April i, 1880] 



NATURE 



527 



a journey which he made last summer to Si ning-fu and other 

 almost u.iknown cities on the north-western frontier of the 

 empire. After leaving the main road he travelled west to Ho- 

 chow, and thence pushed along the border country to Shun-hwa- 

 ting on the bank of the Yellow River, crossing which he moved 

 on to Ba-rung and thence to Si-ning-fu, where he stopped six 

 days, returning by way of Lan-chowfu. It may be interesting 

 to note that many of the places visited by Mr. Easton are not 

 marked on European maps, though he says they are shown on a 

 Chinese map published in book form at Wuchang. Near the 

 Yellow River Mr. Easton found himself amongst the Sah-la, 

 who differ little in appearance and hat its from the Chinese, 

 though they have an entirely distinct language ; he also met a 

 few Tu-ren — dually called the Tu-H tribe — «ho are also Mo- 

 hammedans, and within a few miles of Si-ning-fu there are 

 several other tribes. To his surprise, at Si-ning Mr. Easton 

 found Count Bela Szechenyi, Lieut. Kreitner, and Mr. Loczy, 

 of the geological department at the Vienna Museum. Mr. 

 Easton states, presumably on the authority of Count Szechenyi, 

 that the altitude of Si-ning fu is 8,600 feet, and that of Tsing- 

 hai, or Koko-Nor, 10,500 feet, while Lan-chow is about 5,000 

 fiet above sea-level. The correct position of Si-ning is stated 

 to be 36" 33' 32" N. lat., 102° 24' 35" E. long. Some Germans 

 had recently arrived at Lan chow-fu to commence a woollen 

 manufactory there for the Chinese, but Mr. Easton does not 

 speak hopefully of their condition or prospects. 



From a native Japanese paper we learn that the idea of open- 

 ing ShimonoseUi, on the Inland Sea, to foreigners has been 

 abandoned, and that Nairi, in the province of Buzon, Kiushio, 

 has been selected as an open port in its place. 



During his recent journey from the head of Lake Nyassa to 

 Lake Tanganyika, Mr. James Stewart, C.E., who is now per- 

 manently attached to the Livingstonia mission of the Free Church 

 of Scotland, visited four different tribe*, of whom but little has 

 previously been heard. The first was the Chungu tribe, on the 

 lake-shore and inland up to the head of theSongwe valley ; their 

 country is decribed as good and cattle are numerous ; iron, too, 

 is abundant and much worked. This tribe, however, is by no 

 means strong, owing to nearly every village being independent. 

 The next tribe visited was the Anyamauga, w hose c- untry ex- 

 tends to the Mera River. To the west of them is Mambwe, 

 under a young and intelligent chief, whose people are Industrious 

 ironworkers. In the hills round the south end of Lake Tan- 

 ganyika are the Akandi tribes, all speaking different dialects. 

 They are much harassed by the Bareniba. To the north, near 

 the Fipa Mountains, the people are Basukuma, who are separated 

 from the Anyamauga by the River Saisa. At Lake Hikwa, the 

 name of which has hardly been heard of before the journeys of 

 Messrs. Stewart and Thomson, and the position of which is not 

 at present fully identified, the people are Abanda and Apimbwe, 

 while the Choi River is the boundary between the Mambwe and 

 Babemba. We are glad to learn that Mr. Stewart promises to 

 send home immediately a map and section of his route, together 

 with additional data, which cannot fail to be of interest from a 

 geographical point of view. 



The French Exploring Expedition for the Trans-Saharan 

 Railway has left Wargla for the interior of Africa. 



THE METEOR SHOWER OF JANUARY 2 



TJ"ROM amongst the extensive number of annually recurring 

 - 1 - meteoric displays there are few comparable, either in point 

 of richne-s or brilliancy, with the January meteors. The 

 Leonid--, Terseids, and Andromedes severally form showers of 

 greater intensity at the epochs of their periodical returns, and 

 there can be no question that the Perseids, as an annual pheno- 

 menon, stand unsurpassed, but with the exception of these 

 special instances, perhaps none of the many streams of shooting 

 stars deserve a higher phce than that which heralds the opening 

 of the year. The Lyrids, Orionids, and Geminids are entitled 

 to be considered of equal importance as affording an annual 

 spectacle of much interest, though the former system appears 

 during its last few returns entirely to have lost the splendour 

 which characterised its exhibitions in former years. The January 

 meteors, while thus meriting whatever significance is attached to 

 a shower of the first order, have not, it mu't be admitted, been 

 observed with half the diligence awarded to some other streams 

 of similar na'ure. An explanation is probably to be found in 



the circumstance that it does not become thoroughly well 

 visible until the morning hours. The radiant point situated at 

 2 3 °°5 + 5''3° ('5° following t) Ursa: Majoris) in a region com- 

 paratively bare of stars, though never helow our horizon, is yet, 

 during the first half of the ni^ht, at a very low altitude, and thus 

 its operations are limited, though not sufficiently so to cause the 

 apparent extinction of the display. In the early evenings of 

 January, 1879 and 1880, it furnished many fine meteors 

 ascending in long courses from the direction of the northern 

 horizon, and appearing in sufficient numbers to cause remark 

 among-t ordinary persons quite unaware of the progress of a 

 notable star show er. 



