evening of the 19th the eclipse could have been observed most successfully. lished, in Appendix I to the "Washington Observations for 1883," a discussion of the orbits of the six inner satellites of Saturn, his main object being to determine, if possible, the motions of the perisaturnia, and the mass of the ring. The observations of the satellites he has discussed were made by Prof. Newcomb and himself with the 26-inch Washington refractor, in 1874, and following years. Prof. Hall finds from these observations that Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Mimas, and Enceladus, move in orbits sensibly circular-a result which, of course, sets aside any consideration of the motion of their lines of apsides. From the elements of Titan Rhea, Dione, and Tethys, the mean result for the mass of Saturn is In Germany, the Berlin Observatory established six stations on the central line of the eclipse, together with some others near the northern and southern boundaries of the total zone, and many additional points were occupied by well-known astronomers; but fog, rain, and clouds prevailed to such an extent that only at Nordhausen and Eisleben were even partially successful observations obtained. In Russia, west of the Ural Mountains, at least thirty different points were occupied by about one hundred and fifty thoroughly-equipped astronomers and physicists, many of whom had traveled far to see the eclipse, but the weather was so unpropitious that the corona was visible at only five of their stations. In Siberia, where the sky was perfectly clear, only four Asteroids.-Six of these little bodies were parties are known to have been located, and added to the list during 1887, making the total their equipment was not of the first order. A number now known 270. The following table party from the United States was stationed gives their numbers and names, the names of in Japan, but there again the weather was the discoverers, the dates of discovery, and the bad. principal elements of the orbits, together with the names of the computers: The Satellites of Saturn.-Prof. Hall has pub 1 8478.7±1.10' mass of the sun being taken as unity. the Date of discov- Inclination. Eccentricity. Computer. June 9. 121 58 Lange. September 21. An asteorid, detected by Dr. Luther on April 11, and independently by Coggia on April 16, proved to be Hesperia (69), which had been fooked for in vain in 1882, 1885, and in March, 1887. The rapid motion in right ascension of (265) would seem to indicate that it approaches quite near the earth, and is, therefore, suitable for determining a new value of the solar parallax. Of the asteroids "unnamed" in last year's article (256) has been called Walpurga, (261) Prymno, (262) Valda, (263) Dresda, (264) Libussa: (269) was the sixtieth asteroid discovered by Palisa. Dr. de Ball has made a careful discussion of all the observations of Eucharis (181) obtained since its discovery in 1878. He has taken into account the perturbations due to Jupiter and Saturn; and those due to Jupiter seem likely to afford an accurate means of determining that planet's mass. Comets of 1887.-Including the periodic comet of Olbers, six comets have thus far (October 1) been discovered during the year. As it is now possible to give to the new comets their permanent designations, we record them in the order of perihelion passage: Comet 1886 VIII, the third comet discovered in 1887, was found by E. E. Barnard, of the Vanderbilt Observatory, Nashville, Tenn., on Jan. 23, or the morning of Jan. 24, civil reckoning, in the constellation Cygnus. A preliminary computation of the elements showed that the comet had passed perihelion in the preceding November, hence it is catalogued with the comets of 1886. Although a faint object when discovered, and growing fainter as it receded from both the sun and earth, observations were obtained as late as the end of April. Comet 1887 I, known as the "Great Southern Comet," was detected by Dr. Thome, Director of the Cordoba Observatory in South America, on Jan. 18, 1887. On the same evening it was seen at a village near Cape Town, South Africa, and a day or two later at several places in Australia, but it does not seem to have become visible in the northern hemisphere. Dr. Thome describes the comet as a beautiful sight to the naked eye-a narrow, straight, sharply-defined, graceful tail, over 40° long, shining with a soft, starry light against the dark sky; beginning apparently without a head, and gradually widening and fading as it extended upward. Unfortunately, neither a well-defined nucleus nor even the slightest condensation upon which to point could be made out at any of the observatories where the comet