May 21, 1885 | 
has been made with some zoological collections ; the aquarium, 
however, has proved a failure, and the vivarium labours under the 
disadvantage of never being reached by the sunlight. Several 
short and interesting papers are published with the report. 
Tue Russian Government has sent an official of the Education 
Department to Vienna to study the State commercial and indus- 
trial schools of Austria, these establishments being regarded as 
models, and the Russian Government intending to organise 
similar ones. 
THE Fish Culture Department at the International Inventions 
Exhibition has proved a great success and attracted a large con- 
course of visitors. During the past week many important addi- 
tions have been made, including a magnificent model of a Fish 
Culture Establishment exhibited by Mr. T. J. Mann, and a 
series of oyster beds, demonstrative of the process of breeding 
and fattening oysters. A special feature has been made of 
oysters this year in the Aquarium, where they are to be seen in 
numerous varieties imported from various quarters of the globe. 
In close proximity to them are exhibited various dredges and 
implements used in this particular fishery. 
THE Count Liitke Medal of the Russian Geographical Society 
has been awarded this year to a work which deserves a special 
notice. It is Prof. N. J. Zinger’s work on the determination of 
time by means of corresponding heights of different stars (trans- 
lated in German by H. Kelchner, and published at Leipzig with 
a preface of O. W. Struve, under the title : ‘‘ Die Zeitbestimm- 
ung aus correspondirenden Hohen verschiedener Sterne.”) The 
determination of time with great exactitude, for telegraphic 
determinations of longitudes, by means of easily transportable 
instruments, has already occupied the Pulkowa astronomers. 
W. Struve and W. K, Déllen proposed very skilful methods of 
observations. .The latter had proposed to determine the time 
by means of a special Repsold’s circle from two passages of 
two stars in the prime vertical. The exactitude reached by this 
means was from 0°05 to 006 of a second; the circle had to 
remain in an unaltered position for no more than five or six 
minutes; but the whole observation took about forty minutes. 
Prof. Zinger’s method, which is a further development of the 
work begun by Maupertuis, Olbers, Hauss, Delambre, and 
Knorre, consists in making two successive observations of two 
stars chosen for that purpose, at the same altitude, by means of 
any instruments which may not be divided with great perfection, 
but whose level would only show the changes the telescope may 
undergo when directed on two different azimuths. This method 
was met first with some coolness, on account of the difficulty of 
finding two stars which would culminate soon after one another 
at the same altitude. But M. Zinger has shown that even with 
a moderate telescope it is easy to have two stars easily found and 
pretty well seen at daylight which pass at the same altitude at 
an average of no more than nine minutes one after another. 
His tables render the task of finding such stars very easy, there 
being in moderate latitudes no less than 160 pairs of stars 
appropriate to that purpose. As to the ease and accuracy of 
the method, it is sufficient to say that time is determined with a 
probable error of no more than 0°04 of a second in no more than 
half an hour, without even making use of the divisions of the 
Repsold circle, and with only one reading of the microscope. 
For several years Prof. Zinger’s method has been submitted to a 
very extensive test by Russian astronomers. So we learn from 
Gen. Koversky’s analysis of it, published in the last ‘‘ Annual 
Report” of the Geographical Society, that, when determining 
by means of light-signals the difference of longitudes between 
Pulkova and Parlovsk, and using a very plain instrument pre- 
pared by M. Brauer on M. Zinger’s principles, the difference 
has been determined with an error of only one-fiftieth of a 
second, M. Pyertsoff, in Mongolia; Gen. Stebnitzky, in the 
NATURE 
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63 
Caucasus, who considers the determinations of time from corre- 
sponding heights of two stars quite as accurate as that deduced 
from zenithal distances taken with a Repsold circle, but far 
shorter and easier ; the Russian officers in Bulgaria, who have 
determined with telegraphic signals the longitudes of thirty-seven 
places in less than seventy evenings, spending no more than 
three hours each evening for a determination which gave the 
longitude with an error of only 0'04 to 0°02 of a second; the 
measurements around Omsk in 1878 ; those of M. Gladysheff in 
the Transcaspian, and of M. Mionczyorski on the Ural in 
1882-84—all these have been made on the same method of Prof. 
