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Ve

THE

NTELLECTUAL OBSERVER

REVIEW OF NATURAL HISTORY

MICROSCOPIC RESEARCH

AND

RECREATIVE SCIENCE

VOLUME VII

ILLUSTRATED WITH PLATES IN COLOURS AND TINTS, AND NUMEROUS
ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD

LONDON

GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS
PATERNOSTER ROW |

/ mm
MDCCCLXV

CONTENTS,

i a ee ae aaa roe eee a
Tux Niie asa Sanatorium. By F. W. Farrnotr, FSA. Witha ‘Colozred

dg oe ae Mee here Wah ae Bae ae ore kes Bees ls ages hee Dens | OTe
VierraBie HysRips AND THEIE PROGENY ...-20..22212. cece e ste ceeeweenoc ee
Tee Ausreatias Lyee Bizap. By “Aw Orp Bosuwan”.......-.-........
Tue BetrisH Oceanic Enromosresca. By Geozez 8S. Beapr, M B.CS.

With a Coloured Plate

eee eee eee rr eer re ere ee eee

Tue Geemrnatioy oF Feen Spores. By the Rev. F. Howzzrr, MA,
F.RAS. With an Illustration

neo Rt SE At Ee IE Poe Eee et ee ee een P
Norss on Fuwer.—No. L By the Rev. M. J. Beexersy, M.A. FBS...
ue Luxaz Azcric Reaios: Mare Farcosis: Mousr Tavaus: Post

DoryIus—OccuLtatioss. By the Rev. T. W. Wazs, AM..F RAS,
REstLts oF MerzonoiocicaL OssERYATIONS MADE aT THE Kew Oxsze-

mnoune. oy Ca. MO. Wn eh ee he
Toe “ Porutaz Microscors.” With Two Ilimsirations _.._..

Tee Waxspeeixe Potrzoon (Cristateita Muczpo). By Rev. W.

Hovextox, MA,F.LS. With « Coloured Plate
Suge Comprress 1s Graken Womaas ~....~.....-...-= ----2.02 20222 A
Ox Tsansuirrep [nptwisation In CONNECTION WITH THE SreuctuzE

OF THE Smicsous Disrom Vaive. By Ricnazp Bece. With as

PU I nO ps ee I a Sle ae te ee
= Mowabs asp THEre Esmaunes. By Husey J.Stacs,F.GS. With

I ene OU a oo eterna wei at oan
ite Amcuivce Batis Mixa can bun asec Danend By “Aw Ol

Li Tgp ane ene Ne ANE nee ec ee ee
THE VDoc as a Cuneerr. By Jonataay Coucs, F-LS. -..............-.....
2m CEYsTaLs (Unie ACID aND ITs DgRivarivss). By Guores

2: OY ee BL oh, DE See teem ane Snes Sones Scere ae
Sindes OS SOME OF THE SMALLER RODESTS FOUND IN NogtTs-Wusr

Augenica. By J. K. Lorn, F.ZS. ___.......-<2.----.2s
ANIMALCULES IN TRE WINIE. By Profesor RYMEE Joss, F- aS
Dirrzaction Exereimmests. With iwo Diagrams and three Illustrations
ft A Pe ee ae ee Ne se Ae ee ee eee ee
Astroyomican Norss. By the Rev. T. W. Wires, M.A. F_RAS._ WW.
Nores os Fonez—No. lf Wurre-Spormp MusHmooms (mzz Rive-

Bearers). By the Rev. M. J. Baexsrzy, MA, F.LS. Wits a

alana Fadel oo eR Ee ee ee Nd en Re it Wi cn
Lowspon Bieps. By Ssatstzy HissErp
ee Ett: Seen eee Pe ae Seo a cme eee en er Seto See eee Po
Lepiporrrera Frrpixe ox Feews. By M. G. CaMpsgut ............-.....-..
THe AcHRomaric Tr~sscors, Diatyres, asp Frum Lewsrs.—NEBULE.

— Dovusie Stars—Occunrations. By the Rev. T. W. Wass, AM,

a caenihdsthanpuntindy tonimmmaneeneree aoe Seen dE ea eres

One ae eee ee eee ee ee eee

ee ee ee en

179

iv Contents.

On THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE Pycnocons. By GEorGEHopGE. Witha
Pipbed PLAGE il oe kU ESE OE ROE ere
Nore ON aN ARTICLE ENTITLED “ Lir—E CONDITIONS IN OTHER WORLDS.”
Contained in the “INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER” for March, 1865. By
Grorae WH. Ropers, F.G.S., Hon. Sec. A.S.L. 2.2... cece cece cee ee
Arps To Microscopic Inquiry.__No. V.—SIMPLE Forms oF LIFE .........
Naturatists’ Fierp Ciuss; THEIR Work anp Ways or Doine It. By
GrorGE S. Brapy, M.R.C.8., Sec. to the Tyneside Naturalists’ Field
CGHiCrT oi eee tne see ener eras) one HEMI Teh Sean ER RETR Ao an andonan
Ovttines or Mrutroric Astronomy. By A. 8. Herscuet, B.A. ............
INSTINCT OF BIRDS, By, the Rey.id ON) WHEE Os. obi) seca: ees eae
THE PaRTRIDGES OF Breneat. By R. C. Bravan, Lieut. Bengal Survey

WDeepamti mien ie cask Ashe 580i eo utile clele all: PaaS RR ON ee :
DERVISHES AND Hapsis. By ARMINIUS VAMBERY...... .......ccceeceeseseneees
GOLD CURRENCY IN InpIa. By JosePH NEWTON ............cccececceeeceee ee

Tue Lunar Taurus (8.) anp ArGmuUS.—OccuLTations. By the Rey. T.
IW WEBB AGIVIS HOR ACS 2 50h Oh Gs ae aol by el mae co ean
STICKLEBACKS AND OTHER NEST-MAKING FisH. By the Rev. W. Hoveuton,
TIVEAC REY SF oh Meee cl Sh 2 Skil cx cise et cla Bee ISSR oO IE TSE RR
RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE KrEw OBSERVA-
HORN, by (GisMi. NVIPP LES. bbe sth sergenceeake epameaneste eee ete ae
SECCHI AND FayE oN THE SuN.—OBSERVATIONS BY CHACORNAC ......
NTPAR COLOUR 4. 2d) Der claves Sivila, sable ka ated inch iaceye asc chi ee ee aa (ae eR
On THE STRUCTURE, AFFINITIES, AND GEOLOGICAL PosITION oF Eozoon
CaNnaDENSE. By Witiiam B. Carprnter, M.D., E.RB.S., F.L.S, F.G.S8.
athe Two SUSE OLONS 2 iewcde Caen deinck acs ccahion soaons ROS eRG RENE RES eee
Tren YEARS IN SWEDEN

en RC a ee ee I

Se i i a ee en ir rar)

Nortx Porar Expioration. By Crpments R. MARKHAM ..................
Nores on Fune1.—No. III. By the Rev. M. J. Berxerey, M.A., F.LS.
VDRO TRU RTOD IE ULES Micon cinta ee ean reesei pene Rens oi aces eee OEE
OxBsEcTS VIEWED THROUGH THE CORNEA OF THE INSECT Hye. By THomas
Prince. Wath: Pwo Tlustrations 25.00. cenc.-senonssecsc ous +n seein ceinsesaenen
Visit to Mouxt Erna.—AGk oF A CuEsTNUT TREE. By Capt. R. Suitu,
latevEL Ni aath epmaent eae cocctsenmen aera rac cen: PaBaconemiCouconteonsoueene:
Anv SUBJECTS AND THEIR TREATMENT .......cccccceccsccusceecaeesecseeseceecsenes
Dr. Draprr’s TELESCOPE. By the Rev. T. W. Weps, A.M., F.R.AS.......
TIVE GRRO- DEMON OPMPH YUN: SAVOY cctcssc-etaccysctine sas cites som asec peceneee
HEIGHT OF THE ATRORAL AncH OF Marcu 20,1865. By A.S.HerscHeEt,
BAS IY 2th Lo DGG Nr aMiS (ore ae ea Nn sn iagaslasns sie a)ston oe eae aae See
THe AvroraL Arch oF Marcy 20, 1865, AS SEEN IN IRELAND. By the
Elon, Miata: “Wise i ose apes cela eede Re ioe. Gare spas a ae SE
Tue Kine Penevin (Apterodytes Pennantii). By W. B. TEeGErMEier.
With a Colouned Plate: yak Bias tre ana sees pc evee «sine ck an0e eee eee
Tue Premy Own (Glaucidium Gnoma, Wagler). By J. K. Lorn, F.ZS8.,
Late Naturalist to the British North American Boundary Commission
SounDs WE cannor Hrar. By Samvrt Drew, M.D.. sist
Tne Gencvs ARavcoaria. By Joun R. JACKSON, Curator, Museum, Royal
Gardons, Kew.) With a Tinted SPighe eins, oe... tk ete gee Rome
Hazits any Haunts or THE BRowN anD Brack Bears or THE HiMa-
LAYAN Mountains. By A. Lerra Apams, A.M., M.B., F.G.S. .....
Croverty. By Henry J. Strack, F.G.S., Member of the ‘Council of the
Microscopical Society of London, 4).s.3. 8 dices aie e eeeee
Drrrcr Viston Sprctroscores By DovusrE IntERNAL REeFuEction. By
A. 8. Hersourn, B.A. With Diagrams
Inrivenor or Forests on CLIMATE........... en
GESTURE LANGUAGE AND WORD LANGUAGE .............cccccccececeeeecevees
Txr Roman Porrgrizs at Duroprivz. By THomas Wriaut, F.S.A.
With a Colowred Plate .......:..06005 aici

OO Sec ee iia y See oy

oe cc ee teeeees

Contents.

Cototrs oF Stars.—OccunTations. By the Rev. T. W. Wess, A.M.,
Be Ba setts Fat ds ora mae Man aa a EA yc UMM icc MMO See tlecs Seats
Literary Nortces.—Baker’s “ Harmonious Maxims of Science and Reli-
gion,” 149; Dogherty’s “‘ Philosophy of Religion,” 149; Ball’s “ In-
ventive Drawing,’ 149; Cooley’s ‘‘ Two Months ina London Hospital,”
150; Kelly’s “ Notes on Errors of Geology,” 151; Hopkins’s “ Cos-
mogony,” 227; Wood’s “Homes without Hands,” 227; Archer's
‘** Pauper, Thief, and Convict,” 227; “ Anthropological Review,” 228;
“ Astronomical Register,” 228 ; Cobbold’s “‘ Entozootic Malady,” 229 ;
Chapman’s “Function of the Stomach,” 229; Tyndall’s “‘Heat con-
sidered as 2 Mode of Motion,’ 229; Aleph’s “Old City,” 229;
Brande’s “‘ Dictionary of Science and Art,” 385; Gosse’s “ Year on the
_ Sea Shore,” 386; Beck on ‘‘ Achromatic Microscope,” 386 ; Symons
on ‘Distribution of Rain,” 386; Hannaford’s “‘ Seaside Rambles in
Victoria,” 387; Cotta’s “ Geology and History,” 388 ; Sparkes’s “‘ Man
considered Socially,” 388; McAdams’s “ Practical Chemistry,” 388 ;
Cator’s “‘ Meteorological Diagrams,” 389.

IRC EM OUOG AGRO ions fe eae eee LT a ee 69, 152, 230, 307, 390,

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.—Astronomical, 75, 316; Chemical,
234; Dublin Natural History, 154; Edinburgh Royal, 314; Entomo-
logical, 73, 393 ; Ethnological, 73, 393; Geographical, 74, 235, 394;
Geological, 234, 315, 473; Manchester Philosophical, 157, 235, 313;
Microscopical, 316; Royal Institution, 157, 396; Royal Society, 73,
473; Zoological, 313.

PROGRESS OF INVENTION ...........cccecccceecec cee eseceeeetees 75, 142, 235, 318,
NOTES AND MEMORANDA .............0..cc0seeee es ean 81, 159, 240, 320, 401,

Vv

PAGE

467

ATL

475
479

pees arr rete to sis
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HB tide Pathe
ee coir Fae te RO aS
ete a is: ent sil
2 ARE PP] BSc ct 2 bit

Eee hy Run Sah
ve

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Fy et big che Bey
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-

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ILLUSTRATIONS.

ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOURS.

PAGE PAGH
Sunset on the Nile ................000 1 | Eozoon Canadense ........2..ss000s . 278
Anomalocera Patersonii ............ 18 | Painted Honses, Upper Egypt.... 323
Cristabella) mucedoes.ccne.sseses-see OS inet Penouln seen ae. o es ncencenanlane 403
White-spored Mushrooms .. eeeewons 163 | Roman Pottery at Durobrive..... 457

TINTED PLATES.

Microscopic Crystals ................ 108 | Eozoon Canadense ...........0.00-+8 283
LECT ae ee eRe 191 | White-spored Agarics....4...s..1502 S00
Cones, Seeds, etc., of Araucaria......... 419 ;

ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD.

Popular Microscope............... 66, 67 | Diagrams illustrative of Diffrac-

Etiects of Transmitted Illumina- diate we’ 123, 125, 127, 128, 129
Me LLOUIS ioc. koe ican tess ea dS 94 | Auroral Arch of March 20, 1865... 379
inks Monat 3) ipa Beat od owt 96 | New Spectroscope ..........ssesees+ 401

Ornamentation of Roman Pottery,..... 460, 461, 4.62, 463

aay

wie.
hist

- By canons ie

SUNSET on the NILE

THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER.

FEBRUARY, 1865.

NOTICE TO OUR READERS.

Ir is now three years since the issue of the first number of the
INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER, and we may congratulate our readers
and ourselves on the success of an experiment that would not
have been attempted in any other country, and that would not
have been justified by the state of education in England ten
years ago. There is no characteristic of the present condition
of our society more satisfactory than the rapid, but at the same
time steady, growth of a taste for physical and descriptive
science. specially im the direction of natural history (in-
cluding geology) has this development been manifested; and
next in order of popularity, observational astronomy has secured
its votaries in hundreds of English homes. For one micro-
scope or telescope that was pointed by the last generation at
- the minute wonders of earth; or the gigantic marvels of heaven, ©
hundreds are now in daily or nightly work.

During the last three years we have ministered to these
pursuits, and we have reason to know that our exertions have
been the means of largely extending the number of their
followers, and thus creating a still further demand for such
information and help as our columns can afford. We have
endeavoured to provide for those wants which have been most
strongly felt by the growing class of Intellectual Observers
but while devoting a large portion of our space to natural
history, microscopy, and observational astronomy, we have not
omitted to present a many-sided view of the progress of science
in all the variety of its departments; so that the six volumes
we have issued will be found to contain an exposition of the
most striking facts and the most important principles that
have been discovered or elucidated since our labours began.
Amongst the special subjects of this period which have been
discussed in our pages, we may mention the new and impor- -
tant applications of the spectroscope, an instrument of physical
analysis, which has not only added to our list of terrestrial sub-
stances, as in the discovery of thallium and rubidium, but in
- VOL. VII.—wNO. I. B

2 Notice to our Readers.

the hands of our distinguished contributor, Mr. Huggins, has
given us the most wonderful intelligence concerning the com-
position of nebule and stars. The newest philosophy of geo-
logy, the latest application of the mechanical theory of heat,
the most interesting researches of the physiologist and the
comparative anatomist, the cardinal facts exhibited m recent
chemical, electrical, and meteorological investigations, have
been placed before our readers without delay. We have like-
wise published numerous important papers on subjects pertain-
ing to archeology and ancient and modern art.

Having thus briefly reviewed the past, let us consider what,
so far as we can see at present, the future demands. During
the three years that have elapsed, a large correspondence and
many careful inquiries have acquainted us with the fact, that our
subscribers desired a selection and treatment of subjects, con- |
tinually pressing us onward in the direction of expense; we
haye, indeed, been continually urged to do what could not be
expected of any other publication by reason of its cost. The
proprietors and the editor gratefully acknowledge that the
InrrLttectuaL Oxssurver has attained a position, both in this
country and beyond its borders, that will justify any outlay
necessary for the further development of its plans; but when,
as they believe in conformity with the wishes of their support-
ers, they have made arrangements of a very costly kind for the
purpose of increasing the interest and permanent value of this.
magazine, they feel assured that their subscribers will willingly
contribute a small addition of six shillings a-year. The future
price of the InretLectuaL OsszrverR will be Highteenpence for
each part, and it will be so managed. as to maintain its cha-
racter of being the cheapest publication of the kind that has
ever been produced.

The plan upon which the InrutiuctuaL OpsiRvER has been
and will be conducted, renders it peculiarly advisable that
subscribers should possess complete sets. The publishers
will as far as possible endeavour to meet probable demands
for back numbers; but some are already nearly exhausted,
and others are rapidly following in the same track. They
cannot offer to reprint former volumes or single numbers,
as the sale of a few hundred copies to complete odd sets
would be very far from covering the cost of reproducing the
elaborate plates. They would therefore respectfully urge all
subscribers to send an early application for any back num-
bers or volumes, and in future not to reckon upon being able
to make up their sets at any time, aS no more copies will
be printed than the publishers have reason to believe will be
sold within a moderate period from the date of publication.

The Inrertectuan Oxserver will continue to provide

Notice to our Readers. 3

materials adapted to readers in various stages of scientific
progress. A portion of each number will be devoted to
beginners in various scientific pursuits, and when any reader
meets with an article beyond the existing state of his know-
ledge, he will either find that an elementary paper leading up
to it has already been published, or he may expect that one
will follow at no distant date. In the selection of topics regard
will be had to their novelty, and to their quality as subjects of
the day: thus an InrentecruaL Osserver student will be
always up to date; and side by side with matter for novices just
entering the portals of knowledge, will be found subjects for
the consideration of those who have penetrated the mmost
recesses which the human mind has reached.

An additional department has been created for the purpose
of affording the earliest explanations of new inventions and
discoveries in the applied sciences, and in the practical arts.
The information will be conveyed in simple untechnical lan-
guage, and the record will embrace the principal achieve-
ments of human skill in Great Britain, on the Continent of
Hurope, and in the United States.

In conclusion, we would earnestly advise those who find
their first steps m science difficult, not to confine their endea-
vours to mere reading. Do something, try something, or see
something, and half the hardship disappears. It is astonishing
how many difficulties in natural history or physiology may be
made to vanish if a student will work with a microscope as
directed in any of the ‘numerous practical papers we have pub- ~
lished. In like manner, a few evenings spent with a telescope
under Mr. Webb’s instructions, will render many explanatory
statements easily intelligible, when without such a proceeding
they would remain obscure ; a glance through a spectroscope
will make a beginner take ten-fold interest in Mr. Huggins’
discoveries ; and a few chemical experiments will simplify many
a statement or illustration that without such aid could convey
httle to the mind.

Parents may depend upon it that good books and good ap-
paratus are amongst the most remunerative investments they
can make. Homes to be happy must be enlightened, and
where Intellectual Observers most abound, the wise and benefi-
cent lessons of nature will be most reverently received, and
man will form the noblest conceptions of the duty and destiny
of a being, situated on a narrow spot of a little revolving globe,
limited in faculties, brief in life, and yet divinely endowed with
a capacity for ¢volving thoughts and aspirations grander than
all the material powers which condense nebulz into suns and
systems, and which unceasingly arrange and rearrange the
particles that build up the fabric of unnumbered worlds.

A The Nile as a Sanatorium.

THE NILE AS A SANATORIUM.
BY F. W. FAIRHOLT, F.S.A.
(With a Coloured Plate.)

Facitities in travel, more wonderful than the dreams of
ancient poets, await the modern voyager; annihilatme diffi-
culties of time and circumstance, smoothmg his path in the
wildest regions, making his journey a mere question of time
and money. Nowhere can these facts be more forcibly felt
than when travelling on the railway between Alexandria and
Cairo. Seated in comfortable carriages of English construc-
tion, it is not difficult to imagine oneself on a dusty road, in a
hot day, gomg through Lincolnshire; but a glance through
the windows over the flat land of the Delta, shows that we are
flying through a primitive land where the very existence of
a railway seems an anomaly. Fields of cotton and maize,
groups of palms, clusters of mud hovels, some gaily painted,
tell of a strange country. Groups of natives in dresses with
which we have only been familiar in pictures or on the stage,
occupy the road, which runs close by the railway the whole
distance. Long lines of lazy-paced camels, or active herds of
sharp and useful asses, mix with the rest, giving life and variety
to a scene without one European feature in it.

This ease of transit and the constant recommendation of
the climate of the Nile by eminent English medical practi-
tioners, as a means of soothing, allaying, or even curing disease,
has induced so great an accession of travellers that the country
has been much enriched thereby, and places that a quarter of a
century since were rigidly barred to the stranger, now gladly
open their portals at the bidding of infidel gold. When it is
remembered that more than two hundred boats usually ascend
the river from Cairo every winter, returning there after three
or four months’ transit ; that these boats are native boats hired
at an extravagant rate, chiefly victualled by natives, and include ©
a crew of from fourteen to sixteen men, and that all things are.
charged to Europeans at nearly double what natives would pay,
it may be readily understood that whatever hate to the infidel
may warm the heart of the Egyptian true believer, the greed
of gain will induce him to keep a placid, smiling countenance.

Still, health when lost is cheaply re-bought at any price.
It is the object of this paper to consider this ‘question of the
Nile as a watering-place for invalids, and to put before the
would-be traveller in search of health a simple statement of
facts, that he may be in a fair position to judge for himself if

~The Nile as a Sanatorium. 5

he be able to bear all the disadvantages, which inevitably
accompany the advantages, that present themselves. It must
be borne in mind that home medical men are not always the
best fitted to decide on an invalid’s place of residence abroad.
Most doctors are confined to the narrowed sphere of a busy
practice, and have generally very shallow and circumscribed
ideas of foreign climates, founded on vague reports, or
descriptions by enthusiastic travellers, from which no sound
conclusions can be drawn. The author of this paper has
passed two winters on the Nile, a confirmed invalid, sufferme
from bronchitis and asthma, and therefore believes himself
more competent to speak than any untravelled doctor of
London or elsewhere.

But before describing river life on the Nile, it will be well
to detail the best mode of getting there. For those who carry
much luggage, and object to changes on the route, the simplest
and best way is to embark at Southampton, when they will
disembark at Alexandria. This, however, involves a long sea
voyage across the Bay of Biscay, at a time when storms are
usual, and sometimes bad weather from Gibraltar to Malta;
the journey occupying altogether about eleven days, the entire
voyage being fifteen. Or only a week’s sea voyage need be
made, going by way of Marseilles to Malta. This involves
three long days of railway travelling from London, and all the
chances of hotel accommodation, troubles with luggage, etc.
Having tried both ways, and being “a good sailor,” unaffected
by the worst weather, the author comes to the conclusion that
nothing can compensate the miseries of a long sea voyage,
which is in itself enough to destroy an invalid.

From the beginning of December until the end of March
is the only time for the stranger to safely visit Heypt. Before
that time he may subject himself to heats which may produce
dysentery and ophthalmia; after it he may be met by the
Khamseen desert wind, which undermines the system, pro-
ducing lassitude, fever, and death. Consequently the time of
year when the voyage must be taken is little likely to ensure a
quiet sea.

Arrived in the Bay of Alexandria, transit-boats are provided
for passengers who wish to go direct to the railway-station, about
a mile distant. Six hours’ railway travel, and Cairo is reached ;
at its port of Boulak native boats are stationed for hire; they
are expressly built for the river voyage, drawing not more

than two feet of water, as the river in winter is very broad and
* shallow, and boats are often grounded on the sandy shoals,
The native name for these boats is Dahabeah; they closely
resemble the barges once used by our city companies on the
Thames. The saloon is level with the deck; behind it are the

6 The Nile as a Senter

cabins ; its roof is covered by an awning, and furnished with
sofas, so that the day may be passed agreeably there. When
the weather is calm, sailors row; whena breeze arises, the large
sail is spread, and the heavy vessel speeds rapidly on. Its
form is shown in the engraving, contrasted by the ordimary
native boat beside it. :

Once afloat, life on the river becomes very monotonous.
Cairo is so full of bustle and picturesque beauty that the
loneliness of the river a few miles from it is doubly drear. .
Enthusiasm, and the novelty of the position, has its usual effect
for a time; but this wears itself out after days of drifting
between high banks of mud, relieved only by clumps of palm
trees, squalid villages of earthen huts, and glaring lines of
limestone rock. Until Mimieh is reached the river is dull and
featureless to an extreme degree, and becomes almost insup-
portably tedious on the return voyage.

About four miles further, and we reach the ruined and
half-deserted village of Beni-Hassan. Here are the famous
rock-cut sepulchres, covered internally by wall-paintings, made
by the ancient Egyptians three thousand years ago. They
furnish us with the most vivid delineations of the manners and
customs of this people we possess, and are the mine from which
our modern books, at home and abroad, have been furnished -
with their most interesting illustrations. They are now all —
miserably injured where within reach. Time has spared them,
and even native barbarity, that looks unfavourably on such art,
has held the hand here; the mischief has been chiefly done by
recent Huropean travellers, who delight, im writing or scribbling
their obscure names on the walls, or breaking away fragments
to take home. When we remember that these old works have
afforded us our best comments on the truths of Bible history ;
explaining its allusions and proving its genuine character, as a
minute record of past manners; it is sufficient to raise honest
indignation at finding Christians thus behaving worse than
Turks, particularly when we remember that the Nile journey is
al expensive one, and cannot be undertaken by any but those
whose education and position should ensure better behaviour.

From Minieh to Siout, the capital of Upper Heypt, the
river presents much variety of scene; the rocky chain that
bounds the valley of the Nile sometimes closes on the stream
in picturesque cliffs, and at other times opens on verdant plains,
brilhantly green with abundant vegetation. Siout is charm-
ingly situated; but the traveller may sometimes be long
delayed in reaching it, as the river curves continually, and
winds are often adverse. He must be prepared to be anchored
in a sheltered place occasionally for days together, and bear
ennui as best he may.

The Nile as a Sanatorium. Vi

Girgeh is the next town of importance, and here the
changes the river has made in its bed are curiously apparent.
When Pococke visited it, in the early part of the last century,
it was a quarter of a mile from the stream that now yearly
washes a portion of the town away. Long lines of buildings,
_ sapped at their muddy foundations, hang omimously over the
banks, to fall at the next inundation.

Crocodiles may now be occasionally seen, lying in the sun
on sand-banks or low rocks, looking like great slugs, and
apparently unconscious of travellers. It is, however, extremely
difficult to get near one of them. They crawl lazily into the
water as the party approaches within gun-shot distance ; to kill
them is very difficult, as they have few vulnerable points $18
they be wounded, they sink into the river, and go very far away
to die. As Nile travelling has increased, so has their caution ;
they were never bold, except at a sudden advantage.

From Girgeh to Keneh, a distance of sixty-four miles, the
river again assumes a tedious monotony. Keneh is a lively
town, pleasantly placed amid verdant fields. It is the great
gathering-place for pilgrimages to Mecca. Opposite, at a
distance of some five miles, stands the half-buried temple of
Dendera. The road to it is over rough ground, sometimes
partly tangled by coarse desert grass. It is the first important
building of ancient date that courts the traveller’s attention
after the Pyramidsare passed. Nothing more perfect exists on
the banks of the Nile, or will better reward a visit.