was visible, and with any degree of precision. In its physical appearwe are thus without means of determining the orbit ance the new comet bore a considerable resemblance to the great comets of 1843, 1880, and 1882, and it certainly passed within a few thousand miles of the sun's surface. of Phelps, N. Y., on the evening of Jan. 22, 1887, in Comet 1887 II was discovered by W. R. Brooks, the constellation Draco. It increased gradually in brightness till about the middle of February, when it was described as a bright telescopic object, about 3' in diameter, with well-marked central condensation of the tenth magnitude. The last observation published was made at Geneva on April 20. Comet 1887 III was discovered by Mr. Barnard on the night of February 16, a very faint nebulous object with a rapid motion toward the north and west. In physical appearance it presented no marked variation from the ordinary telescopic comet during the four or five weeks it was under observation. Comet 1887 IV. A third comet was discovered by Mr. Barnard on the night of May 12, its position then = being R. A. 15h 11m; decl. = -30° 36'. On May 13 it was described by Prof. Boss as having a starlike nucleus of the 11-5 magnitude; it increased somewhat in brightness till about the middle of June, without, however, changing its general appearance. Mr. Chandler has combined all the observations at present available into four normal places, and finds that they are rather more satisfactorily represented by an ellipse than by a parabola. Comet 1887 V is Olbers's periodic comet, rediscovered by Mr. Brooks on Aug. 24, 1887. This comet was originally discovered by Olbers at Bremen, on March 6, 1815, and in 1816 Bessel predicted that it would return to perihelion about Feb. 9, 1887. In 1881 Dr. Ginzel, of Vienna, published an elaborate rediscussion of the orbit, using 346 observations from 14 observatories, and taking account of perturbations. He obtained a period of about 74 years, with an uncertainty of 16 years, and gave Dec. 16, 1886, as the most probable date of perihelion passage. An extensive sweeping ephemeris was prepared by him, and for months a search for the comet was kept up by several astronomers, resulting in its discovery by ૨ Designation. Mr. Brooks, who was also the first to detect Pons's comet at its return in 1883-'84. Especial interest attaches to Olbers's comet as the third member of the group of comets having a period of about 75 years (Halley's, Pons's, and Olbers's) which has returned to perihelion in conformity with prediction. Early in September the comet showed some slight traces of a tail, in spite of its considerable distance from the earth. The nucleus was quite well defined, its brightness being from the eighth to the tenth magnitude. Dr. Krueger's corrected orbit of the comet discovered by Mr. Finlay on Sept. 26, 1886 (1886 VII), shows that it can no longer be regarded as identical with De Vico's lost comet of 1844. However, Finlay's comet is moving in an ellipse whose period is about 6.7 years, and as it passed its perihelion on Nov. 22, 1886, another return will be due in the summer of 1893. The approximate elements of the new comets are as follows, the dates being in Greenwich mean time: Perihelion passage T. 1856, VIII. 1856, Nov., 28.83 1857, I 1857, Jan., i 11:41 85° 35' 188 2 II.. 1887, Mar., 17:03 1.480 0.005 1.633 III 1887, Mar., 23:45 IV 1887, June, 16-66 1887, Oct., 8.50 17 83 44 31 V. Prof. Daniel Kirkwood has suggested the probability that certain comets of short period may have originated within the solar system. For example: before its last near approach to Jupiter, Wolf's comet, 1884 III, had an eccentricity of 0.28, which is exceeded by twelve known asteroids, and a period of revolution of 3,619 days, or five sixths that of Jupiter. It was then an asteroid too distant to be seen even at perihelion. Again: the orbit of Tempel's comet, 1867 II, lies between Mars and Jupiter, and its elements do not differ greatly from those of an eccentric asteroid. Dr. Bredichin has made a study of Fabry's comet, and of Barnard's two comets of 1886, with respect to their bearing upon his new theory of comets' tails. The tail of Fabry's comet belongs undoubtedly to type II, and the principal tail of Barnard's first comet (1886 II) to the same type. The secondary tail of this comet, noticed by Backhouse, seems to have been merely an elongation of the head, a phenomenon observed in other comets. Barnard's second comet (1886 IX) had two tails distinctly visible for a month, which belonged respectively to types I and III, and after passing perihelion it furnished further confirmation of Bredichin's theory by throwing out a third