Positions occupied by the Earth and the Moon in the interior of the second tail of the Comet of 1861.

nebulous matter "scattered," as Laplace has said, "with such profusion throughout the universe."

Here and there we have noticed a misprint; eg. p. 459, at the end.

Astronomical Myths, based on Flammarion's "History of the Heavens." By John F. Blake. London: Macmillan and Co. 1877.

This is a popular and entertaining work, with a number of illustrations, many of them interesting, some curious, and others merely fanciful. The fifteen chapters are as follows:-The first beginning of Astronomy. Astronomy of the Celts. Origin of the Constellations. The Zodiac. The Pleiades. The nature and structure of the heavens according to the ancients. The celestial harmony. Astronomical systems. The terrestrial world of the ancients,-Cosmography and Geography. Cosmography and Geography of the Church. Legendary worlds of the middle ages Eclipses and Comets. The greatness and the fall of astrology. Time and the Calendar. The end of the world. It is a pity that so many references to other works, many of which are difficut of access, have not been more carefully made. As it is, inaccuracies are too common, and misspellings of proper names abound. Here are some of the first mentioned :

Page 94. Visakha, the 16th Indian lunar mansion, corresponds to four stars in Lira, not to the Northern Crown.

Page 117. We read, "in India the year commenced in the month they called Cartiguey, which means the Pleiades." The proper name of this month is Karttika corresponding to parts of October and November. The Pleiades are Krittika supposed to have been the nurses of Karttikeya, the war god. Krittika, now the third, was formerly the first nakshatra, or lunar station, and the solar year seems to have commenced when the sun arrived there.

Page 120. "On the 17th day of that month (November) is celebrated the Hindoo Durga, a festival of the dead, &c." This is not very clear. Durga, wife of Shiva, is one of the great Indian goddesses-emblem of the passive energy of nature. At present, in the month Aswin (Sept.Oct.) during nine days in the moonlit half of it, are ceremonies connected with Durga. The great festival of the dead is held in the last half of Bhadrapad (Aug.-Sept.), or new moon of Aswin, which is sacred to the Pitris, or progenitors, to whom offerings are made. Possibly, however, the dates of the festivals may have undergone changes to correspond with those which there is reason to believe were made in their mode of commencing the year. It may be observed, too, that Durga has also a festival in Karttika; and that the sraddhas, or ceremonies connected with the souls of the departed are prescribed also in other parts of the year.

Page 160. Light from one of the nearest of the fixed stars is said to take no less than seventy-two years to reach us.

Page 236. It is said, "The first astronomical observatory that was constructed was that of Paris." The first national observatory was that of Copenhagen, begun in 1637, and completed in 1656; Longomontanus, pupil of Tycho, being the first Director; too considerable a person to be designated, as on page 214, as "one Longomontanus." Earlier still was Tycho's observatory, Uraniburg; 1576.

Page 245. The vessel of gold which carried the sun is not mentioned in Homer, but in later poets.

Page 250. Speaking of the Hyperboreans we read, "Herodotus regrets that he has not been able to discover the least trace of them; he took the trouble to ask for information about them from their neighbours, the Arimaspes, a very clear-sighted race, though having but a single eye;

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but they could not inform him where the Hyperboreans dwelt." Herodotus was never near the Arim si; and he says he could not bring himself to believe in a rage which had but ne eye, as the report went about them. Misspellings, as we have said, are numerous; but we can only advert to a few. On page 236 we were puzzled what to make of the word medpiama, till we concluded it was intended for madhyama, a middle or inland country; as madhyanaloka means the middle world, as being between heaven and the infernal regions. Page 304. There is no such cave as that of Zenarus" near Lacedæmon. Tænarum is probably meant. On page 343 mention is made of the historian Sazoncenas, a portentous name we had never met with. On reflection we perceived the word must be Sozomenus (Sozomen), the well-known historian.

