torian Tacitus (A. D. 51-117) writes: "Many were persuaded that it was written in the ancient documents of the priests that the East should then bear sway, and that from Judea should come forth those who would rule the world." Nowhere was the prophecy of Balaam so well known as in Arabia, where it had been uttered.

The Arabian Princes were wont then, as it is still the custom, to ascend after sunset to the flat-roofed housetops of their palaces, and seating themselves clad in saffron-colored garments with goldenhilted swords by their side, to listen to the ancient tales and traditions of their nation beneath the dark blue sky glittering with numberless bright stars. When, as St. Jerome writes, the fulness of time had come, a star suddenly appeared in the heavens and the wise men, having searched into the meaning of their time-worn manuscripts, and being strengthened by the ancient traditions, hastened forward to Judea to greet the new-born King of the Jews. This star, writes St. Augustine, was a magnificent voice that spoke from heaven; and as the voice of the Apostles announced to us the Gospel, so the star made known to them the birth of the Redeemer.

Whilst the heaven-sent Babe of Bethlehem, as He lay in the arms of His Mother, was beginning His life of expiatory suffering for the redemption of mankind, the Magi sped onwards through the bleak sandy deserts of Arabia and the rock-strewn valleys of Moab to lay their mystic treasures at His sacred feet. They left their pleasant homes, their affairs of state and their native land, led by the silent star, as representatives of the heathen world moving onwards by an invisible power to the manger throne of the promised Redeemer. They bestowed with loving worship their worldly wealth on the newborn Child, and they received in return the heavenly riches of faith, hope and charity; and going back by another way to their own country, they became the Apostles of their nation. An ancient tradition states that the Apostle St. Thomas baptized them when he was on his way to India.

Mount St. Alphonsus, Limerick.

ALBERT BARRY, C. SS. R.

Scientific Chronicle

A RETROSPECT OF 1905.

Although the Chronicle is a continual retrospect, and as such should include everything of scientific import during each quarter, the limitations of space impose upon us the duty of a judicious selection, which selection necessarily leaves out much of interest and worth. This will warrant us in attempting a brief resumé of the achievements of the past year in pure and applied science.

During the last twelve months a number of great engineering works have been completed, or have made rapid progress. Not to speak again of the reclamation work in the West, the year saw completion of two great reservoirs, the Wachusett reservoir for Boston's water supply, and the new Croton reservoir for that of New York. The former is notable for its dam, which is 129 feet high, measured from the ground, and 158 measured from its lowest foundation. The corresponding data for the latter give 157 feet and 297 feet. The Boston dam impounds 63,000,000,000 gallons of water, that of New York 32,000,000,000. A portion of the Jerome Park reservoir for New York city is ready for water, and the first steps have been taken for providing this city with an additional water supply of from 500,000,000,000 to 600,000,000,000 gallons. While speaking of dams we must mention the great sea wall of Galveston, a huge wall of concrete four and one-half miles in length and seventeen feet in height, tapering from a width of sixteen feet at the base to one of five feet at the crest. It rests on piles which have been sunk to a depth of forty feet and is protected in front by an apron of granite rip-rap thirty-five feet wide and three feet deep. Very different in its purpose and method of construction was the dam built by the commissioners of Victoria Park, on the Canadian side of Niagara, in order to raise the level of the water at the waterworks' intake. This dam was erected as a concrete column, fifty feet high and seven feet four inches square, on top of a trestle twenty feet high. The column was tipped over, breaking into six parts as it fell through the agency of five wedges which had been. inserted at intervals of about eight feet, the six parts being kept together by a huge chain which passed through the centre.

The two methods of river crossing-bridging and tunnelinghave kept close together during the year. We have already spoken. in the Chronicle of the completion of the Victoria Falls Bridge

over the Zambesi river. Gratifying progress has also been made on the great cantilever bridge across the St. Lawrence at Quebec, with a main span of 1,800 feet, the longest in the world. A second tunnel has been finished under the Hudson at New York, and the work of joining this and its twin with the new railroad terminus uptown is proceeding with unexpected rapidity. A very notable feature in engineering construction during the year has been the great increase in the use of reinforced concrete. The indications are that this material will work as great a revolution in building as that wrought by Bessemer steel not so many years ago.

A very astounding result of the Russo-Japanese War has been the fact that the Japanese navy has been increased nearly fifty per cent. in tonnage, mainly through the addition of Russian vessels. captured or refloated by them. Japan now ranks fifth among the navies of the world, or next to the United States. In the merchant marine the tendency is now to build larger and roomier vessels of moderate speed, but capable of carrying a great cargo and with accommodations for several thousand passengers. The new Hamburg-American liner Amerika is a type of these, having a speed of seventeen knots and a passenger capacity of nearly 5,000, including the crew. The turbine liner has enhanced its prestige during the year. Three of these steamers are now in transatlantic service and one has made a successful thirty and one-half day trip from Glasgow to Australia. The turbine steamer King Edward in the English Channel service during eighty days of sailing consumed 1,429 tons of coal in steaming 12,116 knots, whereas a similar vessel with reciprocating engines consumed 1,909 tons in steaming 12,106, the average speed for both being 181⁄2 knots. An entire novelty has been the appearance of a sixty-foot vessel driven by a producer-gas engine at a speed of thirteen miles an hour. This boat, the first of its kind, ran ten hours at the above speed and consumed only 467 pounds of anthracite, costing $1.08.