A grand chain of mountains, with outlines of a more
picturesque character than usual, bounds the cultivated land on
the African side of the river. It is generally about one day’s
journey from Keneh to Negadeh. This latter place is remark-
able as one of the earliest towns where Christians congregated
in any number, and where they still live unmolested. A large
monastery stands in a garden adjoining the river. About ten
years ago it was calculated that this town ccntained about
8000 Christians, and not more than 500 Mahommedans. A
brisk trade is carried on in the manufacture of the coloured
cotton wrappers, used like the Scottish plaid by the native
inhabitants. The town has the look of a strongly fortified
place, from the abundance of tall towers that encircle it; these
are, however, very peaceful erections for the breeding of vast
flocks of pigeons, brmging an income to its inhabitants. The
place altogether is a good specimen of an Hgyptian town; it is
enclosed by earthen walls, and shut in at night by heavy
wooden doors; these open upon narrow lanes, from which
others diverge ; the whole interior being a labyrinth of gloomy
dusty passages, where all kinds of refuse festers in the heat,
uncared about. The Orientals are incapable of comprehending

8. The Nile as a Sanatorium.

foul smells, and the traveller will find it sometimes necessary
to anchor his boat on the windy outskirts of a village or town.

With a fair wind, another day will bring the traveller to
Thebes. He will probably be disappointed with the aspect of
the world-renowned spot. The Libyan hills are grand features
on one side of the stream; but a vast plain stretches towards
the Red Sea on the other. The high mud banks on both sides,
and the low water in the river, prevents any extended view,
hence a sense of flatness or tameness pervades the scene. ~
Luxor, the general landing-place, where all boats anchor,
relieves the monotony; it is on high ground, crowned by the
ruins of a fine temple. All here is bustle and activity. The
bank is lined with travellers’ boats, acquaintanceships are—
renewed, pleasant parties formed for visiting the objects of
interest that crowd upon attention here. The natives are busy
to obtain employment as guides or attendants, or as salesmen
for antiquities of all kinds. Time speeds rapidly away, and a
fortnight can never be passed more agreeably than here. The
temples of’ Luxor, Karnac, Gournou, and Medinet-abou; the
Colossi on the plains, the wild mountain passes leading to the
Tombs of the Kings, all combine to astound the visitor, and
give him pleasant memories to dream over in after life. No
descriptions and no pictures can convey a complete idea of the
wonders of the Theban plain; and when, after days of plea-
surable fatigue, the traveller welcomes the repose of evening,
it is ushered by sunsets of gorgeous magnificence, the golden
_ light of the sun gives a tinge of green and purple to the blue
sky near it, flaky clouds of fantastic: form gather around,
bearing tints of brightest rose-colour, those nearest the setting
sun luminous as himself, so that the eye can scarcely dwell
upon these flecks of burnished gold. When the sun has set,
an after-glow of rosy light gleams over the entire land for
some minutes, with enchanting effect ; and the stranger feels,
upon his last day on the Nile, that he may never chance to
see the sun set again in such supreme glory elsewhere.

With the large majority of travellers the Nile journey ends
at Thebes; it is 454 miles distant from Cairo, and the voyage
occupies from three weeks to a month, according to wind and
weather. Travellers should allow themselves two months and a
half for the whole journey and the unavoidable stoppages. It
is a slow business at the best of times, nor can Oriental
indolence be stimulated.

Should the traveller persevere to the boundaries of Old
Egypt at the first cataract, he will be well rewarded by the
greater beauty of the river, the vast and wondrously-perfect
temple at Edfou, the rock temples and quarries at Silsilis,
from whence the ancient Hgyptians obtained their building

The Nile as a Sanatorium. 9

stones; the grand ruins at Kom-Ombos, and the picturesque
town of Assouan. Here he may safely anchor his boat, and
ride to the cataract, seemg something of Nubian village-life at
Mahatta, where live the men who navigate the boats through
the wild and dangerous current of the rock-encumbered river.
They are most extortionate in their charges for such service,
and demand from £20 to £40 per boat, according to its size;
and as they alone have the monopoly of the stream, and are
the only persons competent to manage the boats, the traveller
is at their mercy.

The Island of Phile, beyond the cataract, can also be
easily visited by a ride across the desert. Its beauty has been
celebrated from the earliest recorded time, and has been
enthusiastically dwelt on by modern travellers. It is surrounded
by rocky scenery of a wild and wondrous kind, as if some
gigantic convulsion had piled these vast heaps of granite and
basalt, and choked the river.

Fewer still are the voyagers who persevere to Wady Halfeh,
that they may visit the rock-cut temple of Abou-Simboul. It
is along and dreary voyage of 837 miles from Phile, with
nothing on the way to equal what the traveller has already
seen. ‘The temple is, however, unique in its kind, and very
wonderful ; the journey must, therefore, be a question of time
and expense for each individual to solve before starting.

The price charged per month for the hire of a boat varies
according to its size and character, and ranges from £50 to £70. ©
The sailors’ wages are low, and are generally computed by the
month also; the reis, or captain, receiving about 30s., the
sailors half that sum. But these very cheap rates do not truly
represent all the traveller pays by a very great deal, inasmuch |
as gratuities are expected when the boat reaches the larger
towns in its course; and the ordinary food of the crew has
also to be paid for. A sheep is the usual gift expected, as
bread and dried lentils are all the stores laid in for the sailors.
A dragoman, or interpreter, is also necessary for the voyage ;
he generally commands a high salary—about £12 a month, and
he takes “ black mail’ with no niggard hand during the entire
journey, first from the natives, and secondly from his employers,
so that frequently one-half of the money paid for travelling
expenses finds its way into his pocket. It is also necessary
to carry a cook and a native servant or two, as assistants
or waiters, who generally speak a little English, and charge
accordingly.

Should the traveller be an invalid, it is beyond all things
necessary for him to remember that he can obtain no medical
aid after he leaves Cairo ; many English travellers, particularly
if they be wealthy, carry a doctor with them, and, to the

10 The Nile as a Sanatorium.

honour of the profession be it spoken, that abroad as at home,
they never tire in giving their best aid cheerfully to all
claimants. Native doctors, if met with in a few of the larger
towns, are generally some degrees below the Italian mounte-
banks who draw teeth and dispense medicines at a country fair. |
The people, with their inherent fatalism, prefer charms to physic,
and have most faith in them.

It must also be borne in mind that though England be
stigmatized as a variable climate, the climate of Hgypt is more
coustantly changing. We get at home great changes of wind
from different points of the compass; but they usually last for
days together, and the difference in temperature throughout
the day, or at night, is not very violent. But on the Nile
the temperature shifts with every few hours, increasing to
mid-day, decreasing to evening, and being freezimgly cold in
the night; so that the constitution of an Huropean is severely
tried when the thermometer may be at 60° at ten im the
morning, 100° at noon, and down to 40° im the night. It brmgs
forcibly to mind the words of the patriarch Jacob, when he
complained—‘“ By day the drought consumed me, and the frost
by night.” There is no provision whatever for obtaiming fires
in the boats, and doors and windows are so constantly warped
by the sun that they let im cold draughts on all sides,
which can only be guarded against by good coverings. The
traveller must in truth be prepared for hot summer days and
cold winter nights, and will often find it necessary in the day to
change his attire as heat or cold predominates. It is therefore
evident that for an invalid to trust implicitly to glowing
accounts of Heyptian days, not taking the dark side of the
picture in the aspect of Heyptian nights, would be condemning
himself to a great risk. Healthy travellers, writing enthu-
siastically of their experiences, are very blind guides; and
doctors who have no travelled experiences whatever are blinder.
To some invalids it would be little short of a condemnation to
death to send them up the river in draughty boats, without
chance of medical aid. The invalid should be well prepared
for this; take his own medicine chest, if he cannot take his
own doctor, never come on deck before eleven o’clock a.m., or
be seen there after sunset, and closely curtain his cabin-
windows before going to rest.

The conclusion that the author of this paper arrives at is
simply this—that advantage should be taken of the Egyptian
day, and the night guarded against. Therefore he is of opinion
that a residence in Cairo is preferable to a boat life on the
Nile. Cairo has good hotels and resident medical men; full
advantage may be taken of the bland climate by day, and
comfort be had at night in hotels kept by Europeans. There

Vegetable Hybrids and thew Progeny. 11

is constant amusement in the busy life of the city, while for
such as have tastes for historic antiquities, the neighbourhood
abounds in sites and objects of the highest interest. If
desert winds blow, or the climate generally be too relaxing,
the railway will in six hours carry the traveller back to
Alexandria, where the cooler sea breezes give the climate the
character of Greece or Southern Italy.

Such, then, is a fair estimate of Nile travel. To the
invalid it is not the same as to the healthy ; the latter will expe-
rience no inconvenience where the former may find much. The
glorious old river and the solemn reliques of the great men of
old that line its banks, deserve all the enthusiastic greetings of
the students of antiquity, art, and history. Happy are the
days when, floating in the sunshine on its placid bosom, place
after place is reached, abounding in wondrous memories ; and
the homeward-bound traveller bids adieu to the sacred stream,
conscious that while life lasts he may call back unrivalled
remembrances of scenes, upon which Moses and the father of
history have also gazed, with greater wonder, when all that is
now ruined was in the glory of its pristine magnificence, under
the rule of the ancient Pharaohs, in ages which have long since

passed away.

/

VEGETABLE HYBRIDS AND THEIR PROGENY.

M. Cu. Navpin has recently communicated to the French Aca-
demy the results of fresh experiments on vegetable hybrids and
their descendants. He states that in 1862 he made numerous
crosses, all successful, between Datura levis, ferox, Stramomum,
and quercifolia, four well characterized species, between which
no intermediaries were known. Datura levis and ferox, the
two species which differ most in the white series, beimg mutu-
ally fecundated, he reared in 1860 from seeds obtained
through this double crossing, sixty specimens of Datura levi-
jferox, and seventy of D. feroci-levis. ‘In this first genera-
tion, the whole collection of hybrid individuals having the same
origin, however numerous they might be, was as homogeneous
and as uniform as could be in a group of any invariable
species, or of a pure and sharply characterized race.”

* But these 130 hybrids presented a novel fact: they were
not only perfectly like each other, but they differed strangely
from the two species to which they owed their origin. There
was neither the form, the aspect, nor the fruits of the parent
Species, nor was there anything intermediate between them.

.

12 Vegetable Hybrids and their Progeny.

Any one ignorant of their origin must have taken them for a
new species.” ‘They were all of the violet series, with brown
stems, while the parent species had white flowers and green
stems. .

In 1864, M. Naudin made a fresh sowing of D. levi-feroz,
and feroci-levis, and by side of them D. ferox and D. levis of
pure race. The result was, that thirty-six new specimens of
D. levis-ferox, and thirty-nine of D. feroci-levis reproduced the
identical characters of the former year, brown stalks, violet -
flowers, and spinous fruits. He noticed that at the com- |
mencement of germination the little stem of D. feroz
of pure race was purple, so that this colour seen in the
hybrid stems was apparently derived from that species. “‘ All
these hybrids, though sterile in the first six or seven dicho-
tomies, were fertile in those following. Their seed sown last
Spring, gave, in the second generation, nineteen specimens of
D. feroci-levis, and twenty-six of levi-ferox. The two lots
still resembled each other, but by a character the very op-
posite of that which was most salient in the preceding genera-
tion. The great uniformity then remarkable was succeeded by
a surprising diversity of patterns; so that out of forty-five
plants, composing the two lots, no two could be found that
were exactly alike.” They differed in all particulars. One lot,
however, of levi-feroe went back to the type of D. levis,
except that the lower part of the stem was purple. In very
few was a slight resemblance to D. ferox noticeable, most being
more lke D. Stramonium and D. quercifolium. “ Some had
white flowers and green stems, either all, green, or with purple
at the base; others had violet flowers of different tones, and
stems more or less brown; sometimes even purple, passing.
into black, as in D. tatula, which is the most perfect type of
the violet series. The fruits were of all sizes, from a filbert to
a large nut; and of these fruits some were very spinous, others
only covered with tubercles, or nearly destitute of spines.
Some individuals fructified in the first dichotomy, others only
in the last, and some produced no fruit at all. In fine, the
forty-four plants, constituting these two lots, were all indi-
vidual varieties, as if the tie binding them to specific types
were broken, and their growth had run wild in all directions.”

M. Naudin then mentions a case of hybrid Marvel of Peru,
in which the second generation differed both from the parents
and from the first.

In 1863 and 1864, he watched the sixth and seventh gene-
ration of a hybrid Linaria purpureo-vulgaris which he had kept
for many years. A good many went back, some completely,
some partially, to the L. vulgaris, with yellow flowers, and a
smaller number to L. purpurea, with purple flowers. The

Vegetable Hybrids and thew Progeny. 13

major part inclined to neither species, nor did any resemble
the first hybrid generation, but presented all kinds of varia-
tion.

M. Naudin then refers to hybrid petunias, which, he says,
though common in gardens, have not received the attention due
to them from scientific men. He says that P. nyctaginiflora,
which has white flowers, and P. wiolacea, with violet, cross
with facility, producing hybrids as fertile as themselves. In
the first generation all the hybrids resemble each other; but in
the second they became diversified in a surprising manner,
some becoming white, some purple; while others, and they
constitute a large residue, exhibit all tints between the two.
If a third generation is raised by artificially fecundating the
second, still greater variations occur, and if the process is con-
tinued monstrosities are obtained, which fashion decides to be
perfection.

Similar facts occur with primulas, roses, apple-trees, pears,
etc. ‘The question then arises, “ but if these crossings have
produced such phenomena of irregular variability in cultivated
plants, is it not possible that the same cause has occasioned
their appearance amongst wild plants? We are led to think so
when we cast oureyes on certain generic groups, such as sal-
lows, potentillas, briars, etc., im which those species which at
first seem the best characterized, are united by so many inter-
mediate forms, that we do not know where to place the limits
of such species. This supposition is the more probable, be-
cause the species in question are so situated as to render their
crossing likely to occur.” M. Naudin then makes certain ob-
servations on the variations which different species exhibit
without any crossing with another species or race. He con-
siders that with hybrids the tendency is towards individual
variation without fixity, while with pure races variations tend
to become constant, and if not interfered with, give rise to
fresh races homogeneous and enduring.

Many of our subscribers will have opportunities of making
experiments similar to those of M. Naudin, and they may be
reminded that both naturalists and physiologists anxiously look
for additions to this class of facts.

14 The Australian Lyre Bird.

THE AUSTRALIAN LYRE BIRD.
BY “AN OLD BUSHMAN.”

Tur Lyre Bird, or native pheasant of Australia, Menura
superba of naturalists, called Bulla bulla by the natives, from -
the peculiar monotonous call-note of the female, is, as far
as body plumage goes, a very plain, dull-coloured bird, about
the size of the common English pheasant; but its smgular _
beauty consists in a long, beautiful, lyre-shaped tail of six-
teen feathers, with the peculiar form of which most of your
readers are, doubtless, acquainted. According to Mr. Gould,
the stronghold of the lyre bird is in the colony of New South
Walés; but to my certain knowledge it is, or at least was, a few
years since, common in most of the ranges and gullies ex-
tending eastwards from the Bass River to the Tarra in Gipps’
Land, and also in the gullieson the Plenty, Dandenong, and
Gipps’ Land ranges. It is from the personal observations: of
myself and a friend, now stationed in this district for the pur-
pose of collecting, that the following notes are compiled :—

Of the numbers of those who at one time or another must
have seen and admired its fibrous and lyre-shaped tail, but
few were perhaps aware of the fact that the light and fairy-
like structure before them was the elegant appendage of a
bird whose powers as a ventriloquist and imitator of sounds
appear to be illimitable. To be able to form a fair estimate,
however, of their extraordinary abilities in this respect, one
must be on the pheasant ground by earliest dawn on any fine
morning during the months of June, July, and August, this
being their breeding season, during which they are most
noisy. Now this is not quite so easy as might at first appear,
since what the bushmen call their “‘ whistling heaps’—little
circular mounds of scratched-up earth in the centre of a mass
of ferns, or sword grass—are generally located im the thickest
part of a dense musk scrub, or by the sides or at the bottom
of a deep fern-tree gully, whose cloistral. shades, like true
recluses, they greatly affect. To pierce such solitudes as these
before the sun has risen, struggling up to the waist through
a thick undergrowth of grass and fern, saturated with ever-
lasting dew, at the imminent risk of breaking either neck or
shins in stumbling over some of the numberless fallen logs
that intercept your path, and where every step you take
necessarily brings you into collision with an overhanging bough
which discharges a copious shower-bath over your head and
shoulders, is, to say the least of it, not pleasant, and not likely
often to be attempted by any one, save those actually in pursuit
of the bird itself.

The Australian Lyre Bird. 15

A previous night’s camp near the spot would, in most
cases, brmg a man into the vicinity of the birds sufficiently
early for his purpose of watching them at play. The first
intimation of this would probably be a rather loud, though
melodious warble, from some old cock on a neighbouring
tree, for he generally salutes the rismg sun from his roosting
place. With its earliest ray, however, he descends from his
perch, and you will then hear the monotonous “bulla bulla”
of the hen bird as she calls to her mate, and together they go
scratching about the bush for their breakfast. Soon an old
cock will scratch his way to one of these mounds, which are,
doubtless, feeding places as well as arenas for their morning
concerts, and then, with a running fire of his own sweet notes,
which he keeps up throughout the whole performance, the fun
begins. Now, if you are clever enough to creep within good
earshot of that little magic circle without disturbing the bird,
you will find that from thence proceed in rotation the note
of nearly every bird indigenous to the scrubs. First, perhaps,
you will hear, not one, but a whole mob of King parrots, or
lories, in full corroboree, the noise of their wings m flight bemg
at the same moment imitated with the greatest exactness ;
then probably comes the smack of the whip bird, then the harsh
ery of the black cockatoo, together with the grating sound
he makes with his bill in excoriating the bark of the tree in
search after grubs. All this, together with many another cry
of bird or beast, even to the howling of the wild dog, I have |
heard proceed from one and the same lyre bird in a very short
space of time. Should there be wood cutting, or any other
extraneous noise goimg on in his neighbourhood, he quickly
makes himself master of the sound, and adds it to his budget.
I have frequently heard the beating of the blacks’ corroboree
sticks imitated to perfection. This the blacks themselves
maintain is done with the tail of the bird. During the greater
part of the time that the bird is thus engaged the tail is spread
-out, peacock fashion, at right angles, but sometimes laid so
low as to form a very acute angle with his back, the bird him-
self slowly revolving on his little orbit, and every now and then
regarding his fairy appendage with looks of gratified vanity.
It is only while thus occupied that he can be approached with
any chance of success. In such situations, however, he falls
an easy prey to the noiseless and panther-like approach of the
blackfellow ; but the attempt of the white man is generally
foiled, either by the brightness of his apparel or his over
anxiety to reach his quarry, which induces him to move when
the bird is not in full song—a fatal error, quickly made known
to him by a serpent-like hiss, which tells in a language
plainer than words that his presence is detected. It must not,

16 The Australian Lyre Bird.

however, be inferred from the above that the cock bird is the
sole performer; the hen will also both whistle and mock the
notes of other birds, but she does it in a more desultory man-
ner, never remaining long in one spot.

These birds sometimes vary their entertainment with the
most amusing capers. A friend of mine once haying followed
a pheasant to its roosting place, which in this instance was a
tall gum tree in a tolerably open situation, determined to be near
the spot by daybreak, in order to watch his manceuvres, and,
if possible, obtain the bird. Accordingly, before break of
day, he posted himself near the tree, and soon after had the
satisfaction of seeing the bird descend from it, and at once
commence scratching and feeding on the ground below it.
This bird was evidently in a merry humour, for nearly every
log he came across he mounted, made three or four pirouttes
on the top of it, and then on again, until he came to a full stop,
when, after mocking the whip bird, the laughing jackass, and
one or two others, he suddenly began revolving in a circle, the
diameter of which was scarcely greater than the length of his
own body, at such an amazing rate that it was impossible to
see his feet touch the ground. A charge of No. 4 shot,
however, cut him short in the middle of his gyrations, and he
proved to be a cock with what the bushmen call a half tail, 7.e.,
half plain, half fibrous. The tail feathers, at first wholly plain,
always commence shredding out backwards from their extremi- -
ties to their springing, till they become wholly fibrous. I have
heard that in the case of very old birds the tail sprouts fibrous
like the pheasant wren, but I never met with an instance of
this myself. The Gipps’ Land blacks believe that the hens
after a certain period get fibrous tails like the old cocks, but if
this is true, it must be after they have done breeding. The
dome-shaped nest and chocolate-coloured egg (they lay but
one) is generally placed either in the embankment of a deep
creek or gully, or else well hidden in the midst of the branches,
where they spring from the stem of one of a group of fern
trees. Where these trees grow thick, and their branches
interlace, their resemblance to a medizeval crypt or cloister is
most striking, save, perhaps, that the cone-fretted stem of the
fern tree has rather a Moorish than a Christian look about it;
and the thought has often struck me while wandering under
the melancholy boughs of these splendid Filices, how astonished
the Old World builders would have been could they have been
told that in the recesses of a country to them unknown, there
_grew in wild luxuriance the living counterpart of their own
stone and mortar erections. I will just mention one fact with
regard to the nest which shows the extreme cunning of these
birds, viz., that it is almost always covered with a coating of

The Australian Lyre Bird. 17

living moss, which literally grows over it, and so amalgamates
it with surrounding objects, that were it not for the suspicious
little hole at the top it would be impossible to discover it.

Before concluding these remarks, I feel bound to bear tes-
timony to a pleasing trait in the economy of these birds, which
is the remarkable solicitude of the female for her young one.
Although at all other seasons she is, par excellence, the bird in
which the noli me tangere principle is most strictly developed,
yet during the period that her offspring is a helpless nestling,
she so far overcomes her natural timidity in anxiety for its
safety, that if you touch the young bird, causing it to make
a plaintive cry, and the mother is within hearing (which is
generally the case), she will come through the bush like a flash
of light, and, seeing the formidable appearance of the disturber
of her home, will commence rushing about in gradually con-
tracting circles, evidently in the greatest distress. In marked
contrast to this, however, is the conduct of the male bird, who,
after the period of incubation is over, never goes near the
nest, or appears to care a pin what becomes of his family.

As civilization gradually increases, many birds and animals
are becoming so scarce or altogether extinct, that in a very few
generations after this they will be known only by name, or as
matters of history. Witness the kangaroo, the emu, and even
the native pheasant, and some others in this very land. It is,
therefore, a matter of considerable surprise to me that no
systematic efforts are made to rear and domesticate many a
bird and animal which is every year becoming scarcer, and ~
which would doubtless thrive under the fostering care of man.
I have known this tried in regard to the very bird of which we
are now treating ; but the few schoolboy attempts which I have
witnessed never can and never will succeed. A friend of
mine, who has now studied the habits of the lyre bird in a state
of nature for many years, and who in one season obtained
in Gipps’ Land no fewer than 114 tails with his own gun,
has written to me a plan by which he feels confident that
he could rear them, and I think his system a likely one,
but it would entail great expense and loss of time; and to
the poor bushman, whose time is money, and whose sole
dependence for subsistence is his gun, the advantages of
success in undertakings of this nature are not at all commen-
surate with the certain loss in case of failure. ‘Should this
noble bird, however”—thus he concludes his letter to me—
“be domesticated, and I feel certain that this day will come, and
he should retain in captivity those admirable powers of mimicry
which he daily exhibits in the recesses of his native forests,
universal consent would, I have no doubt, acknowledge his
right to the title of the ‘ ‘King of Mocking Bards, de

VOL. VII.—NO. I. C

18 The British Oceanie Hntomostraca.

THE BRITISH OCEANIC ENTOMOSTRACA.

BY GEORGE S. BRADY, M.R.C.S.,

Secretary to the Tyneside Naturalists’ Field Club.
(With a Coloured Plate.)

Unovir the term “ Oceanic Entomostraca”’ we include all those
free-swimming species which are met with not far from the
surface of the sea, either in littoral situatrons or in the open
sea far away from land. We do not here take cognizance of
those which haunt the sea bed and find their sustenance by
crawling over weeds and rocks, their powers of swimming
being either altogether wanting, or so slight as to serve only
for very short excursions from the ground.

The species to which our present paper refers are met with
during the warm months of summer in wonderful abundance
near the surface; so numerous, indeed, are they that they
constitute the chief food of very many fishes, and they may
often be plainly seen to impart a turbid or specky appearance
to the water. ‘They are best taken by means of the towing-.
net, an appliance which, for the benefit of those who are not
acquainted with it, we may briefly describe. It consists of
a long funnel-shaped net of bunting, crinoline, or some other
strong but loose-meshed material, attached to a ring of cane,
eighteen inches or more in diameter. It is well to weight the
ring moderately at one side, so as to sink it a little beneath
the surface of the water. But besides the outer net above
described, there should be an inner net made of the same
material, of the same diameter, but only of half the length,
and tapering more rapidly. This is to be left open, with
an aperture of about a couple of mches at its narrow end,
and is intended to act as a valve to prevent the regurgita-
tion of the contents of the outer net when being dragged
through the water. The apparatus will be more conve-
nient if the outer net, instead of being sewed up close at the ©
small end, be left with an open neck, to which a cupping
glass or a strong glass bottle may be attached by a piece of
string or elastic. The bottle thus attached will receive the
contents of the net, which may be removed much more readily
and with less injury than by turning a net inside out, which
must be done if not provided with this arrangement. Three
or four strmgs are to be attached at equal distances round
the ring of the net, tied together at their free ends, and

finally secured to a long and strong cord, by which thenet is —

The British Oceanic Hntomostraca. 19

dragged through the water at the stern of a boat. It will
often be found to collect (besides the small crustacea) great
quantities of meduse, free-swimming annelids, and larve of
many kinds. These (except the meduse, for which no good
preservative fluid is yet known) may be put into spirit, and
thus kept for examination.

Setting aside any special interest which these entomostraca
may possess for those who give particular attention to them,
there are some points in their structure and physiology which
are exceedingly curious, and which cannot fail to interest any
“intellectual observer.”? These are connected chiefly with
sexual differences. In the family Harpactide the males possess,
for the most part, a large vesicular swelling on the upper
antenna (see Fig. 1); while in the female the antenna is more
slender, and destitute of this appendage. In the Pontellide
and many of the Calanide the right antenna of the male is
provided with a hinge-joimt near the middle, for the purpose
of clasping ; and above and below the hinge there is a serrated
plate which serves to render the grasp more secure. The
left antenna of the male, and both those of the female, are
destitute of the hinge. In the Pontellide there is likewise
a large pyriform swelling near the middle of the male antenna.
This, with serrated plates and hinge, is well shown in the
coloured plate of Anomalocera Patersonii." In the two last- -
mentioned families, the fifth pairs of feet offer also remarkable
sexual differences, and afford excellent specific characters ;
these, however, are so varied, that drawings of each species
would be required to elucidate them. The right fifth foot
of Ichthyophorba denticornis is shown at Fig. 4. The curious
method of impregnation which obtains amongst the Copepoda
has already been mentioned in the pages of the INTELLECTUAL
OxssreRver. It consists in the attachment to the abdomen of
the female of elongated cells termed ‘“‘ spermatophores” or
“spermatic tubes.’ These may often be seen before their
emergence from the body of the male. Fig. 5 exhibits a
bundle of them attached to the abdomen of the female Temora
velox.

