525 



NATURE 



{April i, 1880 



same shower. Omitting them, the resulting mean from the 

 remaining sixteen estimates is = 230 0- 5 + 5I°'3, which seems 

 the most reliable centre for the true shower- meteors of 

 January 2, and nearly coincides with the radiant (No. S) observed 

 by Major Tupman in 1S70 and that (No. 17) determined by the 

 writer in 1879. 



That this meteor-cluster is comparatively seldom witnessed, 

 arises from several causes. Cloudy weather offers a frequent 

 impediment. The presence of the moon is also, in some years, 

 a great drawback to successful observation. Moreover, the 

 unfavourable situation of the radiant point in the evening hours 

 considerably lessens the splendour of its display at the most 

 convenient period for observation. In the clear, frosty mornings 

 at the beginning of January the enthusiasm of amateur meteor- 

 observers is seldom sufficient to keep them long out of doors. 

 Yet a few interesting observations of this shower have been 

 made during the past few years both in the morning and evening 

 hours. In 1872, on the night of January 2, between 10.15 ar, d 

 II. 15, Mr. W. H. Wood of Birmingham descried "a fine 

 shower of bright meteors at the rate of twenty per hour for one 

 observer ; 42 per cent, were from the usual radiant point. The 

 meteors were of slow apparent speed, train-bearing and vari- 

 coloured." It was also well observed that year by Prof. 

 Herschel and Mr. Crumplen at London. In 1873 Mr. Back- 

 house re-observed it in the morning of January 2, between 5 and 

 7 A.M., when meteors were appearing at the estimated rate of 

 thirty-seven per hour. During the three ensuing years this 

 stream appears to have eluded observation. On the evening of 

 January 4, 1877, it was slightly seen by the writer, and on the 

 morning of January 2, 1S7S, 4 to 4.30 A.M., Prof. Herschel 

 at Hawkhurst in Kent, noted seventeen of its meteors, indicating 

 a very active though transient return of the shower, for a similar 

 watch on the nights before and after its visible display revealed 

 no sign of its appearance. It was seen again in 1879 by Prof. 

 Herschel on the evening of January 1 and morning of January 2, 

 and again with almost equal brightness on the evening of January 

 2, producing eight or ten fine shooting-stars per hour in each 

 watch. The shower was also recorded by the writer on the 

 morning of January 2. Watching the sky between 6.15 a.m. 

 and 6.35 A.M., no less than fourteen of its meteors were traced, 

 though the greater part of the heavens was veiled in clouds. 



The last return of the shower was witnessed by Mr. Corder at 

 Chelmsford on the evening of January 2. He maintained a 

 watch of about 3i hours between 6 and 10 P.M., seeing 66 

 shooting-stars, of which 48 were conformable to Quadrans (15 

 per hour). The radiant point appeared double at the points 

 ^3 2 ° + 55° (36 t s) and 230" + 4S (12 l s). 



At Bristol the writer saw 25 meteors before 9^30 P.M., but 

 frequent clouds interrupted regular observations — 19 of the 

 meteors observed diverged from the usual radiant point in 

 Quadrans (at 228° + 54°). Generally they were of more than 

 ordinary brilliancy, with paths averaging I5i°. Three bright 

 meteors were registered as follow.^ : — 



Date. 



Mag. 





Path. 



Jan. 2, 1880 ... 6 16 = % ... 253 + 44 ... 261 + 38 Slow. 

 ,, ... 7 50 = 11 ... 138 + 41 ... 126 + 29 „ 



...9 8=]/... 32 + 60 ... 353 + 56 „ Train. 

 The third belonged to a radiant either in Perseus or Auriga. 

 Mr. Corder appears to have obtained a duplicate observation of 

 the second, and he gives the jiath as recorded by him from 

 24S + 70 to 290 + 79°. The projected radiant from the com- 

 bined observations is at 232" + 52 . A smaller meteor recorded 

 later (at 8.40) at both stations may also supply another 

 accordance : — 



Bristol ... 30S + 73 to 358 + 5°4 ) Radiant point 

 Writtle ... 328 + 52 to 343 + 41 \ at yBootis. 



The meteors of this special shower present some varieties of 

 appearance which are, no doubt, to be explained by differences 

 in the sensible position of the radiant point and by their apparent 

 distances from that centre. In the evening the meteors traverse 

 long flights with moderately slow motions, but in the morning 

 hours their paths are short and the velocity seems increased. 

 They are sometimes accompanied by trains and occasionally faint 

 streaks remain on the courses, but they obviously belong to a 

 different class to the swift, streak-leaving meteors of Perseus, 

 Leo, and Orion. 