Zinger, which has now become the most familiar one with Russian 
astronomers. The measurements are usually made with a Reps- 
old’s circle, which is ready for work half an hour after the 
astronomer has arrived at the place whose longitude he proposes 
to determine ; and in chronometrical expeditions five minutes to 
a quarter of an hour of a bright sky give the possibility of 
measuring the longitude with an accuracy quite sufficient for 
geographical purposes. 
THE additions to the Zoological Society’s Gardens during the 
past week include a Macaque Monkey (A/acacus cynomolgus 2) 
from India, presented by Mr. James Fleming; a Common 
Badger (J/éles ¢axus), British, presented by Mr. C. Ethelstone 
Parke; a Wild Ass (Zguus teniopus 8) from the Island 
of Diego Garcia, Chagos Archipelago, presented by Mr. F. D. 
Lambert, jun. ; a Common Squirrel (Scéurus vulgaris), British, 
presented by Mrs. G. A. Smith ; four Red-faced; Weaver Birds 
(Foudia erythrops) from South Africa, a Grenadier Weaver Bird 
(Zuplectes oryx) from West Africa, presented by Mrs. Herman 
Kuhne; a Dominican Kestrel (Zimnunculus dominicensis), a 
— Bittern (Ardetta ), three Martinican Doves (Zenaida 
martinicana), two Moustache Ground Doves (Geotrygon 
mystacea), a Tuberculated Iguana (Zguana tuberculata) from the 
West Indies, presented by Dr. A. P. Boon ; two Harvest Mice 
(Mus minutus), British, presented by Mr. G. W. Oldfield; two 
Demeraran Cock of the Rocks (Rupicola crocea 6 $) from 
Demerara, presented by Mr. T. C. Edwards-Moss ; two Mute 
Swans (Cygnus olor), British, presented by Mr. J. W. Gibson ; 
a Horned Lizard (PArynosoma cornutum) from Texas, presented 
by Master C. A. Greeven ; three Common Vipers (Vipera derus), 
British, presented by Mr. W. H. B. Pain; four White-faced 
Tree-Ducks (Dendrocygna viduata), a White Gannet (Suda 
piscata) from Brazil, deposited ; a Dark Green Snake (Zamenis 
atrovirens), South European, purchased. 
GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES 
Tue following message from Col. Prjevalsky, dated Lob Nor, 
March 15 (probably O.S.), is published in the Invalide Russe :— 
‘During the last autumn and winter we visited Eastern Zaidam 
as far as Lob Nor. The middle range of the Kuen Lun, hitherto 
unknown, has been examined with sufficient care. The ancient 
route leading from Khoten to China has been found and 
thoroughly explored. We have also discovered three enormous 
snow peaks, to which we have given the names of Muscovite, 
Columbus, and Enigmatical. The most elevated point of the 
first-named is Mount Kremlin, of the second Mount Djinri, and 
of the third the Crown of Monomachus, which are all of a 
higher elevation than 20,000 feet above the sea. The Thibetan 
plateau, skirting the middle Kuen Lun, has an average height 
of 4000 feet. No inhabitants were met with except in the 
Southern Zaidam. - Further to the west the flora and fauna of 
the desert are extremely poor. In the month of December the 
cold was so intense that the mercury froze. We passed the 
month of February and the first fortnight of March at Lob Nor. 
We are just about to set out again, with the intention of crossing 
Cherchen, for the purpose of reaching Kiria, in the district of 
Khoten. During the three months of summer we shall traverse 
Northern Thibet, if the Chinese do not oppose us, and in the 
autumn we shall return to our own Turkestan. We are all in 
good health.” 