The oceanic species with which we are concerned in this
paper, belong to two distinct orders, Cladocera and Copepoda,
both of which are well represented in all our fresh-water ponds,
the first by the common Daphnice, the second by the still more
common genus Cyclops.

Dr. Baird, in his excellent Natwral History of the British
Entomostraca, published by the Ray Society in 1849, de-
scribes ten marine species of these two orders :— Bvadne
Nordmanni, Lovén; Canthocamptus Stromii, Baird; OC. furca-
tus, Baird; O. minuticornis, Muller; Harpacticus chelifer,

20 The British Oceanic. Entomostraca.

Miller; H. nobilis, Baird; Altewtha depressa, Baird; Temora
Finmarchica, Gunner; Anomalocera Patersonti, Templeton ;
Cetochilus septentrionalis, Goodsir. An eleventh species (Noto-
delphys ascidicola, Allman) is also provisionally included by Dr.
Baird amongst the Copepoda, but this little parasite is now
classed with the fish lice in the order Pecilopoda.

More recently eight additional species have been coccinea
by Mr. Lubbock in the Annals and Magazine of Natural
History (second series, vol. xx.) Of these, however, three are -
probably referable to previously published species, and one
(Monstrilla anglica) is imperfectly known, and may very likely
be found to belong to the order Peecilopoda. |

If to these we add Peltidiwm purpwrewm, Philippi, and
Hersilia apodifornis, Philippi (two species first recognized as
British by Mr. Spence Bate), a few others noticed by myself
in Reports presented to the British Association and to the -
Tyneside Naturalists’ Field Club, in 1863; lastly, eight species
recorded for the first time in this paper, we shall have, I think,
a complete list of all the known British marine species belong-
ing to the two orders Cladocera and Copepoda.

To facilitate reference, I insert first a classified list of the
British species, as far as our present knowledge extends, pro-
ceeding afterwards to notice more in detail those which are -
new to our fauna. *

Order CLADOCHRA.

Fam. PoLyPHEMIDE.

Evadne Nordmanni, Loven.
» polyphemoides, Leuck-
art. Fam. CALANIDR.
Order COPEPODA.

Fam. Corycox 1p.

Monstrilla anglica, Lubbock.
Corycéeus anglicus, Lubbock.

Cetochilus septentrionalis, Good-

Fam. Harpactipa&.

Tachidius brevicornis, Miller.
Tisbe furcata, Baird.
Westwoodia nobilis, Bard.
Dactylopus Stromii, Baird.

5 tisboides, Claus.
Thalestris longimana, Claus.
Harpacticus chelifer, Miller.

Fam, PELTIDIDA.
Peltidium purpureum, Philippr.

(? Oniscidium, Claus.)
Hersilia apodiformis, Philippi.
Alteutha depressa, Baird.

», bopyroides, Claus.
Zaus spinosus, Claus.
» ovalis, Goodsir.

sir,
Calanus anglicus, Lubbock.
» Clausu, Brady.
Dias longiremis, Liljeborg.
Temora Finmarchica, Gunner.
» velox, Liljeborg.

Ichthyophorba denticornis,
Claus.
5 hamata,
Laljeborg.

Fam. PoNveLLIDz.

Anomalocera oa Tem-
pleton.
Pontella brevicornis, Lubbock.
» Wollastoni, Lubbock.

The British Oceanic Entomostraca. |

Kyvapne Norpmanni, Lovén. Baird, British Hntom., p. 114,
plate xvii., fig. 2.

This species occurs in considerable numbers, in the warm
months of summer and autumn, on the east coast of Britain.
I have taken it plentifully off the Durham coast, and have
noticed it also in gathermgs from the Shetlands, given to me
by the Rev. Alfred Merle Norman. Mr. Goodsir took it in the
Frith of Forth. It will probably be found to exist in all the
British seas.

EVADNE PoLypHEMOIDES, Leuckart. Leuckart, Weigmann’s
Archiv., 1859, p. 262.

First noticed at Nice by Leuckart, and described by him
in Weigmann’s Archiv., which description is translated into
the Annals and Magazine of Natwral History (third series, vol.
v., p. 445). It is of pretty frequent occurrence off the Durham
and Northumberland coasts, and also in the Shetland gather-
ings mentioned above. The general appearance of the order
Cladocera, to which these two Daphnians belong, will be under-
stood by a reference to the figure of Daphnia rotunda, given
in the InrenLuctuaL OpsERvVER, vol. 1., p. 448. The two species
of Hvadne here noticed are sufficiently distinct. H. Nordmanni
has mostly a red tint, a large carapace, empty except when
bearing ova, and tapermg to a sharp point inferiorly, so as to
give the animal a triangular outline. H. polyphemoides is
smaller, has a very large spherical head separated from the
body by astrongly marked neck ; the carapace is very much
rounded posteriorly and inferiorly, and has a straight anterior
margin rounded at the antero-inferior angle. The abdomen
projects anteriorly, and terminates in two strong spines directed
downwards, thus giving the animal an appearance not unlike
that of Daphnia mucronata.

T'ACHIDIUS BREVICORNIS, Liljeborg. Lilj, Crust. ew. ord. tribus,
t. xxu., figs. 12—16; t. xxii., figs. 1, 2,9; t. xxvi., figs. 17,
18.

’ An entomostracan, referable apparently to this species, I
have taken in a salt marsh on the river Wear, near Sunderland.
The drawings, made with great care from my specimens, differ
in at least one important particular from those of Professor
Liljeborg, but from the extreme minuteness of the animal, and
consequent difficulty of dissection, it 1s quite possible that I
may have made some mistakes, and having been unable
recently to find fresh specimens for further examination, I
prefer rather to adopt this supposition than to describe my
capture as a new species. It is probable that 7. brevicornis
may be identical with Canthocamptus minuticornis, Baird ; but
Dr. Baird’s figures and descriptions are insufficient to enable
us to settle that point satisfactorily. The principal diagnostic

”

22 The British Oceanic Hntomostraca.

character of the genus is found in the structure of the swim-
ming feet, the first four pairs of which are alike, each foot
consisting of two tri-articulated branches. The first antenna
of the male bears a remarkably large vesiculiform swelling, a
character not uncommon in this family, but nowhere better de-
veloped than in Tachidius. The antenna is beset also with long
setae of very diverse form and structure, the uses of which, as
well as of the vesiculiform swelling, are very imperfectly, if at
all, understood. The antenna is represented at Fig. 1.

TisBe ForcATA, Baird. Canthocamptus furcatus, Baird. Brit.
Hnt., p. 210, plate xxv., figs. 1, 2; plate xxx., figs. 4—6.

A species of very common occurrence in littoral situations,
and which has been described and figured elaborately by
Baird, Liljjeborg, and Claus. A peculiar parasite of polypoid
form is noticed both by Baird and Claus as frequently infesting
this species.

WESTWOODIA NOBILIS, Baird. Arpacticus nobilis, Baird. Brit.
Ent., p. 214, plate xxvii., fig. 2, a—e.

I do not know this species. Berwick Bay, Dover, and the
North Foreland are given as habitats by Dr. Baird.

Dacrytopus Stromit, Baird. Canthocamptus Strom, Baird.
Brit. Hnt., p. 208, plate xxvu., figs. 3, 3a. '

This pretty little creature seems to be of somewhat rare
occurrence. I have taken it in rock pools on the Durham
coast, and on the Isle of Man, but have seen no examples
of it from other places. The localities given by Dr. Baird
are all on the east coast, ranging from Berwickshire to Dover.

Dacryiovus TIsBoIDES, Claus. Claus, Die frei lebenden Cope-
poden, p. 127, t. xvi., figs. 24—28.

A species which I had been accustomed to refer to Harpac-
ticus chelifer, I have now little hesitation in recording as D.
tisboides, Claus; though J am unable to state with certainty
to which of the two species the figures and descriptions of
Dr. Baird and Liljeborg refer. Probably they were taken
indiscriminately from both species. Be this as it may, the
form which I refer to D. tisboides is, so far as my observations
extend, by far the more common of the two. I have taken
it abundantly on the coasts of Northumberland and Durham,
and in the Isle of Man, and it forms the bulk of one of Mr.
Norman’s Shetland gathermgs. The characters by which it
may most easily be distinguished from Harpacticus chelifer are
(1) the form of the male antenna, which exhibits a large
vesicular swelling similar to that of Tachidius brevicornis; (2),
the first foot, which, besides minor differences, has, about the
middle of the smallinner branch, a long plumose bristle reach-
ing nearly to the extremity of the ramus; and (3) the shape
of the lower foot-jaw, which is a simple, somewhat oval, ciawed.

The British Oceanic EHntomostraca. 23

hand, bearing a single long bristle on the centre of its inner,
sightly serrated edge.

THALESTRIS LONGIMANA, Claus.. Claus, Die frei lebenden Cope-
poden, p. 180, t. xvii, figs. 1—11.

The genera Thalestris and Dactylopus are closely allied to
Canthocamptus, from which they have been separated by Dr.
Claus, in his recently published work on the Copepoda of
Germany, the North Sea, and the Mediterranean. ‘The follow-
ing are the more important characters of the genus Thalestris.
Lower foot-jaw armed with a strong prehensile hand; superior
antennz mostly with nine articulations; branches of the first
pair of feet much elongated, prehensile; posterior feet of the
female leaf-shaped, covering the ovisac. ‘1’. longimana is a fine
species, richly coloured with deep brown and red. Its most
remarkable feature is the largely developed chelate lower
foot-jaw, which forms a very formidable and effective grasp-
ing apparatus. This is shown at Fig. 2. The first feet are
very much elongated, and armed with long slender claws
which, from their position, must be admirably adapted to co-
operate with the antenneze and foot-jaws in the work of seizing
and securing prey. The only British locality known to me
for this species is Sunderland, where I have taken it in shallow
tidal pools.

Harpacticus cHELIFER, Miller. Claus, Copepoden, p. 133, t.
xix., figs. 12—20. ;

The species which I have usually considered to come
under this designation is, as stated above, Dactylopus tisboides.
The only examples I have hitherto seen of the true H. chelifer,
are a few taken near Sunderland a year or two ago.

PELTIDIUM PURPUREUM, Philippi. White, Pop. Hist. Brit,
Crust., p. 308, plate xviii., fig. 4.

The family Peltididee, of which this species is the type, is
very different in general appearance from the Harpactide,
being much broader and flatter, and less adapted for active
movement in the water. They may often be met with on the
fronds of Fuci and Laminarize in tide pools, but some of them
are taken by the towing net in the open sea.

Of this species, I have seen only one specimen taken in a
tide pool near Sunderland. Mr. Spence Bate has taken it on
the south coast of England.

_ Hersiii1a aroprrormis, Philippi. White, Pop. Hist. Brit.
Crust., p. 308.

I know nothing of this, except from the description re-
ferred to above. It has been taken in Britain only by Mr.
Spence Bate.

_ ALTEUTHA DEPRESSA, Baird. Baird, Brit. Hntom., p. 216,
plate xxx., figs. 1, 2, a, b.

QA. The British Oceanic Entomostraca.

Whether this be referable to the followimg species I cannot
determine, not having seen authentic specimens of it. The
only habitat given by Dr. Baird is Berwick Bay, where, he
says, it is not common. It is to be hoped that A. depressa
may again be captured, in order that its relation to the follow-
ine species may be definitely made out.

ALTEUTHA BOPYROIDES, Claus. Claus, Copepoden, p. 148,
t. xxi, figs. 1O—17.

This species agrees in most of its characters with A. -
depressa, as described and figured im Dr. Baird’s work; but.
the details of structure there given are not sufficient to allow
of certainty in the matter. My specimens were taken in the
towing net, three or four miles off the Durham coast.

ZAvs spinosus, Claus. Claus, Copepoden, p. 146, t. xxii.,
fie. 25; t. xxul., figs. 1—10.

The genus Zaus is nearly allied to Alteutha, from which it .
is separated by having both (instead of only the outer)
branches of the first pair of feet armed with terminal
claws, and also by the greater breadth of the rudimentary
fifth feet.

I have a few specimens of Z. spinosus taken in tide-pools
at Roker near Sunderland.

Zavs ovais, Goodsir. Claus, Copepoden, p. 146, t. xxu., -
fic. 18; t. xxii. figs. 11—18.

A much larger species than the foregoing. It is very
much more elongated, has comparatively short tail sete, and
a different shell structure. JI am indebted to C. Spence Bate,
Esq., for specimens recently taken at Banff. I am not aware
that it has previously been noticed on our shores. It was
originally described by Mr. Goodsir in the Annals of Natural
Mstory for 1845. an .

Monstritta anaticA, Lubbock. Lubbock, Ann. and Mag.
Nat. Hist., 2nd series, vol. xx. .

Corycamus aneticus, Lubbock. Lubbock, Ann. and Mag.
Nat. Hist., 2nd series, vol. xx. |

The descriptions given by Mr. Lubbock (loc. cit.) are our
only authority for the existence of these two species. ‘They do
not appear to have been found by any other observer, and the
characters given by their discoverer would lead us to suppose
them referable to the Peecilopoda or fish parasites.

CETOCHILUS SEPTENTRIONALIS, Goodsir. Baird, Brit. Hntom.,
p- 235, plate xxix., figs. a—q.

Dr. Claus has divided this into two species, O. longiremis
and 0, Helgolandicus, and being unable to determine to which
of these two forms Goodsir’s description was meant to apply,
has dropped the original specific name altogether. This is to
be regretted, as it is almost impossible that, in the early

The British Oceanic Hntomostraca. 25

days of the investigation of any particular group, the minute
specific characters should be understood, or, indeed (in many
cases), that the really important characters should be recog-
nized as such. Under these circumstances it seems unfair
that the names proposed by the first describer should be
allowed to lapse, merely because their descriptions are not
found to be minute enough for the purposes of more modern
science. Where two or three forms, massed together by the
original discoverers under one specific designation, afterwards
prove distinct enough to require separation, any author describ-
ing them would do better to fix the original name upon one of
these forms, even though doubtful as to the first reference,
than to ignore the labours of a previous investigator by dis-
carding his nomenclature altogether.

C. septentrionalis, as met with in our seas, agrees entirely
with the characters ascribed by Dr. Claus to his C. Helgolan-
dicus. I can, therefore, entertam no doubt that Goodsir’s
specific name is properly referable to that form, and have here
retained it. on the ground of priority. The characters which
distinguish it from Dr. Claus’s C. longiremis appear in the
arrangement of the long sete of the upper antenne (Fig. 3),
and in the presence of a row of serrations on the mner side
of the basal joints of the fifth pair of feet. It haunts, indiffe-
rently, both the open sea and tidal-pools, and is often to be
met with in countless numbers, appearing to be pretty generally
distributed in our seas. I have specimens of it from Shetland,
Northumberland, and Durham, and the Channel Islands.

Catanus aneticus, Lubbock. Lubbock, Ann. and Mag.
Nat. Hist., 2nd series, vol. xx.

Unknown to me, except from Mr. Lubbock’s account of it.

Catants Cravsit, Brady.

A new species, ‘described by me in areport presented to
the Tyneside Naturalists’ Field Club, but not yet printed. The
fifth feet of the male are long and straight, slender, and com-
posed of simple cylindrical articulations, the last of which tapers
to a fine point. The first joint of the. abdomen is, in the
female, very tumid anteriorly. I have found C. Clausw abun-
dantly in gatherings of entomostraca from Shetland, the Chan-
nel Islands, and the coast of Durham, where it abounds both
in tide-pools and in the open sea.

Dias toneiremis, Liljeborg. Liljeborg, Crust. ew. nd
tribus, t. xxiv., figs. S18,

This species is readily recognized by the knotted appear-
ance and peculiar arrangement of the sete on the upper
antennz, and by the characters of the fifth feet, which, with
their uncouth and gouty-looking conformation, are not easily
described except with the aid of figures, for which we have

26 The British Oceanie Entomostraca.

not space. It is identical with Mr. Lubbock’s Calanus Hu-
cheta. I have found it in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man,
and Durham coast.

Temora Finmarcuica, Gunner. Claus, Copepoden, p. 195,
t. xxxiv., figs. 1—I11.

There seems to me to be no doubt that this is the species:
described by Mr. Lubbock (loc. cit.) under the name of
Diaptomus longicaudatus. It is, without exception, the most
abundant of the British Marine Copepods, at all events in -
littoral situations, where, during the latter part of summer, it
often occurs in such swarms as to form quite.a consistent mass
when taken up in thenet. Shetland, Durham, and the Channel
Islands have ali afforded me this species in great numbers.

Tamora veLox, Lilebore. Lil. Crust. ex. ord. tribus, t. xix.
figs. 9, 10; t. xx., figs. 1—9.

Four British localities, all of somewhat similar character, -
have yielded this species. One, a pool above high-water mark,
in the Isle of Cumbrae, Frith of Clyde, where it was taken
plentifully by the Rey. A. M. Norman; the others, brackish
pools in salt marshes at Hylton, about three miles from the
mouth of the river Wear, at Burgh Marsh, near Carlisle, and
at Hartlepool. In all cases sea water could find access to the
pools only at the very highest spring tides.

IcHTHYOPHORBA DENTICORNIS, Claus. Claus, Copepoden, p.
199, t. xxxy., figs. 1, 3—9.

IcutuyorHorpa HAMATA, Liljeborg. Claus, Copepoden, p.
199, t. xo.) figa 2, 10—12.

In this case, as in that of Geil septentrionalis, Dr.
Claus has divided a previously established species,, discarding,
at the same time, the origmal name. It is difficult to decide
to which of Claus’s species Liljeborg’s descriptions and figures
(I. hamata) are meant to apply; it is, indeed, possible that
both species have “sat” for the one portrait, but as, in most
respects, the original figures of I. hamata agree with the new
angustata, I have, on principle, retained the prior name. The
pecuhar fifth foot of the male (Fig. 4) separates the genus from
every other, and the two species (besides minor differences) may
be distinguished by the presence or absence, on the outer edge
of the basal half of the superior antenna, of several strong
toothed processes, these being present im J. denticornis and
wanting in J. hamata. The two forms occur mostly inter-
mixed, and I have them from Shetland, the Channel Islands,
and the Durham coast. The genus is mostly pelagic.

ANOMALOCERA Parersoni, Templeton. Baird, Brit. Hntom.,
p- 229, t. xxvu., figs. 1, a—1; 2, a—e.

A species first described by Mr, Templeton in the
Transactions of the Entomological Society, vol. ii, (1837), and

The British Oceanie Entomostraca. '-

afterwards, under the name of Irenceus splendidus, by Goodsir,
in the Hdinburgh New Philosophical Jowrnal for 1843. Dr.
Claus, in his recent monograph of the Copepoda, has adopted
Goodsir’s generic name, on the ground that Anomalocera,*
which evidently has precedence, is inapposite, as all the family
to which this species belongs have the males with dissimilar
antenne. But if we admit the right of authors to ignore prior
names, merely on account of a fancied impropriety, which gives
rise to no manner of inconvenience, we shall speedily have our
nomenclature in a state of inextricable confusion. We there-
fore adhere to the original generic name of Anomalocera.

A. Patersonii is the finest of all the British Copepoda, both
as to size and colourmg. When alive it glows with a splendid
iridescent lustre, the prevailing colours being blue, red, and
green. The antennze and caudal segments are mostly a
brilliant blue, while the body is mottled with varying shades
of red and green. The specimens from which our coloured
plate was drawn were taken by the Rey. A. M. Norman, on
the east coast of Scotland, in the summer of 1863, and. having
been mourited while alive in a gelatine medium, still preserve
their colouring in its original brilliancy. The species seems
to be distributed generally throughout the British seas.

Pontetta Wo.tastont, Lubbock. Lubbock, Ann. and Mag.
Nat. Hist., 2nd series, vol. xR

Of this species I know nothing. It is, however, in all
probability, identical with P. Helgolandica, Claus.

PoNTELLA BREVICORNIS, Lubbock. Lubbock, Ann. and Mag.
Nat. Hist., 2nd series, vol. xx.

A fine species taken by Mr. Lubbock at Weymouth, and
by the present writer in the Channel Islands,

REFERENCE TO PLATE.

Fie. 1. Upper antenna of male Tachidius brevicorms, macg-
nified 200 diameters.

Fig. 2. Lower foot-jaw of Thalestris longimana (copied
from Claus).

Fig. 3. Upper antenna of Dias longiremis, magnified 60
diameters.

Fig. 4. Fifth foot (right) of male Ichthyophorba denticornis,
magnified 50 diameters.

Fig. 5. Abdomen of female Temora velox, with spermato-
phores attached, magnified 40 diameters. .

Fig. 6. Male Anomalocera Patersonti, magnified 30 dia-
meters: a, rostrum, or beak;, b, upper antenna (right); c
upper antenna (left) ; d, lower antenna ; e, foot-jaws; f ff,
swimming feet; g, fifth foot (right) ; h, fifth foot et); ; 1, ab-
domen ; k, eye.

* From avwuados, dissimilar ; and repas, a horn.

28 Retarded Hbullition—Boiler Hzplosions.

RETARDED EBULLITION—BOILER EXPLOSIONS.

Proressor Durour, of Lausanne, has a long and interesting
paper on the “ Retardation of the Ebullition of Water, and on

a Probable Cause of Explosion im Steam-Boilers,” im the-_

Archives des Sciences, No. 83. We shall select the prominent
passages, which will show the character of the facts which
recent researches have made known in reference to these -
questions. ;

M. Dufour commences by observing that. the law usually
admitted as defining the relation between the boiling point of
any liquid, and the pressure upon it, is subject to numerous
exceptions. Gay-Lussac observed that the boiling point
of water and other liquids was retarded by glass vessels.
More recently MM. Marcet, Donny, Magnus, and others, have
written on the subject, and Mr. Grove has described experi-
ments in boiling water more or less deprived of air, and he
has remarked that no one has yet seen the ebullition of per-
fectly pure water. Three years ago M. Dufour published an
account of observations on water and other liquids heated in
the midst of a fluid of the same density, and consequently
withdrawn from contact with the solid walls of the containing
vessels. Under such conditions water could be heated to
170° C., chloroform to 100°, ete. From such facts it appears that
a temperature which gives to the vapour of any liquid a ten-
sion equal to the external pressure, is the minimum tempera-
ture at which it can boil; but the temperature at which it
does boil will depend upon the conditions to which it is ex-
posed, and especially those of contact with solids or gases.

After describing the apparatus which he employed, M.
Dufour gives the following results:—‘‘ When after a first
heating, not carried to the boiling point, the water is allowed
to cool and arrive at a given temperature (¢): if the pressure
is diminished until it becomes equal to the elastic force of
vapour at that temperature, boiling occurs exactly at the
point required by Dalton’s law, or a few tenths of a degree
below it.”

“When the liquid has boiled for some minutes before
being allowed to cool, and suffer the diminished pressure,
sometimes it will commence ebullition the moment the
elastic force of its vapour equals the pressure, while at other
times ebullition will be retarded more or less considerably.”

“When the liquid has been boiled three, four, five, or
more times before being allowed to cool, and suffer diminished
pressure, the retardations of boiling become much more fre-
quent and form the rule not the exception, . . . some-

Retarded Hbullition—Bowler Haxplosions. 29

times exceeding 20° and even 30° C. After a third re-heating
it is seldom. that boiling occurs at the normal point.”

Professor Dufour then tabulates his experiments, showing,
according to the circumstances just explained, retardation of
the boiling point ranging from 1°7 C. to 23°2C. He then
adverts to the well-known fact that the presence of platina wire
assists ebullition; but he tells us that, ‘‘ while it is rare, after
a first or even a second heating, that water containing platina
remains calm and liquid, when a diminution of pressure
affords conditions under which it might boil; if it is exposed
to prolonged and successive re-heating, retardations at last
appear as in the preceding cases. ‘The platina ceases to
excite a change of condition, and behaves at the bottom of the
water just like the walls of a glass vessel. We thus see what
chemists have often noticed, that platina, having served for
some time as a preventive against concussions, at last becomes
inactive and the pieces of wire have to be renewed.”

In former experiments Professor Dufour showed that
globules of water heated beyond 100° C. when surrounded by
other fluids of the same density, boiled furiously if touched
with pieces of wood, paper, cotton, etc., and he now finds that,
hke platina, these various substances lose their power by fre-
quent or continuous use. Partial renewals of the water occa-
sioned. diminution im the retardation of ebullition.

Professor Dufour remarks that, according to experiments
hitherto made on the retardation of the boiling point of water, _
it has been supposed that this effect is only witnessed in
vessels of glass or porcelam. He adds in a note, that M.
Magnus records an instance of retardation in a vessel of pla-
tina, and goes on to say that when ebullition is excited by
diminishing pressure, water in contact with divers metals
retards its boiling point, and thus the mere contact of a me-
tallic surface is not sufficient to counteract its tendency to
maintain the liquid state.

. When water is in a state of retarded ebullition it pre-
sents, In appearance at least, no special activity, although a very
abundant and exceptional surface evaporation is really going
on. It looks motionless and calm ; no bubbles of gas or vapour
disengage themselves from the mass or from the walls of the
vessel. This liquid condition is analogous to an instable
equilibrium, and ebullition may supervene all at once. The
sudden transformation of a portion of the liquid into vapour
sometimes occurs without any appreciable external cause; but
we are nearly sure of provoking it, by giving a shock to the
vessel, and sometimes we can do so by admitting a small
quantity of air. It is not rare to see ebullitions follow
a tolerably loud noise, such as a blow struck in an adjacent

30 Retarded Hbullition—Boiler Explosions.

room, or the shaking occasioned by walking over the floor.”
Professor Dufour compares this action to the effect of agita-
tion in exciting crystallization in super saturated solutions of
sulphate of soda.

After reference to experiments of M. Marcet and others,
the Professor observes that if the presence of a layer of
gaseous matter on the surface of a liquid excites its ebullition,
it must be interesting to know what effect would follow from
keeping a gaseous layer constantly renewed on the surface of
a body plunged into water. To ascertain this he immersed
two platina wires in water, and rendered them inactive by
repeatedly boiling the liquid. It was then possible to obtain
retardation of the boiling point to the extent of 10° or 15° C.
A galvanic current was then transmitted through the wires,
and gases were continually evolved from their surfaces, and
it became impossible to obtain the least retardation of the ~
boiling point. The currents of oxygen and hydrogen starting
from the two electrodes, acted as provocatives to ebullition,
the moment the change of pressure rendered that pheno-
menon possible.’ When ebullition had been retarded to the
extent of 15° or 20°, and was suddenly excited by the electric -
production of these gaseous currents, an instantaneous commo-
tion occurred as if gunpowder had been ignited.

It might be thought the electric current and not the evolu-
tion of the gases occasioned these effects ; but Professor Du- ~
four thinks the following experiments show that the gas is
the effective agent in the case. ‘ When a certain quantity
of water covered with oil is heated, by means of a bath, in a
vessel of porcelain which has for some time previous held
sulphuric acid, it is easy to obtain under a normal pressure a
retardation of 6° or 7° ©. If thin platina wires, that have
been rendered inactive by prolonged contact, are introduced,
the facts just cited may be observed, namely, retardation
of ebullition so long’ as the current does not pass, and its
excitation as soon as the current does pass. The ebullition
thus produced commences immediately round the platina
wires only, and. not in the space between them that forms part
of the circuit. If the platina wires are replaced by copper
wires, also made inactive, ebullition commences about the
negative pole only, where hydrogen is evolved; the positive
pole where the oxygen unites itself to the copper, and where,
consequently, no gas escapes, remains perfectly quiet, and is
not the seat of any ebullition.”