tail belonging to type II. Stellar Photometry. From a comparison of the star-magnitudes of the Oxford Uranometry with those of Wolff's second catalogue, and with those of the Harvard Photometry, Prof. Pickering has found that the Oxford magnitudes are, on the average, less than the Harvard magnitudes for stars down to the third magnitude, but greater for the fourth and fifth, and less again for stars below the sixth. The Harvard catalogue differs less from those of Wolff and Pritchard than the two latter do from each 1.894 1.200 other. The "wedge photometer," constructed under the direction of Prof. Pritchard for Prof. Pickering, has been submitted to a careful examination by Profs. Langley, Young, and Pickering, and it appears from Prof. Langley's observations of the wedge by means of his bolometer, that there is a selective absorption of light throughout the wedge; feeble in the more luminous portion of the spectrum, but of such a character that, broadly speaking, the transmissibility always increases from the violet toward the red, increasing very greatly in the infra-red. These results have been confirmed by Prof. Pickering's experiments, and they emphasize the danger, already recognized by Prof. Pritchard, of employing an instrument of this kind in the observation of deeply-colored stars. The magnitudes of the standard stars of the British, French, German, Spanish, and American nautical almanacs, have been rediscussed by Prof. Pickering, and his results will probably be adopted in future issues of the French, Spanish, and American works. The plan proposed was, that the magnitude adopted for each star should be the mean of those derived from the Harvard photometry, the photometric observations of Wolff, the Uranometria Oxoniensis, and the Uranometria Argentina. The list published by Prof. Pickering embraces 800 stars, and of these the magnitudes of all but 64 depend upon at least two and generally upon three authorities; 132 stars being common to all four of the adopted standard catalogues of brightness. Variable Stars.-Several new variable stars have been detected by Chandler, Sawyer, Espin, and others, and among them are two of more than ordinary interest, as they apparently belong to the well-known " Algol" type. The first was discovered by Mr. Chandler in the constellation Cygnus, R. A. = 20 47.5m, decl. = + 34° 14′ (DM. + 34°, 4181). Its light varies from 7.1 magnitude to about 7.9 magnitude, and the period is some aliquot part of 5.997 days, which can not be exactly determined until further observations are obtained. The second star referred to was discovered by Mr. E. F. Sawyer, in March, 1887, in the constellation Canis Major, and as it is the first undoubt ed variable found in that constellation, it will probably be known as R Canis Majoris. Its position for 1887 is R. A. = 7 14:4; decl. = -16° 11'. The minimum observed by Mr. Sawyer was 6.8 magnitude, and the period is probably about twenty-seven hours. The new variable discovered by Mr. Gore on Dec. 13, 1885, has continued to receive careful attention at the hands of several observers. From a series of observations with the Zöllner photometer of the Potsdam Observatory, Dr. Müller found that the star attained its maximum (6-20 magnitude) on Dec. 12, 1886, which would give it a period of 364 days. In substantial agreement with this result is Mr. Sawyer's maximum of the 66 magnitude, observed on Dec. 13, 1886. For the past four years the observatory of Harvard College has published an annual statement of the number of observations made during the previous year upon each variable star. In the fifth of these publications, to appear during 1888, Prof. Pickering proposes to give a statement of the number of dates of observation of each variable star during each year since its discovery, and he requests all who are interested in this department of astronomy to cooperate by contributing any information that will assist him in making this index as complete as possible. Double and Binary Stars.