Sept. 1 6, iSSoJ 



NATURE 



467 



R.A. 



Sept. 23 ... 23 53 48 



25 ... — 52 45 



27 ... — 51 46 



29 ... — 50 51 



Oct. 1 ... — 50 2 



3 ... — 49 18 



5 ... — 48 40 



7 ... — 48 9 



9 ■■■ 23 47 46 



It will be seen that the nearest approach of the comet to the 

 earth ( i 'og) occurs within this period, and the circumstances are 

 as favourable for observation as they can be at this appearance. 

 An observation by M. Pechiile at Copenhagen on September i 

 shows that the ephemeris of Prof. Axel-MoUer requires only the 

 small correction of - I -6s. in R.A., and + 15" in N.P.D. In 

 no case has the motion of a comet of short period been followed 

 with more striking success than that of Faye's comet has been 

 during the thirty-seven years which have elapsed siuce its dis- 

 covery, through the masterly investigations of the Swedish 

 astronomer. Nor has he confined himself to following the 

 comet during this interval : he has confirmed in a great degree 

 the inferences drawn by Leverrier with respect to the conditions 

 attending the near approach of the comet to Jupiter, about the 

 time of nodal passage in the year 1S16, having previously cal- 

 culated with precision the effect of an approximation of the two 

 bodies within 0-64 in March, 1S41, and assigned accurate ele- 

 ments for December 25, 183S. (See the Pfocetdings of the 

 Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, January, 1873.) 



Schaberle's Comet (1880, April 6). — The theoretical 

 brightness of this comet, discovered seven months since, is on 

 the increase, and we subjoin an extract from the ephemeris calcu- 

 lated by M. Bigourdan, from elements founded upon normal 

 places for April 10, 28, and May 16. It is for Paris midnight, 

 and the intensity of light at discovery is taken = i. 



R.A. 



N.P.D. 



Log. distance Intensity 



from Earth. of hght. 



.. 0-2882 ... 1-03 

 .. O-2S17 



.. 0-2751 ... 1-06 

 .. 0-2685 



.. 0-2620 ... i-io 



.. 0-2556 



.. 02494 ••• I'M 



■■ 0-2434 



.. 02376 ... 1-17 



Sept. 28 ... 6 39 45 ... 76 35-5 



30 ... 6 37 16 ... 77 32-0 



Oct. 2 ... 6 34 35 ... 78 30-3 



4 ... 6 31 42 ... 79 30-4 



6 ... 6 28 38 ... So 32-3 



8 ... 6 25 20 ... Si 35-9 



10 ... 6 21 50 ... 82 41-4 



12 ... 6 18 6 ... S3 486 



14 ... 6 14 9 ... 84 57-6 



The maximum brightness is attained about November 4, near 

 which date the following are the comet's approximate positions : — 



„V^;„ , '*■■*• N.P.D. Log. distance from 



G.M.T. h. ra. s. . , Earth. Sun. 



Nov. 2 ... 5 25 23 ... 96 51 ... 0-2029 ... 0-3762 



6 ... 5 12 52 ... 99 21 ... o 2024 ... 0-3819 



10 ... 4 59 53 •■• loi 46 ■■- 0-2047 ••• 0-3875 



14 ... 4 46 35 ... 104 I ... O-2I0S ... 0-3931 



Swift's New Comet.— Mr. Lewis Swift, writing from 

 Rochester, New York, on August 18, gives some particulars of 

 his observation of a cometary object on August 11, and explains 

 the cause of his delay of a week in notifying his discovery. On 

 the nth he observed a nebulous object elongated in the direction 

 of the sun in the field with and about 1° distant from the small 

 bright nebula H. I. 262, the position of which for 1880 is in 

 R.A. Ilh. 20m. 32s., N.P.D. 22" 45'-2, and having been 

 familiar with the neighbourhood for many years, he supposed it 

 to be a comet, but cold detect no motion before the sky clouded. 

 On the morning of the 17th, the sky being clear after the moon 

 had set, he examined the spot, but the nebulous object was 

 missing, and a search until daylight failed to recover it. He 

 then cabled his discovery and made it known to astro- 

 nomers in the United States. The position, he says, would not 

 differ much from R.A. iih. 28m., N.P.D. 22°. The comet 

 was first detected with his comet eyepiece, power 25, and 

 examined with powers 36 and 72; it was faint, but not 

 very faint. We have not heard that it has yet been seen 

 elsewhere. The place given is not upon the track of Pons' 

 comet of 1S12, the) return of which is shortly expeoted, and 

 for which it is much to be desired that a strict search should 

 be maintained. Sweeping-ephemerides prepared under Prof. 