“* When the electrolysis is continued for a few minutes,
and the surface of the platina wires become covered with ad-
hering globules of gas, which remain even after the interrup-
tion of the current, these globules gradually detach them-

Retarded Hbullition—Boiler Hzplosions. 31

selves, taking more or less time aboutit. Now, ifitis only the
contact with the gaseous globules that excites ebullition, this
phenomenon ought to be seen even after the current ceases,
and the wires ought not to become inactive till the current
has ceased for some time. Experiments made in various ways
show that this is the case.”

When solids promote ebullition, Professor Dufour now con-
siders it may be owing to the gaseous matter that adheres to
them, and he thinks the power charcoal possesses of con-
densing gases on its surface, is the cause of its efficiency in
avoiding commotions during the ebullition of many liquids.

“The phenomenon of ebullition,” he states, “includes two
actions: a disengagement of vapour throughout the mass of a
liquid, which becomes passible as soon as the elastic force of
its vapour is equal to the incumbent pressure; and the mole-
cular action, obscure in its intimate character, by which the
liquid is changed for the gaseous form.” Contact with cer-
tain foreign bodies, and especially with gases, appears to give
rise to this molecular action, and consequently to determine
ebullition as soon as the state of pressure renders it possible.”
Professor Dufour considers that this molecular action is

distinct from cohesion, a force which opposes the division of a
liquid mass into smaller masses of the same kind. Steam is
not, he says, an aqueous dust, and in order to produce it some-
thing more than simple molecular separation is required.

Passing more immediately to boiler explosions, Professor _

Dufour observes that in a great many cases they occur when
an engine is at rest, and when the boiler has experienced a
certain amount of cooling. When this cooling occurs, it takes
place most rapidly above the surface of the water, and has the
effect of lessening the pressure of vapour that fills the upper
part of the boiler, and then, although perhaps seldom, the
ebullition of the water may be retarded as already explained,
and be made to begin suddenly by any concussion.
_ Small quantities of sulphuric acid materially help the
retardation of the boiling point, and two explosions at Aber-
dare seem traceable to the employment of slightly acidulated
water.

Professor Dufour considers that an apparatus to produce
an evolution of gas by electrolysis, or an arrangement for the
agitation of the water in boilers, might assist in preventing
their explosion.

32 The Germination of Fern Spores.

THE GERMINATION OF FERN SPORES.
BY THE REV. F. HOWLETT, M.A., F.R.A.S.

Fre. 1. 200 Diam. Frq, 2. 200 Diam.

400 Diam. 400 Diam.

Fra. 1. Portion of prothallium of Aiiéx-mas. A, Antheridial cells; B, Arche-
gonia; C, Sort of paraphysical filament ; D, Ordinary cellular tissue, but granules —
of chlorophyll are omitted. .

Fie. 2. Portion of prothallium of Lastrea recurva, with group of hexagonal
lantern-like archegonia.

Fig. 3. Antherozoids of Filix-mus in various positions whilst swimming.

Fie. 4. Portion of margin of prothallium of Osmunda regalis. A, Immature
antheridial cell with imperfect antherozoids; A’,‘A full-grown but empty cell;
showing the way in which the antherozoids (E) lie spirally curled up in the
water, upon first emerging from it.

To any one possessing a fairly good microscope, and who is
desirous of witnessing some of the most curious and beautiful
phenomena that are to be found, perhaps, within the whole
range of natural history, a method shall be described in this
paper whereby a rich fund of interesting botanical research
may be provided for the ensumg spring and summer, within
wonderfully limited territories, and at a very trifling expense.

It is true, a little trouble and care are requisite in the in-
vestigation, but, to an intelligent lover of nature’s microscopic
wonders, the results will be well worth the pains bestowed
upon it. !

Our subject is the germination and development of the
spores (or seeds, as they are sometimes though not quite cor-
rectly termed) of different species of those elegant cryptogams,
the Ferns. A paper on the same subject appeared in the

The Germination of Fern Spores. 33

29th number of the InrenectuaL Osserver (for June, 1864),
from the pen of Mr. R. Dawson, M.B., wherein, amongst a
good deal that was interesting and instructive, certain state-
ments were put forth by that writer which certainly demand
a few words by way of reply.

But, first, as to the method of observing the phenomena in
question.

Having provided oneself with one or more of the round
shallow glass troughs, with bell-glasses to match, such as are
manufactured at a very reasonable cost by Messrs. Claudet and
Houghion, of 89, High Holborn (and called by them propa-
gating glasses), let the troughs be filled about an inch or so
deep with clean river-sand. Ifsea-sand be employed it must
be scrupulously cleansed by repeated washings in spring
water, to get rid of the salt. Next, having prepared as many
small lumps of porous sandstone, each about 14 inches square, as
you wish to have species of ferns, and having conspicuously
scratched a number on each (Roman numerals are perhaps
most convenient) for the purpose of identifymg your future
plants, dip them in clean spring water, and place them on a
table which is not exposed to a draught. Then sprinkle sepa-
rately a very small quantity of fern spores on each of your
pieces of sandstone—having, of course, previously collected
the spores by placing a portion of the mature fronds, whilst
in fructification, between separate sheets of note-paper, and
preserving the spore dust which will be discharged from
them.

Great care is requisite m order to prevent the mingling of
the extremely light and almost invisible spores; and it is ex-
pedient to open only one packet at a time, dipping a separate
small. feather, or morsel of paper, into one packet after
another, and gently rubbing therewith the upper surface of
your pieces of sandstone; and, as another precautionary step,
it is moreover rather desirable that the stones should be
freshly fractured, or at least the surfaces rubbed to a new
face, as sporules of various kinds of mosses, Marchantie, etc.,
are very apt to establish themselves upon fragments of stone
‘picked up at hap-hazard by the wayside.

Then saturate the river-sand in your troughs with spring
water, till it is of about the humidity of mortar, arrange your
pieces of stone thereupon, so as you can most conveniently
see the numbers, a list of which, specifying the different kinds
of ferns, date of sowing, etc., may be advantageously pasted
outside your bell-glass for reference.

Place the glasses in a tolerably warm room or greenhouse,
but where they will not be exposed at any time to the direct
rays of the sun, and after a few days or weeks (according

VOL. VII.— NO. I. D

34 The Germination of Fern Spores.

as the temperature or season of the year may vary) each
piece of stone will be seen to be covered with a delicate green
efflorescence, like the fine pile of a velvet, or plush. These
are the germinating spores—called in this stage, and for some
months afterwards, prothallia, or first-leaves ; though, indeed,
the stones should occasionally be submitted for a brief while
(so as not to suffer them to ‘get too dry) to the microscope
before any such green efflorescence becomes visible to the
unaided sight, masmuch as the very first stage of growth
(which it is of importance to note, it bemg a moot point as to
whether germination takes place indifferently, or not, from
any point on the surface of the spores) is quite imperceptible
without the microscope.

Instead of, however, taking the pieces of stone from off
their moist bed of sand, it is a better plan to scrape off a few
of the spores from time to time with the pomt of a scalpel,
and submit them to a moderate microscopic power, say
=;th object-glass, to see how they are getting on. It may
be observed, in passing, that the spores would germinate
readily if the stones were simply placed m a trough of water
—hbut then the slightest disturbance of the vessel containmg
the miniature plantation would infallibly cause the spores to
be washed about, and to be commingled ; unless, indeed, the
stones were of a cumbrously large size. i

But, supposing the spores to have duly germinated, now —
comes the wonderful part of the story—so wonderful, mdeed,
that it is not surprising that it has been doubted by Mr. Daw-
son, and perhaps others, who have not been fortunate enough
to witness it ; though the writer of this paper, during the six
years that have elapsed since he first turned his attention
practically to the subject, has verified the phenomena scores
and scores of times, and has had the pleasure of show-
ing them to numerous friends, amongst whom he has the
honour of including one of the profoundest philosophers of
our or, indeed, any other time, the gifted Sir J. W. Herschel,
and who expressed himself as much struck with what he had
witnessed. ky tale

When the prothallia are sufficiently advanced in their
growth, and which circumstance will vary, as we have said
before, according to the different amount of temperature they
may have enjoyed, and to the different periods of the year
(the phenomena about to be described being rarely or never
seen, so far as the writer has observed, between October and
March), small circular vesicles, each about the size of the whole
original spore, will be seen to stud either the edge or the
under surface of the little prothallia; which last will be ob-
served to assume very different forms, being regulated in this

The Germination of Fern Spores. oo

matter partly by their species, and partly by the density or
sparsity of their growth. Very frequently, and especially
dmongst others, in the cases of the golden fern (Gymnogramma
aurata), of Strathopea germanica, and the noble British fern,
Osmunda regalis, these vesicles will be found to be most con-
veniently and conspicuously placed upon the very edge of the
prothallia, and consequently in the best possible situation
for microscopic examination. These are the ‘ antherozoidal
cells,” and being as transparent nearly as glass, their contents
are perfectly revealed under a good microscope. Before they
are quite mature they will be seen to be filled with crowded
semi-transparent greenish granules, which become more and
more pellucid as they approach maturity, until at length they
are each seen to assume a distinct form, something like a
minute transparent spiral shell, and to each occupy a separate
cell within the common enclosing vesicle.

If now, when thus mature—and the successive arrivals of the
prothallia to this stage extend over months, from one single
sowing, and from off the same piece of sandstone, so that sooner
or later they cannot fail to be in the right condition; if, when
thus mature, two or three of the prothallia are carefully
_ picked off the damp sandstone by means of a needle, and
immersed in a drop of water between two pieces of glass, the
little spiral shell-like bodies will in a very few minutes be seen °
to start out, somewhat suddenly, from the extremity of their
enveloping antherozoidal vesicle ; and after lymg quietly in the
water for one or two minutes will then unfold themselves, and
assuming a corkscrew sort of form will launch away into the
circumambient fluid, and wheel and sport about as merrily as a
swarm of gnats on a summer evening! Anything more like
voluntary and vital action (animal vitality) it is impossible to
conceive ; and the analogy indeed which they bear, there can
be little doubt, to certam phenomena in the animal economy,
will strike every microscopic anatomist, and may well excite our
admiration of that harmony of design, and unity of purpose,
manifested throughout nature by the great Author of all
things. For other marvels yet remain to be told respecting
these antherozoids. Some one or other of these erratic atoms
meet with another cellular organ, called the archegonium,
either on their own or some -neighbouring prothallium ; and,
according to the testimony of Sumniski and Mercklin, as quoted
by Mr. Dawson, and of Hofmeister, as quoted by Dr. Carpenter
(see The Microscope and its Revelations, page 404, ed. 1856),
. they have been seen to descend down a narrow orifice in
the same, until reaching what is believed to be the germinal-
cell at the bottom of the archegonial shaft, they fertilize the
cell; in like manner as the pollen from the anther of a flower

86 The Germination of Fern Spores.

fertilizes the germ-seeds through the channel and instru-
mentality of the stigma and pistil.

The author of this paper has never yet actually witnesséd
the descent of the antherozoids into the archegonia ; though the
latter organs, along also with the antherozoidal vesicles, and.
the antherozoids themselves, are all distinctly visible im certain
specimens of the prothallia of Filiz mas immersed ina solution
of acetate of alumina and distilled water, and mounted
permanently for the microscope ; and which have now main-
tained themselves in a state of perfect preservation for about
four years. See Fig. 1.

That the archegonia are truly thus fertilized, seems to be
shown from the fact that the true rhizome and fronds of the
young fern are always seen to spring, eventually, from a point
immediately in contact with one of the archegonia, situated near
the upper part commonly of the prothallium, and (as in the
case of Filix mas and others) on what would be its central line,
did any such line exist, but which does not.

The antherozoids, when set free, may be seenas spiral, club-
headed organisms, furnished near the thickest part with six cilia,

-with which they vigorously propel themselves with a peculiar
wriggling, jerking motion, through the water. But both these
undoubted facts, as well as the fertilization of the archegonia_
by their instrumentality, are considered as too romantic by
Mr. Dawson. ‘I'he compromise,” he says (see INTELLECTUAL ©
Oxsrrver for June, 1864, p. 337), “between animal and
vegetable impregnation is too obvious to be real; besides, what
are the cilia and curved tail for ? impediments rather than aids
_to going down a straight tube; and cilia are for swimming, but
_where has the Leander to swim to his Hero ?”

To this, the author of this paper replies—“ Because it is
requisite that the antherozoidal bodies should swim, therefore
we see that they are furnished with cilia! I have witnessed all
these facts repeatedly, with one of Messrs. Smith, Beck, and
Beck’s magnificent first-class microscopes, now in my pos-
session, with even as low a power as 60 diameters. And as to
the question, ‘ Where has the Leander to swim to his Hero ??—
if by this is meant, where is his Hellespont? I would answer |

thus—paraphrasing the well-known beautiful, but rather
boisterous glee— .

“Of water alone he wants no more
Than the prothallium supplies,
When a dew-drop lies
On its leaf, on a summer Heres ie

And again, writes Mr. Dawson, “I have carefully observed
these bodies”? (the antheridia, he means, and archegonia),

The Germination of Fern Spores. 37

“which are clearly to a demonstration nothing but roots and
stomata in all. stages of development; * * * but thatthey ”
(1.e. the antherozoids)“ have tails and whiskers is pure imagina-
tion.” If Mr. Dawson, nevertheless, or any other gentleman
will spend an hour or two with the author of this article, next
spring (if spared to see the “ green leaves come again”), he
will go away without any shadow: of doubt about the stirring
fact of those masculine appendages to the antherozoidal bodies !

But one word more, as a critic, and that with respect to the
doubt expressed by Mr. Dawson, as to whether it be true, as
stated by Balfour, Moore, Carpenter, Lindley, and Hofmeister,
that germination takes place indifferently from any point of
the surface of the spore, and not from fixed points. The writer
must confess, and that with great diffidence, in the face (if it be
really so) of such high names, that he does somewhat participate
in Mr. Dawson’s doubts; though he may, very possibly, soon
have to retract even this modicum of dissentient opinion. And
now his attention is called to the point, he will find, probably, but
little difficulty (owing to the abundant means for investigation
at his command) in satisfying both himself and friends on this
question ; his only reason for at all demurring to the opinion of
_ the eminent writers above mentioned, arising from the peculiar
forms and ornamentation of certain fern spores, which would.
seem to bespeak a special relationship and subservancy of
parts one to the other, and not an indefinite one as regards
germination. oF. A uk

It may be observed, lastly, that whatever ferns may do
when left to natural circumstances in their native haunts, they
only attain their growth very slowly when propagated on sand-
stone under bell-glasses. At least, spores of Filix mas and
Pteris tremula, for mstance, which were sown in the early
spring of 1859, and potted m 1862, only began to exhibit
fructification on their fronds in July 1864. On the other hand,
whilst probably not one fern-spore in a million (if that propor-
tion, even) germinates when left to nature, nearly every one of
them will grow when under the artificial treatment described
in the preceding pages. It is, not, however, to be concluded
that the countless millions of spores which fail to germinate
do not fulfil some more or less important part in the hidden
economy of Nature.

38 A Brief History of a River Tank.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF A: RIVER TANK.

BY SHIRLEY HIBBERD.

Aw object with which most of my friends are familiar isa
plain rectangular tank, containing rockwork, water, and gold
fishes, and which occupies a conspicuous place in the entrance-
hall of my residence at Stoke Newington. It is such a very
unpretending affair that I dare say many of my friends will at -
this stage of my “ brief history ” think that I have made a
mistake in selecting such a subject fora paper in the InTELLEC-
TUAL OBSERVER, but if they will just read on, I have no doubt
I shall be able to satisfy them that my tank is an object of
some interest, not enly to myself personally, but to the culti-
vators of aquaria everywhere. In the Book of the Aqua-
rium I have endeavoured to expound the “ natural system ”
of tank management, which, as its name implies, is the only
system by which satisfactory results of a permanent nature
are to be obtained. The history of aquaria in the most extensive
sense, 18 simply a history of the rival pretensions and diverse
results of the artificial and natural systems of management.
The artificial system is, perhaps, no system at all, because the
practitioner seeks merely to gratify his fancy in forming an
assemblage of aquatic plants and animals; the tanks are
elaborately decorated with fountains, grottoes, and banners of
vegetation, and stocked with crowds of fish.

Under some circumstances the artificial system answers
admirably ; in others it is a failure from the first, and every
repetition of the experiment ends in the same disappoimtment.
For all show purposes the artificial system is invaluable. It
has often been my lot to exhibit. tanks at soirées, converza-
ziones, etc., and they have always been greatly admired; but
so thoroughly artificial have been the arrangements that I have
sometimes taken up from the garden tufts of Holeus saccha-
ratus, Arundo donaw, and other large plants of graceful habit,
and, having washed the earth from their roots, have planted
(t.e. fixed) them in good positions, pro tem., for crowds of gold
fishes, minnows, bleak, etc., to gambol amongst. JI remember
some years ago, when visiting Leeds to deliver some lectures
on aquaria, | had the privilege of inspecting the tanks of Dr.
Hobson, which were the most satisfactory exemplifications of
artificial management I had then or have since seen. A
very elegant room was appropriated to a series of vessels,
in which was kept up a constant and copious run of water,
the stream passing from tank to tank, the tanks being in a
succession of levels, so that from one end of the room

A Brief History of a River Tank. 39

all were visible in an ascending series, which produced
an agreeable tout ensemble, and at the same time made one
source of water supply sufficient for the whole. This was a
strictly artificial arrangement, but it was perfectly successful.
The tanks were all well stocked with fishes, reptiles, insects,
etc., classified according to their habits and proclivities, and so
grouped that when viewed collectively, the scene was beautiful
in the extreme. One more instance of artificial management
for show purposes will, perhaps, suffice. When lecturing at the
Reading Institution some years ago, [had an accident, and spoiled
nearly all the sea-water that had been secured for the display.
But I was not to be beaten by trifles. I had enough sea-water
left to filla few large shallow glass pans; into these pans I
transferred the anemones, star-fishes, etc., and gave them just
enough water to cover them, and in the show tanks I grouped
the large handsome specimens of algze that had been collected
for the purpose, so as, with serpule shells, rocks, etc., etc., to
make handsome ¢roups, and filled those tanks with water drawn
from the Institutional water-butt, and kept the secret to myself
from that day to this. That was a perfectly successful under-
taking ; the tanks looked beautiful by gaslight, with their grand
groups of algze, and as for the animals, the thin film of water
over them, and their recent travel and subsequent transference
from their places in the tanks, caused just enough of that
peculiar irritation which seems to be needful to cause a full
display of the beauties of certain of the Radiates, and the
audience had the advantage of beholding star-fishes, plumose -
anemones, and other marine subjects, in the attitudes they habi-
tually assume when safely anchored fathom deep in ocean
brine.

The natural system is an imitation of nature, not in out-
ward appearances merely, but in conditions. Tanks managed
on the natural system may be made to have a most beautiful
appearance, and I flatter myself that the example I am now to
bring before you could not be easily surpassed for beauty, con-
sidering it simply as an appropriate item in a “‘ home of taste.”
But itis impossible to use such vessels for show purposes ;
any disturbance of the furniture would be a violation of the
most essential conditions, and mere decorations are not to be
tolerated; they are, in fact, forbidden by the laws on which
the system is based. How do we proceed to carry out the
natural system? We form within a vessel or vessels a group
or groups of objects in imitation of rock-pools, running streams,
lakes, ponds, and so forth. If.it is intended to keep in any of
the vessels creatures that habitually dwell in mud, there must
be a bottom of mud for them. If retiring places and dark
recesses are needed, they must be built; whatever is to be the

40 A Brief History of a River Tank.

purpose of any particular vessel, it must be prepared in the
first instance so as to contain within itself all the conditions
essential to success, and when it is completely stocked it must
be left to take care of itself; and if it becomes unsightly, or
the animals become diseased and perish, then in that particular

instance the natural system has failed through some error or_

oversight of the practitioner. Of course in all this there is
much that is artificial; for instance, it is artificial to put fishes
into glass vessels of any kind, and very artificial to build minia-

ture caves and grottoes of coke or broken bricks ; but the term —

natural system is nevertheless’ quite legitimate, because the
endeavour at every step is to illustrate the operation of natural
laws ; whereas on the other system the endeavour may be
simply to carry out a fanciful device, or a scheme which in its
first elements sets the laws of nature at defiance.

The tank I have to describe was fitted and furnished more
than seven years since. It is a simple rectangular vessel, in
form nearly a double cube, and its position is m the entrance-
hall adjoining the rear wall, where it is sufficiently illumi-
nated to render every part of its contents agreeably visible to
the eye, yet it receives scarcely any direct light whatever. It
is Impossible there should be anything more simple than the
furnishing of this vessel, yet it does not lack certain features
that render it attractive to unscientific eyes. I fitted it myself,
and proceeded as follows:—I procured from the cellar a
number of large pieces of coke, some of which were broken,
to afford ample choice of blocks of various forms and sizes.
Those were preferred which had a somewhat rugged face, but
which nevertheless were large and flat, giving plenty of lear
surface, so as to be best adapted for building a.wall of very
moderate thickness. These were two or three.times dipped
into a thick batter of Portland’ cement, and were finally
cemented together in blocks of suitable width for convenient
lifting, with one or two empty flower pots at the base and within
every block. The flower pots were used to create a flat basis, so
that each block would rest on the bottom of the tank securely,

and for the additional reason of the increased lightness of the:

blocks so constructed, the fronts being made solid. and massive,
yet hollow within, and the pots not at all or only slightly covered
with rock on the sides intended to form the backs of the
blocks. Thus arugged wall of rock was formed in a series

of detached pieces, massive in appearance, yet of no greater

weight than admitted of convenient lifting. Such a wall
made of mica schist—which is the best of rocks for aquaria
where its weight is of no consequence—would soon have ruined
the tank, and perhaps have brought down tank and stand
within a few hours of the first fitting. With coke and flower-

©

A Brief History of a River Tank. AL.

pots you may build another Tower of Babel, and its weight
would scarcely make an indentation on a newly-ploughed
field.

The rocks were, as soon as tolerably hard, placed in a large
vessel of water. A tank im the garden used for ordinary
garden purposes, answered admirably for the soaking process
that all newly-cemented work must undergo before it should
be used in an aquarium. ‘The only preparation the tank
itself underwent was to colour the back, so that glimpses of
the wall should not be seen through any possible interstices of.
the rockwork. I took some sheets of green tissue paper,
smeared the back plate of the glass all over with copal varnish,

oi
ae
ie

a i

hl He
mt =

{H

a ;
\

of anil i |
Le 7

ch

i i i
Pe
| tt Hl

SSS

SS

|

a= SS

SS

iH

SSS

pressed the paper smooth on it, and by that experiment
determined that if it ever becomes needful to colour one side
of a tank, the paper and varnish is the most effectual and
cleanly that can be adopted. In due time—a fortnight
perhaps, not less—the blocks were taken from the bath and
placed in position. A bottom of clean well-washed pebbles
was laid down, the tank was then filled with water, and the
. gold fishes and minnows were introduced.

That is nearly all that has been done to the tank from that
day to this. Yet a few things remain to be said. In the first
place, it has been a complete success, and the nature of that

42 A Brief History of a River Tank.

success may, perhaps, surprise some of our non-successful
aquarians. Jor instance, the water has never once, during a
period of over seven years, been pea-soupy, or even cloudy, or
otherwise than as brilliant as all that we have in our mind’s
eye when talking of the “crystal sprmg” and the beverage
of Castally. There have been deaths im 1t—deaths by com-
pulsion, the result solely of experiments made with a view to
test the extreme capabilities of the system; but there are in
the tank at this time gold fishes that I have had m my keeping, |
and that have never been otherwise than healthy and happy, —
during a period of more than nine years. If any of our
readers have kept gold fishes m glass vessels as long or longer
than I have, I should much like to hear of it, and with the
fact a word as to the conditions. Furthermore, to keep this tank
in order is a matter of such small trouble that it may be literally
said to take care of itself. Ordinary dusting and occasional
cleansing of the exterior are, of course, necessary, and for the in-
terior there are two operations only that are needful. The fishes
are fed with rice boiled in water, or with bread crumbs. I believe
that bread is as good a food as they can have, and as' it is
always handy, it is a great advantage to be able thus simply to
perform a duty which is generally too much neglected, for there
are still to be found some benighted people who think that gold
fishes can live on the invisible tenants of the tank, and get fat,
as it were, uponnothing. The other operation is the occasional
cleansing of the front plate inside. This is accomplished by
means of a piece of sponge, attached, by means of twine, to
the end of a stick, and the stick is thrust behind the tank, so
as to be always handy for the purpose. » This cleansing of the
_ front plate is performed about once a fortnight durmg summer,
and not more than once in three months during winter; m
fact, it might be left undone from November to March, and the
view would be unimpaired by even the shghtest film of con-
ferve; but from March to October the growth is sufficiently
rapid to produce a perceptible green tinge on’ the glass in
eight or ten days, and this is easily removed by the sponge.
In cases of long neglect I find the most effectual mode of
cleansing to be with a cloth on which a little silver sand is
sprinkled; this, drawn over the glass with the sand, brmgs
away the crust at once, and if carefully done, appears not to
cause any serious scratching of the glass, though if the glass
were of poor quality, perhaps it might.

The reader has of course taken note of the omission from
this history of all mention of the introduction of plants to the
tank. Ihave never introduced a plant of any kind, yet the
rocky wall is richly coloured with microscopic forms of vegeta-
tion in beautiful green, bronze, and russet patches, and if the

A Brief History of a Itiver Tank. 43

glass ends are left untouched, they in time become quite
opaque with a dense coating of olive-coloured vegetation. This
is one of the grand features of the natural system. I may
introduce a thousand plants, Anacharis, Valisneria, Stfatiotes,
etc., etc., and they may all perish. But those Dame Nature
introduces are sure to live. Being developed in situ they are of
constitutions adapted to the conditions which exist in the tank,

and though it requires a long time for a vessel, situated as this
is, to become richly clothed with suitable oxygen makers, some
supply of oxygen is secured from the very first, for I] have seen
ciliated spores and beginnings of genuine vegetable deposits
within a few hours of the first furnishing of a tank. Hence it
was that, fortified by previous experiences of the natural
system, I did not hesitate to introduce the fishes as soon as the
tank was furnished, without waiting for the full development of
the microscopic forest, for I knew that before the fishes ex-
hausted the oxygen in the fresh river water, there would be
the beginning of a new supply for them, and there was never
any distress through that procedure.

I have italicised above the words “ situated as this is.”
The situation of this tank is the secret of its success. Near it
on one side is a window facing west. This window lights the
hall abundantly, but very few rays of light from it fall directly
on the tank. The only direct light which strikes upon the
tank comes from the fanlight over the door directly opposite,
and that is, of course, but moderate im amount: Now, in the
early days, when I wanted a quick growth of Oscillatoria, and —
other oxygen makers, I had the blind drawn up at the side
window, and there was then no fern case there. The abundance
of light caused a speedy diffusion and germination of spores,
and as soon as [ saw that the vegetation was likely to be too
plentiful, I had the blind drawn down, and intercepted’ the
light that still came by means of a fern case. Thus by toning
down the daylight, and having my tank where an excess of
light was impossible, I secured a moderate, yet plentiful
growthof plants, and have never had one vegetable filament more
than needful, except on the front glass, where of course it
intercepts the view of the interior. It must not be ‘supposed,
however, that the hall is dark in consequence, it is, in fact,
well lighted, and very cheerful.