-The following table contains the results of computations of the orbits of binary stars. The star & Equulei is of especial interest, as the period of eleven years and a half assigned to it is the shortest known. Wrublewsky's orbit gives for 1887-24, position angle 204.9°; distance = 0'48". Further observations are very desirable: = with the 26-inch McCormick refractor, is published in No. 156 of the "Astronomical Journal." Pleiades. The details of Dr. Elkin's determination of the relative positions of the principal stars in the Pleiades have been published as Part I of the first volume of "Transactions" of the Astronomical Observatory of Yale University. This is, we believe, the first heliometer-work done in this country. Dr. Elkin has included all the stars in the "Durchmusterung down to the 9-2 magnitude, which may reasonably be said to fall within the group. One of the stars used by Bessel in his celebrated work with the Königsberg heliometer was omitted on account of its faintness, but Dr. Elkin has added seventeen stars to Bessel's list of fifty-three, so that he has taken sixtynine stars in all. With the filar micrometer of the Washington 26-inch telescope, Prof. Hall has measured the positions of sixty-three small stars in the Pleiades relatively to the brighter stars determined by Bessel and Elkin; thus furnishing data for testing in the future whether or not there is any proper motion of the brighter stars relatively to the fainter ones. Star - Catalogues. — Argelander's "Durchmusterung," or survey of the northern heavens, has been extended from 2° south declination to 23° south declination, by Dr. Schönfeld, who has recently published his results as volume viii of the Bonn Observatory "Beobachtungen." This catalogue contains the places of 133,659 stars within the limits mentioned, together with an additional 1,173 stars falling beyond these limits, all referred to the epoch of Argelander's work, namely, 1855 0. In the atlas accompanying the volume each chart embraces one hour of right ascension, with an overlap of four minutes on either side, and 22° of declination, reaching from -1° to -23°. Dr. Thome, of Cordoba, is extending Schönfeld's work to the south pole, and has already gone over 10° of declination. Among recent star-catalogues are Romberg's and Kam's compilations of the star-places scattered through the volumes of the "Astronomische Nachrichten," and Respighi's mean declinations of 1,004 naked-eye stars observed with the meridian circle of the Campidoglio Observatory during 1879, 1880, and 1881. An important list of 480 stars, to be used as fundamental points for zone observations between 20° and 80° south declination, is published by Dr. Auwers, in the June (1887) number of the "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society." Dr. C. H. F. Peters, Director of the Litchfield Observatory, Clinton, N. Y., has contributed two valuable papers to the third volume of the "Memoirs of the United States National Academy of Sciences." The first paper is a critical examination of all data bearing on Flamsteed's twenty-two "missing" stars, and in every case Dr. Peters has formulated a plausible explanation of the supposed disap pearance of the star from the heavens. The second paper is a list of corrigenda to various star-catalogues. Dr. Swift has published in the "Astronomische Nachrichten "his sixth catalogue of nebulæ, discovered at the Warner Observatory, Rochester, N. Y. Astronomical Prizes.-The Lalande prize of the Paris Academy has been awarded to Dr. Backlund for his investigations on the motion of Encke's comet; the Valz prize to M. Bigourdan, chiefly for his inquiries into the effect of personality in the observation of double stars; and the Damoiseau prize to M. Souillart, for his revision of the theory of Jupiter's satellites. An encouragement of 1,000 francs from the Damoiseau fund has also been decreed to M. Obrecht. The gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society has been awarded to Mr. G. W. Hill for his researches on the lunar theory. The Watson gold medal of the United States National Academy of Sciences and an honorarium of $100 were conferred on Dr. Gould at the spring meeting of the Academy in 1887, and the gold and silver medals of the American Academy, of Boston, were presented to Prof. Langley on May 11, 1887. The Warner prizes of $100 for each new comet discovered have been awarded to Messrs. Barnard and Brooks, the former having detected three and the latter two comets, including that of Olbers. On account of the importance of early observations of the latter comet, and the uncertainty existing in the computed period, a special prize had been offered for its detection. -- Bibliography. Among the recent books worthy of mention are: Houzeau and Lancaster's "Bibliographie générale de l'Astronomie," vol. i, Part I; Oppolzer's "Canon der Finsternisse"; and Schram's "Tafeln zur Berechnung der näheren Umstände der Sonnenfinsternisse"; Airy's "Numerical Lunar Theory "; Lockyer's Chemistry of the Sun"; Braun's "Cosmogonie"; and also the second editions of Miss Clerke's "History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century"; and of Lancaster's "Liste générale des Observatoires et des Astronomes." We are glad to notice the reappearance of the "Astronomical Journal," which was started by Dr. Gould at Cambridge in 1849. The