March i8, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



161 



panied by dark lines on their more refrangible sides. With 

 the 10-inch refractor and Maclean spectroscope, C was seen to 

 be very brilliant, and there were four very conspicuous lines 

 in the green. Several fainter lines were also seen, and a 

 dark line was suspected in the orange. Mr. Lockyer noticed 

 that some of the lines, especially the bright ones near F on 

 the less refrangible side, appeared to change rapidly in rela- 

 tive brightness, and this was confirmed by Mr. Fowler. All 

 the lines in the spectrum of the Nora are broad, although in 

 a photograph of the spectrum of Areturus, taken with the 

 same instrumental conditions, the lines were perfectly sharp. 

 It is also important to note that the broadening of the lines 

 is not accompanied by any falling off of intensity at the 

 edges, as in the case of the hydrogen lines in such a star as 

 Sirius. 



Judging from the testimony herq given, it is undoubtedly 

 true that a new star has appeared to our vision, and given 

 astronomers an opportunity to study its make-up. It cannot, 

 however, be said that the object has suddenly come out to 

 its present magnitude. The probability points to the fact that 

 the new star is a variable of long period, and one that at its 

 minimum sinks to invisibility. The veriflcation of this 

 statement must rest upon future observations. We have no 

 record that indicates that a star as bright as the tenth mag- 

 nitude has ever occupied the place in which the new star has 

 been found. All speculation as to its future history is value- 

 less, because we know nothing of its past history. 



The star is now being constantly watched by all the pow- 

 erful telescopes and spectroscopes of the world, its image is 

 almost nightly caught upon the photographic plate handled 

 by men of experience, and it will not sink back into invisi- 

 bility without leaving behind a record of great value. 



Geo. a. Hill. 



■Washington, B.C., March 9. 



THE TIMBER TREES OF WEST VIRGINIA. 



The Gayandot Coal Land Association, which is the owner 

 of over 200,000 acres of land in the basins of the Guyandot 

 and Twelve-Pole Rivers, in the Counties of Wayne, Logan, 

 and Lincoln, near the south-west corner of West Virginia, 

 has recently had the large timber trees on about 9,000 acres 

 of land counted and measured, thus securing reliable infor- 

 mation as to the actual present condition of the Trans-appa- 

 lachian forests of that region. The diameter of the trees 

 was taken, with calipers, at about four feet above the ground ; 

 then the length of the trunks suitable for cutting into logs 

 ■or for long timber was carefully estimated by the eye of the 

 «kilful timber measurer. No trees were measured that were 

 less than eighteen inches in diameter, except the hickories 

 arrd locusts, which were measured from ten inches and up- 

 ward. The detailed tables of this counting and measuring 

 have been furnished me for inspection. I think that a sum- 

 mary of the detailed count of the results of the measure- 

 ments on one single tract, will be of interest to the readers of 

 Science- For this purpose I select a tract of 65.5 acres on 

 •the top of the dividing ridge between the waters of the east 

 and the west forks of Twelve-Pole River, two miles north- 

 east of the new mining town of Dunlow on the Ohio exten- 

 sion of the Norfolk and Western Riilroad, about forty miles 

 by rail south-east from tlie Ohio River at the new town 

 of Kenova, one named from the abbreviation names of the 

 three States that are there adjacent. 



About one-half of this particular tract of land, say 325 

 acres, lies on the east side of the dividing ridge, slopes from 

 llie divide and faces to the north of east, and drains into 



East Twelve-Pole River. The other 325 acres lies on the 

 west side of the divide, slopes to the south of west and drains 

 into West Twelve-Pole River. The crest of the divide is not 

 far from 1,000 feet above the level of the sea. The following 

 statement shows the whole number of large timber trees now 

 growing on this tract of 655 acres, by kinds and exposures. 

 This tract was found to have growing on it, 16,989 trees; an 

 average of about 26 large timber trees to the acre. 



The proportionate percentage of the hardwood trees of the 

 above table, all those named except the tulip-poplars, pines, and 

 lindens, is quite remarkable. The softwood trees are: 1,042 

 on the westward slope and 922 on the eastward slope, a total 

 of 1,964, or less than ten per cent of the whole number of 

 trees on the western slope, over fourteen per cent of those on 

 the eastern slope, and nearly twelve per cent of the whole 

 number of trees, leaving over ninety per cent of the west- 

 ward slope trees and near eighty-six per cent of the eastward 

 slope ones as hardwoods. So these hardwood trees constitute 

 eighty-nine per cent of all the large counted and measured 

 trees now growing on this tract of land. The figures of the 

 table indicate that the large hardwood trees are more abun- 

 dant on the westward exposure of the dividing ridge. 



The record of the diameter and length of each of the trees 

 embraced in the above list, that now lies before me, shows 

 that most of these trees are of large size, the oaks ranging in 

 diameter from eighteen to sixty inches, and in trunk length 

 from twenty to sixty feet. The hickories range from ten to 

 twenty-seven inches in diameter, and from fifteen to sixty 

 feet in trunk length; the pines from eighteen to forty inches 

 in diameter, and twenty to seventy feet in trunk length; and 

 the tulip-poplars from twenty to sixty-six inches in diameter, 

 and from thirty to eighty feet in trunk length. 



Jed. Hotchkiss. 



Staunton, Va. 



THE SPECIALIST.' 



"Many scientific men of excellent reputation are to-day 

 guilty of the crime of unnecessary and often premeditated 

 and deliberately planned mystification; in fact, almost by 

 common consent this fault is overlooked in men of distin- 

 guished ability, if, indeed, it does not add a lustre to the 

 brilliancy of their attainments. It is usually regarded as a 



> A few thoughts suggested by the address of the retiring rresMeut of the 

 Americau Assjclatlon for the Advancement of Science, delivered at the In- 

 dianapolis meeting, Augis'. 1S!«>, from wtich the quotations here given ei-e 

 taken. 



