August 21, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



159 



ma and the Burmans, or ' The best unopened market 

 of the world' (London: Field & Tuer). The late 

 massacres in Mandelay, the capital of independent 

 Burma, have drawn public attention to that part of 

 the globe which the recent actions of the French 

 in Tonquin and southern China have not tended to 

 allay. Probably no one is better qualified by actual 

 observation for his task than Mr. Colquhoun ; and 

 this readable essay, with its map and statistical table, 

 should receive the careful consideration of all who 

 are interested in what may at any day become the 

 farthest eastern question. 



— The Ann- Arbor meeting of the American asso- 

 ciation opens Aug. 25, and closes Sept. 1, not Sept. 

 10 as erroneously stated in some of the circulars. 



— The special association train will leave Buffalo 

 at six A.M., Aug. 25, will stop three hours at Niagara 

 Falls, and arrive in Ann Arbor at 8.23 p.m. 



— The Fitchburg railroad requests us to announce 

 that tickets to Ann Arbor and return, by the Hoosac- 

 tunnel line, will be sold at reduced rates. 



— The Annuaire geologique universel et guide du 

 geologue is the title of a projected annual, of which 

 the first volume has lately been received. It is edited 

 by Dr. Dagincourt of the ' Comptoir geologique de 

 Paris,' and contains articles on a luimber of differ- 

 ent countries by competent geologists. The chief 

 object of the work, as stated in the preface, is to give 

 lists of the geologists of various countries, so as to 

 increase the range of professional acquaintance; to 

 indicate to the tourist the principal collections and 

 localities that he should visit, and to record the an- 

 nual progress of each nation. Only three months of 

 preparation have been spent on the first volume; its 

 publication having been hurried, that it might appear 

 before the meeting of the geological congress at Ber- 

 lin in September, and that it might give rise to criti- 

 cism from which the editor hopes to profit. The 

 materials thus collected embrace brief geological 

 sketches of several countries. North America being 

 treated by de Margerie of Paris; accounts of official 

 surveys, publications, and maps; lists of societies 

 and local geologists, and of universities and muse- 

 ums; notes on recent geological works. This pro- 

 gramme is by no means uniformly carried out: uni- 

 formity in execution would be a manifest improve- 

 ment. The printing is not done with sufficient care; 

 and, in the list of addresses, the errors are seriously 

 numerous. 



— Mr. Clement L. TVragge is arranging, says Na- 

 ture, for the establishment of a meteorological station 

 in northern Queensland and New Guinea. He hopes 

 to establish an observing station at Port Moresby. 

 An assistant will carry on the work of the Torrens 

 observatory. Mr. Wragge is also arranging for the 

 continuance of his observatory on Mount Lofty. 



— Two important papers have lately appeared on 

 the reddish corona around the sun, — one by Kiess- 

 ling of Hamburg, who has already given the best 

 statement of the optical process by which the ring is 

 formed ; the other by Forel of Morges, Switzerland, 

 who has suggested that the corona be called ' Bishop's 



ring,' after its earliest observei", the Ptev. Sereno F. 

 Bishop of Honolulu, who noted it on Sept. 5, 1883. 

 The recent papers are concerned with the extension 

 of the area of first visibility; and both writers con- 

 clude that there is no question of the connection of 

 the ring with the famous sunsets, or of the origin 

 of both of these remarkable phenomena in the dust 

 thrown out from Krakatoa. Kiessling quotes with 

 approval the name suggested by Arcimis of Madrid, 

 ' Corona solar krakatoense.' The need of observa- 

 tions, especially at elevated stations, to determine the 

 duration of the ring's appearance, is emphasized. 

 Mount Washington and Pike's Peak should afford 

 good records. 



-—On Tuesday morning, July 14, an earthquake oc- 

 curred in eastern and central Bengal which, accord- 

 ing to Nature, is said to have been the severest one 

 experienced by the inhabitants for forty years. The 

 shocks lasted for nearly a minute. In Calcutta, the 

 houses rocked and cracked, and the plaster fell in 

 large quantities. There was general consternation, 

 the people all rushing out of doors. A wave was 

 raised in the river like a bore, causing some anxiety 

 with respect to the shipping. Luckily no accident 

 occurred, and no damage was done beyond the crack- 

 ing of the walls of some old houses; but, had the 

 shocks lasted some seconds longer, the city would 

 probably have been laid in ruins. Some of the up- 

 country stations were less fortunate. At Serajgunge, 

 a chimney belonging to some jute-mills fell. In many- 

 other places some of the houses fell, and people were 

 killed. Twenty-five deaths are reported to have oc- 

 curred at Aheripore, five at Bogara, eleven at Azim- 

 gunge, and several at Dacca. The following morning 

 another shock was felt in Cashmere, which did some 

 injury. According to the latest reports, the earth- 

 quake caused altogether seventy deaths in Bengal. 



— Tuttle's comet of 1858 was seen at Nice on Aug. 

 9. Johannes Kahts, a german computer, has calcu- 

 lated an orbit from the observations made at the 

 1858 and 1871-72 appearances, with the perturbations 

 of the principal planets included. His ephemeris 

 agrees with the place in which the comet was found 

 within fifteen seconds of time, and about six minutes 

 of arc; so that, by pointing the telescope to the com- 

 puted place, the comet would be in the field of view 

 after an absence of nearly fourteen years. Using 

 his elements, the perihelion distance of the comet is 

 ninety-five million miles, and the aphelion distance 

 nine hundred and sixty-seven million, the period be- 

 ing 13.76 years. According to these data, the comet, 

 at its nearest approach to the sun, is at about the 

 same distance as the earth, and, at its farthest dis- 

 tance, it is about a hundred million miles beyond 

 the orbit of Saturn. It will slowly approach the 

 earth and its light increase during the present 

 month, its distance at time of discovery being a 

 hundred and seventy-five million miles. It will not, 

 however, become visible to the naked eye. This is 

 one of five comets discovered by Mr. H. P. Tuttle at 

 Harvard college observatory, two others besides this 

 having been discovered in 1858. 