sixth volume was completed in 1861, and, after an intermission of twenty-five years, the first number of the seventh volume is dated Nov. 2, 1886. AUSTRALASIA, a division of the globe, of which the chief inhabited portions are the British colonies of the Australian continent and the islands of New Zealand and Tasmania. The colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand possess responsible government. Western Australia has a representative system that is more under the control of the crown; and the Fiji and Rotumah islands, the Kermedec islands, and the Anckland islands, with the Carolines and many small islands, constitute crown colonies. The total area of British Australasia is 3,268,366 square miles, with a population of 3,625,809 souls. Naval Defense.-Most of the colonies have acquiesced, fully or in part, in the recommendations of the British Admiralty for co-operation in the naval defenses that were submitted to the Colonial Conference held in London early in 1887. The Admiralty adopted Admiral Tryon's suggestion of fast cruisers, but instead of favoring the "Scout " class, recommended the "Archer" class. These have a displacement of 1,630 tons, will steam 17 knots an hour, and carry six 6-inch breech-loading rifled guns, besides a torpedo armament. It is proposed to secure five of these and two fast torpedo-boats having a displacement of 430 tons, steaming 19 knots, and armed with three tubes for Whitehead torpedoes, one 3-inch. breech-loading gun, four quick-firing 3-pounders, and two machineguns. This fleet will be auxiliary to the vessels possessed by the separate colonies, and to the Australian squadron of the British navy. New South Wales.-The Legislature consists of two branches, the Legislative Council and the Assembly, the former of which is composed of not less than 22 members, nominated by the Crown, and the latter of 122 members, elected by manhood suffrage and secret ballot. The Governor, who is appointed by the Crown, is Lord Carrington, who assumed office on Dec. 12, 1885. The Ministry, appointed on Jan 19, 1887, consists of the following members: Premier and Colonial Secretary, Sir Henry Parkes; Colonial Treasurer, John Fitzgerald Burns; Minister for Lands, Thomas Garrett; Minister for Public Works, John Sutherland; AttorneyGeneral, W. J. Foster; Minister for Public Instruction, James Inglis; Minister for Justice, William Clarke; Postmaster-General, C. J. Roberts; Minister of Mines, Francis Abigail. The area of the colony is 310,700 square miles. The estimated population in 1885 was 957,985. The average net immigration during the five years 1880-'85, was 30,000 per annum. 1885 the number of immigrants was 78,138, and of emigrants 30,455. The births in 1885 numbered 35,043, the deaths 15,282, and the marriages 7,618. The population comprised 662,635 Protestants, of whom 425,883 belonged to the Church of England, 92,542 to the Presbyterian, and 82,195 to the Methodist Church; 264,692 Roman Catholics; 4,215 Jews; 11,882 Pagans; and 18,776 of various beliefs. The state schools in 1885 had 181,573 scholars and 3,552 teachers. Sydney, the capital, contained at the end of 1886 about 280,000 inhabitants. In The value of imports in 1885, including specie and bullion, was £23,295,232; the value of exports, £16,541,745. The export of wool was valued at £7,678,247. The quantity of wool sent to Great Britain was 110,106,216 pounds, of the value of £4,958,759. The number of sheep in the colony in March, 1886, was 34,551,662. The area leased for pastoral purposes in 1885 was 217,407 square miles. The area under cultivation was only 868,093 acres, pro ducing besides other crops 2,768,330 bushels of wheat, 4,235,163 bushels of Indian corn, 41,359,360 pounds of sugar, and 555,470 gallons of wine. The next most important exports after wool were coal of the value of £966,663, and tin of the value of £728,969. The gold product in 1885 was £366,388. The length of the state railroads in 1885 was 1,732 miles. Their capital cost was £24,962,972, the earnings for the year £2,174,368, and the expenses £1,458,153. There were 19,864 miles of telegraph-wires. The number of paid messages was 2,625,992. The post-office transmitted 39,351,200 letters. The public revenue in 1885 was £7,588,656; the expenditure, £7,544,594; the debt on Dec. 31, 1886, £41,064,259. In the beginning of 1887 a difference on financial questions arose in the Cabinet, and the Premier, Sir Patrick Jennings, taking exceptions to certain statements of the colonial secretary, G. R. Dibbs, in connection with the deficit of 1880, requested the latter to resign. On his refusing, the entire ministry tendered their resignations on January 10. After several