Now a word for the fishes. I find that for a vessel of
this sort, which though to me an experimental and scientific
affair, is in all other respects a piece of elegant furniture,
. there are no fishes that may be kept with such certainty as

gold carp. My old friends of nine years’ standing (or swim-
ming) have gone through several severe trials and seem none
the worse. I cannot say how.much they have grown during

44 A Brief History of a River Tank. .

this long period; but I think they have grown, though cer-.
tainly very little. They are tame and lazy, and happy
and beautiful, and they have served an important purpose to
me besides the adornment of the hall, for, after their seven
years’ habitation of this tank, having had two years of active
experimentalizing previously, they have solved the problem of
the cubic space required by a fish for breathing room, and I shall
be able to give a safe rule for the guidance of all cultivators of
aquaria. 1 have arrived at the maximum capacity of my tank ~
in various ways. One way was to introduce occasionally a
few new fishes. As common carp abound in a pond close by, a
good many have had temporary residence in the tank. Min-
nows have been used in the same way, and I have also added
gold carp, and other fishes which are generally tolerably
adaptable in constitution. But it always happened that when
the fishes exceeded a certain number there were signs of dis-
tress. I could not begin changing the water to obviate this,
because that would be to annihilate the natural system “at
one fell swoop.” No, the water has never been changed
during the whole seven years, though, of course, it is necessary
occasionally to make good the loss by evaporation. But I did
try on a few occasions of extreme distress to aérate the water
by the use of a garden syringe. Charging this from the tank
the water was ejected back with force through some slight
atmospheric distance, carrying streams of bubbles to the bot-
tom of the vessel. ‘This would be amusing, because the fishes
would rush at the streams of bubbles. and absolutely gulp
them; but it was fagging work, and, of course, was only per-
formed by impulse and not by system. "The end of every one
of these experiments was the same. One or two of the newly
introduced fishes would, after the lapse of about a fortnight, be
found dead and “ floating on its watery bier”’ Nextafew more
would die, and. so on till the whole of the new comers were
cleared off, and the old, well-seasoned members of the “‘ happy
family?’ remained unhurt, but breathing more freely for the
relief, and no doubt rejoicing to have got rid of the innova-
tors. Suppose now that you have some gold fishes, averaging
four to six inches in length, to preserve for any length of
time by the natural system, and under circumstances at all.
resembling the case here described, for half-a-dozen of those
fishes you must have a vessel holding at least twenty-four
gallons of water. The smallest of your fishes will need three
gallons, all larger four or five gallons. Most of the failures m
tank management have resulted from over-stocking, but the
modification of the light is an equally important matter.

The natural system can be carried out in marine tanks in
much the same manner as in river tanks, though, of course,

Notes on Fungi. Ad

‘the cases differ in many respects. In a marine tank which has
been in operation four years, and is scarcely ever touched or
disturbed in any way, I have some British mollusks that were
introduced in the first instance, still in perfect health. During
the very hot weather of the past summer I lost two or three
periwinkles, but I have still several of the periwinkles living,
after four years’ residence in the vessel, and during the whole
of that time there has been no vegetation except such as is
strictly microscopic.

NOTES ON FUNGI.—No. I.
* BY THE REV. M. J. BERKELEY, M.A., F.RB.S.

A Few years since there were scarcely half a dozen persons

who made Fungi an object of study, or who were at all aware
_of their importance in the economy of nature. At present,
thanks to the popular work of Dr. Badham, and to more scien-
tific helps which were previously unattainable in our own
language, there is a growing desire to become more intimately
acquainted with them, a desire which is checked only by the
extreme difficulty of the study, especially of that more impor-
tant division Agaricini, which comprises a great part of the
species which are used for food, or respecting which a mistake
may lead to fatal results. .

Every accident, however, which arises from the use of

dangerous fungi is not attributable to ignorance.. Peculiarity
_ of constitution, or, as it is called in the language which is fre-
quently so annoying to judges in the course of trials where
medical evidence is necessary, idiosyncracy, has a great deal to
do with it. ‘The incompatibility of every kind of shell-fish
. with some constitutions is notorious ; and I know an instance
where the smallest quantity of egg acts as a pernicious fer-
ment, inducing a variety of unhappy consequences. This,
however, is not all. The cases of death or illness from fungi
_ mostly arise among the poorer classes; and it is not wonderful
if, after a hard day’s labour, when a pound or more of coarsely
dressed mushrooms is consumed without due mastication, a
severe fit of colic or dysentery should take place. Where the
esculent Agarics are consumed in moderation and eaten with a
proper quantity of bread, f believe that they are perfectly
wholesome, as Wildenow found them when living on them
for weeks to the exclusion of other food, except the coarse
. German bread.

46 Notes on Fungi.

_ The prejudice against anything except the common mush-
room, and a particular form only of that, is so strong in this
country amongst the poorer classes, that there is little pros-
pect of their availing themselves of the bountiful feast which
is prepared for them in the fields—a prejudice so strong, that
even amongst educated people I have known instances in
which persons had arrived at thirty years and upwards who
had never ventured to taste even a mushroom. There are,
however, numerous persons who wish from curiosity or from
some better motive to become accurately acquainted with
these productions; and it is with a view to facilitating their
studies that these notes are commenced with the genus
Agaricus, to the exclusion at present of the more nearly allied
genera. ‘

The genus Agaricus numbers in the Outlines of British
Fungology above 350 species, and it is probable that when the
British isles have been thoroughly investigated, 150 more
may be added to the list. The difficulty of ascertainmg any.
particular species amongst so large a number, where the dis-
tinctions are often very subtle, can scarcely be exaggerated ;
and yet a few plain rules will remove a great part of the
difficulty.

The division Agaricini is distinguished from others by the
fructifying organs being disposed on certain gill-hke plaits or
veins on the under surface. In a few rare instances this sur-
face, or, as it 1s called, hymenium, is turned to the light im the
course of growth, though originally inferior. Several genera
are comprised in the group, distinguished by their corky,
leathery, waxy, or extremely deliquescent consistence; by their
having a veil attaching the pileus to the stem, appearing to
the eye as if composed of threads like those of a spider’s web ;
by the interior substance of the gills, whether abounding with
a milky juice or otherwise, consisting of little vesicies instead
of threads; by the gills being reduced to veins, or by one or
two other distinctions which are of little importance as regards -
British species. The genus Agaricus, comprising the true
mushroom, witha multitude of other wholesome species, re-
mains characterized by membranacéous persistent (not deliques-
cent) gills, thei interior substance filamentous and continuous
with that of the pileus and their generally acute edge. =

Having then obtained something like a correct notion of
what a true Agaric is, and being able at once to distinguish the
genera, which might most easily be confounded, as the milk-
fungi Lactarii, the rigid brittle-gilled milkless Russule, the
spiderwebbed Cortinarii, with their spores resembliig in
colour peroxide of iron; the waxy Hygrophori, which adorn
our heaths and open meadows with the most brilliant hues;

Notes on Fungi. AW

the tough Marasmii and Pani, which dry up rather than cor-
rupt in decay; the Paxilli, with their gills separable from the
pileus; and, lastly, the inky fungi, which in a few hours pass
mto a black ink-like flud, though some of these even are
esculent in a young state, ‘the student with a real Agaric im
hand has to determine to which of the numerous divisions in |
the genus his species belong.

Now there is a character which will at once enable him to
refer it to one of six great groups into which Agarics have
been so cleverly divided by Fries—a character which, though like
other characters in natural history, is not absolute, but accords
with the real affinities of these plants—I mean the colour of the
spores. A very little practice will enable the student at once to
say to which great group any particular species belongs ; but till
this tact 1s acquired, or where doubtful cases arise in the course
of more advanced study, it will be well to collect the spores by
simply placing the specimen on a sheet of white or black paper,
inclosed in some vessel which excludes the air. In the course
of a few hours there will be a thick deposit, unless the speci-
men is too far advanced, or has become dry from exposure to
the sun. ‘The spores will be found to be either white, or pink,
or ferruginous, or brown, or purplish-black, or black, according
with the divisions Leucospori, Hyporhodu, Dermini, Pheoti,
Pratellini, or Coprinarii. Amongst the Leucospori in a few
instances the spores will have a slight tinge of yellow, or pos-
sibly of pink, but not of so decided a character as to invalidate
the importance of the distinction; in Dermini there will be
different ferruginous shades, partaking more in one case of
yellow, and in another of a red tint; but there will be no real
difficulty, and the peroxide tint of the spores of Cortinarii will
be distinctive enough even apart from the spidery veil. The
spores themselves will not very frequently present distinctive
characters; but two prominent forms will be found in Hypo-
rhodiu, distinguished by great neatness of outline and extreme
irregularity ; while amongst the. Dermini cases will be found
where they are studded over with granules, presenting an
excellent mark of distinction between species which might
otherwise be difficult to separate.

The student having thus ascertained to which of the six
main divisions his species belongs, will proceed to the characters
of the sub-divisions, or sub-genera. It appears greatly pre-
ferable to consider them as sub-genera than as genera, as it
keeps the whole under one common view, and there is really
- no less difficulty in the one case than in the other, though
something of the kind is often alleged as an excuse for
multiplying generic names.

- Before, however, he proceeds further it will be well to have

48 Notes on Fungi.”

some mode of preserving specimens for comparison. Now it
is true that the softer fungi cannot be preserved as satisfactorily
as most Phenogams, but with care they will make useful
specimens for the herbarium. If gathered in moderately dry
weather, and dried like other plants, after a day’s exposure
to the air, they will often, if the papers are changed frequently,
and well dried before each change, make tolerable speci-
mens. ‘Thin sections may be prepared in separate papers, and
both together, after being well washed with a solution of corro-
sive sublimate, when glued on paper, will give all the principal ©
characters, and the point of a lancet will always enable the
student to remove spores enough for microscopic observation.
The collection will, however, require frequent inspection,
especially to guard against the ravages of mites. A dry room
is essential; but apart from this, if the drawers are lined with
cedar, few insects, if any, will appear, and a free use of pure
benzole will soon destroy any that may resist the cedar. ©
Moulds, perhaps, may be more difficult to guard against, but
frequent inspection and a dry atmosphere will do much.

As regards the mode of keeping the specimens, far the
best way is to have slips of paper which are multiples of some
convenient unit, on which the specimens can be glued accord-
ing to size, and the shps can then be fastened to sheets of the
common herbarium dimensions.

In the next set of notes the characters of the different
groups of Leucospori will be given, with notices of the most
approved and safe esculent species, as also of those which
have been clearly ascertained to be poisonous or deleterious.

The Lunar Arctic Region. 49

THE LUNAR ARCTIC REGION: MARE FRIGORIS:
MOUNT TAURUS: POSIDONIUS.—OCCULTATIONS.

BY THE REV. T. W. WEBB, A.M., F.R.A.S.

In our previous description of the neighbourhood of the N.W.
lunar limb, we broke off without reaching the Pole. We must
therefore now turn our steps in that direction. As a necessary
consequence of the very slight inclination of the lunar axis, the
arctic zone, properly speaking—that is to say, the region around
the Pole where the sun never rises in winter and never sets in
summer—is of much less extent on the Moon than on the Karth ;
its radius being only about 13°, instead of 234°. But, as Begs
and Midler observe, this would by no means produce a greater
equalization of mean temperature than upon the earth. The
question, however, of the distribution of lunar climates and their
analogy with those of our own globe is a difficult one, being
complicated with the absence of any dense atmosphere, which
on the earth materially diminishes the force of the oblique
solar rays, and, as we have now learned from Mr. Glaisher’s
balloon ascents, produces meteorological effects not hitherto
fully taken into consideration.

As we approach the Pole we find in the Full Moon a multi-
tude of converging luminous streaks, the major part portions of
great circles, but some of irregular curvature. Their point of
union is the ring-mountain Anaxagoras (No. 46, in the next
quadrant).* These streaks, as B. and M. observe, pass over
every inequality of ground alike, and are not at all elevated
above the adjacent soil. This they satisfied themselves of as
fully in this district as elsewhere, by watching their aspect on
the terminator, where a bank of less than 150 feet high must
have come out in its true relief.

Strabo and Thales, two craters of moderate size, will be
found close to each other; the latter, which is the more east-
ernly, being the more regular, steep, and brilliant of the two..
Strabo lies about its own breadth distant from Hndymion to-
wards the Pole. Some short streaks issue from Thales, one
running eastward having a very defined edge, like the shore
of a sea, on its N. side. When a favourable state of libration.
brings these objects away from the limb, their aspect is a
striking one; the effect of local shading causing Thales to stand
out as a commanding height, in cold and barren insulation.

N.W. of Thales, and considerably nearer to the limb, lies
a crater undescribed and unnamed by B. and M., and not

* See Index Map of the Moon, vol. y., p. 190,
VOL. VII.—NO. I. E

50 The Lunar Arctic Region.

made sufficiently prominent in their map. Its long-enduring
shadow, however, under a favourable libration, proves it to be
a very important object, and one of the leading features of the
district, and it would be desirable that it should receive a suit-
able designation in the enlarged nomenclature which Mr. Birt
is engaged in carrying out. ‘This portion of the Moon does not
bespeak any especial care on the part of B. and M. It should
have been noticed in our last paper that, though they have
drawn, they have not described two curious streaks 8. of Her-
cules, which distinctly converge upon the little bright crater m
its interior, though they are lost before they reach the external
foot of the great wall. Between Genunus also and Thales is a
curious arrangement of light and shade, neither drawn nor men-
tioned by them. As to drawing there is little to be said. It
was a hopeless undertaking to combine m one representation
the local colouring of the lunar noon with the true relief de-
veloped by the shades of morning or evening. <A separate pic-
ture is wanted for the Full Moon, a chart or diagram for the
phases. It would, however, have been more satisfactory to have
found some account of a fine broad streak, somewhat like the
tail of a comet, which I have seen 3d. 15h. after First Quarter,
5d. 22h. after greatest S.W. Libration, passing from the region
of Geminus just 8. of Struve, and forming the 8. shore of the Mare _
Humboldtianuwm, of which it seems to flatten the curve. Between
this place and Hndymion it is subdivided into two or three nar- "
row rays, and between Mercurius (a considerable crater N. of
Struve) andthe M. Humboldtianum, it is crossed by another re-
markably thin, straight, and even streak ; the intersection of the
two forming a patch of light more brillant than either of them
separately. This is a suggestive circumstance and worthy of
attention. ‘The last-mentioned streak is of considerable length ;
its actual bearing upon the Moon is probably 8.8.H., and not far
from perpendicular to the other, though foreshortened into great
obliquity of position: it becomes gradually invisible either
way; in one direction between Struve and the limb; im the
other, beyond Hndymion, where if it is not lost, it bends more
to the 8., or perhaps another ray takes up its course and runs
into Thales. All this, of which no note is to be found in B.
and M., is merely a specimen of what isto be met with in many
regions in the high illumination of the Moon. ©
At some distance H. from Thales we come upon a district
remarkable for a network of intersecting ridges, by which it is
mapped out into separate areas, of various, occasionally even
rectangular forms. There seems little difference of level or
colour: the ring-mountains which occur are flat: craters, some
of them of great brilliancy, have broken alike through the
ridges and the plains. Still further N., B. and M. have spoken

| The Inmar Arctic Region. , 51

of the impossibility of identifying the spots called by Schroter
Levelland J. J. Cassini. This is not very wonderful, as the
old Hanoverian has clearly placed them in the next quadrant,
on the other side of the First Meridian! We shall revert to
this matter in its proper place, remarking only at present that
the harmonizing and rectification of the existing drawings of
the N. circumpolar region would be a task of considerable
difficulty.

Very near the Pole lies Scoresby (our No. 7), a ring of con-
siderable depth and reflective power, and one of the best guide-
points in this ill-marked district. It has in the interior a crater
and two hills, which are very difficult to be perceived; its
form changes much of course with the libration, varying from
0°36 of the length to 0:09, when its contour as a crater can
no longer be recognized.

The North Pole of the Moon lies in a mountainous district,
but on a far less magnificent scale than the one diametrically
opposite. The difference between the character of the lunar
Arctic and Antarctic regions is plainly seen by the shape of the
horns before the first or after the last quarter, the N. being far
less broken and irregular. There is no indication whatever of
snow. A separate map of this vicinity, very beautifully and
minutely executed, with a corresponding description, is given
in the Beitrdge * of Beer and Midler, from observations
taken under a conjunction of circumstances so peculiarly favour-
able as to be worthy of remark, for the encouragement of those
who may have been disheartened by frequent disappointments.
1834, Sept. 17, the moon was on the meridian at 12h. 2m.,
with a S. latitude of 4° 59’, and was full 9m. afterwards. This
remarkable coincidence was further favoured by such clearness
and stillness of atmosphere as sometimes cannot be met with
for a year together in the climate of Europe. An uneclipsed.
moon of course cannot be “full,” in the proper sense of the
word; being always deficient on the side nearest the point of
opposition to the sun; and consequently, instead of a circular
limb, the N. polar region exhibited shadows enough among its
ridges and hollows to bring out their true relief, and enable a
drawing to be made. The next night, and three nights at the
ensuing Full Moon, proved again so favourable that little had
to be added on future occasions. They have indicated the
exact site of the Pole in a level between two mountainous
ridges, and at the foot of a summit of 9400 feet. These heights
deprive it for ever of the direct light of day, but must bestow

* The complete title of this valuable though fragmentary contribution to
modern astronomy is, Beitrdge zur physischen Kenntniss der himmlischen Korper
im Sonnensysteme. It contains many original observations on the moon and
planets. There isa French edition also, entitled Fragmens sur les Corps Célestes.

52 The Lunar Arctic Region.

upon it a faint illumination reflected from their own crests, on
which the sun never ceases to shine. From this region the
centre of the earth is never seen higher than 7°, and the sun
rises only to 14° above the lunar horizon.

Mare Frigoris (W. half).—This on our map is the portion
of the shading lettered B, extending from the first meridian
(which of course stretches between the letters N and 8) towards
the W. as far as Nos. 4 and 5. (It should be observed, by the
way, that the shading on the map is not intended to represent
the precise form of the plain, which is very indefinitely bounded,
but merely to indicate its general position.) _- It is a grey level
of a feeble yellowish or greenish-yellow grey, and looks often
exactly like a strip of cloud lying across the moon. It contains
nothing very remarkable. The Lacus Mortis is a continuation
of it between Nos. 5 and 17. ‘This flat incloses towards its
middle a tolerably conspicuous and deep crater named Birg,
with a central mountain. Its depth as measured is about
6800 feet.

The Lacus Somniorum (C in our map) continues this level
landscape, but with many irregularities, as far to the S. as the
border of the Mare Serenitatis (Ki), from which it differs by
being much less flat and even, as is evident when they are both
intersected by the terminator at the same time. “Ifthe sup-—
position,” say B. and M., “of a watery covering on the moon |
were admissible, the Mare Serenitatis might have been com-
pared to a deep sea, diversified by islands and insular chains ;
the Lacus Somniorum, on the contrary, to a shallow expanse
of water, which allows the irregularities of the bottom to ap-
pear through it.”

Our guides now carry us across to the range of mountains
called Taurus (the centre of which is marked 8 on our map).
This is an extensive region, bounded by the Mare Serenitatis
on the E., the Lacus Somniorwm on the N.E., the Mare ©
Tranquillitatis (D) and its subdivision the Palus Somni on the
S., and on the W. by the range of large craters extending
northwards from the Mare Crisiwm. It readily divides into
one great mass to the N. and two inferior groups to the S.
and $.W.—the first containing the craters Romer and Posidonius —
(9, 10); the second a crater called Vitruvius; the third, the
craters Macrobius (11) and Proclus (12). The mountains are
for the most part arranged in labyrinthine masses, intermingled
with plains and valleys,

Romer (9) is aring-mountain with a very broad and ter-
raced wall. Its depth is computed to be 11,500 feet (Schroter
gave 8600), with a breadth of about 25 miles; and its interior
contains a mountain (5000 feet high according to Schréter),
and a bright crater. To the N. of Rémer, Lohrmann, upon —

The Lunar Arctic Region. 53

whose Section III. we have now entered, represents some ele-
vated masses much more steep and lofty than any which could
be identified by B. and M., the landscape appearing to them,
though mountainous, yet much more open. On its H. side we
meet with a curious bay, named Le Monier, forming cne of the
darkest portions of the Mare Serenitatis, and bounded by a
semicircle of steep and lofty cliffs— the half, to all appearance,
ofa great rmg. Of the other half, B. and M. could find no
trace ; they did not consider an insulated hill, lying out “at
sea,” though in the right direction, any portion of it, its height
(3100 feet) being far inferior to that of the cliffs, which rise in
two places to upwards of 8000 feet, and the faintly distinguish-
able ridges connected with it taking wrong directions. It
must be noted, however, that these are otherwise drawn by
Lohrmann, and that two of them, according to his figure, very
fairly complete the circle. Minutie of this kind must be at-_
tended to by those who desire to throw light upon the origin
of the lunar formations. Although we are unable to detect the
existence of any “degrading” influence upon the surface of
the Moon, or to comprehend how its masses once erupted—if
such were their mode of creation—could, in the absence of air
and water, suffer any change excepting what might result from
shipping or earthquakes (the reader will pardon the solecism),
yet it cannot be denied that in many places there are indica-
tions of subsequent alteration which it is more easy to perceive
than to explain. Sometimes we might probably incline to the
idea that the appearance was deceptive, and must be referred
to other causes; but those again are sufficiently obscure. The
question is a curious and interesting one, but requires to be
approached with much caution; we find from the example of
geologists that even a personal examination of the lunar strata
might not exempt us from considerable perplexity. We have
already met in the M. Crisiwm with stances which would fall
within its range (InreLiectuat Ozserver, April, 1864, pp.
204, 205) and shall have to notice many hereafter. Le Mon-
ner is easily recognized under all circumstances of illumination,
reminding us in this respect, as well as inits general character,
of its gigantic counterpart, the Sinus Iridum (K in our map)
to be described at a future time.

A little N. of Le Monnier we come to Posidonius (10), a
ring-plain of considerable importance, about sixty-two miles in
diameter,* remarkable for the defined outline of its wall, which

is, however, of no especial height.+ A long curved ridge

* Lohrmann gives nearly seventy-four miles: Schréter, about sixty-nine.

+ An evident mistake, probably a misprint, in the text of B. and M., prevents
their measures from being available. Schréter gives about 3000 feet to three of
its peaks on the H. side, above the UM. Serenitatis.

54 The Lunar Arctic Region.

branches off from the S.W. part of the wall, and runs along
the W. side of the interior, leaving a very narrow, but gradually
widening trench between itself and the main wall, and vanish-.
ing in a most minute point: it is less conspicuous for height,
not exceeding 1400 feet, than for sharpness of contour. Schré-
ter has not represented it very well. The interior is but
slightly uneven: it contains a small but deep crater, Posidonius
A, the definition of which, as of most of the objects connected
with this great ring, is peculiarly clear. tis more remarkable
in another point of view. 1791, November 1, Schréter saw and -
represented it asa pretty flat depression or ring-plain, its interior
bemg merely grey, without any dark shadow, while seven
other small craters in the immediate vicinity had a very obvious
black shade within. On referring to a previous drawing, made
1788, August 19, he found that he had then seen it as an or-
dinary crater, and so it appeared on the following evenmg
(1791, November 2), as a pretty deep hollow with a black
shadow like its neighbours, although of course under a con-
siderably greater angle of illumination than twenty-four hours
before. Hence he concluded that on November 1, the shadow,.
which must have not merely existed but been more exten- '
sive, had been concealed by the intervention of something
giving the crater a grey aspect; and this again would infer
the presence of a lunar atmosphere, however subtle and limited
in depth. The valley of Lihenthal in which he lived would
preent, he thought, a similar aspect, if similarly viewed, when

uring the month of June the moors were set on fire for agri-
cultural purposes. As an analogous indication he remarks
that the careful observer will often perceive, in localities in the
Moon where mountains have never been noticed, something
like very flat hillocks that seem to come into existence under
the eye, and again disappear: and if they should be caught up
on future occasions, are always found in some altered form.
Some such minute variations he noted in the interior level of
Posidonius, and thought it possible that they might be connected
with the assembled habitations of intelligent beings, “who there,
as well as we here, praise the goodness and wisdom of their
Maker : at least this hypothetical supposition is not unworthy of
the greatness of the Creator of the universe ; and appearances
which vary in such manifold ways admit of being very well recon-
ciled with it.”** Such changes, however, he admits, might be
equally referred to clouds, or rather their analogues. And if so,

* It is worthy of note that Herschel I. in his early days, when alone he seems
to have paid attention to the moon, expressed his conviction as to ‘the great,
probability, not to say almost absolute certainty, of her being inhabited.” This
impression appears, however, to have been merely the result of her general
aspect,

The Lunar Arctic Region. ah9)

Gruithuisen would fully confirm the idea from his own obser-
vations, in which they held a prominent place. But whatever
may be our opinion as to these points, which, if demonstrable
at all, certaimly require more rigorous demonstration, there
can be no question that the phenomenon described by Schroter
was deserving of attention. It was quite safe from neglect in his
hands; he measured the depth of the little crater on two occa-
sions, ‘and made it 3774 and 3504 feet, the correspondence
showing clearly that there could be no very material error,
with a height of 2070 feet for the rmg above the external
level; a relative amount agreeing well with the usual propor-
tion on the moon, and showing that there is no improbability
in the supposition that the rings are the result of actual
eruption. He found also on another occasion (1791, Dec. 30)
the interior shadow much too triflimg in proportion to its dis-
tance from the terminator, so as to give the appearance of
great shallowness; but in no subsequent observation with any
of his telescopes was the greyness which at first struck him to
be found again. Lohrmann takes no notice of Schréter’s state-
ment, which is given in great detail: B. and M., as an excep-
tional case, have cited some part of it, and are disposed to
admit its correctness; but they have added so much in the
way of disparaging remark that it is obvious what was their
real estimate of their predecessor’s labours. It must be ad-
mitted that to a certain, extent they were right, and that many
of Schréter’s supposed changes may be otherwise explained ;

but we shall hereafter find sufficient evidence that they would
have better consulted their own reputation if they had abstained
from censuring his. prejudices till they had at least m some
places equalled the general faithfulness of his comparatively
rude delineations. Schréter has recorded many other minute
variations in the aspect of the interior level and the wall, which
need not be referred to further than as indicating the desirable-
ness of a more accurate study of similar details, for which this
great ring seems conveniently situated. I regret to add that
1 have given but little attention to it, partly perhaps in conse-
quence of its comparative want of elevation, . which renders it a
less conspicuous object than might haye been expected at a
moderate distance from the terminator. There are, however,
two unusually deep craters on the N.W. side of the ring, whose
shadows, if they were of greater breadth, would catch the eye
strongly. The larger, or exterior one, which is marked h by
Schroéter, was twice measured. by him at 9223 and 10,858 feet
7a sufficient evidence, ab any tate, of its enormous depth ;

the corresponding measures of his 7, which is the smaller, are
9543 and 10,976 feet; fully justifying his remark, ‘ What an
extraordinary romantic prospect. would not these two craters

56 The Lunar Arctic Region.

exhibit to the human eye, if it could look down beneath it
from the inner slope of their rings into such deep basins shaped
by nature, and could see the day break in these natural moun-
tain cauldrons, that in point of depth could receive our St.
Gothard into them.” These measurements are accepted by
Lohrmann, but B. and M. do not even allude to this extraor-
dinary depth, and have only thought the inner of the two
craters worthy of a letter of reference (B).