Winnecke's direction will be found in the Viertcljahrsschrift der 

 Astronomischen Gesellschaft, 12. Jahrgang, 2. Heft. 



The Binary Star 85 Pegasi.— By five nights' recent 

 measures of the close stars in this system, Mr. Burnham has 

 satisfactorily established their binary character, which had been 

 rendered probable by his earlier measures ; the mean result is^ 



1880-59 ... Position, 29S'"3 ... Distance, o"-65. 

 For the distant companion Mr. Burnham finds from six nights' 

 observations — 



18S0-57 ... Position, 2S°-o ... Distance, I5"-4I. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 

 The sixth issue of Behm and Wagner's " Population of the 

 Earth " has just been issued. Since the last issue several censuses 

 have been taken, and the results of these, combined with the 

 natural increase of the population, have added something like 

 seventeen millions to the inhabitants of the globe. The popu- 

 lation of the earth is now stated to be 1,455,923,550, as 

 compared with 1439 millions two years ago. Europe has 

 315,929,000 inhabitants, or 32-5 per square kilometre; Asia, 

 S34> 707.000, or 18-7 per sq. Idl. ; Africa, 205,679,000, or 6-9 

 per sq. kil. ; Australia and Polynesia, 4,031,300, or 0-4 per sq. 

 kil. ; and the Polar Regions 82,000, mostly divided between 

 Iceland and Greenland. The Bevolkerujig is just too soon to be 

 able to utilise the results of the censuses of the United States 

 and of Austria, which are taken this year, and that of our 

 own country will not of course be available for at least two years. 

 The editors have, however, made a veiy careful calculation of the 

 present population of the States, on the basis of registration 

 and emigration statistics, and find the probable population of 

 the present year to be 48,000,000. The section of the work 

 relating to Roumania and the Balkan Peninsula is specially 

 valuable, and must have cost the editors a vast amount of 

 trouble, considering the untrustworthy and imperfect nature of the 

 data at their command. The areas of these countries, as well as 

 of several other regions on the globe, including Africa, are mainly 

 given from careful planimetrical measurements made under the 

 direction of the editors. The area of Roumania is given as 

 129,947 square kilometres, and the population as 5,376,000; 

 Servia, 48,657 sq. kil., 1,589,650 population; Montenegro 

 (after the Berlin Treaty),' 9,475 sq. kil., population 286,000 ; 

 European Turkey, including the dependencies of East 

 Rumelia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, 339,211 sq. kil., 

 population 8,866,500; of Asiatic Turkey the area is given as 

 1,899,206, and the population 16,320,000. For Afghanistan, the 

 B^jolkerung gives the details of the various tribes and popula- 

 tions contributed to Nature by Mr. Keane in January last. 

 It also gives Mr. Keane's table of the Turkoman tribes 

 (Nature, vol. xxi. p. iir), which is wrongly attributed to 

 Prof. Vambery. The statistics of the Indian Archipelago have 

 cost the editors great trouble, mainly owing to the confused and 

 unsystematic way in which the Batavian Government compile 

 their statistics. There is a very detailed and careful resiimi of 

 the areas and populations of the various Polynesian island 

 groups. The result reached by the new estimation of the area 

 of Africa in the Bcvdlkerung \i 29,283,390 square kilometres, of 

 which about 6| millions are forest and cultivable land, the same 

 are in prairies and light woods, i^ million bush, A,\ millions 

 steppe, \o\ millions desert, and 170,000 lakes. A new plani- 

 metric measurement of South America made by Dr. Wisotzki 

 gives the area as 17,732,128 square kilometres. The total area 

 of the North Polar lands is given as 1,301, loo square kilometres, 

 and of the South as 666,000. 



The French scientific expedition headed by Prof. d'UjfaIvy, 

 the celebrated French explorer of Central Asia, has arrived at 

 Nijni Novgorod, on its way to Turkestan, to explore Bokhara 

 and the whole of Afghanistan north of the Hindoo Koosh. The 

 expedition will proceed to Tashkend, where it will pass the 

 winter, vi& Siberia, taking the steamer from Nijni Novgorod to 

 Perm, the train thence to Ekaterinburg, the post-road to Turmin, 

 the steamer again to Semipalatensk, and completing the distance 

 to Ta.shkend by post-road. As soon as possible in the spring 

 the expedition will set out for Samarcand, and, after exploring 

 the antiquities in the Zerafshan district, will cross the border 

 into Bokhara, proceeding thence, at the completion of the ex- 

 ploration of the Khanate, to the Pamir Wakhan, Badakshan, 

 and other little known Afghan possessions in the Hindoo Koosh. 



