June 29, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



617 



most exactly full, and at ah altittide of some 30°. At 

 Oh. 30ra. local mean lime, to test the clearness of the 

 air and the visibility of fifth and sixth magnitude 

 stars, I made a naked-eye sketch of the Hyades and 

 Pleiades, which were also roughly at the same alti- 

 tude as the moon, but considerably more than 90° 

 distant from her. In the Pleiades I distinctly made 

 out ten stars, —D. M. + 24°, 553 and .556, both of 7.0 

 magnitude, being seen as one star; and D. M. -|- 24°, 

 546, of magnitude 6.3, being clearly visible. In the 

 head of Taurus I made out seventeen stars, two of 

 which — D. M. + 16°, 586, and + 16°, 605 (of 6.0 and 

 5.0 magnitude) — are not in Argelander's Uranome- 

 tria nova. I also saw a Tauri plainly double. 



"As it is now near the close of the rainy season, I 

 hope shortly to be in a position to report something 

 of what can be done with a si.\-inch refractor at 14,- 

 360 feet above the sea-level. My station is at Vinco- 

 caya, between Arequipa and Puno. In the mean 

 time I am endeavoring to obtain the height of the 

 Ilimani." 



— Dr. Ealph Copeland, editor of Copernicus, writes 

 to that journal in the latter part of January last, 

 from Lima, — 



"At Chorillos, near this, are staying M. Barnaud, 

 Lieut, de Vaisseau, and M. Favreau, Enseigne de 

 Vaisseau, members of the French Venus expeditions 

 to Chili. Chorillos is the landing-point of the cable 

 from Valparaiso and Panama. The French astrono- 

 mers, in conjunction with two colleagues now at Val- 

 paraiso, are determining the difference of longitude. 

 They have two-inch transit instruments, with chron- 

 ographs and chronometers; and the cable is led 

 directly into the observatory. The instruments are 

 similar at both stations, and the observers do not 

 interchange stations; but the personal equation has 

 been determined for wire-transits, and signals trans- 

 mitted by Thomson's galvanometer. The strength 

 of current is adjusted by a rheostat to a constant 

 strength. A triangulation will connect Chorillos, 

 Callao, and Lima, distant some six or seven miles 

 from each other. The connection of Valparaiso with 

 Buenos Aires on the one band, and with Callao and 

 Panama on the other, will complete the circuit of the 

 greater part of South America ; the chain from Green- 

 wich to Buenos Aires, through Lisbon, Madeira, St. 

 Vincent, Pernambuco, Bahia, Kio Janeiro, and Monte- 

 video, having been finished by Lieut.-Commander 

 Green, U.S.N., in 1879." 



— The first livraison of Les nouvelles conguHes de la 

 science, par Louis Figuier, is devoted to a sketch of the 

 application of electricity to lighting. Judging from 

 the sample of explanation given in the introduction, 

 where the glowing of a conductor is attributed to 

 the accumulation of an electric fluid, it cannot be 

 said that the book promises to give a straightforward 

 statement of facts without embellishment. The illus- 

 trations are numerous and attractive. Very much of 



the same untrustworthy character is the first livraison 

 of Nouvelle histoire des voyages, par Richard Cortam- 

 bert. Both of these books are for sale by F. W. Chris- 

 tern, New York. 



— Prof. C. S. Sargent has recently prepared a strik- 

 ing statement of the loss, actual and prospective, 

 suffered from forest-fires, and of the necessity of 

 stringent legislation for their prevention. Especially 

 should this loss be brought to public attention in New 

 England, where so much surface is adapted only to 

 forest-growing, and whence a great share of our white 

 pine must come in future years. These states already 

 possess valuable forests of second-growth pine, now 

 reaching a size when they can properly be thinned 

 out, leaving the smaller trees for future need. But 

 iu Massachusetts alone, ten thousand acres of forest 

 are on the average burned annually; about one-third 

 of the fires beginning from locomotive sparks, and 

 nearly all the rest from easily avoided carelessness. . 

 This burning not only destroys the standing .trees ■ 

 it makes investment of capital in growing forests 

 hazardous, it checks the growth of a very desirable 

 industry, and it destroys the capacity of the ground 

 to continue a pine growth. When properly cut, a pine 

 forest may be propagated indefinitely. When burned, 

 there is a long succession of weeds and briers, moun- 

 tain cherry, gray birch, willows or poplars, maples, 

 and ash-trees, until a hard-wood growth is established. 

 This maintains itself for a long time if left alone; but 

 if the ground be then cleared by cutting, cultivated 

 for many years, and then left free from plough and 

 scythe, and guarded from pasturing and fire, the 

 white pine will spring up spontaneously after its long 

 absence. Fifty or one hundred years must pass before 

 this desirable crop returns. In view of so long a 

 delay, and of the considerable value that pine will 

 soon command, it is well that special care should be 

 given to protecting and preserving the second-growth 

 forests now approaching maturity. 



— The national congress of the French geographic 

 societies will meet this year at Douai, seat of the 

 Geographic union of the north of France, on Aug. 

 26, for a week's session. Excursions will be made to 

 Calais and other points on the channel, and to Charle- 

 ville, and across the Ardennes to Belgium. A geo- 

 graphic exhibition is proposed in connection with 

 the meeting. 



— M. de Lesseps recently stated to the French 

 geographical society that the work on the Panama 

 canal was going on in good condition. Excavation 

 has been begun all along the line. Two American 

 machines had just been received, capable of digging 

 three to four thousand cubic metres a day. The 

 work is in charge of the chief engineer ' des ponts et 

 chaussees,' sent out from France by the canal com- 

 pany some months ago. The Algerian canal, in 

 which M. de Lesseps is interested in connection with 

 M. Rondaire, now, he says, stands a good chance of 



