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SCIENCE 



[Vol. V., No. 108. 



an amount which might be jointly contributed 

 by the several governments to the maintenance 

 of mountain observatories, directed by an in- 

 ternational commission, or of an international 

 computing bureau for the complete utilization 

 of the masses of observations accumulating 

 the world over, and for the encouragement of 

 research in theoretic astronomy, — it is certain 

 that the deliberations of such a congress could 

 not fail to advise governmental co-operation 

 in the preparation of the nautical almanacs 

 now existing. National pride aside, and this 

 might be done in a multitude of ways, most 

 prominently in the case of the preparation of 

 the data relating to the moon. Take, for ex- 

 ample, the hourly lunar ephemeris and the 

 lunar distances as printed each year in the' 

 British nautical almanac and the American 

 ephemeris. These data occupy about one-third 

 of the entire number of pages of each of these 

 publications ; they are now prepared independ- 

 ently by the two offices, but are, when printed, 

 substantially identical in both ; and, further, 

 the work being done at about the same time in 

 the two countries, the results of the one do not 

 serve an}' sufficient purpose as a check upon 

 the accuracy of the other. The cost of this 

 part of the almanac alone to each nation 

 amounts to several thousand dollars annually, 

 — an amount which might be reduced one- 

 half by the preparation of these data con- 

 joint^, to say nothing of other immediate and 

 favorable results which might be secured by 

 such co-operation. 



We should not like, however, to give the 

 impression that this had never been thought 

 of before, nor indeed that steps had never 

 been taken toward securing such co-operation. 

 It is frequently the best policy to let well 

 enough alone ; and we do not fail to recognize 

 the fact that it is very often wise to leave a 

 thing as it is, just because it has always been 

 so : in fact, we are conservatives ourselves, 

 though not that precise type of conservative, 

 which, as we speak of the moon, recalls Douglas 

 Jerrold's characterization as one who would 

 " refuse to go out when there's a new moon ; 

 and all out of love and respect for that ' ancient 



institution ' — the old one." The wisest con- 

 servatism would appear to suggest the annual 

 publication by the nations conjointly of a 

 single volume of astronomical predictions, 

 which, in addition to other improvements, 

 should combine all those desirable features 

 not dependent upon individual meridians, and 

 which in some degree characterize all the 

 astronomical ephemerides of the several gov- 

 ernments. The contents and arrangement of 

 the articles of such an ephemeris could only 

 be determined by an international conference. 

 While this may be little better than mere 

 speculation, an}' one who has the four principal 

 ephemerides in constant use will readily recog- 

 nize how small a portion of each is employed, 

 and, with extended interpolation-tables, how 

 little the inconvenience of using the ideal 

 ephemeris solely would be. 



THE GEOGRAPHICAL WORK OF THE 

 GREELY EXPEDITION. 



The general features of the geographical 

 work of the Lady Franklin Bay expedition 

 may be of interest to the readers of Science, 

 in connection with the map furnished through 

 the courtesy of Capt. J. R. Bartlett, chief 

 hydrographer U. S. navy. The details are re- 

 produced from photographs of charts made at 

 Fort Conger by the late First Lieutenant James 

 B. Lockwood, U. S. army, of his and my 

 work. 



The expedition fitted out by the .war depart- 

 ment under the supervision of Gen. W. B. 

 Hazen, chief signal-officer, and commanded 

 by me, left St. Johns, Newfoundland, July 7, 

 1881. After a remarkably successful voyage, 

 the part}' landed on the shores of Discovery 

 Harbor, just south of Robeson's Channel. 

 The station called Fort Conger was in latitude 

 81° 44' north, longitude 64° 45' west. The site 

 was the same as that occupied by the stores 

 landed from the English ship Discovery, of 

 the Nares expedition, 1875-76. During the 

 autumn, as much work as possible was done 

 towards establishing depots for use of explor- 

 ing-parties the following spring. The sun, 

 returning after an absence of one hundred and 

 thirty-five days, found the party well and in 

 good spirits. Parties were immediately put 

 into the field to establish advance depots ; and 



