October 30, 1885.] 



sciujsrcjEj. 



381 



finding game plentiful. On the 30th of July a 

 point was reached where canoe navigation ceased 

 on account of shoal water, and the two men pro- 

 ceeded on foot. Near the head-waters, instead of 

 mountains, there were elevated moorlands, with 

 scanty vegetation and destitute of timber. The 

 source of the branch ascended was found to be a 

 small lake surrounded by snow-banks, and sup- 

 posed to be about 400 miles from the coast. The 

 natives, of whom about 250 live on the river, were 

 friendly, and the return voyage was made without 

 accident. The run down the river was very ex- 

 citing owing to the numerous rapids and impedi- 

 ments. The party reported on board the Corwin 

 August 27. The voyage, which was extremely 

 creditable to those who took part in it, is note- 

 worthy, as the party reached the highest latitude 

 yet attained by white men in the interior of this 

 part of Alaska. The report and charts which are 

 being prepared for the department will doubtless 

 fill a large part of the blank space which occupies 

 the best maps of this area. 



A letter from Mr. Henry D. Woolfe, who has 

 been during the past year stationed at Cape Lis- 

 burne on the arctic coast north of Bering Strait, 

 states that the winter there had been a mild one, 

 February being the coldest month, with a mini- 

 mum for the winter of — 45° F. There were many 

 heavy southerly gales during December, January, 

 and February. The range of hills in which the 

 Noatak or Nunatak River rises was in a direction 

 E. N. E. mag. only three days from the station. 

 In February and March he travelled along the 

 coast from Cape Lisburne to Hotham Inlet, and 

 ascended the Noatak on the ice about thirty miles 

 to a village of Innuit. Between the Corwin 

 Lagoon and Cape Krusenstern a river falls into 

 the sea, which he was informed was connected 

 with the Noatak, running behind the hills which 

 he back of Shesholik village. Mr. Woolfe is pre- 

 paring a map showing all the native settlements 

 and even single huts temporarily occupied along 

 the coast between Cape Krusenstern and Point 

 Barrow. He had discovered several new coal 

 veins, and, in fact, found a region about twenty 

 miles square that was a continuous coal-field, the 

 coal belonging geologically to the carboniferous age, 

 and behig easily got at, and of- excellent quality. 

 It has long been used for fuel by the whalers, and 

 the Pacific whaling company are having it mined 

 to supply their steam whaling vessels. 



ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 

 Small versus large telescopes. — IVIr. 



Den- 



ning's crusade in favor of small telescopes seems 

 to have come to a rather inglorious ending in the 



closing sentence of his letter (Observ., '85, 305), 

 which reads, "The efficacy of small instruments 

 comes in where it is desirable to have that critical 

 sharpness of the image resulting from a suitable 

 blending of aperture and power with atmospheric 

 conditions," whatever that may mean. The truth 

 would seem to be, that very much of what ob- 

 servers with small telescopes call ' sharp definition ' 

 is merely the smoothing out of actual minute 

 irregularities, or very slight unsteadiness, which 

 limited aperture is powerless to separate or define, 

 on account of the overlapping diffraction cux-les or 

 bands, which necessarily constitute the image of 

 every point or line. One matter, however, might 

 with profit be further investigated, and that is, 

 whether the larger cyhnder and cone of rays from 

 a large aperture materially increase the disturb- 

 ance of the image when the seeing is bad. Perhaps 

 the most amusing feature of the whole discussion 

 is where Mr. Denning (Observ., '85, 207) fails to 

 grasp the sarcasm of Professor Hall's communica- 

 tion {Observ., '85, 174), and takes it as wiitten in 

 sober earnest. 



Comet 1885. III. (Brooks).— The comet found 

 by Brooks on August 31 appears to have passed 

 perihelion about three weeks before discovery. 

 According to three independent sets of elements, 

 perihehon passage occurred on August 10, the 

 comet being then at a distance 0.75 from the sun 

 (the earth's distance from the sun being unity). 

 The nearest approach to the earth seems to have 

 occurred about September 25. Even at its best, 

 the comet seems to have been a very unsatisfactory . 

 object to the observer ; and it can probably be 

 seen now only in the more powerful telescopes. It 

 is less than a third as bright as on September 5. 

 The observations thus far pubhshed extend to 

 about the middle of September, and the comet is 

 generally described as round, faint, increasing a 

 little in brightness toward the centre, without 

 definite nucleus or tail, and some two or thi-ee 

 minutes of arc in diameter. We should mention 

 that Mr. A. A. Common, of Ealing, England, is re- 

 ported to have discovered the comet indei^endently 

 on the evening of September 4. 



New variable in Cygnus. — Mr. J. E. Gore an- 

 nounces (Astr. nadir., 2683) that the red star 

 Birmingham 587, south-following p Cygni, varies 

 between 5.8 and 7.5 magnitudes, in a period of 

 about 250 or 300 days, the last maximum having 

 been in December, 1884. The star is Lai. 42153 

 andD.M. + 44°, 3877. 



Common decimal unit of circular measure. — 

 It seems that the recent someAvhat sensational 

 announcement {Nature, xxxii. 465) of a supposed 

 rapid proper motion in Nova Andi'omeda? arose 

 from the failure of an Enghsh amateur to distin- 



