July 24, 1885/ 



SCIENCE. 



71 



With a settled government and increased population, 

 there is no reason why this should not become one of 

 the most prosperous tracts of central Asia. 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



The fifth expedition of the Belgian international 

 African association, which started with the view of 

 connecting by a chain of stations the east coast with 

 the interior basin, has returned, the expense proving 

 too great to render the project profitable. The Zan- 

 zibar agent of the society has returned to Europe. 

 The efforts of the association at present will probably 

 be confined to the Kongo watershed. 



The death of Mirambo, the noted chief of Unya- 

 muezi, is confirmed. His principal rival, Kapira, is 

 also dead. The power of the former was so great an 

 element in securing peace and security of travel, that 

 his death seems a public misfortune. The son of 

 M'tesa is reported to have succeeded his father. He 

 is young and intelligent, and favorably disposed to- 

 ward Europeans. He was for several years a pupil 

 of Father Levinhac, recently consecrated bishop of 

 Uganda. 



Lieut. Hovgaard intends to visit the east coast of 

 Greenland next year at the expense of the Danish 

 government. Herr August Gamel, the owner of the 

 steamer Dimfna, has placed it at his disposal. The 

 majority of copies of the work known as ' Meddelser 

 om Gronland,' published by the Danish government, 

 and which received one of the annual medals of the 

 Paris societe de geographic, were burned in the re- 

 cent conflagration at the palace of Christianborg in 

 Copenhagen. 



Caspari has reported on the station of Sheik Said 

 at Cape Bab-el-Mandeb, claimed by France. It 

 appears to be a desert spot, with an exposed road- 

 stead, severe heats, no vegetation, and the fresh water 

 scarce and bad. There is a shallow lagoon contain- 

 ing many fish, out of which a small community of 

 Arabs manage to gain a living. Altogether it would 

 seem a most unpromising spot for a European colony. 



La societe des etudes historiques, Paris, offers a 

 prize of one thousand francs, or a medal of equal 

 value, to the author of the best memoir on the fol- 

 lowing subject: "A study of the consequences, from 

 the point of view of political economy, of the new 

 relations between Europe and West America, eastern 

 Asia and Polynesia, which would follow the com- 

 pletion of the Panama canal." For conditions, com- 

 petitors should address M. L. Racine, administrator 

 of the society, 62 boulevard de Courcelles. 



Assan Khan Sanieduleh, minister to the shah of 

 Persia, has sent to the Paris geographical society a 

 memoir on the district and town of Maybaud, an- 

 other on the region of Kelat-i-Nadiri, with a map, 

 and the first volume of a series of three, to be devoted 

 to Khorassan, all in the Persian language. 



A steamer called the Industrie, of 513 tons, has ar- 

 rived at Cologne, March 18, being the first vessel to 

 enter that port direct from an ocean voyage. It is 



expected that she will prove the forerunner of an 

 important commerce. 



The missionaries of Uzigay in the equatorial lake 

 region of Africa report that the use of a sort of beer 

 made of bananas has been used by them with excel- 

 lent results as a prophylactic against malarial fevers. 

 Owing, as they suppose, to its use, they have enjoyed 

 in that pestilent region the best of health. The 

 matter seems worthy of investigation. 



Teisserenc de Bort writes, that, midway between 

 Khurd-Rumed and Beresof, his party had discovered 

 a depression called by the inhabitants Sebkha Zeita, 

 six or eight kilometres in extent, which forms a lake 

 during the wet season. It is surrounded by an 

 almost circular chain of dunes, between which and 

 the lake are found very numerous chipped flints and 

 other vestiges of man, including hundreds of hearths 

 where the stones show traces of fire. 



ASTRONOMICAL PROGRESS IN I884. 



Peofessok Newcomb contributes to vol. ix. of 

 Appletons' annual cyclopaedia, just published, an 

 interesting article on * Astronomical phenomena and 

 progress during the year 1884.' In observatories 

 and instruments, he notes the completion of the Lick 

 observatory, with the exception of its equatorial; and 

 the mounting of the great telescopes at the Univer- 

 sity of Virginia and at Pulkowa, the latter of thirty 

 inches aperture, the largest refractor yet made. In 

 solar physics, Langley's Mount- Whitney work re- 

 ceives first attention, and the tardy appearance of 

 the sun-spot maximum in 1884 (one or perhaps two 

 years behindtime) is remarked. From recent deter- 

 minations of the velocity of light, the solar parallax 

 is found to be 8.794", and the corresponding distance 

 of the sun, in round numbers, 93,000,000 miles,, 

 "which is not likely to be altered by much more 

 than 100,000 miles by any future discoveries." 



Recent observations on Jupiter appear to show that 

 the period of rotation at its equator is more than five 

 minutes less than in the latitude of the great red 

 spot, — a result which is of great interest, as tending 

 to confirm the suspected resemblance of that planet 

 to our sun. Saturn, during the winters of 1884, 1885, 

 and 1886, is in an unusually favorable situation for 

 observation; and we may expect valuable testimony 

 on the disputed variability of the rings, and on 

 the many interesting physical phenomena which 

 the planet presents. The asteroids and comets 

 of the year receive due notice. Attention is called 

 to Professor Pickering's inventions in photometry, 

 which have provided us with a standard catalogue of 

 the magnitudes of over four thousand stars, — ' Har- 

 vard photometry.' By a very elaborate calculation. 

 Professor Oppolzer has investigated the question 

 whether the excess of the moon's apparent accelera- 

 tion above its computed value may not arise from 

 the mass of the earth being gradually increased 

 by the falling of meteors upon its surface. He con- 

 cludes that a precipitation of cosmic dust of about 



