232 



NA TURE 



\Jan. 6, 1887 



between the exact co-ordinates and those obtained with any 

 assumed limit to the terms of the series. The application of 

 this principle to the case of Groombridge 1 119 is explained, and 

 the formula; formed for reducing the stellar co-ordinates to any 

 date between 1875 and 1955, and also between 1875 and 1755- 

 The results obtained by Miss Winlock will doubtless be very 

 useful to astronomers discussing the positions of close Polar 

 stars. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR THE 



WEEK 1887 JANUARY 9-15 



/pOR the reckoning of time the civil day, commencing at 



^■'- Greenwich mean midnight, counting the hours on to 24, 



is here employed.) 



At Greenwich on January 9 

 Sun rises, Sh. 6m. ; souths, I2h. "jta. 20'2S. ; sets, i6h. 9m. ; 

 decl. on meridian, 22° 6' S. : Sidereal Time at Sunset, 

 23h. 24m. 

 Moon (Full) rises, 4h. iim. ; souths, oh. 9m.*; sets, 8h. 3m.*; 



decl. 



Planet 



Mercury 

 Venus ... 

 Mars ... 

 Jupiter... 

 Saturn... 



* Indicates that the rising 

 ing and setting each that of t 



neridian, 18° 44' N. 

 Souths 



Sets 



Decl.i 



7 4 



8 42 



9 19 

 I 47 



16 5* 



10 55 ... 14 46 ... 23 45 S. 



12 46 ... 16 50 ... 21 45 S. 



13 47 ... 18 IS ... 18 4S. 

 6 52 ... II 57 ... II 28 S. 

 o 10 ... 8 IS ... 21 SS N. 



i that of the preceding evening and the south- 

 ; following morning. 



OccuUations of Stars by the Moon (visible at Greenwich) 



Corresponding 



Star Mag. Disap. Reap. angles from ver- 



*= ^ V tgj^ (Q right for 



inverted image 



B.A.C. 2432 . 

 / Geminorum . 



54 Cancri 



18 Leonis... 

 45 Leonis... 

 p Leonis ... 

 49 Leonis... 



t Occi 



... 19 6 ... 19 40 ... 106 175 



... 3 5 ■■■ 4 9 ••• HI 303 



8 6 near approach 20S — 



... 6 21 ... 6 SS ... S4 346 



... 21 II ... 21 so ... 83 171 



... 23 29 ... o 3ot ... 61 199 



I 29 near approach 320 — 

 the following morning. 



Venus at greatest distance from the Sun. 

 Saturn in opposition to the Sun. 



Variable Stars 



R.A. 



Decl. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 



The latest news from Dr. Oscar Lenz is of much interest. 



Three letters have been received from him, the latest dated June 



last from Kasonge, a large Arab town, three days south-east 



from Nyangwe, on the Upper Congo. Dr. Lenz, it will be 



remembered, went out for the purpose of reaching Dr. Junker 

 and Emin Bey. The latest rumours state that he has been 

 compelled to abandon this object, and may therefore be 

 soon heard of at Zanzibar. Dr. Lenz, in canoes furnished 

 by the famous Tippoo Tip, journeyed up the Congo from 

 Stanley Falls, taking fifty days by the way. This, however, 

 included frequent stoppages. He found great changes had taken 

 place since Mr. Stanley made his memorable voyage down the 

 river ten years ago. Then there were few Arabs to be seen 

 beyond Nyangwe, and the river over a great part of its length 

 was peopled by natives, between whose villages the expedition 

 had to run the gauntlet. Now Dr. Lenz finds the whole country 

 practically in the hands of Arab and Zanzibari slavers and 

 traders. The natives in many places have retired into the 

 recesses of the forest, and lar^e Arab settlements have taken 

 their place at several points along the river. There is a constant 

 traffic up and down the river between Nyangwe, or rather 

 Kasonge, and .Stanley Falls. Immense rice-fields occupy the 

 swampy and unhealthy areas round these Arab settlements, and 

 all round Nyangwe and Kasonge the country is covered with 

 rice, and plantations of bananas and other fruits. Nyangwe is no 

 longer the important centre it was in the days of Livingstone. It 

 is an irregular collection of Arab settlements, covering a con- 

 siderable area. Kasonge, three days' journey off further up the 

 river, is, on the other hand, a large town, with broad streets and 

 many well-built houses. This is the head-quarters of Tippoo 

 Tip and other Arab traders, who have their agents for their 

 ivory in Muscat and India. It is evident that we have here a 

 great and increasing intrusion of a foreign element among the 

 native population. In some cases the natives are on friendly 

 terms with the Arabs, and in other cases hostile. At any rate 

 the result will in the end be a very serious modification of the 

 population over a great area of Central Africa, and a marked 

 change in the face of the country by the introduction of rice and 

 other exotic cultures. 



MM. BoNVALOT AND Capus, the French travellers in Central 

 Asia, lately turned back by the Emir of Afghanistan, write 

 to the French Geographical Society, giving some account of 

 their recent journeys. They refer especially to the country be- 

 tween Teheran and Meshed, which they traversed in April last, 

 and which, as they say, is so much frequented that no one 

 thinks it worth while to observe its special features. They found 

 it much cut up by broad rivers with pebbly beds, and irrigation 

 canals which nourish the rare oases along the base of the Elburz 

 Range. The travellers found themselves almost always in the 

 steppe region, on the edge of an immenf^e basin, the bottom of 

 which is the " Khevir" or great s.alt desert. It isincrustedon the 

 surface with a great quantity of saline crystals, especially soda 

 and magnesia, which often spoil the water and render cultivation 

 impossible. The flora, the fauna, and the geology are those of 

 the steppe, and MM. Bonvalot and Capus make out that the 

 region forms a geogr.aphical unit with Central Asia. Not a 

 tree, not a bush even, unless a few garden fruit-trees, with wil- 

 lows and poplars along the canals, relieve the monotony of the 

 country. From the bridge of Saugil to the Thian-Shan, going 

 from west to ea.st, such a thing as a forest is unknown. 



Herr Quedenfeldt, in a paper in the last number of the 

 VcrhandlungcH of the Berlin Geographical Society, on a recent 

 journey in Morocco, mentions a fact of some geographical interest. 

 For more than two years a commission of three or four Spanish 

 staft' officers, with a colonel as chief, has been stationed at 

 Tetuan, and have quite publicly been carrying out a topo- 

 graphical survey. They have in this way already surveyed a 

 considerable part of the Garb region, as far as Tangier, Arsila, 

 Laraish, Alkasar, and even Fez. 



In the December Petermann, Count Pfeil describes 1 his 

 journeys of exploration last year in the Ulanga and Ussagora 

 regions, with a map. But the article which will attract most 

 interest now — a melancholy interest in some respects — is the 

 preliminary report of the late Dr. Fischer, on the expedition for 

 discovering Dr. Jimker; this, too, is accompanied by a map. 

 Dr. Emil Jung continues his essay on the effect of the last 

 Indian famine on the movements of the population, basing 

 the discussion on the official census. A special part of 

 the MitthciliDigcn has been issued, containing an elaborate 

 and systematic index of the contents of the periodical for 

 the ten years 1S7S-84, including ten annual volumes and 

 eight supplementary volumes. By an ingenious system of 

 colouring, a glance at the maps of the various continents shows 



