June 8, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



915 



second observations taken a month later are 

 given in the accompanying bulletin. Elforts 

 have been made at Cambridge to observe Eros, 

 both visually and photographically, but have 

 failed, owing to twilight. 



Date 



Plate. 1900. G. M. T. E. A. 1900. Deo. 1900. 



A 4333 April 26 21" 20°" 22" 49" 2P — 5°46'.0 



" " '■ 49 23 —5 46.4 



A 4334 " 22 06 49 27 —5 45.8 



A 4338 April 27 21 47 51 23 — 5 29 .6 



A 4341 April 30 21 16 57 7 —4 42.1 



" " '' 57 1 —4 42. 



A LETTER has been received at the Harvard 

 College Observatory from Professor H. A. Howe, 

 at Denver, stating that Eros was observed with 

 the 20-inch refractor of the Chamberlin Obser- 

 vatory with the following results : 



Gr. M. T. Apparent Apparent Comp. 



E. A. Decl. Stars. 



May 27, 90729 23" 47"° 3^43 +2° 46' 27'''.3 Boss 8197 

 May 27, 91859 23 47 4 .37 +2 46 38 .6 Boss 8198 



After taking parallax and aberration into ac- 

 count, a comparison of these observations with 

 the ephemeris of J. B. Westhaver in A. J. No. 

 479 gave the following corrections to that 

 ephemeris : 



Gr. M. T. 

 May 27, 90729 + 1^7 + 28' 

 May 27, 91859 -|-1.5 +28 



So far as known this is the first visual obser- 

 vations of Eros since its conjunction with the 

 Sun. 



Estimated Magn. 13. 



THE CA3IBBIDGE EXPLORING EXPEDITION 

 TO THE SIAMESE-3IALAY STATES.* 

 All the members of this expedition have now 

 returned to England. After the arrangement 

 of the necessary preliminaries at Pangkok, the 

 party proceeded to Singora, where the active 

 work of the expedition commenced by an ex- 

 ploration of the Inland Sea, which measures, 

 roughly speaking, 60 miles by 20. The birds' 

 nest islands were visited and the now somewhat 

 rare method of tree-burial investigated, as well 

 as the habits of a peculiar, isolated tribe called 

 Phram who are believed to be of Indian origin. 

 The tree-graves were usually cigar-shaped 

 wrappers, or rather shells made of laths and 



*From the London Times. 



suspended horizontally at a height of six to 

 eight feet from the ground between two tree- 

 trunks, branches, or posts. The corpse is ex- 

 posed in one of these shells (the heels being 

 generally left higher than the head) and allowed 

 to decay till the bones are clean, after which 

 the bones should be collected and burnt. Box- 

 like receptacles on posts, as among the Madangs 

 of Borneo, are occasionally substituted for the 

 wrappers. On this journey some strange arti- 

 cles of diet were served up to the two members 

 of the expedition, among them being red ants, 

 toads, bee grubs, and a species of cicada. The 

 manner in which the latter are caught is pecu- 

 liar. Two or three natives gather at night round 

 a brightly-burning wood-fire, one of them hold- 

 ing a lighted torch. The others clap their 

 hands at regular intervals and the cicadse, at- 

 tracted by the noise and guided by the light, fly 

 down and settle upon the people as they stand 

 by the fire. On this same journey a couple of 

 young leopard or panther cubs were picked out 

 of their nest in a hollow tree by the roadside. 

 But it was found diflicult to feed them, and they 

 were therefore suckled by a Siamese woman 

 who claimed to have previously suckled a bear. 



From Singora the party proceeded to Patani, 

 and ascended Guuong Besar or Indragiri to a 

 height of 3000 feet. The next place visited 

 was Biserat, iu Jalor (Jala), which proved an 

 excellent collecting ground until smallpox broke 

 out. The limestone caves here were thoroughly 

 explored, including the fine Gua Gambar or 

 Statue Cave, containing a colossal figure of 

 Buddah about 100 feet in length. The party 

 then proceeded by the overland route through 

 Raman, Ligeh, Ulu, Kelantan, and up the 

 Lebih, a distance of about 200 miles, performed 

 by elephants, rafts, and boats, as far as Kuala 

 Aring. Hence Mr. Skeat, with six Malays, set 

 out on a scouting expedition to explore the 

 route to the Tahan Mountain, the highest peak 

 in the Malay Peninsula, which reaches an alti- 

 tude of about 10,000 feet. Mr. Skeat's party 

 was absent about five weeks from camp, and 

 got sight of an unrecorded peak named Gunong 

 Larong, or ' CoflBn Mountain,' not much inferior 

 to the Tahan Mountain. 



The expedition then descended to the coast, 

 and after spending about two months in the 



