similar ec- 

 centricities, thouili upon a less scale, appear to have occurred 

 during the August shower. At Genoa, about the half of the 

 stars came from various directions ; M. Stephan, at Marseilles, 

 intimates that on the tliird night the radiant point was in 

 Cygnus ; and at Paris, M. Tremeschini found that on the third 

 night the majority of the stars did not come from Perseus. MM. 

 Le Verrier and Wolf, who have been charged with the arrange- 

 ment of the various observations, have presented to the Academy 

 the results of the work done last November, and expect to be 

 able to do the same for that of August, soon after they receive 

 detailed reports from the various observers. For the discussion 

 of the common observations, the astronomers at their meeting at 

 Montpelier decided to employ the metliod proposed by Colonel 

 Goulier, which however can be applied only when the stars are 

 at least 10° above the horizon ; when otherwise, the methods 

 followed by MM. Lespiault and Stephan will be used. M. 

 Goulier has been charged with the construction of the charts of 

 his system ; RL Lespiault with the preparation of the method 

 to be followed when the trajectories are at a small elevation 

 above the horizon ; and M. ^yolf with the final arrangement 

 of the complete re^ult.s. 



