Nov. 27, 1879] 



NA TURE 



9r 



Dr. Richardson asks us to say that in his article on Fleuss's 

 New System of Diving in last number, p. 63, col. 2, 25th line 

 from bottom, "fully seven minutes" should be "forty-seven 

 minutes." 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Yellow Baboon (Cynocephalus babouin) 

 from West Africa, presented by Mr. Cecil B. Hankey ; a Col- 

 lared Peccary {DicotyUs taja(it) from South America, two 

 Domestic Sheep (Ovis arks), presented by Mr. H. Sandbach ; a 

 Little Grebe {Podiceps minor), British, presented by Mr. A- 

 F. Buxton ; a South American Rat Snake (Spihtes variabilis) 

 from South America, presented by Mr. Thomas Harrod ; t%vo 

 Geoffroy's Cats {Felts gsoffroii) from Paraguay, two Barbary 

 Falcons {Falco barbants) from North Africa, a Red-throated 

 Diver {Colymbus septenlrionalis), British; a Common Curlew 

 {Numenius arquata), European, deposited ; two Common 

 Tiskins (Chrysomitris spinus), a Reed Bunting {Emberiza 

 schanichtts), a Pied Wagtail {Motacilla yarrclh), British, pur- 

 chased ; a Gaimard's Rat Kangaroo {Hypsiprymnus giimardi), 

 two Smooth Snakes (Coronella larvis), born in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 The " Uranometria Argentina." — The publication of 

 this great and meritorious work is just announced, though, so 

 far as we know, the complete volume has not yet reached 

 Europe. The system of observations upon which it is based 

 was designed and commenced by Dr. B. A. Gou'd, the distin- 

 guished director of the Argentine Observatory, immediately after 

 his arrival at Cordoba in September, 1S70, on accepting the 

 superintendence of the new establishment, and while awaiting 

 the completion of the observatory buildings and the arrival of 

 telescopes which had been ordered in Europe, but delayed by 

 the outbreak of the Franco-German war, and the work upon it 

 has been continued with more or less attention to the present 

 year. It was intended to represent in a series of charts and 

 accompanying catalogue the sky from the south pole as far as 

 io° north of the equator, as it appears to the naked eye, showing 

 all stars down to a round magnitude fixed at 7'0, with their 

 characteristics of duplicity, variability, and colour, and the 

 milky-way in all its ramifications and gradations of brightness. 

 The actual observations were assigned to the four assistants, 

 Messrs. Rock, Davis, Hathaway, and Thome, who had pro- 

 ceeded to Cordoba from the United States, the first three re- 

 turning home at the expiration of three years, when the Urano- 

 metry was already finished as to its general details. Mr. Thome 

 subsequently reviewed the entire work twice, and with the result 

 that Dr. Gould considers it improbable that any star so bright 

 as yo, on a scale which it has been desired to extend accurately 

 from Argelander's, will have escaped insertion, while notwith- 

 standing the great degree of nicety implied, he thinks the mag- 

 nitudes are essentially correct to the nearest tenth. During the 

 first two years the work was continued on all cloudless nights, 

 both summer and winter, at an average of six hours' work each 

 night. The total number of stars of which the magnitudes have 

 been assigned is 10,649, and the total estimates of magnitudes 

 44,510, or more than four for each star. 



With the view to having a uniform basis for estimates of 

 magnitude throughout the whole heavens, Argelander's magni- 

 tudes for a region lying from 5° to 15° north of the equator, 

 having the same meridian altitude at Bonn and Cordoba, were 

 collected by clas-es, and "the stars of each class then assorted 

 and shaded into the adjoining ones until a scale of tenths was 

 formed." . . . "The scale as finally adopted resulted from 

 the accordant estimates of all four assistants for each tenth up 

 to 7"o." A "Type-belt Catalogue " of 722 stars was formed in 

 this way, intended, as we have intimated, to serve asji standard 

 for all future determinations of magnitude, in whatever part of 

 the heavens. All the stars occurring in the "Uranometria" 

 have been observed for accurate position at least four times with 

 the meridian circle, and a general catalogue will appear in due 

 course. 



The charts are thirteen in number, and an index-chart is added 

 showing at once the whole extent of the Uranometry. The 

 printing was effected by the photolithographic process, as 

 the most accurate and least expensive. Photographic nega- 



tives of the manuscript charts were taken, thus permitting their 

 exact transfer to the stones. The chief trouble experienced 

 in the printing was to give the star-dots the proper blackness, and 

 yet to keep the milky-way within reasonable shade. 



