1010 



SCIENCE. 



LN. S. Vol. XVII. No. 443. 



the requisites of healtli and comfort and 

 variety of scenery and exercise, while per- 

 haps no other place could supply a greater 

 abundance of the material for study, both 

 marine and terrestrial. 



Of course I am unable to give an opinion of 

 value on this subject. I only ask an investi- 

 gation of this Island of Pines. 



J. Fred. Clarke. 



' MOUNT PELEE.' 



To THE Editor of Science: In Science for 

 June 5 Mr. Mark S. W. Jefferson raises a 

 question which is of interest to those who, 

 like myself, are studying the volcanoes of the 

 West Indies : What shall we call the now cele- 

 brated volcano on the island of Martinique? 

 Mr. Jefferson seems to be inclined to use the 

 name ' Mount Pelee.' 



During a stay of four weeks on the island 

 last year and another visit of like duration this 

 year, I heard the mountain called almost in- 

 variably ' Mont Pele,' very rarely if at all ' La 

 montagne Pelee.' The latter form is that 

 employed on the charts of the island, but the 

 former is the one most commonly used by the 

 French in correspondence and in written de- 

 scriptions, as well as in conversation, as being 

 more compact. The general tendency among 

 geographers now is toward using geographical 

 names in the way in which they are employed 

 in the region containing the geographical 

 feature, hence it seems to me better to write 

 the correct French ' Mont Pele,' than the 

 Anglicized ' Mount Pelee,' in- which there is 

 little suggestion of the true pronunciation of 

 the name. When but one word is to be used 

 for the mountain, the generally accepted form, 

 ' Pelee ' is convenient and is to be recom- 

 mended as conforming the formal appellation 

 of the volcano. I speak with the more feeling 

 on this topic, because I am one of those who 

 have helped to perpetuate the incorrect com- 

 bination, ' Mt. Pelee.' 



Regarding the origin of the name and its 

 applicability to the mountain it may be re- 

 marked that the accepted explanation among 

 Martiniquans is that the term has been de- 

 rived from the ancient Carib name for the 



mountain. When Columbus discovered Mar- 

 tinique he found a Carib town at Le Carbet, 

 nearly two miles south of the present site of 

 St. Pierre. The Caribs were afraid to live 

 any nearer to the volcano on account of their 

 traditions regarding its activity; and they 

 called it the ' bald ' or treeless mountain, a 

 name which in itself indicates traditional 

 eruptions. Any one who has seen Mont Pele 

 since May 8, 1902, will grant that the moun- 

 tain now merits its name. 



Edmund Otis Hovey. 



SHORTER ARTICLES. 

 ON THE limits OF UNAIDED VISION. 



It is generally accepted that the sixth stel- 

 lar magnitude is the limit of naked-eye vison. 

 Though observers with eyes of unusual sharp- 

 ness may under favorable conditions see stars 

 nearly an entire magnitude fainter, that this 

 is for all practical purposes the limit may be 

 seen from a consideration of the faintest stars 

 given in the various star catalogues and 

 uranometrise devoted to naked-eye stars. The ' 

 average magnitude on the scale of the Har- 

 vard photometry of the faintest stars visible 

 in several of these catalogues is as follows 

 {H. C. 0. Annals, Vol. XIV., Part II.) : 



Ptolemy's Almagest 5.38 M. 



Safi 5.64 " 



Argelander, Uranometria Nova . . 5.74 " 



Heis, Atlas Coelestis Novus 6.06 " 



Houzeau, Uranomgtrie GSngrale. 6.40 " 



Gould, Uranometria Argentina.. 6.71 " 



Argelander states that his sixth magnitude 

 comprised stars as faint as he could make out 

 at Bonn; his eye, according to his own esti- 

 mate, was of moderate sharpness. The faint- 

 est class of Houzeau comprised those stars 

 which, under favorable conditions, could not 

 be seen continuously, but only at intervals. 

 Gould found in the clear atmosphere of Cor- 

 doba that on very good nights observers of 

 ordinary vision might go even below his 

 seventh magnitude (6.71 M. Harvard phot.), 

 and attributes it mainly to the advantage 

 given by the altitude of the observatory. 

 Several of the observers at the Lick Observa- 

 tory have, under the most favorable condi- 