This great ring-plain, and its subordinate members, afford —
an instructive instance of two leading facts pointed out by
Schréter, and exemplified more or less in every part of the
moon, that the lesser are in general the more recent eruptions,
and that the smaller craters, when not actually deeper than
their larger neighbours, as is frequently the case, are almost
universally so in proportion to their aperture. These evident
workings of general laws require the especial attention of —
every student who wishes to investigate the early history of
the moon.

It is somewhat singular that Lohrmann has assigned a
brightness of 9° (the maximum being 10°) to our central
crater, Posidonius A, which B. and M. rate only as 6° to 7°.
Had the observers not been nearly contemporary, we might
have supposed some alteration in reflective power. 3B. and M.
speak of two other points as reaching 7°, and therefore by
inference exceeding A in brightness; the one, the deep crater
B in the N.W. ring; the other, a summit on the ring where it
abuts upon the adjacent smaller rmg-plain Posidonius F, on its
S.W. side. So little is really known respecting what may be
called the local colowring of the lunar surface that landmarks
of this kind are deserving of record and re-examination from
time to time, and we are not without some reason, as will be
seen hereafter, for believing that a careful investigation of this
subject might meet with its reward.

The cavity Posidonius F, just mentioned, is distinguished
by a minute crater in its centre; a position much more fre-
quently occupied by a solitary peak, or group of small hills.

I have observed that Lohrmann has considerably exag-
gerated the size of a small crater (C in his notation—unlettered
by B. and M.), lying at some distance H. from the N. end of
Posidonius, in the M. Serenitatis. Too little care seems to
have been in general taken in the delineation of small craters
in the same neighbourhood according to their proportional
size; itis to be hoped that future contributors to selenography
will be more scrupulous as to this point, which only requires a
moderate degree of attention, and a little caution not to be
misled by any apparent enlargement of the ring near the
terminator. It is only by means of carefully proportioned

The Lunar Arctic Region—Occultations. 57

drawings that we shall be able to ascertain whether any
enlargement of existing craters is in progress at the present
day. The extensive system of measurement which Mr. Birt
has undertaken with so much spirit and energy will be most
valuable in this respect.

It is not our intention to enter into speculations as to the
origin of the present condition of the lunar surface; some
inferences are, indeed, very obyious; still, on the whole
sufficient materials have not been collected for any satisfactory
generalization. But suggestions are always admissible, and
sometimes useful ; and it may therefore be remarked that the
aspect of the partially-doubled and divergent rampart of
Posidonius might be thought indicative of the intrusion of
semi-fluid matter from beneath into a combination of two
craters, one formed excentrically within the other.

OCCULTATIONS.

February 2nd.—o Arietis, 6 mag., 1]h. 57m. to 12h.
46m.— 9th,.60 Cancri, 6 mag., 5h. 16m. to 6h. 16m.

58 Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory. | E |

RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE,
KEW OBSERVATORY.

LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w.

BY G. M, WHIPPLE.

1864, Reduced to mean of day. Temperature of Air. At 9°30 a.mM., 2.30 P.m., and 5P.M.,
PEERS ES PEE Ever e ney (Sabena Pemernee ny, respectively. s
“~ f Calculated, gm ‘i
~ 2 a = a"
m ae. | 3 Bye lee ls fe] F i
fe | et ee a) a Veet aay aaa
Month. | ge / 2/2 /8/% 1/58 |ssi S| 8s Direction of Wind.
Bea |} 8 |e] eo} a | 8 |#°) 2) Bs
Bo a © & ae) sgc/8 (a) a
eile cil Sh) eal es | Sacra z
inches. i A inch is s i inches. t
Oct. 1 | 30-095) 53°5| 48°6} -85/-420| 60-6 | 46:3/14°3| 9, 9, 4| Eby N, ESE, E by N. | 0°000)
Be cigar diiteottir |! soc t BOre WAC Olek al), ' rc .c. mi a) “020
» 38 |80:278) 48°6|35°5| -63)-356) 53°6 | 43°3/10°3/ 3, 1, 2 E, ESE, E by N. 000]
» “& | 80°132) 47-0 86°8) -70|-337| 51°6 | 42°7; 8°9/ 0, 1, 6 E, E, E by N
» B | 30:048| 502) 40:2) -71)-376) 56:0 | 41°3/14°7) 0, 0, 0 E, E by N, E£
3, 6 |30°155| 51°7/41°3) -70|-395| 59-0 | 36-9] 221; 0, 0, 5 E, E by 8, E
5» 7 |80°227| 52°8) 443) -74)-410} 59°8 | 42°3/17°5| 0, 0, 0 ENE, EH, E by N
» 8 |30:214) 52:2/44°1) 76) -402| 59:9 | 37-4) 225] 2, 3, 7 E, ENE, E by N
EO sec | see Uy eect iol Gl ARENA L Tala cee
» 10 | 30-253) 50:2| 45-2} -84]-376] 54°8 | 45-7] 9-1) 1, 10, 9| NE by N, NNE, N by E.
y 11 | 30:324) 49°5|42°9| -80|-367| 54°8 | 45:9] 8-9) 7, 10, 10 N, Nw, NW.
y> 12 | 30-249] 52°4) 42°38; -71|-405| 57°7 | 47-5] 10-2/10, 10,10) NNW, NNW, NW by N.
» 13 |30:076| 51-4/41°6| -71/-391] 55:2 |49:5| 5-7|10, 10,10) NW, NW by N, NW.
5» 14 | 30-038) 51°5| 46°6| -85/-393| 56:6 | 44-1/12'5/10, 910| WNW, Nw, N.
> 15 | 30°117| 47-4) 38°3| -73)-341| 53:5 | 38-7) 14:8] 0, 3, 8 NE by N, N, —.
Bea | es MLAs iim saecilimceiil) eosin ane (Mahe ca ue
» 17 | 29664) 52°4)50°7) -94/-405| 5971 | 49:3) 9:8] 8, 9, 9| SW, SW by W, WSW.
», 18 | 29°661| 53°4)48°9| -86/-419| 58:0 | 48-6) 9:4] 5, 9, 10\SW by W, W by N, SW byS.
3, 19 | 29:197| 60°7|54°6; -82/-535] 65:6 | 45°1|20°5| 1, 3, 7 S by E, S, 8 by E.
»» 20 | 30°366| 51°3|46°0; -84/-390) 58:1 | 489) 9:9) 1, 5, O SW, SW, W by Ss.
29°417| 50°0| 44'3| -82|-373] 56:2 | 41:4) 14-8] 9,10, 9 ESE, ESE, ESE.
29°057| 52°1| 49°6) -92/-401) 57°5 |49'3| 8:2| 7, 8,10! ESE, S by E, S by E.
‘as vee foe | ae |. | 546 | 48°7) 5:9 Hi : ay Ae
29'379| 49:3] 40°5| -74)-364| 56°5 | 35°7|20°8] 6, 2, 1 —, SW, SW,
29°457| 50°6| 47°2) -89|-381) 54°6 | 37°6| 17-0! 9, 10, 10 ENE, E, ENE.
29'291) 5271 50°8) -96|-401] 55°5 | 49-0] 6:5/10, 10, 10|H by N, NE by N, NE by N.
29°302) 52°8, 52°1) -98)-410) 56°1 | 51:9} 42/10, 10,10] NW, SW by W, SW.
29:499] 51:1) 47°4| -88|-387) 57-8 |46-1/11°7/10, 3, 5 —, E, NE by &.
29°702| 49°6| 46°7| -90) 368] 54-0 | 49:2] 4:8 10, 10, 10/ENE, NE by B, NE by E.
Pesce Me aul wee SO | AG Aes
30°181| 42'9| 36°1| -79| 292] 48-0 | 41-0] 7-0] 7, 2, 0 E by N, E by 8, ESE.
Meny, } | 29-860] 51-0] 44°7| “81)-388] 0. |... [aay

* To obtain the Barometric pressure at the sea-level these numbers must be increased by ‘037 inch,

59

Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory.

HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THE WIND (IN MILES) AS RECORDED BY ROBINSON'S ANEMOMETER,—Ocronme, 1864,

=
OO ONIN Or STO

536/561)/637

AwWAwa SO 6 0

498)376

342/222

|

260,

ODOTOODONAE DS

Ree
et bet

TATA OCTWR OW

169/205] 95) 95

299/332|156 =

24
25

COONnNmwWNW WwW

35/320|377/469

DW HH HOH BADRARAANEHRHENWOWwWAD

a

WOO AQTH WO
Wr DOr Rw & CO

ABHAOMIWEATOAMOTNIOAON NNN AIDWwo

|
|
|

314238124) 588 |305

20 | 21 | 22) 23 | 24.| 25 | 26} 27 | 28 | 29] 30] 31

—— | | emece | | | cs |e | eens | es | es

Hourly
Means.

3

41) 12°8

Daily
Means.

60

Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory.

RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE
KEW OBSERVATORY.

LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6" N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w.

} | 29-774] 49-7| 97-7

* To obtain the Barcmetric pressure at the sea-level these numbers must be increased by ‘037 inch,

Temperature of Air.

1864. Reduced to mean of day.

= e Calculated. g =

5 < Belo: esc

o*, oa = =] ee

Day HY ° Sia los

of Stage eile 9 fee: ol Cae Bar

Month aah ta la | ae ie Ad

See ae oe | tel Be

og a 2) r=| 530
g mitoses gcxy
ee |e |A|3 |e | eae
a a ae ales

inches.| 5
| Noy. 1 | 307193! 44°8) 34:1! -69)- 48°2,
9 2 |80°146) 43:8) 34-0) -71)- 46°3
» 38 |30°281) 45:0, 37-9] -78)- 50°5
» 4 |380°446) 41-4 35°S| -82)- 50°3
3» © |80°347| 44-0 38°8) -84)- 50'7
PP ene Aipeee Y cecetly Seat cece AS
» 7 |80°406, 34-4 31:5} -90)- 39'5
» 8 |30°118} 88-6) 35-7] -90)- 45°1
9 9 |30°149| 42°3) 32°9) +72) +2 467

» LO | 30°034) 38°4' 31:9) -79)- oe
x 11 | 29°917| 34-7| 31-4 -89 38°8
35 12 | 29°786| 37:9) 34-1) -88 43:0
9 ode Seg baa I ode 49°6
+ 28°759) 46°4 518
= 28°805) 42-7 47-7
a 29°369| 44-0 47-2
ae 29°254| 48:5 54°3
fe 29-402) 49:0 53°3
” 29°816| 48-0 52°4
op sik dU Ricee ll eae 53°1
> 29°863) 43°7| 43-0 5271
” 29°543] 44-9) 40:9 52:1
» 29°610| 42°7| 39-4 46:2
49 29°253) 38°3| 35°3 40°7
99 29°303| 40°3) 35:4 45°7
» 29-090) 40:6} 34°4 45°0
” ac slalom maiares wl cerate 52°9
” 29°739| 50:3} 45-0 53°9
s 30°364) 40:4] 36°5 46°9
” 30°123 | 45°8] 38:3 48'5

cod ing RES

Lol @ m
sala | Sg
gol ves
Me 2

a Ay
39:8] 8:4) 5, 6,10
41-2] 5°1| 8, 7, 9
37-1|13-4| 0, 3, 3
28-4) 21°9| 0, 0, 0
31:0|19°7|10, 7, 6
254/124),
31-2) 83/10, 9, 3
27°1| 18'0|10, 10, 10
33-5| 13-2| 5,10, 10
23'5| ...{10, 0, 4

27-4} 11-410, 9,10
31:1] 119/10, 10, 1
351/145] |,
43:0| 8:8] 0, 4, 1
32:9] 14-8|10, 9,°10
37-0| 10-2/10, 7, 10
31:1) 23-2/10, 10, 10
45°4| 7-9| 7,10, 2
33°8| 18-610, 9,10
44-2} 89)...

36:1|16-0|10, 10, 6
39°5|12°6| 3, 9, 3
36'3| 9-9| 7,10, 10

25°1| 20°6| 9, 1,10
34:6| 18-3

34°6|12-3| 0, 1, 0

13°6)...

At 9°30 a.m., 2.30 P.m., and 5?.M.,

SW by W, WSW, NNW.

SW by 8, SW by 8, SW.

SW, SW by 8, S by W.
W by N, W

35:0| 5°7|10, 10, 10} -

26-4|18-6| 3, 4, 3| WSW, WSW, W byS.

34:6| 19'3/10, 10, 9|SSW, SW by 8, SW by W.
36'8| 11-7| 9,10, 10, SW by 8, S by W, SSW.

respectively.

Al

‘Direction of Wind.

S by WwW, —,
NE, ENB, NE.

NE by E, NE, N by E.
WNW, WNW, W.
SSE, S by E, SW by S.
SW, W by 8S, WSW.
S by E, 8 by W, SSE.

— 'y &
S by W, 9, SE by 8.
W, SW, SSW.
SW, SSE, 8.

SW, SW by S, S by E.

ical Observations at the Kew Observatory

Meteorolog

HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THE WIND (IN MILES) AS RECORDED BY ROBINSON’S ANEMOMETER.—Novemnnr, 1864.

= bo bo bo G9 G9 C9 02

334/170

5
5
5
5
3
2
1
2
2
3
2
3
2
0
0
1
2
1
1
1
(0)
1
2
2

69|187|262) 51] 89

ONE NWRr ORR wONW es

EOIoIwWONWWKROANWANNHHENHEOOS

BPNNNNWNKFENNNNWNONNEOOHMRK who

eK Ro Ser)

167/157) 48)104) 581

314

HEowwohR Dw oor ~oo-~77

10} 11] 12] 13 | 14} 15 | 16 | 17 | 18| 19} 20 | 21 | 22) 23) 24

OCmoOnbw he

GCnwnwonwwr boat

ee
AAITISH WOW

NTIOOSOOGNWHYNEFOREN NNW tb

bo 6 6 GD OUO Or

1141 |237/248)144'278)204'301

Hourly

25 | 26 | 27} 28| 29/30 lareane

CO STATO TTT

AN NMWAwWWOOK od

ee
TIMDHHWMOOO

ra
SOAR

—"
=)
: ell EL all nd
WTA WANT OAOBANONIRHROSOCOOOONHONO
—
LS

2'75|306|255)467/178/494) 103

62 Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory.

RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE
KEW OBSERVATORY.

LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w. x

1864. Reduced to mean of day. Temperature of Air. At 9°30 a.m., 2°30 P.m., and 5 P.M.
———— = respectively.

Calculated.

3 H lle ed

Ss S' . Sei iee ies a ! b>
Dey, | Bee lo te Te les (eagle 2
of Se Nee ag et ee al eo hey aes |
Month. 83 £ eS E e oes Eo i ieee Direction of Wind.

Bo 5 e © y ga Ba| 3 ne

alte ee bee dS le aes itl A 2°

a |e Spee kaa z

fee laos ek I

inches. | , ms inch. s inches. |
Dec. 1 | 30:168! 41:8) 39°3] ‘91)-281; 47-3 | 31:3 0, 0} SW, SW, SSW. 0254 |
» 2 | 80'391) 35-1} 33°8| -96) -222) 47-2 | 26-5 ia) ee freien Fs "000 | -
» 2 | 80°334) 47-4) 44-7) +91) - ‘6 |33°7 9,10) Sby W, SSW, —. 010 |
SLT Wit C1 | eee oes (oe AAO} 4°38) os Tr 008 |
» 2 |80:046 48-2) 86°7| 67) ° ‘8 | 44°5| 8°3| 6, 0, 0 SW, S by W, S. -000 |
» © | 80-003) 47-3) 45°6| -94)- 2 |42°9| 83 ee SW, W by 8, SW. 000 |
» & | 29°864) 46-7) 44°6) -93) ‘7 | 35-0) 13°710, 10, 10 8, 8 by W, SSW. "004
» 8 | 29°657| 43-7| 41-1) -91) - ‘7 |44-9| 18,10, 7, 7| SSE, SW, Sby W. -040
3» _9 | 29°817| 441) 41°4) +91) - ‘4, | 27-9) 19°5|10, 3, 3} —, 8 by W,S by E.
», LO | 29°838| 39-9) 38°1) | -94/ - ‘0 |38°7| 63) 3, 8, 0 E, SSE, NE.
Te A an ea eae as 2 |30°0/20°2; ca ae
3, 12 | 29-496 45-5) 42-4) -90)- ‘6 |445| 41) 8,10, 4| SE by S, S by E, SW.
3» 18 | 29-543) 42-8] 42°0) -97/- ‘0 | 32-9} 13-1/10, 10, 10 NE, E by N, E. :
y» 14 | 29-774) 40°1| 36°5| +88) 265) 41-2 | 37:3} 3°9,10,10,10) ENE, NE by BE, NE. |
»» Ld | 29-742) 33°4) 28°8| 85) - ‘1 |33-1| 2°0)10,10,10/ NE by E, NE, NE.
» 16 | 29:822| 32-6| 30°0| +91) - ‘3 |33°0| 2°310,10,10| ENE, E by N, ENE. }
» 17 | 29°814) 28-2) 23°1| 83} 0 | 27-0) 4:0; NE, NE by E, N.
5 2S tes pe osse che ee ee ‘1 | 16°3} 20°8 td wae Ree
3, 19 | 29-924 36-9) 33°7| -89]- ‘4, | 26-1 —, SE by E, SE.
» 20 | 29:848) 44-0) 42°4] +94! -304) 47-7 | 30°4 SE, E by S, E by N.
3, 21 | 29-969/ 39-1) 36:0] -90)- ‘7 |89-1| 1:°6'10,10, 10] WSW, SW by W, NW.
x3 22 | 30-204) 33-9) 29°6| +86) - ‘8 |35-0| 0°810,10,10) ENE, NNE, NE.
» 23 | 30°430)| 31-7| 26'8| -84)-197| 33-2 | 30-5) 2°7| 9,10, 10 EH, ENE, ENE.
9 24 | 30°555|30-7| 26°8] -87}° ‘1 | 26-6| 6°5| 9,10,10} NE by E, NE, NE by N.
“TO Sees eae Gi aa, ee 303] 40]... Se ies
6) DOU eee ree een See a 32-4) 47) o.. Ses oe
» 27 | 30°309| 32'5) 26-7 -81) - 27-8, 7°9| 1, 9,10 Nw, —, NNW.
9, 28 | 30°341| 38-1 34:0) -87|- 426 | 28°S|13°8| 3, 7,10 SW, W, W by S. -
3 29 | 30°329| 40°8| 36°5| °86) 271) 42°7 | 32-1|10°6/10, 10,10] _NWby N, SW, SW.
»9 30 | 29-941) 38:0] 34-2} -87} - 400 | 38-3} 1:7/10, 10,10) SW by 8, SW, SW by 8S.
» 31 | 29°824) 345) 31°6| -90/-218) 36-9 | 30:5} 6-4] 9,10,10} NE, ENE, END.

really } 1 30-000) 39:1) 35°6

Means,

* To obtain the Barometric pressure at the sea-level these numbers must be increased by ‘037 inch, + Rainand melted
snow,

63

Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory.

HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THE WIND (IN MILES) AS RECORDED. BY ROBINSON’S ANEMOMETER.—Drcemerr, 1864,

A.M.
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P.M.
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10:2
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10°1

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108

ante |

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103

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10°6

Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory.

64

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‘The “ Popular Microscope.” 6a

THE “ POPULAR MICROSCOPE.”

Unoper this title, Messrs. Smith, Beck, and Beck have intro-
duced an instrument exhibiting more useful novelties in con-
struction than have appeared in any other microscope for a
long time. In point of rank, the “ Popular Microscope” is
intended to take its place between the most simple and the
most elaborate patterns. It is devised for those’who require
more than can be obtained in the various: instruments’ now
offered. for about five pounds, and who from choice or e¢onomy
wish to stop far short of the large price which’ “= best makers
all charge for their first-class work.

We never undertake to offer any opinion on the purely
commercial question of which optician offers the most for a
given sum of money. Whenever a new microscope appears,
we desire to make our readers acquainted with its peculiarities,
and we only feel justified. in noticing imstruments that differ in
some important particular from what has been previously
produced.

The requirements of the publi¢’ are so various that they
can only be met by the exertions of a variety of manufacturers
directed in somewhat different ways. One microscopist will
have a handsome-looking instrument at a: low price, and he
must be contented with inferiority in the optical work ; another
will put up with an ugly and even awkward stand, if better
glasses accompany ib; a third wishes for glasses that divide
into lower powers on account of their economy, and he must
be content to have less perfection than ean be obtained by the
purchase of objectives made’on a-different plan. Even when
money is plentiful, and the student is willing: to give a hundred
guineas or more for an instrument, he will still find that which-
ever pattern he chooses;he goes without some advantage that
another pattern may possess. Jt-is only just to various makers
that these facts should be insisted upon, and ib is for our
readers to form their own opinion of the extent: to’which the
changes introduced by Messrs: Smith, Beck, and Beck are
likely to meet their own peculiar requirements.

The first thing that strikes an’ observer of the “ Popular
Microscope”’ is the new mode of adjusting’ it to any angle
between a horizontal and a perpendicular position. On re-
ference to the annexed sketch, it will be seen that the base is
a triangular frame, down the middle of which are four holes,
‘a pm L, and an upright K having a hole, shown by the
dark spot at the top. The tube carrying the body of the
instrument is attached by a pivot to a broad stay, G, and
the bottom of this stay is hmged on to the base, F. At the

VOL. VII.—NO, I. FE

66 _ The “ Popular Microscope.”

bottom of the tube H is a pin that fits into any of the holes
in the base. If this ‘pin is inserted into the hole near L,
the instrument is held upright or vertical. If into the hole at
the top of the little support, K, it is horizontal, as shown in
Figure 2.* The other holes permit it to be adjusted in in-
termediate positions. The me-
chanical effect of this arrange-
ment is to give great stability
with very little weight. The
“coarse and fine adjustments,
O, O, and P, need no explana-
tion.

In the construction of the
two stages supplied with this
instrument, much ingenuity
has been usefully exercised.

One of these stages is in-
tended for finger movements,
the other has mechanical mo-
tions on an entirely new plan.
Both stages are
circular. They fit
on to a short
stout piece of .
tube, and can
be rotated with
slight pressure.
It appears to us
that this plan,
~ with mechanical
=== ) arrangementsfor
rotation, might
be adapted with
advantage to
first-class instru-
ments. It is
compatible (as in
the Popular Mi-
(i croscope) with a

a thin stage anda
large central aperture, facilitating the use of oblique light.
The object-holder is attached to the under surface of the stage
by a simple circular spring, and holds it down with a force
that is easily regulated by two screws. By this means the
pleasant smooth resistance afforded by the magnetic stage

¢ é The page containing Fig. 2 must be turned sideways, to bring the figure
right. i

The “ Popular Microscope.” 67

is obtained without the uncertainty that is inseparable from
the magnetic pattern. ,

The mechanical stage is quite new and very simple. It
has the usual quick movements, and the slow ones are regu-
lated by two milled
heads working on con-
centric spindles, as in
Powell and Lealand’s
pattern. One of these
spindles has a friction
hold upon a plate, which
it carries up or down,
while the second spin-
dle pulls the first back-
wards or forwards hori-
zontally, and the move-
able plate is so at-
tached as to go with
it. This agam is an
arrangement that looks
likely to work well with
first-class instruments. ||
It is simpler than the j/
ordinary plan, and does |/\
not add so much to the
thickness of the stage.

The “* Popular Mi-
eroscope” is fitted to
carry most of the ap-
paratus that advanced |
students will require, ‘iii
and a set of small an-
gled, ‘but fairly cor-
rected, objectives are |
made expressly for it.
The makers observe
that “ there are many
persons who would not
with ordinary objects,
and using only the first
and second eye-pieces,
see any difference between these powers and the very best.”

-They add that, “ with very severe tests, and employing the
third or higher eye-pieces, the difference is very perceptible ;
but many who work with the microscope never require the
highest class of performance.” Small angled glasses are well

68: The *‘ Popular Microscope.”

adapted for binocular use, and as the “ Popular Microscope ””
has the universal screw, it will carry any of the more expen-
sive and first-class objectives that might be desired.

The microscope before us is supplied with a single combi-
nation focussing rather more than three inches from the
object, and taking in an object more than three-eighths of an
inch diameter. This is a very useful power, and the lowest
we have seen of achromatic make. Then there is a good
inch, and a@ gdod quarter, the latter working very fairly with -
the binocular, which is seldom the case with low-priced glasses
of that foeus.. :

We tried this quarter on our own instrument, using an
achromatic condenser with stops. With our third eye-piece;
bringing the macnification to about 600 lnear, we obtained a
distinct resolution of the Plewrosigma angulatum into dots.
Of course the defects of the glass were shown, as Messrs.
Smith and Beck state; but we were surprised to find a low-
priced objective of only 75° aperture do so much. A similar
trial with the Podura scale was equally effective. There was
more colour than when a first-class quarter is employed, but
the definitiom was correct, showing even the spots of light on
the wedge-shaped markings. We notice that an achromatic con-
denser isi supplied with the Popular Microscope, but it is not
of much use}, for want of stops. Two stops would be quite
sufficient, amd would only add a few shillings to the expense ;
one should exclude the central, and the other the marginal
rays. The plurality of stops: m expensive condensers is cer-
tamly very valuable for special niceties; but the great ma-
jority of work can be done with two, one adapted to show such
lined objects as the angulatwm, and the other fitted for the
general examination of objects im)which penetration is needed,
andi the marginal rays are better’ shut out.

The public’ are now able to buy microscopes at a great
variety of prices and various proportionable degrees of merit.
They should be cautioned on the one hand not to expect im-
_ possibilities, or fancy that anybody will give them a hundred
guinea instrument for twenty pounds; and on the other they
should bey guarded against a tendency, prevalent im some
quarters, to undervalue mstruments that are substantially
good, though not the best. Nine-tenths of the most important
discoveries have been made with objectives much worse than
those which respectable opticians now supply as avowedly
second-rate; and it is only after long practice, and when a
large amount of information has been acquired, that the finest:
glasses became more useful to students than those which,
being only a little below them in quality, can be had for half
the price.

Archeologia. 69

The workmanship of the Popular Microscope is excellent.
Messrs. Smith, Beck, and Beck have wisely determimed that
their lower priced instruments shall not be stinted in quality of
work, and we have no doubt the public will approve of this
decision.

ARCH AIOLOGIA.