I have been speaking of this phenomenon as one of annual 

 occurrence, but it is fair to conclude that it also possesses the 

 elements of periodical fluctuations, as in the case of the Leonids 

 and Perseids. Prof. Kirk wood, in a paper read before the 

 American Philosophical Society on November 21, 1873, remarked 

 upon this shower as one giving evidence of recurring brightness. 

 He found, chiefly by the comparison of observations made during 

 the present century, that its principal manifestations took place in 

 the years 1825, 1838, and 1864, from which he inferred a 

 periodic time of thirteen years. This would have indicated a 

 maximum in 1877, but nothing of it was seen, though the shower 

 has been very active since that period. Whether or not the 

 investigations of Prof. Kirkwood have allowed the determi- 

 nation of its periodical maxima is a point to be settled by future 

 observations. The history of the shower, as recorded in past 

 years, is too incomplete to afford the materials for anything like 

 a reliable estimate of the period of its revolution. Many times 

 it has wholly escaped record, and even during its visible returns 

 it is seldom witnessed with success. The state of the sky, the 

 time and manner of observation, all affect the results to a 

 con-iderable degree, and will often occasion apparent variations 

 in the ai.nual appearances of a shower which have no real 

 existence. And it must be borne in mind that from the indefinite 

 descriptions of former showers, it is sometimes impossible to 

 ascribe a fair weight or to detach actual facts from the wild and 

 often exaggerated notices of 1 uch phenomena. 



Though no good correspondence has yet been detected between 

 a cometary orbit and the 01 bit of this stream, it is none the less 

 important that the precise centre of divergence of its meteors 

 should be ascertained. Mr. Greg placed it at 232° + 49 from 

 an average of seven indef endent observation- (see his catalogue 

 of the radiant points and durations of meteor-showers in the B.A. 

 Report, 1876), and found a closely adjoining shower of rather 

 later date, which he regarded as distinct at 225° + 54° for 

 the period January I to February 6. The mean of the two is 

 228°'5 + 5i°'5, which presents a singularly near agreement with 

 the centre of the shower as I have recently determined it from 

 all the available observations of the radiant point, which have 

 been compared together as follows : — 



Radiant Points of January Meteors. 

 No. Epoch. Radiant. Observer. 



1. Dec. 15-Jan. 15 



2. Jan. 15-31 



3. Jan. 2, 1863 



4. |an. 2, 1S64 



5. Jan. 2, 1S67 ... 



6. Jan. 29-Feb. 6... 

 7- Jan. 2-3 



2 3«°+ 53° ■•• E. Hcis. 



227 + 54* ... E. Hcis. 

 238 + 46-5 ... S. Masters. 

 234 + 51 ... A. S. Herschel. 



228 + 55 ... Herr Bornitz. 

 223 + 54* ••• Greg and Zezioli. 



... 238 + 45 ... Greg and Herschel. 



Jan. 2-7, 1870 229 + 51 ... G. L. Tupman. 



9. Jan. 2-3, 1S72 227 + 49 ... A. S. Herschel. 



10. Jan. 2, 1872 22S + 52 ... T. Crumplen. 



I W. F. Denning. 



11. Jan. 1-15, 1S72 ... 228 + 53 ... I From the Italian 



( Observations. 



12. Jan. 2-3, 1873 234 + 48 ... T. W. Backhouse. 



13. Dec. 12 and 21, 1876 221 + 53 * ... W. F. Denning. 



14. Jan. 4, 1877 231 + 54 ... W. F. Denning. 



15. Ian. 20, 1877 220 + 52*... W. F. Denning. 



16. Jan. 2, 1878 222 + 55 ... A. S. Herschel. 



17. Jan. 2, 1879 230 + 51 ... W. F. Denning. 



18. Jan. 2, 1880 228 + 54 ... W. F. Denning. 



19. Jan. 2, 1880 232 + 55 ... H. Corder. 



20. Jan. 2, 1880 230 + 48 ... II. Corder. 



Mean position = 229° - o + 5i°7 from twenty observations, but 

 the four positions distinguished by asteri.-ks are not sufficiently 

 accordant in epoch to be considered as certain displays of the 