There is a good radiant point not far south of that of the true 



January meteors which the writer has seen several times in 

 December and January at 221° + 42°, and Zezioli traced it on 

 January 19, 1869, 220 + 39°. The meteors are extremely swift 

 and leave streaks, but the shower is of far less intensity than the 

 Quadrantids of January 2, from which it may always be dis- 

 sociated without much difficulty. W. F. Denning 



ON THE ASIATIC ALLIANCES OF THE 

 FAUNA OF THE " CONGERIAN" DEPOSITS 

 OF SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE 1 

 '"THE molluscan fauna of Lake Baikal, lately made known by 

 MM. Dybowski and Gertsfeld, is altogether different from 

 the Palrearctic fauna, and is connected by many of its forms 

 with the fresh-water fauna of the "Congerian" deposits of 

 South-eastern Europe ; thus it may be regarded as the northern- 

 most outpost of a peculiar south-and east molluscan fauna. On 

 the other hand the fauna of the Amoor region, quite Palaarctic 

 on the whole, includes some members that approach North 

 American types ; while some Chinese Vivipara are conspicuously 

 different from their Palamrctic congeners, and come near both to 

 American forms and to those of the "Congerian" Paludina- 

 beds. In R. P. Heude's " Conchyliologie fluviatile de la 

 Province de Nanking," descriptions and figures are given of 

 thirty-nine species of Unio, twenty of Anodonta, and five of 

 Mycetopus. In Anderson's " Zoological Results of the two Ex- 

 peditions to Western Yunnan," pi. lxxx., fig. 5, shows a gigantic 

 knobbly-ribbed Vivipara, from Lake Tali, quite analogous to its 

 Slavonian congeners. It is concluded that the Upper Miocene 

 flora of Eastern Europe as well as [the fauna of the Paludina- 

 and Unio-beds, bears a Chino-Japanese rather than a North 

 American character. 



Besides the "Congerian" beds, with their abundance of 

 Conga ia and Cardium, and the Paludinal deposits, characterised 

 by the prevalence of Vivipara and Unio, a third zone is distin- 

 guishable among the upper freshwater tertiaries of South- 

 east Europe, namely, the "Melanopsis-marls," with ornate 

 Melanopsides and abundant Neritina. The only known localities 

 of these marls are the Balkan Peninsula and some of the Greek 

 islands. Even from this limited region we have already thirty- 

 six species of Mtfanopsis and ten of Neritina, besides the eleven 

 species of Mtfanopsis and nine of Neritina from the South- 

 east European "Congerian" deposits. The genus Neritina 

 seems to be especially associated with islands. Lovel Reeve 

 enumerates eight species from Tahiti, eleven from the Sandwich 

 Islands, and thirty-nine from the Philippines ; Gassies numbers 

 forty from New Caledonia; Kobelt eleven from the Mediter- 

 ranean region ; about twenty species, nearly all highly ornate, 

 belong to this region. L. Reeve mentions seven species from the 

 West Indies, and ten from Central America. The two or three 

 known North-American species are from the south frontier 

 regions ; New Zealand numbers only two species. Extensive 

 continental groups of strata are deficient in Neritina. The 

 genus is w anting in Africa, East India, the Malayan Archipelago, 

 Australia, and nearly the whole of America. 



The species of Mtfanopsis found in the East-European deposits 

 point, by their alliances, to the Mediterranean region ; the 

 Neritina rather to the Philippines and New Caledonia. This 

 last island has many species of Mtfanopsis, and its fauna is 

 somewhat analogous to that of the " Melanopsis marls." _ In 

 both cases a great number of species of both genera abound in a 

 limited area ; whilst the Mediterranean species are spread over a 

 far wider region. 



The fauna of the " Congerian " deposits is known to be closely 

 allied to that of the Caspian ; and the facts above-mentioned 

 indicate that the alliances of the uppermost South-east European 

 tertiaries are to be looked for within the Asio- Australian region, 

 the supposed affinity to North America having been suggested in 

 absence of a better knowledge of the Chino-Japanese fauna and 

 flora, 



The total absence of the African type of elephant in the 

 upper-terrestrial tertiaries of South Europe is very remarkable, 

 especially as the mammalian fauna of that period has a decidedly 

 African character. As to the flora of the tertiary period, Europe 

 had a succession of Australian, Indian, Japanese, and Mediterra- 

 nean floras, but never one of African character. The tertiary 

 terrestrial and freshwater molluscs of Europe are analogous to 

 those of New Caledonia, India, China, and Japan, but not to 

 ' By Th. Fuchs, Imper. Geolog. Instit. Vienna. Report of September 30, 

 1879. 