In a special chapter, Dr. Gould collects all variable and 

 suspected variable stars, with particulars, thus providing in- 

 teresting work for those amateurs who can command the southern 

 heavens, and work from which much may be learned. 



From a discussion of the general distribution of the stars 

 throughout the sky, Dr. Gould is led to conclude that "there is 

 in the sky a girdle of bright stars, the medial line of which 

 differs but little from a circle inclined to the Galactic circle by a 

 little less than 20°. The grouping of the fixed stars brighter 

 than 4"l is more symmetric relatively to that medial line than to 

 the Galactic circle, and the abundance of bright stars in any 

 region of the sky is greater as its distance therefrom is less. 

 The known tendency to aggregation of faint stars towards 

 the milky-way is according to a ratio which increases rapidly 

 as their magnitudes decrease, and the law of which is such that 

 the corresponding aggregation would be scarcely, if at all, per- 

 ceptible for the bright stars." These facts, Dr. Gould continues, 

 indicate the existence of a small cluster, within which our own 

 system is excentrically situated, but which is itself not far 

 removed from the mean plane of the Galaxy ; this cluster he 

 considers to be of a flattened shape, somewhat bifid, and con- 

 sisting of rather more than 400 stars, of an average magnitude 

 of 3"6 or 3'7, but comprising stars from the first to the seventh. 



We have abridged these particulars from an interesting article 

 on the " Uranometria Argentina," in the Buenos Ayres 

 Standard. 



It is impossible to avoid expressing admiration for the scien- 

 tific spirit and enlightenment of the Government of the Argentine 

 Republic in providing means for the execution of this important 

 work, the first a-tronomical contribution from their National 

 Observatory, but, we believe, to be followed by others, for 

 which materials are completing, and which, it cannot be doubted, 

 under the superintendence of Dr. Gould, will collectively secure 

 for the Observatory of Cordoba a high position in the history of 

 astronomical establishments, and, in connection with other enter- 

 prises of which we hear from time to time, for the comparatively 

 small nation by which it is supported, the respect and good 

 wishes of the scientific world. 



The " Lick Observatory," California. - From San 

 Francisco we receive details of recent progress towards carrying 

 out the intentions of the will of the late James Lick, who died 

 October 1, 1877, bequeathing the sum of 700,000 dollars to 

 trustees for the purpose of purchasing land and erecting upon it 

 "a powerful telescope, superior to and more powerful than any tele- 

 scope everyet made," with an observatory and other appurtenances, 

 to be conveyed eventually to " the Regents of the University of 

 California." The first site considered was at Lake Tahoe, but it 

 was soon rejected ; Mount St. Helena, at the intersection of 

 Napa, Sanoma, and Lake counties, was then visited ; it is upwards 

 of 4,300 feet high, and was known to have atmospherical condi- 

 tions favourable for astronomical purposes. Mr. Lick spent one 

 night upon its summit. Among other points visited was Mount 

 Hamilton, the elevation of which is still greater, and Mr. Lick 

 finding that its advantages, so far as known, were equal to those 

 of the former mountain, finally determined upon Mount Hamilton 

 as the site of his proposed observatory ; it is something less than 

 fourteen miles east by south, from San Jose in Santa Clara 

 county. A road to the summit twenty miles long was com- 

 menced in 1875, and finished in December, 1876, at the expense 

 of Mr. Lick, and surroundings to the extent of more than 1,500 

 acres were secured to form the observatory property. The site 

 was thus, contrary to what has been generally stated, decided 

 upon before Mr. Lick's decease, and Prof. Newcomb had been 

 asked to test the capabilities of the station, to obtain a guide as 

 to the size and character of the instrument or instruments to be 

 provided ; Prof. Newcomb was too much engaged upon his 

 official duties to undertake this work in 1877, and recommended 

 application to be made to Mr. S. W. Burnham, of Chicago, who 

 arranged last April to visit Mount Hamilton, with his own 6-inch 

 Alvan Clark refractor ; he arrived in the middle of August, and 

 aft«r spending thirty-two nights upon the mountain, up to 

 September 27, all of which except five were extremely 

 favourable, he appears_to have agreed in' opinion with Prof. 

 Newcomb, who was able to visit Mount Hamilton early in 

 October, that it is "the finest observing location in the United 

 States." With regard to the size of the great telescope to be 



