Dec. 1 8, 1873] 



NATURE 



123 



were well defined ; on the front one the crystals were best de- 

 veloped where the stream was most active. 



In accordance with the above rate of increase of deposit, 

 namely, Jin. m fifteen years, 5 in. would require 100 years, 4 ft. 

 2 in. 1,000, and 41ft. Sin. 10,000 years. The data given to 

 an'ive at these results may be relied on as being accurate. In 

 the case now related, the rate of increase of deposit was likely 

 to continue tolerably uniform ; as the surface water could 

 have no appreciable influence in augmenting or lessening the 

 flow from the adit. 



Boltsburn, Nov. 26 John Curry 



Shooting-stars in the Red Sea 



On my way to India, in November 1872, I witnessed in the 

 Red Sea the splendid phenomenon of a star-drift, a note about 

 which may lie of interest, in comparison with the observations 

 at the same time in Europe. 



November 24, at S p.m., about 600 miles to the south of Suez. 

 I first saw a series of shooting-stars falling from about 70° 

 W.N.W., but not in such a quantity that my attention was much 

 attracted ; I only made a note about it in my diary. 



In the night of the 25th-26th I noticed nothing particular, 

 but in that of the 26th-27th again many shooting-stars were to 

 be seen. 



But in the night of the 27th-28th, about 100 miles to 

 the west of Aden, the phenomenon reached its height. Through 

 the whole night many thousands of shooting-stars were falling 

 from eveiy quarter of the heavens, and in all directions. It was 

 impossible for me to count the average number falling in one 

 minute, although I tried several times to do so, because the 

 eye could not be everywhere, and the shooting-stars did not 

 come from one point only. I sat the whole night on deck, 

 to witness this sublime phenomenon of nature, which cer- 

 tainly was far more splendid here in the tropics than in Europe, 

 on account of the generally greater brightness of the stars in 

 these latitudes. 



A. B. Meyer 



Cuckoos 



In vol. V. p. 3S3 of Nature, you were so good as to publish 

 a note of mine, in which I tried to describe exactly all that took 

 place when I saw a young cuckoo throw a young pipit out of the 

 nest. 



I am much flattered to find that Mr. Gould has thought my 

 note fit to be transferred to the introduction of his magnificent 

 " Birds of Creat Britam," and a rough sketch of mine worthy 

 to be made the foundation of one of his large coloured plates. 

 As, however, I have always tried in my drawings of facts in 

 natural history to express neither more nor less than what I saw, 

 1 think it right to say that I am not the authority for many of 

 the details in the large plate. 



None of us saw the parent pipit looking on while the young 

 cuckoo behaved so naughtily ; we saw only two young pipits 

 besides the young cuckoo, and no egg-shells. The young cuckoo 

 was absolutely naked and blind, the young pipits partly fledged 

 and bright eyed. 



One curious point I tried to call attention to in my former 

 note in these words : — " The nest .... was below a 

 heather-bush on the declivity of a low abrupt bank .... 

 The most singrflar thing of all was the direct purpose with 

 which the hliiui little monster made lor the open side of the nest, 

 the only part where it could ihrow its burthen down the bank." 

 This peculiarity my rough sketch could not, and Mr. Gould's 

 plate does not, express. J. H. B. 



ASTRONOMICAL ALMANACS* 



\'\\.— Continuation of the History of the "Nautical 

 Almanac." 



UNTIL towards the end of the life of Maskelyne, its 

 founder, the Nautical Almanac had the appro- 

 bation of the English, and knew how to deserve the praise 

 of foreigners ; it was, according to Lalande, the most per- 



* Continued from r- 7"- 



feet ephemeris that had ever existed.* But, in 1808, death 

 deprived Maskelyne, who was then about 76 years of age, 

 of his pupil and industrious coHaboyateur, R. Hitchins, 

 upon whom he had depended for ten years for the most 

 important part of his work, the verification of the calcu- 

 lations, and who was during that time the real editor 

 q{ \^x Nautical Almanac. The advanced age of Mas- 

 kelyne no longer permitting him to undertake any active 

 occupation, the work passed into irresponsible hands, the 

 calculations fell into great confusion, and " while as- 

 tronomy advanced, the Nautical Almanac remained 

 stationary, and even retrograded." t P/Iaskelyne died 

 shortly afterwards, in iSri, and Brown of Tiedeswill 

 (Derbyshire), was appointed to succeed him. The new 

 director did not improve the Nautical Almanac, and 

 English mariners and astronomers complained loudly ; a 

 reform was necessary. The Board of Longitude being 

 incompetent to improve the work of which it had charge. 

 Government abolished that body in 1818, by advice of 

 the Admiralty, to which the publication of the work was 

 entrusted, and which replaced the former body (which 

 nuinbered sixteen members) by another much less nu- 

 merous. 



This new Board of Longitude was ingeniously formed ; 

 it was composed of a Resident Committee " of three 

 persons well versed in mathematics, astronomy, and 

 navigation, nominated by Government," to which was 

 added, a Commission of the Royal Society, consisting of 

 the president and three members, charged to support it, 

 and, if need be, to control it. The members of the resi- 

 dent committee had to live in London, or its neighbour- 

 hood, and to lend their aid to the Commissioners of the 

 Royal Society for the scientific questions within the 

 domain of the Commission. They received a salary of 

 100/., and the secretary of the committee, who was 

 charged with the publication of the Nautical Almanac, 

 a salary of 500/. Captain Kater, Dr. Wollaston, and Dr. 

 Young were appointed resident members, and the latter, 

 the secretary of the committee, had the editorship of the 

 Naiitical A Imanac. 



Young did much to improve the work, to restore to it 

 the reputation for accuracy which Maskelyne had given 

 it, and to render it capable of satisfying the constantly in- 

 creasing wants of navigation. Thus, he introduced into 

 the Almanac, in 1822, the apparent position, for every 

 ten days, of twenty-four fundamental stars, which number 

 was increased to sixty in 1827 ; mariners had thus con- 

 stantly at their command the exact position of their refe- 

 rence points. Moreover, it is to him that we owe the 

 publication of the elements by means of which we can 

 predict occultations of stars by the moon, phenomena so 

 useful to astronomers on an expedition, and to sailors 

 whose ships are in a foreign harbour. 



But these improvements were by no means the only 

 ones which English astronomers and mariners demanded; 

 as it was, the Nautical Almanac satisfied neither the 

 one nor the other of these ; sailors stood in need of the 

 ephemerides and planetary distances of Schumacher, and 

 astronomers of the supplement to these ephemerides.J 

 Moreover, it often happened that these ephemerides ap- 

 peared too late to be of any service to mariners who were 

 setting out on a long voyage. Thus Young was exposed 

 to criticism, very just, no doubt, but sometimes extremely 

 violent. The result was an excessively sharp contro- 

 versy, which, although sustained by most of the English 



♦ ' ' Correspondance astronomique francaise," of Baron de Zach, vol. iv. 

 pp. 87, et seq. . .r. . ^ . 



t Sir James South's Address to the Royal Astronomical Society, February 

 12, 1830. 



I The first of these ephemerides was due to the Baron de Zach, and 

 Rear-Admiral Hoverniirn caused them to be adopted by the Danish Go- 

 vernor in 1800. The Direclor of Copenhagen Observatory, Thomas Bugge, 

 was then entrusted with their editorship : they were continued by Schu- 

 macher, and a httle later were published, partly at the expense of the 

 British Government. They gave the position of the planets Venus, Mars, 

 Jupiter, and Saturn for every day in the year, and their distances from the 

 moon every three hours. 