conferences with the Governor, a new ministry was formed under Sir Henry Parkes, who, in explaining his policy to the Legislative Assembly, announced that the Government would revert to the principle of pure free trade, and undertake a thorough reformation of the disorganized finances of the colony, stating that they would endeavor to obtain a larger revenue from lands, better management of the railroads, retrenchment in the civil service, and, if necessary, would resort to an equitable property tax. With this programme they appealed to the electorate, and obtained a working majority in a new parliament. In the financial statement the colonial treasurer proposed the repeal of the customs act of the last session, and announced a new tariff limited to twentyfour articles selected for revenue purposes only, including higher rates on spirits and an excise duty on domestic ales. With no other new taxes, the ministry expected an increased revenue, which, with the aid of savings, would enable them to extinguish the accumulated deficits, amounting to £2,600,000, within eight years. The estimates showed a reduction of £450,000 on the appropriations of 1886, and the ministry expected a surplus of £800,000 at the end of the year. There were some stormy sittings during the debates, and on May 21 a continuous session of forty-eight hours was ended by the application of the clôture. A bill was passed for protecting the colony from the influx of foreign criminals whose sentences have expired, containing, among other stringent provisions, one making persons who harbor such criminals liable to a year's imprisonment, and empowering the Governor to proclaim foreign penal settlements. Vessels bringing time-expired convicts are liable to forfeiture, and their captains to a sentence of five years in the penitentiary. Victoria. The legislative power is vested in the Legislative Council, composed of eighty. six members, elected under property and educational limitations, and the Legislative Assembly, elected by universal suffrage. The Governor is Sir Henry Brougham Loch, who assumed the government on July 15, 1884. The Cabinet is made up as follows: Premier, Minister of Mines and of Railways, Sir Duncan Gillies; Chief Secretary and Commissioner of Water-Supply, Alfred Deakin; Attorney-General, H. J. Wrixon; Commissioner of Public Works, J. Nimmo; Minister of Justice, Henry Cuthbert; Commissioner of Trade and Customs, W. F. Walker; Commissioner of Lands and Survey, J. L. Dow; Minister of Public Instruction, Charles H. Pearson; Minister of Defense, James Lorimer; Postmaster-General, F. T. Derham; Ministers without office, M. H. Davies and James Bell. The area of Victoria is 87,884 square miles. The population was estimated on June 30, 1886, at 1,009,753, comprising 541,015 males and 468,738 females. The number of births in 1885 was 29,975; of deaths, 14,360; of marriages, 7,895. The capital city, Melbourne, had in 1886 about 365,000 inhabitants. The population was divided in respect to religion in 1885 into 352,087 Episcopalians, 149,849 Presbyterians, 122,504 Methodists, 74,689 other Protestants, 229,917 Roman Catholics, 4,894 Jews, 11,000 Pagans, and 30,100 others. There were in 1885 1,826 state schools, with 224,683 enrolled pupils, and 3,650 teachers. The immigration by sea in 1885 was 76,976, and the emigration 61,994. The total value of the imports in 1885 was £18,044,604, and of the exports, £15,551,758. The export of wool was valued at £5,028,011; of gold and specie, £4,309,535; of live-stock, £900,801; of breadstuffs, £772,432. Of the wool export, amounting to 106,078,932 lbs., only about one half was the produce of the colony. The quantity of gold produced in 1885 was 735,218 ounces, valued at £2,940,872. There were 2,405,157 acres in cultivation in March, 1886, of which 215,994 were under wheat. The wheat-product was 9,170,538 bushels, or 9 bushels to the acre. The number of sheep in the colony was 10,681,837 in 1886; of cattle, 1,290,790 head. The government railroad system had in June, 1886, a total length of 1,743 miles, besides 267 miles in process of construction. There were 3,949 miles of telegraph lines and 9,617 miles of wire at the close of 1885. The gross railway receipts in 1885-'86 were £2,329,126, and the net receipts £1,018,589, being a profit of 4.36 per cent. on the capital investment of £23,380,000, all but £2,400,000 of which was raised by loans. The number of letters forwarded in 1885 was 36,061,880; of telegraph dispatches in 1884, 1,594,296. The revenue from telegraphs in 1885 was £87,802. A parcel post was introduced in 1887. The receipts of the treasury in the year ended June 30, 1886, were £6,416,405; the |