In astronomy we have had the notable discovery of the sixth and seventh satellites of Jupiter by Professor Perrine, of Lick Observatory, as well as the discovery of a tenth satellite to Saturn by Professor W. H. Pickering, the discoverer of the ninth. This latest companion to the nine is extremely minute and is beyond the power of the telescope, having been discovered by photography. Photography, by the way, seems to have proved conclusively the existence of the canals on Mars. The same agent has been of much service during the total eclipse of the sun of August last, which was viewed with varying success in different parts of the globe by many astronomers. One thing of interest connected with these observations has been attention devoted in many cases to the

so-called "shadow bands" well described by a writer in the Observatory as "long dark bands, or sometimes lines of patches, separated by white spaces, which are seen on the ground or sides. of buildings just before and just after the total phase of an eclipse, moving rapidly." Two theories are offered to account for these bands, the first being that they are diffraction phenomena, the second that they are due to the interference of two pencils of sunlight which have passed through adjacent layers of air of different densities. The latter seems the better explanation, for if the bands. were due to refraction, it is hard to see why they do not move over the earth's surface at the same relative speed as the moon and the earth, i. e., about a mile a second. The fact is that they move only a few yards or feet a second. These bands are of interest to meteorologists, who hope to learn something from them of the movements of the upper currents of the atmosphere.

We must mention here the discovery of a new star in the constellation of aquila by Mrs. Fleming, an observer of the Howard Observatory, on a star plate taken there. This is the second "nova" of this constellation, the first having been discovered in 1899. Schaen, of Geneva, in Switzerland, discovered a new bright comet on the night of November 17. During the year it has been forcibly brought home to astronomers that variable stars are exceedingly numerous. The number known has been doubled within a year, and the indications are that these will be added to enormously when new plates are examined with this object.

Those of our readers who are interested in geology will hear with interest of the discovery of an undoubted glacial deposit in China, immediately underlying cambrian strata. There seems to be a growing impression among geologists that the severe change of climate that brought about the glacial epoch was frequently repeated in the course of the geological ages.

RECENT PROGRESS OF THE RECLAMATION SERVICE.

It was inevitable that, when the area of well-watered land in our Western States, which was available for settlement, should have dwindled away under the increasing tide of immigrants, that attention should be turned to the arid lands that abound in these regions, and that the possibility of rendering them available by irrigation should be discussed. The result of the discussion was the establishment of the United States Reclamation Service, which at present has eight projects under construction, the area of irrigable land

involved amounting to eight million acres, at a cost of over $17,000,000, in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, Wyoming, Nevada, New Mexico and South Dakota, while there are plans for the reclaiming of a million acres more in California, Oregon, Montana and North Dakota.

On the 17th of last June an immense irrigating canal was formally opened in the State of Nevada, and thirty thousand acres of desert land were thereby made amenable to cultivation. This marked the first stage in the completion of what is known as the Truckee-Carson Irrigation Project, whereby 375,000 acres of productive land will be added to the acreage of the State of Nevada, which has an arid area of 36.15 per cent. and an agricultural area of only 12 per cent. A brief description of the plan of this work and of its completed portion will give a good idea, it is hoped, of the progress and methods of the Reclamation Service. Something will be added about a similar work in Arizona.

The arid area in Nevada under consideration was once the bed of an ancient lake, called Lake Lahontan, which covered 8,422 square miles in Western Nevada and was 500 feet deep. During the existence of this lake the soil of the valleys was deposited. As the climate grew dry the lake shrunk, leaving as remnants in the southern and western portions of its basin six lakes which still exist, of which two, Pyramid Lake and Lake Winnemucca, were fed by the Truckee river, a stream rising in Lake Lahoe, situated at the foot of the Sierras on the California-Nevada boundary, outside the old boundary of Lake Lahontan, while two more, North and South Carson Lakes, were fed by the Carson river, which arises in the high Sierras and is fed by melted snow and numerous small lakes. The enormous amount of water poured into these lakes was wasted. A few dozen miles away were over 200,000 acres of desert land, only waiting for water to transform them into gardens. So an immense dam was planned which should divert the waters of the Truckee river so as to permit of their union with the waters of the Carson river by means of a canal thirty-one miles long. This canal is known as the Main Truckee Canal, and discharges its water into the Carson river at a point nine miles west of Leetville, in Churchill county, Nevada, where a reservoir has been constructed and from which it flows in the channel of the river to a diversion dam at the head of a distributary system of smaller canals and ditches, some of which are for drainage and of which 250 of the projected 1,200 miles have been completed.

To guard against excessive diminution of the water supply dams have been built to raise the level of Lakes Tahoe and Donner, and five reservoirs for storage will be provided on the upper Truckee,