WE have in our hands the newly published livraison, vol. vi., part 2,
of Mr. Roach Smith’s Collectanea Antiqua, a series of etchings
of ancient remains, illustrative of the habits, customs, and history
of past ages, and, we may add, accompanied by extremely valuable
essays on the objects represented in the plates. This interesting
work is, unfortunately, almost inaccessible to the general reader. It
appears only at intervals, and is not printed for public sale, but ex-
clusively for a smallnumber of subscribers, so that it becomes imme-
diately after its publication a rare book. A set from the commence-
ment, when it does accidentally occur for sale, is eagerly purchased
for a very large price. This is the more to be regretted, as Mr.
Roach Smith’s Collectanea Antiqua is, we have no hesitation im
saying, the most valuable collection of antiquarian essays and anti-
quarian information in existence. Tothose who are favoured with
the possession of it, each’ new number brings a really rich contribu-
tion of archeological facts, as may well be expected from the long
experience and activity of its author; and the present number is
very far from being an exception, for it contains several papers of
unusual interest. In one of these Mr. Smith has brought together
accounts of researches made recently among Anglo-Saxon ceme-
teries, in five different. localities—Faversham and Sarre, in Kent;
Chessell Down, in the Isle of Wight; Barrington, in Cambridge-
shire ; and Kempston, near Bedford. These cemeteries were nearly
all discovered by mere accident. That at Faversham lay in the
line of cutting for the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, and
the numerous and very remarkable objects found in it are now in the
possession of W. Gibbs, Hsq., of that place. That at Barrmgton was
brought to light during the process of land drainage, and that at
Kempston was dug into in the course of digging a gravel-pit. They
belong to at least two different branches of the Anglo-Saxon family,
for the cemeteries at Barrington and Kempston were, of course,
Anglian burial places, while those found in Kent belonged
to the Jutes, who, according to the early Anglo-Saxon historians,
formed the population of that part of England. The difference in
_ form and design of the principal personal ornaments found in these
different sets of graves seems to show that each branch of the race—
Angles, or Jutes, or Saxons—wore a distinctive costume, at least
during the earlier period of their history, so that the nationality of
‘the individual would be at once apparent by his dress. This is only

70 Archeologia.

one among many particulars in which the objects found in these
cemeteries throw light upon the obscurities of the early history of
our fathers, and as they are further excavated, the light will become
continually greater as the multitude of facts for comparison in-
creases. The objects found in the Isle of Wight bear so close a
resemblance to those found in the Kentish graves, that we cannot
but consider them as confirming the statement of Bede, though it
has been contradicted by some antiquaries, that that island was in-
habited by the same Jutish race who formed the population of Kent. .

One of the rather numerous plates of Anglo-Saxon antiquities
here given by Mr. Roach Smith represents the contents of a grave
in the Isle of Wight, just as they lay when discovered. It was that
of a lady, who, in life, had evidently been ‘of stately presence.”
Round her neck had been hung a rather long string of beads, varied »
in form and design, and many of them very. beautiful. She appears
to have worn a robe, which was fastened at the breast by three large
fibulee of silver (of aform which is found commonly, though of dif-
ferent material, among the Anglian graves), arranged one above
the other. Over the robe a mantle appears to have been worn,
probably open in front, for it had been fastened at the right shoulder
by a fine large round fibula, and on the left shoulder by a fibula ofa
different shape, but equally ornamental. At the waist a buckle in-
dicated the place of the girdle, and near it lay a knife, which had,
perhaps, been placed in a case attached to the girdle. Between the
legs were two objects which appeared also to have been suspended
to the girdle, and probably hung rather lower than the knees. One
of these objects was a large spoon of silver gilt, the bowl of which
was perforated with five holes; the other was a ball of dark-coloured
crystal, enclosed in silver mountings. The use of either of these
articles is not very evident. There are some reasons for believing
that in these early times a ball of crystal attached in any way to
the person was looked upon as a sign of authority or power, but
Mr. Smith seems inclined to reject this interpretation. At the lady’s
feet had been deposited a bronze pail and two buckets. The little
finger of her right hand wore a massive gold ring, beautifully chased,
and onthe same finger of the other hand there was a spiral ring of
silver. Close to the left arm, and parallel to it, lay a key-shaped
object made of iron; and in a similar position on the other side of
the body another:implement of the same metal, formed like a sword,
but quite blunt at the edges, and narrowing off into a long point at
the end. The handle was close by, and perhaps in, the hand.. A
cloth fringed with gold tissue had been thrown over the head and
face. Altogether, the costume must have been very rich and hand-
some.

Another excellent paper in this number of the Collectanea
Antiqua is devoted to the subject of “Remains of Roman Potteries
on the banks of the Medway and the Nen, and in London.” In an
essay on the “Archeology of Horticulture,’ continued from the
previous number, Mr. Roach Smith has collected a far larger quan-
tity of evidence, much of it extremely curious, on the cultivation of
the grape for wine in our island, and has shown most satisfactorily

Archeologia. 71

that in former times wine was commonly made in England. The
subjects of the other papers are all Roman. There was a town in
ancient Hgypt named Babylon, which is pretended to have been
founded by Babylonian captives, but it was fortified by the Romans,
and made the head-quarters of one of the legions. It became in the
middle ages the capital of the Egyptian khalifs, and a place of great
commercial importance, and has been sometimes confounded with
the more celebrated Babylon in Assyria. Its site is commonly
called Old Cairo, and is remarkable for the fine remains of Roman
building which are still seen there. These are here represented in
some spirited etchings by Mr. Fairholt, from drawings made by
him on a recent visit. Another paper describes the Roman villa
recently discovered at Carisbrooke, in the Isle of Wight, with views
and plans, and an engraving of the very elegant tesselated pave-
ment which formed the floor of one of the rooms; and in another,
Mr. Roach Smith has brought before the notice of antiquaries a
new class of antiquities, Roman leaden seals, which have been
found in rather considerable quantities on the site of the Roman
Vertere, at Brough-upon-Stanmore, in Westmoreland. If found
elsewhere, they are excessively rare, and it is very difficult to say
what was their particular use, except that they have many of them
holes which were evidently designed for attaching them to some
object which they were intended to authenticate. Perhaps thers
may have been here an official depot for such objects, where th

seals were taken off. Many of them have inscriptions, some con-
taining the name and number of a military legion or cohort, and
others apparently the names of individuals. Some of them have
figures resembling those found on coins and gems. The only con-
tribution to our archeological knowledge in this number of the
Collectanea which remains to be noticed, consists of two plates
of rare coins of the Emperor Carausius, which are supplementary to
an article on the same subject given ina preceding volume. We
need hardly point out the great interest the coins of this usurper
have for the history of Roman Britain.

THE EXCAVATIONS AT SILCHESTER, on the site of the Roman city of
Calleva, carried on at the expense of the Duke of Wellington, the
lord of the soil, have not, as far as our last information goes, pro-
duced any very interesting results, beyond the discovery of the
foundations of houses and floors. The latter, though belonging to
rather large rooms, appear, as far as they have been hitherto un-
covered, to have belonged to houses of a class not very highly deco-
rated. The greater number were paved merely with the common
red tesselle, but in some the pavement was formed of white and red
tesselle alternately, and one only had a richer tesselated pavement,
with a central ornament, which had been nearly destroyed at
some former period, radiating from which were found portions of

white tesselle, forming a stellated pattern. The coins found are
few, and only of common types, including examples of Gratian,
Constantine, Allectus, and Carausius.

Interesting discoveries have recently been made on the site of a
ROMAN SETTLEMENT AT SOUTHFLEET, in Kent, supposed to belong to

72 Archeeologia.

the town of Vagniace, marked in the Roman itineraries as lying on
the great Watling Street road somewhere in this neighbourhood.
Frequent discoveries of Roman remains have been made at this place
during many years, which tend to show thatit must have been a town
of considerable importance. Various objects lately found there were
exhibited at a recent meeting of the Archeological Institute, m-
cluding a richly jewelled necklace of gold, with rings and bracelets
of the same material, found in a stone coffin with the skeletons of
two young children; and two previously unknown British coms in |
bronze, one of which bears the figure of an elephant. We may re-
mark that the discovery of British coins under such circumstances
is not necessarily a proof of the early date of: the settlement, as
British and Gaulish coins were certainly in circulation during a
considerable part of theRoman period.

AN INTERESTING DISCOVERY HAS BEEN MADE AT NORTHWICH, im
Cheshire, where the Romans had considerable salt-works. While
excavating for graving docks on the banks of the river Weaver, the
workmen came upon four leaden pans, which had been used by the
Romans for extracting brine from the natural salt. They were
found at a depth of about ten feet. The workmen broke up three
of these vessels and sold them for old metal, but the fourth was
preserved, and is now in the Warrmgton Museum. It is a square
vessel, about three feet and a half long by two feet and a quarter
wide, and four and a half inches deep. At each end there is a hole
im the side, believed to have been intended for the purpose of fixing
it to a wooden framework, and the inner surface of the bottom is
covered with scratches, supposed to have been made by the teeth of
a rake, used for removing the dross deposited im the process of
evaporation. On one side there are marks of letters, which have
not been satisfactorily deciphered. On a fragment of one of the
other pans an inscription has been traced which seems to be cor-
rectly read as DEVAE, which was the Roman name for Chester, and
has been conjectured to mean that the Roman salt-works at North-
wich belonged to that city. But this does not appear to us to bea
very probable interpretation. SW...

Proceedings of Learned Societies. 73

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

BY W. B. TEGETMEIER.

ROYAL SOCIETY.—Dee. 15,

On THE Propvction or Sucar in Animats sy Conp.—Dr. Bence
Jones read a paper detailing the production of sugar in the fluids
of the animal body by extreme cold, attributing. its formation to
deficient oxidation of the carbonaceous articles of food. For ex-
ample, a grain of starch enters into the body, and is transformed
into sugar; it is then acted on by oxygen, and ultimately passes
out as carbonic acid and water. This is the final result-of the perfect
combustion; but if the oxidation stops at any stage, imperfect
combustion occurs.

The combustion may be made imperfect im at least three dif-
ferent ways. First, by insufficient oxygen; secondly, by over-
whelming fuel; thirdly, by reducing the temperature so low that
chemical action is checked. From each of these causes the following
scale of the combustion of starch in the body may be formed :—
‘When there is perfect combustion, then carbonic acid and water are
produced. With less perfect combustion, oxalic and other vegetable
acids are formed. With the least possible combustion, sugar results.
Between perfect combustion and the most imperfect combustion—
that is, between carbonic acid and sugar—there are probably many
steps formed by many different acids; and as in a furnace one
portion of the coal may be fully burnt, whilst other portions are
passing through much less perfect combustion or are not burnt at
all, so different portions of starch may reach different steps im the
scale of combustion, and sugar, acetic acid, oxalic acid, carbonic
acid, and many other acids between acetic and oxalic acid, may be
‘simultaneously produced. From this account of the oxidation of
starch, it follows that sugar should always be found in the urime
whenever any of the three causes mentioned reduce the oxidation
in the system toits minimum. In other words, by stopping the
combustion that occurs in the body, diabetes should be produced
artificially,

ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—Dec. 27.

Tae Harry Men or Yzesso.—A paper descriptive of the hairy
people of the Island of Yesso was read by Mr. Martin Wood.
Yesso, which is inhabited in the southern portion only by the
Japanese, has an infertile soil and dreary climate. Its northern
parts are inhabited by the Mosinos, or “all hairy people” of the
Japanese, who number about 100, 000, and dwell principally in two
large cities, Mato-mai and Hako-dadi. These people are short,
thick-set, and muscular, but clumsy and uncouth in their move-
ments. In appearance they are wild and repulsive, in aia citi

74 Proceedings of Learned Societies.

of the enormous amount of hair with which they are covered. The
hair on the scalp forms a matted mass of gigantic size, their beards
are long and thick, growing from the greater part of the face, and
the whole of their bodies is covered with an extraordinary profusion
of hair.

The women stain that part of the face which is covered by the
beard in males. The skin, when not bronzed by exposure, is some-
what paler in colour than that of the Japanese.

These people, though timid from long subjugation to the —
Japanese, and isolation from the rest of the world, appear intelli-
gent and lively. They have well-developed prominent foreheads
and dark expressive eyes. 7

Their legends go back to a time previous to their having been
subjected by the Japanese, probably several centuries before the
Christian era.

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.—Jan. 9.

Tae ANCIENT REMAINS NEAR THE SOURCES OF THE TicRIs.—Mr.
J.C. Taylor, consul at Diarbekr, described several ancient remains
he had discovered near the sources of the Tigris. The most in-
teresting were two Assyrian inscriptions near the principal source
of the Tigris. One of these belongs to Tiglath-Pileser I., who
reigned about B.c. 1110, and the other to Ashur-izir-pal (the king
ofthe Nimroud monolith), who dates about B.c. 880. The fact that
such memorials had been placed in the situation where they had
been found, by those monarchs during their northern expeditions,
had been ascertained years ago by the reading of inscriptions found
at Nineveh ; and their discovery by Mr. Taylor is a striking proof
of the truth of those interpretations. The main branch of the river,
here called Dibeneh Su, is formed by the junction of various small
streams, some of these sources being within as short a distance as
five miles from other sources which fall the opposite way into the
Euphrates. After a course of three miles the principal stream of
the Tigris plunges into a lofty cavern, and is lost underground for
a distance of two miles, emerging on the south-east, and then con-
tinuing its course towards Diarbekr. The numerous masses of rock
which now choke the stream near this cavern, and the detached
arches, seemed to indicate that the tunnel was formerly of much
greater length than itis now. The statement of Strabo with regard
to the extremely long underground course of the Tigris near its
sources, was therefore, in all probability, not far from the truth.

ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY.—Jan. 18.

Mr. Huccins ON THE OccULTATION OF THE SPECTRUM OF A
Fixep Srar.—The author remarked that while all observations
hitherto negative the existence of an atmosphere to the moon, one
had occurred to him as not yet made which might add to the evi-

Progress of Invention. 75

dence on the question. This was the disappearance of the spec-
trum of a star when occulted by the moon’s limb. It appeared to
him that if the moon possessed an atmosphere, it should show itself
by producing absorption bands, and also by a gradual fading of the
spectrum instead of a sudden disappearance. He also thought that,
supposing an atmosphere highly charged with aqueous vapour, the
red rays would be least affected, and that end of the spectrum would
be last to go, while a clear but dense atmosphere would, by refrac-
tion, render the blue rays most persistent. He therefore, on the
4th instant, adjusted his spectrum apparatus on the star e Piscium
about three minutes before its occultation. He could not speak
positively as to any extra lines being introduced by the moon’s con-
tact, the air not being in good condition, but certainly no part of
the spectrum disappeared before the other, the obscuration occur-
ring not in the direction of the length of the spectrum, but of its
breadth, cutting off all the colours at the same time, and not by a
process of fading, but as if an opaque screen had been slowly intro-
duced, about two-tenths of a second being occupied in the occulta-
tion. This experiment, therefore, further corroborated the general
impression of the absence of any appreciable lunar atmosphere.

PROGRESS OF INVENTION.

APPLICATION OF CoMPRESSED AIR TO WEAVING.—Every one that
has witnessed the process of weaving, by'means of the power-loom,
_ must have remarked the stunning and most disagreeable noise by
which it is accompanied. The greater part of this is due to the
mechanism used for throwing the shuttle alternately from one side
to the other. In the hand-loom, the shuttle was thrown by the
hand of the weaver; in the power-loom, invented in 1785, mechanism
more or less resembling the weaver’s arm was introduced for the

purpose. A great velocity was thus obtained, but an intolerable din
was produced, and what was far worse, a deterioration of the textile
fabric, consequent on the great vibration communicated to the whole
room, and on the irregularity of the motion which is imparted to the
shuttle. There is a very great loss of power also, in consequence of
the force not being applied in the right direction. Besides all this
the mechanism which acts on the shuttle is extremely liable to get
out of order: the thread is frequently broken : and it is necessary to
use large quantities of oil, which, becoming heated by friction, causes
a very disagreeable smell and unwholesome atmosphere, and not
unfrequently escaping, injures the cloth. But a great change for
the better is now very likely to be introduced. Compressed air
-has recently been adopted as the means of imparting motion to the
shuttle, which may then be made very much lighter. The advan-
tages derived from this arrangement are believed by many to be
numerous and considerable. As the force is applied exactly in
the direction in which it is required, there is a great saving

76 Progress of Invention.

of power. As there is no vibration, and the shuttle is thrown
with mathematical accuracy, the cloth, even when viewed in the
microscope, is found to be entirely free from those irregularities
and imperfections which in the ordinary kinds are concealed by
the dressing. The atmosphere, instead of being heated and cor-
rupted, is cooled and purified by innumerable jets of fresh air.
With the ordinary power-loom, the shuttle is thrown only about
180 times in a minute; with the pneumatic arrangement, it is

thrown at least 240 times. This increase of velocity, accom- ~

panied by the fact that when condensed air is used the thread
almost never breaks, will immensely augment the annual pro-
duction. Supposing that the half million of looms which are in
operation in the United Kingdom were on the pneumatic principle,
the increase of production would, on a moderate calculation, be at
least a million anda half yards per annum. The new loom has a
great advantage over the old, as to first cost and the expense arising
from wear and tear. No less than thirty-eight parts hitherto indis-
pensable are got rid of, and friction is greatly lessened in various
ways. Oil not being required, there is no danger of the cloth bemg
stained. The fibres, which greatly impede the motion of the shuttle
in the old loom, are blown away in the new. The movement of the
shuttle is effected in a very simple way. Air is condensed into a
reservoir by the steam-engine, and conveyed under the floor in
pipes, which communicate with flexible tubes that transmit it to
each loom; or the loom itself condenses the air it requires by means
of a small air-pump, or even a bellows. A pinion on the main axle
of the loom causes the revolution of a wheel, upon which is fixed an
inclined stud that acts upon a lever which opens a valve. The latter
lets out a jet of air that blows the shuttle forward with great
velocity and unerring accuracy. Of course there is a separate
valve, lever, etc., for each of the directions in which the shuttle is
to be thrown. The superiority of the new loom to others previously
invented has, however, been denied. °

Ture Mousican Crock of St. GERMAIN L’AUXERROIS, AT PARIS.
—tThis is another very interesting application of compressed air to
the simplification of mechanism. All who hear for the first time
the musical clocks of Bruges, Mechlin, etc., are charmed with them ;
but when the same piece, however elaborate it may be, is heard
again and again,’ the admiration cools, until at last, to those who
are condemned to listen to it, year after year, from infancy to age,
it must become little less than an annoyance. Yet when we con-
sider that each tune played by a musical clock requires a barrel or
cylinder, which costs a very large sum—that used in the clock at
Bruges cost 60,000 francs—we must readily admit that those who
for the eredit of their city are desirous of having a musical clock,
must make up their minds to the endless repetition of the same
piece of music. The mechanician charged with the construction of
the clock of St. Germain lAuxerrois, to which forty bells are
attached, appears, however, to have removed this difficulty, since he
has lowered the price of the barrel from 60,000 to 250 franes, which
makes it possible, without great expense, frequently tochange the tune.

Progress of Inwention. 77

The means by: which he effects this improvement, are very simple.
Hitherto the barrel of a musical clock was required to produce
powerful mechanical effects—it had to lift the immense hammers that
struck the bells, and therefore it was of necessity large and massively
constructed; and to move it enormous weights, and complicated as
well as ponderousmachinery, were indispensable. With the pneumatic.
arrangement, the barrel merely opens valves similar to those of a
moderate-sized organ, and these allow the escape of air, having a
pressure of about two and a-half atmospheres, which gives motion to
the mechanism that produces the sounds. The barrel may, there-
fore, be as moderate in size, and the mechanism attached to it as
simple, as that of a self-acting organ. The air is condensed by the
gas-engine of Lenoir: but there seems no reason why the conden-
sation should not be effected by some of the enormous water-power.
that will soon be available in all parts of Paris.

ELectro-mMacnetic Locomotrve.—A. good deal of excitement
exists at present in Paris with reference to an electro-magnetic.
locomotive which is being exhibited there. It rests on four wheels :
those in front are small; those behind—the driving-wheels—are
large, and made of copper, and contain each twenty horse-shoe
electro magnets arranged in the direction of radii, and having their
poles passing through the copper tires so as to be level with the:
outer circumference. ‘The electric current is produced by a battery
which is placed at a station, and is conducted to and from the loco-
motive by two well-insulated wires, running between the rails. A.
very ingenious commutator distributes it to the electro-magnets,,
successively magnetizing and demagnetizing them. The instant
one of them is excited, it is attracted by the rail itself, which acts as
an armature, or keeper, and the wheel is thus made to revolve, moving”
the locomotive in one direction, or the opposite, as the case may be.
In the present arrangement, the electricity passes from an electro-mag-
net at one side of the locomotive to one at the other, that is, about
one quarter of the circumference in advance. To stop the engine, it
is of course only necessary to interrupt the current. This loco-
motive has one great advantage—it cannot leave the rails, or if it
does it will stop immediately. But the power is very trifling, and
much of it is lost from the indirect mutual action of the magnet and
rail; nevertheless the inventors, MM. Louis Bellet and Charles
Rouvre, consider that it would be quite sufficient for the transmission
of letters and light parcels, and they even expect it ultimately to
supersede the ordinary locomotive. They calculate on a velocity of
about 124 miles an hour; and their model does actually attain very
considerable speed. Butsupposing such a locomotive to be, even on
the large scale, everything that can be expected, it is still very
unlikely that it will compete successfully with the ordinary one.
Coal will afford about six times as much power as the same weight
‘of zine, and, weight for weight, is about forty times as cheap. That
is, at the present price of zinc, electro-magnetic is about 180 times
as dear as steam-power. To get rid of this difficulty, zinc must
become very much cheaper, or a cheap substitute for it must be dis-
covered; neither of which appears sufficiently probable to. afford

78 . Progress of Invention.

electro-magnetists much ground for sanguine expectations. In
cases, however, in which only small power is required, and the cost
of its production is but a secondary consideration, while from the
intermittent nature of the work to be done, and other circumstances,
a steam-engine would be out of the question, electro.magnetism may
be applicable. But, considering the complication and cost of any of
the electro-magnetic engines yet invented, it is to be feared that the
period at which electro-magnetism will be utilized, even to this limited
extent, is still distant.

Porntine or Pins anp Nerpies py Exnzcrriciry.—The ©
pointing of pins and needles is not only a troublesome, but, notwith-
standing all the improvements that have been made, an exceedingly
unhealthy operation. The fine metallic dust which is produced
enters the lungs, and causes disease, which, sooner or later—gene-
rally very soon—proves fatal. There is, however, reason to believe
that the old and objectionable process will soon be superseded by a
new, a simple, and a harmless one. The latter was supposed to .
have been recently discovered at Lausanne by M. Canderay, a tele-
graph engineer; but a correspondent of Les Mondes, in the number
for December 29, shows that he had published an account of the
method so long agoas 1860; he admits, however, that its application
to the pointing of pins and needles is a happy and recent idea. The
pins, etc., to be pointed are placed close together in a bundle. The
latter is to be held perpendicularly, and its upper end having been
brought in contact with the positive pole of a Bunsen battery con- ©
sisting of one or two elements, it is to be immersed in acidulated
water contained in a vessel, through the bottom of which the nega-
tive pole of the battery has been passed up; the lower end of the
bundle and the upper end of the negative pole being kept within a
very short distance of each other. In a few minutes, the number
being greater or less, according to the nature and concentration of
the acid, the nature and thickness of the wires, and the intensity of
the current, the ends of the wires next to the negative pole of the
battery will have been pointed, the sharpness and form of the points
depending on the distance between them and the negative pole.
One hundred wires have been pointed in this way, in a few minutes,
with a Bunsen battery, consisting of but a single element. Hence,
from the smallness of the electric power, and the shortness of the
time required, the process promises to be very economical. Sulphuric
acid answers best for iron or steel; nitric acid for copper or brass.
Our readers can easily make an experiment, illustrating this process
by immersing the wire constituting the positive pole of a small bat-
tery in dilute acid contained in a glass tube, the lower end of which
has been closed with a cork, through which the negative pole of the
battery has been passed up. The poles are to be kept for a few
minutes very near each other within the fluid.

SIMPLIFICATION oF THE Common Pump.—A modification of
the ordinary suction pump, as it is called, has lately been invented
and patented in France, which seems, for many purposes at least, to
recommend itself strongly by its simplicity, and other good qualities.
The common pump consists, as is well known, of a barrel, a piston,

Progress of Invention. 79

and two valves opening upwards; the pump to which we direct
attention, of only a barrel, a solid plunger, and a single valve. The
former pump is exposed to great wear and tear, and very considerable
friction, from the necessity for the sucker fitting the barrel exactly ;
the latter is totally free from these objections. Our readers may
make an excellent model of the new pump by fitting water-tight
into one end of a cylindrical glass gas chimney a piece of wood or
cork, in the centre of which is an aperture, closed within the glass
cylinder by a flap of leather, which will act as a simple, but tole-
rably water-tight valve; and selecting for the plunger a thick rod of
wood that nearly fills the cylinder. To work the apparatus, it is
only necessary to insert the plunger in the cylinder, fill the space
around it with water, and place the closed end of the cylinder in a
small quantity of that fluid. When the plunger is drawn up, the
valve opens, and water rushes in to supply the vacuum. When the
plunger is then pushed in again, the water flows out through the
upper end of the cylinder: and thus the process may be continued
for any iength of time. It is evident that the fluid may be made to
issue from a spout or tube, if the upper end of the barrel is enlarged.
The principle on which this pump produces its effect is the same as
that of the common pump, but it might be supposed that, instead of
water rushing up through the valve, water, and even air, would pass
down from around the plunger. This, however, is not the case;
and it is the most curious circumstance connected with the appa-
ratus. It may be accounted for, however, by the capillary attrac-
tion which exists between the plunger and barrel. Experiment alone
can show how large such'a pump may be made, or from what depth
it would cause water to ascend; but there are most probably many
purposes for which it would answer well.

New Resprratory Diving Apparatus.—Cosmos states that M.
Rouquayrol has introduced a reservoir of compressed air, furnished
with a mechanism (not explained) for allowing the air to escape in
the proportion wanted for submarine respiration. Experiments
made in the Napoleon Basin at Rochefort have been successful.
The apparatus is also recommended to enable persons to enter a
deleterious atmosphere.

Crystan Parrerns on Giass anD Porcetain.—M. Kuhlmann,
continuing his communications to the French Academy on crystal-
lization, gives a process which it would be easy to try on a small
scale. If, for example, a solution of sulphate of zine and a little
gum is thickened with chromate of lead, and laid on glass, and the
glass heated in a muffle, he obtains a crystalline pattern, shown up
in relief by a green tint imparted by the chromic oxyde. Nitrate of
potash and nitrate of lead, thickened with gum, and containing
powder of coloured enamels, he also finds to afford satisfactory
results.

