1865.] Astronomy. 79 



markings. The aspect of a considerable portion of them is that of a 

 line of long irregular ravines, withoixt elevated margins, as though 

 they had been formed by the dropping in of part of an inflated and 

 hollow crust. We have here something that certainly looks like 

 evidence ; and it would seem as though the epoch of the supposed 

 convulsion might be fixed within narrow limits ; for the map was 

 published between 1834 and 1836, while Mr. Webb's first detection 

 of these objects took place in 1836. The value of this evidence in 

 favour of recent change on the lunar surface is, however, somewhat 

 diminished when we find that Lohrman has inserted a minute crater 

 on the convexity in his map, made from observations taken between 

 1822 and 1836. 



W. Lassell, Esq., has figured and described an unusually irregular 

 outline of the moon's limb, as seen with his 9 • 1 inch reflecting 

 equatorial, at Malta, where it is at present mounted. A mere 

 description will hardly convey an idea of the irregularity ; but the 

 drawing given in the monthly notices of the Eoyal Astronomical 

 Society, shows sharp peaks of mountains and desp valleys interfering 

 with the regular outline of the moon, whilst one portion, extending 

 over more than 11 degrees of latitude, is quite flat, if not really con- 

 cave. Mr. Lassell, in conjunction with his talented assistant, Mr. 

 Marth, has also sent to the Society several measures of the small star, 

 in the neighbourhood of Procyon, both in position and distance. They 

 scarcely tend to establish the hypothesis of any physical connection 

 with the large star. They have also sent the results of a series of 

 observations of Uranus and Neptune, made during the splendid, and, 

 as it now appears, exceptional season of 1852. They are at present 

 much occupied with Saturn, in observing, amongst other phenomena, 

 conjunctions of the satellites (especially the closer ones) with the pole 

 of Saturn, or with tangents to the limbs or ansae of the ring, with a view 

 to contribute towards a more perfect knowledge of the forms of their 

 orbits. Mr. Lassell has likewise made a good many drawings of 

 planetary and other nebulaa ; but has not yet decided about publishing 

 them. An engraving from a drawing of the large nebula, Messier 20, 

 will be given in the volume of ' Memoirs of the Eoyal Astronomical 

 Society.' It is the work of an Italian artist, and is in the main very 

 correct, though the shading-off of the nebula is somewhat too abrupt, 

 and the proportional magnitudes of the stars are not perfectly pre- 

 served. 



A contribution to our knowledge of the astronomy of the ancient 

 Egyptians has been sent to the Society by Mr. Bonomi. He has given 

 a drawing from a diagram, engraved on the wall of the Belzoni Sar- 

 cophagus, which was made to contain the body of a king of Egypt 

 1,250 years before our era. In the upper part of the diagram is a 

 figure of Osiris, curled up in the attitude of a tumbler, to represent the 

 earth floating on the surface of the great ocean, which is here signified 

 by zigzag lines that surround him. This idea of the earth floating 

 on a vast expanse of water was entertained by all the nations of 

 antiquity, and there is frequent allusion to this idea in the sacred 

 writings. A little figure, standing on the head of Osiris, is the god- 