Mr. Blake has done well to introduce Mr. Haliburton's interesting researches on the ancient year of many nations, as regulated by the Pleiades; but we find it difficult to comprehend the following, p. 117. "Among the ancient Egyptians we find the same connection between Athar-aye, the name of the Pleiades, with the Chaldeans and Hebrews, and Athor in the Egyptian name of November. The Arabs also call the constellation Atauria.' Is it meant that the Chaldeans and Hebrews called the Pleiades Athar-aye? Or are we to understand that it is the Egyptian name for them? We conclude the latter is intended, since further on, p. 134, speaking of the Egyptians, it is said that their name for these stars was the Atauria. As to the Arabs, the name is Al-thurrayya, pronounced Ath-thurayya, (al being the article), and has no relation to the Egyptian Athor, the name of the month November, and of the Egyptian Venus, with whom the Pleiades seem to have been connected. On the Zodiac of Denderah there is a figure beneath the Bull, with seven stars in front of her, which has been taken for Athor and the Pleiades. Macrobius also says the sign of Taurus was assigned to Venus. We know that cows in Egypt were sacred to Athor; and the corresponding Phoenician goddess, Ashtoreth or Astarte, is represented with the head and horns of a heifer, On the same page last referred to we are told the Egyptians "took the Pleiades to indicate the Bull, and called this animal after the Atauria. From thence we get the Latin Taurus, and the German Thier." We need not draw upon fanciful etymologies to show that the year of the Pleiades was known in Egypt; for the Great Pyramid alone seems to be a conclusive witness to this: and we must demur to the above derivation of Taurus. If the Egyptians had such a word, as here stated, for the Pleiades (and we cannot at present verify this), it probably meant the stars of Athor. The usual, and we doubt not the correct, derivation of Taurus is from the Hebrew Shor, ox (irrespective of sex), which by the common interchange of s with th and t, becomes in Arabic Thaur, bull: in Chaldee, Tor; in old Persian Tora, and (according to Plutarch) in Phoenician, Thor.

Page 411. We read, "It would seem most probable, then, that we must look to the Accadians as the originators of our modern week, from whom the Hebrews may have-and, if so, at a very early period-borrowed the idea." The Hebrews, we may be assured, borrowed the week from no nation; and the Accadians probably had it from primitive tradition.

Though an acceptable contribution to our astronomical literature, for which many will feel obliged to the author and his English editor, this work needs to be overhauled and freed from such negligences as we have adverted to. We have suspicions of others, but have not the means of verifying them. A list of works used, and referred to, would have been a useful appendix.

CORRESPONDENCE.

N.B. We do not hold ourselves answerable for any opinions expressed by our correspondents.

To all communications must be annexed the name and address of the sender, as a guarantee of good faith.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE ASTRONOMICAL REGISTER.

MR. CHRISTIE'S CIRCULAR.

Sir, Can any one interpret for us Mr. Christie's circular to the Astronomical Society. It appears he finds that his "character" wants "vindication." because he might be suspected of wittingly opposing Mr. Glaisher for the secretaryship. Now, the Council were divided on this occasion. It is said that four names were balloted for, Mr. Christie's being one by his own consent. If it was wrong (which I do not for a moment think) under these circumstances, for a member of Council, who had had the support of a section of Council, to consent to oppose for the secretaryship one who was as yet only a member of Council, how much more wrong must it have been of Mr. Glaisher, when not as yet on the Council, to consent to oppose my re-election in 1873, when there was no division in the Council. But it may be argued I was on Strange's black list. "Events had occurred during the preceding year." Col. Strange had left the Council in October, 1873, because my name was selected for the medal two months afterwards. So he stated in March, 1874, and as truthfully that I had had anything to do with my nomination by a gentleman with whom I had not till then exchanged ten words verbally or by letter. But Mr. Christie could hardly urge that as a distinction between Mr. Glaisher's case and his own supposed case, for he was one of the majority of two-thirds of Council who voted for the confirmation of the award of the medal to myself. It appears, however, that he did not consent to be named in an opposition list, only introducing the reference to his character I suppose for the sake of slily prodding Mr. Glaisher. He knew nothing of the opposition list or its anonymous authors, and it was against his express wish that he was inserted in it as secretary-but how he came to express a wish to persons unknown, about a matter of which he knew nothing, deponent saith not.

Now, Sir, though I was not one of the anonymous authors of the opposition list, nor knew till the very last either what that list was to be, or that it would be printed, I took a good deal of interest in the election of two names which appeared in it, viz., Mr. Ranyard as Secretary, and Capt. Noble as member of Council. I even went so far, in my anxiety to see justice done to these faithful and zealous servants of the Society, as to do what half a year ago I could not have thought it possible that I should do. I allowed my name to be added to the opposition list, as the only means of securing some few votes which I thought might be useful to Ranyard and Noble, and which I trusted might be thrown away so far as I was concerned. I voted also, and tried to secure votes for Mr. Christie as Secretary. I even went so far (and those who know me will consider this as tolerably strong evidence of the interest I took in the matter) as to call the Astronomer-Royal's attention (after I had received a circular signed by him) to the necessity of retaining Mr. Ranyard as Secretary and Capt. Noble on the Council, and the advisability of having one