Miscetzangous.—Among the recent improvements in tele-
graphy, one of the most interesting, perhaps, is the acoustic tele-
graph, in which a note sounded at one place is reproduced at
another. Itis founded on the fact that a sound is emitted when-
ever a sufficiently strong electric current is made to begin or

80 Progress of Invention.

to cease to circulate round an electro magnet; and that a
stretched membrane will vibrate in unison with a note produced
near it. But, since the same membrane will respond only to
certain notes, the range of sounds producible by a single appa-
ratus is more or less circumscribed. It is» proposed. to apply
to practical purposes the enormous water power which will soon
be available in Paris, in consequence of the vast waterworks
now in progress there, and: which, when complete, will raise about.
400,000,000 litres a day to the level of the highest houses. The
large amount of pressure generated by this will be distributed
throughout the city, so.as:to be easily applicable by means of simple
machinery at any given point. A. steam and air engine has been
recently patented. The cylinder used, like that of Watt’s single
acting steam-engine, is open at one end. Round the part of it which
is near the open end. are a great number of holes, which, when the
piston has passed them, forms a communication between the interior
and the atmosphere, and: allows the mixture of steam and air after
it has done its work, to escape. At the return stroke of the piston
air enters in front of it through these apertures, and is driven into
a small chamber at the closed end of the cylinder, where, being
mixed with high pressure steam admitted by a valve opened at the
proper time by the piston itself, its temperature and. therefore its
pressure are suddenly raised; and along with the expanding steam
associated with it, it drives the piston to the open end of the cylinder.
The repetition of these movements causes a reciprocating motion,
which is changed into a rotatory, in the usual way. Independently.
of other objections the heat and pressure acquired by the air are
detracted from those of the steam, and what. is thus gained in one
way, may be found to be so much lost in another.——There is reason
to believe that telegraph wires may be made to serve a useful
purpose, not hitherto contemplated: since it is supposed that they
will afford a very effective aid im foretelling changes of weather. It
has long been remarked that they are liable to considerable variation
in the transmission of the electric currents: but it has been recently
observed that when these variations are unusually great they are
always followed by bad weather, which is stormy in proportion to
the greatness of the irregularities exhibited ——The metal cesiwm has
hitherto been obtained only in very small quantities. To get only
seven grains of its chloride Bunsen was obliged to evaporate forty
tons of water; and only 0:3 per cent. of it are contained in the Lepi-
dolite of Hebron in the United States. But it has recently been ~
found that the mineral Pollux, which is very abundant in the island
of Elba, contains thirty-four per cent. of this metal, which had been
previously mistaken for potassium. Tellurium also, hitherto one of
the rarest of substances, is found in considerable quantity asso-
ciated with bismuth, about 15,000 feet above the level of the sea;
in one of the loftiest peaks of the Andes: The reduction of chloride
of aluminium by means of zinc was patented in 1854, but the
principle was not successfully carried out until recently. The vapour
of zinc is found to reduce cobalt, nickel, and manganese with .
great facility.———Cotton seed oil may be obtained to the amount of —

Notes and Memoranda. 81

from fifteen to eighteen per cent. from cotton seed, which is very much
cheaper than linseed. The residue is nearly as vaiuable for fattening
purposes as linseed cake. The crude oil answers well for paints and
varnishes, and makes excellent soap. ‘The refined is considered little
inferior to olive oil—_—T wo facts of great importance in medicine
have lately been discovered. One, that in typhus fever, the interior
of the mouth is the seat of a putrid matter that constantly
poisons the air passing into the lungs, and becomes the haunt of
parasites. Several of the worst symptoms that accompany the
disease are now supposed to bedueto this. It is removed without
difficulty, and to the great benefit of the patient, by very simple
means. The other is that the application of phenic acid in the
dressing of putrid sores not only prevents or removes the offensive
odour, and stops disorganization with great rapidity, but leads toa
speedy and healthful healing, even in the very worst cases. It is
applicable not only externally, but, notwithstanding its caustic
properties, internally also; and it appears to be specially useful in
cases of an infectious nature. Tt has been found that pencil draw-
ings may be reproduced in any number, with great facility. For
this purpose they are to be moistened with dilute acid, and then
inked with a roller. Only the pencil marks will take the ink, and
the drawing may then be transferred to metal or stone, in the usual
way, by pressure.

NOTES AND MEMORANDA.

Apparent Dramerer oF Srrivs.—Sir Wm. Herschel endeavoured to find
the apparent diameter of Sirius as seen in a telescope, and freed from the enlarge-
ment due to optical defects. He estimated it at the tenth of asecond. M.
Chacornac, availing himself of more recent apparatus, views the star through
what he calls a “prismatic telescope,’ and which the secretary of the Astro-
nomical Society supposes to mean “a double-image prismatic micrometer eye-
piece.” M. Chacornac’s letter, which appears in the Monthly Notices, does not
explain his method with sufficient distinctness. ‘The society’s hon. secretary (Mr.
Pritchard) points out that in the spurious discs of stars, as seen through teles-
copes, the light diminishes from the centre to the circumference of the principal
image, and varies in a similar manner through the series of rings with which the
star image is surrounded. He supposes M. Chacornac to form two images of the
spurious disc by means of double refraction, polarized in planes at right angles to
each other. When the prisms are rotated, the ordinary image is unaffected, but
the extraordinary image suffers gradual extinction, the weaker parts, or margins,
being extinguished first, and the centre last. If the star exhibited a true disc
in the telescope, it would remain, and be susceptible of measurement after the
spurious light surrounding it had been extinguished. When, however, the
spurious light is cut off, M. Chacornac found, with Foucault’s great telescope,
that only an imperceptible point remained, so that the apparent diameter of
Sirius, freed from appendages resulting from the intensity of his light, resembled

_ the apparent diameter of a twelfth-magnitude star.

Bieta’s Comrt.—In a communication to the Astron. Nach., Dr. Giacomo
Michez expresses a hope that when this body, which revisits us this year, ap-
proaches its perihelion in the beginning of 1866, decisive evidence may be ob-
tained concerning the two nuclei which were seen in 1852. In 1859 the feeble-
ness of the comet’s light, and its immersion in strong twilight, precluded obser-

y *

82 Notes and Memoranda.

vation. We do not publish the positions of the comet between July, 1865, and
March, 1866, as given by Dr. Michez, as it will be better to do so at a later

eriod. We may, however, say, for the benefit of distant subscribers, that on
duly 24 the R.A. will be Oh. 18m. 37s., D. + 18° 40’ S.

HARTHQUAKE AT HLORENCE.—M. P. de Tchihatchef describes to the French
Academy an earthquake felt at Florence and its vicinity on the 11th December
last. The observations of Prof. Donati show that the centre of the disturbance
was at Fierenzuola, a village forty-five kilometres, or rather more than twenty-
seven miles from Florence. This convulsion is remarkable, not only because
earthquakes are rarely felt at Florence, but because it is the first time volcanic
action has been manifested in the limestone (massif caleaire) of the Appennines ~
situated north of the city. The occasional concussions previously felt at Florence
have come from the Pontifical States, which lie in an opposite direction.

CaRDBOARD CELLS FOR Mountine Microscopic Oxssxcts.—At a recent
meeting of the Microscopical Society, Mr. Henry Lee exhibited specimens of
cells cut from tubes of cardboard, which, being very cheap and easily made, will
be found exceedingly useful in the mounting of dry and opaque objects. They
are constructed in the same manner as the sides of pill-boxes, by rolling gummed
paper on a wooden mandril, and cutting rings from the tubes thus formed when
dry and hard. It will be seen that they can readily be made of any required
depth, diameter, or thickness.

Brownine’s SpEectRoscopr Burner.—Mr. Browning has introduced a con-
venient Bunsen burner, mounted so as to slide up and down a rod for adjustment
of height. The same rod carries a moveable holder for a piece of platina wire, or
anything else which it is desirable to introduce into the flame.

ANTIPATHIES OF Dogs.—A brown retriever known to the Editor, very goods
tempered to most people, and very quarrelsome with most dogs, recently ex-
hibited decided symptoms of anger when patted by a gentelman he usually made
friends with. The dog’s master suggested that it was probably because the visitor
had been caressing his own dog with the same hand. To test this, the other
hand, to which the objection could not apply, was tried, and the retriever immedi-
ately manifested his accustomed pleasure at being noticed.

New Exectro Macnret.—M. de Moncel has described to the French
Academy a new electro magnet devised by M. Carlier, and reported to possess
great power. He does uot employ covered wire for his spirals, and the statement:
says the only condition is that the different spiral layers shall be separated from
each other by envelopes of paper, and that the bobbins shall de of wood or copper,
covered internally with an insulating substance. An electro magnet of this con-
struction, having iron cores 43 centimetres. long (nearly 1:8 inches), and 7 milli-
metres wide (rather more than 3 inch), with one spiral composed of wire,
yet diameter,* making 103 turns, supported 3:900 kilogrammes, or more
than 8 lbs.

* The millimetre is 0.039 inch, Our readers will find ‘“Dowling’s Metric Tables” very
useful to solve these questions. ;

= SATA Ay 2
Stat CPG GEN SS 5

= | if ti
4

/
is

i), dit fis ;

THE WANDERING POLYZOON.
Cristatella Mucedo.

THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER,

NA EC Eis. LSGo.

THE WANDERING POLYZOON (Cristatenta Mucepo).

BY REY. W. HOUGHTON, M.A., F.L.S.

(With a Coloured Plate.)

How well I remember the delight I felt on my first discovery
of this beautiful little animal! I hardly know of anything in
nature more exquisitely lovely than this, the only locomotive*
species of the entire group of Polyzoa. Perhaps that wonderful
little rotifer, the Melicerta ringens, may almost be considered a
greater favourite, for Cristatella builds no house with bricks
she fashions herself, like that other interesting creature. But
still Cristatella has charms which even Melicerta is unable to
display. Just look at a full-grown specimen, of an inch and a
half in length, with the triple row of most delicate plumes,
arranged around the margin of the body in regular concentric
form, and I am sure you will quite agree with Professor Allman,
(our great English authority on the fresh-water Polyzoa), who
has published a beautiful monograph of this group,t and own
with him, that a “ more interesting and beautiful animal than
a fully-developed specimen of Cristatella mucedo can scarcely
be imagined.” If any of my zoological readers are strangers
to this little beauty, I must recommend them to make diligent
search, when next summer comes, amidst the stems and leaves
of submerged aquatic plants in clear ponds, lakes, and mill-
pools ; but asthe successful hunt after delicate treasures is gene-
rally attended with difficulty, and perhaps after many days of
patient exploration, with much eye-straining and back-aching
in addition, it may be as well to give a hint or two how to
proceed in order to find Oristatella. And here I may take

* One could almost wish that the specific name of vagans, so descriptive of the
habits of this Polyzoon, first proposed by Lamark, had been allowed to stand ; but
the laws of nomenclature are rightly observed.

+ Ray Society, 1856.

VOL. VII.—NO. II. G

84 The Wandering Polyzoon.

the liberty of referrmg to my own remarks, published five or six
years ago, in the Microscopic Journal,* as I have no reason to
“change my prescription,” and am unable to give better advice.
Where, then, to look for, and how to find Oristatella mucedo ?
As to the first question—where to look ?—I must answer, m
clear ponds, and lakes, and canals. I suspect that Cristatella,
though generally speaking, little known, is not nearly so un-
common as some people suppose. Iam inclined to believe that
this species is as frequently to be met with as some others of ©
the fresh-water group, such as Fredericella and some of the
Plumatellide, but while in these last cases an upturned stone,
or the under side of a submerged leaf or branch, at once
reveals the presence of the adherent specimens—for the
sponge-like masses of Alcyonella, and the branching tubes
of Plumatella, are evident to the eye without the slightest effort
—it is not by any means so easy a matter to detect the presence ~
of Cristatella, whose light-coloured ccencecium can only with
much difficulty, and continued straining of the eyes, be seen,
as the little colony rests upon some submerged weed or stone,
which weeds, in the middle of summer, are sure to be overspread
with the filaments cf Diatomacee and other Alge, thus rendering
the detection of the Polyzoon a task far from easy. LHvery lake,
mill-pond, clear canal, or reservoir may be suspected to contain ~
these most exquisite of the Polyzoa. Now the winter eggs, or .
statoblasts,+ are readily found, much more easily than the deve-
loped colony; therefore, let the searcher after these aquatic
treasures turn his attention to the discovery of the statoblasts,
and let him look for them late in the atitumn, in the winter, and
spring. In order to obtain these statoblasts—little dark cir-
cular bodies about the size of a pin’s head, an enlarged repre-
sentation of which may be seen in the plate which illustrates these
few remarks—I would say, go to the sheltered spots in the pool,
where the wind has blown all the floating rubbish, duck-weed,
tangled masses of Algz, decayed roots of grasses, etc., and
carefully examine the rubbish, bit by bit, in your hands if you
like, but the best way is to thin out the rubbish in the water,
when small aggregated masses of statoblasts will show them-
selves, varying in size from that of a pea to an inch in length.
The isolated individuals are not, as a rule, to be depended upon,
for they are generally only the separated faces of old specimens.
I have taken home frozen up lumps of rubbish, and have from
them obtained statoblasts which have duly germinated, though
I have never been able to keep the young polypes alive more

* See the’ Number for October, 1859, p. 59.

+ For further remarks on these bodies, and other interesting particulars, the
reader should refer to Mr. Slack’s paper in the November No. of THE InTEL-
LECTUAL OBSERVER, 1862, pp. 271—274,

The Wandering Polyzoon. 85

than a few weeks. But if the fully-developed colony is the
object of your search, then m the months of July and August,
and evenin June, if the weather has been warm, go to your pond
and seek ; be not content with merely stooping down and pulling
out the weeds, and examining them in your hands out of the
water, for such asearch will,in all probability, prove an ineffectual
one—it being almost impossible, amid the confervoid growth,
to detect the collapsed form of your much-prized Cristatella—
but lie flat down on the edge of the bank (the Polyzoa are
generally within a few feet of the bank, covered by water vary-
ing from an inch in depth to about two feet), and put your face
close to the surface of the water, staring “ with all your eyes ;”
then, with as little disturbance of the water as possible, clear
away with your hand the floating weeds and Potamogeton leaves,
and examine every submerged stem m situ, just as it grows in
the water—with much patience and “great expectations.”
Probably, for a minute or so, you will see nothing like what you
want; but, nil desperandum, continue to gaze, and in all proba-
bility you will be rewarded by observing, amid the scum and
confervee, an oblong object, feathery and transparent, about an
inch in length. These colonies bear some resemblance, when
the polypes are momentarily withdrawn, to the well-known
gelatinous egg-nidamenta of Limneus stagnalis.

~ M. Gervais has compared the polypidom, to a piece of
chenille, and with good reason; it would not be easy to finda .
more apt similitude. And now that you have seen one speci-
men wm situ, you will find little difficulty in beimg able to dis-
cover several more. When the statoblasts split, which happens
in the spring, a single polype emerges; in a day or two another
grows or buds out of this one, then another, and so on till the
colony is developed. I have found that all the fresh-water
Polyzoa are great devourers of the spores of Algze, of Desmidize,
and Diatomacez; so let the observer, who wishes to keep
specimens alive for examination, take care to give them a
bountiful supply of such food. Oristatella is unique in one
respect: of all the Polyzoa, whether marine or fresh-water,
this alone is capable of locomotion; the movement is certainly
very slow, and not easily noticed. The under surface of a
Cristatella colony is like the foot of a gastropodous mollusc. “On
this disc, which is contractile, and admits of frequent change
of shape,’’? to quote Professor Allman, “ the colony adheres to
neighbouring objects, or creeps about on the submerged leaves
- and stems of aquatic plants. From the edges of the disc a flat
space extends outwards, passing beyond the external series of
orifices in the form of a projecting margin, whose interior is
occupied by a series of tubular cells or chambers, visible
through the translucent skin, and extending in a radiatory

86 _ The Wandering Polyzoon.

direction from the disc outwards, but possessing no external
opening. The tentacula are about eighty in number.” Pro-
fessor Allman states that the ccencecium (the common dermal
system of the colony) is of a dull yellow or sienna colour, and
his figure answers to this description. The colour, however,
doubtless varies, according to the nature of food and the
water where the creatures are found. Hrom my own experi-
ence, I should say that the colour of the animal is light yellow,
which, when viewed by transmitted light, looks almost white,
as in the figures of the plate, which were made from drawings
of living specimens, which had attached themselves to sides
of the glass vessels in which they had been placed. Cristatella —
in other respects differs from other members of the fresh-water
Polyzoa; all the rest prefer shade, they are found under stones
and in dark recesses, but Cristatella loves to flaunt her plumes
in the bright glare of day, and good reason she has to be proud
of her beautiful feathers! Again, very coy, and shy, and
retreating are all the others—shake the glass, and in they pop
their little delicate heads, and perhaps won’t come out again
for some little time; but Cristatella is not so shy by any
means; she must be roughly handled indeed to cause the
individuals of the colony to retire into their cells for any
leneth of time.

I will not write more. of this beautiful creature. I only ask
“Intellectual Observers”’ to seek to become acquainted with
her; and much obliged should I be to any reader of this
magazine if he could send me a specimen or two of Lophopus
erystallinus, or Palludicella Ehrenbergi, two British species of
fresh-water Polyzoa, which I have long hunted for in vain.

REFERENCE TO PLATE.

Figs. A represent two mature individuals; the dark spots
are the statoblasts imbedded in the ccencecium. 3B, D, C repre-
sent the front, back, and side views of the exserted portion of
a single polype; H, a statoblast showing the characteristic
hooked spines ; all magnified.

Tife Conditions in other Worlds. 87

LIFE CONDITIONS IN OTHER WORLDS.

Tse question of whether other worlds are imhabited by
intelligent beings, having other creatures below them, as we
have, cannot fail to mterest the human mind, and necessarily
comes up for reconsideration from time to time as fresh dis-
coveries suggest new thoughts. We have, therefore, thrown
together the following pages for the sake of supplying hints
drawn from recent investigations. Our object has not been
to exhaust the subject, but simply to afford aids for its
contemplation.

The association of stars and planets with life reaches back
to times when man’s dawning reason first studied the celestial
orbs, and supposed them the abodes of bemgs capable of
influencing mortal affairs ; and when, through the revelations of
the telescope, it became known that the planets bore more or less
resemblance to the earth, and that the so-called fixed stars
might be bodies of the same nature as our sun, it required no
great stretch of imagination to conjecture that unnumbered
worlds, traversing the fields of space, were inhabited by
creatures more or less analogous to man. Tontenelle gave an
extensive popularity to these views through the publication of
his Entretiens Sur la Pluralité des Mondes, in which he asserted
that the fixed stars were suns, and that as our sun illuminated
planets, so did they. In peopling the various globes, Fon-
tenelle had recourse to a lively fancy, and did not limit himself
by any nice considerations of philosophy, so that we are not
surprised at his describing lunar cavities, and then asking,
“Who knows but the inhabitants of the moon take refuge
from solar heat in these great pits ?”” As science advanced, the
different characters of the planets became better appreciated,
and it was seen that creatures able to live on our airless moon,
or-on the huge, light globe of Saturn, must be widely different
from those we are acquainted with on the earth. No accurate
analogies help us in these inquiries, because our earth does not
anywhere exhibit an assemblage of conditions similar to those
which any other planet experiences. For example, if we look to
Mars, the most earth-like of the planets, we find that by reason
of his distance from the sun, he only receives about 43
hundredths of the light and heat that reach us. If this
were the only difference, the hottest parts of Mars and the
coolest parts of the earth might be compared together; but
then we find that from difference of density and size “a body
which would weigh one pound on the earth would weigh only
half a pound if transported to Mars.”* The Martial day of

* Breen, Planetary Worlds.

88 Life Conditions in other Worlds.

rather more than twenty-four hours and a half does not differ
enough from the same terrestrial period to exert any special
action upon living beings; but the year contains 6692 rotations,
and thus the seasons are much longer than our own.

The polar snow and ice masses visible in Mars afford
an analogy to our earth, which is strengthened as the
observer sees them, diminishing or disappearing as the Martial
summer comes on. That Mars has an atmosphere is obvious.

from inspection, and it forms clouds and deposits moisture like

our own. How far it differs from ours we do not know; but
the observations of Mr. Huggins, detailed in.our last number,
show that it contains substances which absorb a good many
of the more refrangible rays, and thus cause the planet to
assume ared tint. ‘The extent of the polar snow in winter, as
compared with summer, shows that a considerable portion of
the planet undergoes great changes of temperature correspond-
ing with the seasons; and from the general disposition of land
and water—the reverse of what obtains with us—the general
climate must be continental, as contra-distinguished from
insular.* It was thought at one time that the atmosphere of
Mars extended to a considerable distance from the body of
the planet; but the observations of Sir William Herschel, who
watched minute stars close to the disc, negative this idea.
The weight with which an atmosphere presses upon a globe
depends upon its density and its height, and upon the force
with which gravitation attracts a given mass. In the case of
Mars, the atmospheric pressure or density probably does not
differ so much from our own as to render that planet unfit to
be the abode of creatures bearing some resemblance to those
we are acquainted with.

Mr. Huggins finds evidence for supposing that both J upiter
and Saturn have in their atmospheres the gases that occur in
our own, though with what admixture does not yet appear.
Venus proved about as intractable under the spectroscope as
she does under the telescope. Her clouds reflected solar hght,
and did not permit any sufficient reflection from the body of
the planet of rays that had traversed her whole atmosphere,
and been affected by the materials it contains.

The amount of resemblance traced between the atmospheres
of Jupiter, Saturn, and that of the earth, increases the proba-
bility of their inhabitation by beings performing the functions of
respiration. ‘The enormous size of the former planet, which is
more than eleven times the diameter of the-earth, gives it a

* Astronomers usually consider the dark portions seas, and the bright ones
land. The dark parts exhibit as much prominence as could be expected from the
circumstance of our viewing them through an atmosphere laden with variable
clouds. See My. Webb’s valuable paper, vol. iv., p. 182.

“Life Conditions in other Worlds. 89

prodigious attractive power, notwithstanding its mean density
is, ay compared with that of the earth, as 243 to 1000. A
mass weighing 100 Ibs. on the earth would weigh from 276 to
224 lbs. on Jupiter, according to whether it was placed at the
poles or the equator. The surface of Jupiter may be of very
‘small density, as the mean density is low, and “ there is reason
to think,” as Mr. Breen says, “that it is denser at the centre
than at the surface.” Jupiter receives about one twenty-seventh
of our light and heat. If animated beings live upon its surface,
they must probably be of very light construction, as we may
suppose dense bodies would sink into it, and perhaps tumble
down, by mere force of gravity, through successive strata of
this remarkable globe.

Saturn has an average density of about three quarters that
of water; and if we imagine that it 1s not homogeneous, but
stratified, its external layers must be composed of very delicate
materials. Sulphuric ether has a specific gravity of °724,
water bemg 1; and this fact will assist comparison. Saturn
receives ninety-one times less light and heat than we do, but,
from its high reflective power, looks brighter than would have
been supposed.

If we assume that gravity and muscular activity stand
related to each other in the various planets as they do upon
_ earth, we shall find, as Sir John Herschel observes, “ that the
efficacy of gravity in counteracting muscular power and re- .
pressing animal activity on Jupiter, is nearly two and a-half
times that on the earth; on Mars not more than one-half; on
the moon one-sixth ; on the smaller planets probably not more
than one-twentieth, giving a scale of which the extremes are
in the proportion of sixty to one.”

Unless analogy breaks down altogether, the amount of
energy displayed by living objects in any planet will bear a
constant relation to the quantity of heat it employs in its life
-processes. We cannot say to the amount of heat it receives,
because planets may differ very greatly in the proportion of
heat which they retain for home use, out of the total quantity
that reaches them. We see this from what takes place on
the earth. A dry mountain height receives a large amount of
solar heat, and gets rid of it by violent radiation; while at a
lower level, and with a moist atmosphere surrounding it like a
blanket, other portions of the globe that receive less keep
themselves very far above the lowest temperature of the
regions just named. Sir John Herschel points out in his
Outlines of Astronomy that we cannot absolutely conclude
that objects on Mercury must be seven times as hot, because
that planet receives seven times as much solar radiation as we
do. Nor are we to assert positively that Neptune is nine

90 Life Conditions in other Worlds.

hundred times colder because he receives nine hundred times
less. He says, ‘ The feeble sunshine on a remote planet may
be retained and accumulated on its surface in the same way,
and (for the same reason) that a very sight amount of sun-
shine, or even the dispersed heat of a clouded day, suffices to
maintain the interior of a greenhouse at a high temperature.”

The amount of force that can be exerted by a given weight
of muscular fibre appears to differ very much in terrestrial
creatures, and so does the amount of strength and cohesion of
bodies of nearly the same density. None of our larger
terrestrial animals exhibit, on their scale, anything approaching
to the strength which insects manifest on a smaller scale; and
if we compare the action and continuous motion of cilia in
animalcules* with the minute portions of matter that are
concerned in keeping them going, we are led to conceive that,
in some other worlds, considerable locomotive powers may
exist in larger creatures not cumbered by our weight of flesh
and bone.

The relation of density to cohesion varies exceedingly in
substances we are acquainted with. Compare, for example, the
solidity of a bamboo with the mobility, and in that sense
weakness, of the much heavier body, water; the tenacity of
gold, so great that a single grain may be drawn into five
hundred feet of wire, with the brittleness that may be com-
municated to the same metal by combming it with small
quantities of certain other substances, so as not materially to
change its specific gravity.

It is reasonable to suppose that in’ planets differmg ma-
terially in size and density from our own, and also in the
quantity of solar heat and light which they receive, the
cohesion of substances within a certain range of density may
vary much more than they do on the earth, and we must
therefore be cautious in our guesses as to how much firmness
or weakness may exist in the surface materials of the various
planetary worlds. —

Recent remarks have shown us that terrestrial life exists
under a wider range of conditions than was supposed. On
mountain heights, where the atmosphere is half, or less than
half, what it 1s at the sea level, life still appears, and even so —
highly organized a creature as a condor can soar for hours
together 18,000 feet above the sea level, and can live and
breed at 10,000 to 15,000 feet elevation. At 18,480 feet the
atmospheric pressure is reduced one-half. Dr. Wallich, who has
importantly added to and confirmed what was previously
known of life at great sea depths, tells us that the Rhizopods

* Ciliary motion is not occasioned by muscles—no one knows how it is pro-
duced, and it is found in plants as well as in animals,

Life Conditions in other Worlds. 91

called globigerine are found at depths varying from 50 to 3000
fathoms, and he obtained a live star-fish from 1860 fathoms. At
the depth of a mile, the sea pressure amounts to 2640 lbs., or
160 atmospheres, on the squareinch. The quantity of free air
or oxygen at these great depths must be very small, and
respiration low. We may also remark that animalcules can
exist in water placed under an air pump, and consequently
deprived of a great portion of its air.

« The question of tke range of temperature that terrestrial
creatures can sustain has been considered in one of our recent
papers, entitled, “ Aids to Microscopic Enquiry ;” but, as we
have seen, we cannot tell the quantity of heat at the disposal
of organisms in the different worlds. Perhaps more light may
be thrown upon our speculations if we reflect upon the
remarkable discoveries of Tyndall, on the heat absorbing power
of aromatic vapours, that of aniseed being 372 times as great
as that of common air. Thus the existence, even in moderate
proportion, in the atmosphere of any planet, of some heat-
absorbing: body not found im our own, might very materially
affect the temperature to which creatures living on it would be
exposed.

In speculating on the power of animals in other worlds, of
either producing heat in very cold climates, or resisting it in
very hot ones, we may consider the bad conducting pro-
perties of many substances we are acquainted with, and of the
cooling action exerted by the evaporation of bodies taking up -
considerable quantities of heat. Our terrestrial plants gene-
rate some heat in their vital processes, but, for the most part,
too little to enable them to accommodate themselves to a very
_low temperature. There are, however, cases of very con-
siderable heat being generated by plants in their flowering
season, and Dr. Carpenter cites an instance of an Arum cardi-
foliwm raising a thermometer to 121°, while the temperature of
the surrounding air was only 66°. The main source of the
heat generated by plants and animals arises from a slow com-
bustion or oxydation of some of the materials they contain, and
we find terrestrial creatures adapted to an atmosphere contain-
ing only about one-fifth of oxygen. It would be a variation of
degree, not of kind, if in other worlds a larger proportion of
a gas supporting combustion were supplied, or if organized
beings were adapted to burn certain materials at a greater rate.

Mr. Huggins’s spectroscope researches lead us to the belief
that the atmospheres of the coloured stars absorb a sufficient
portion of the complementary rays to give them their peculiar
tint. Thus Betelgeux, an orange star, and Aldebaran, a pale
red one, exhibit spectra full of lines in the places of rays com-
plementary to the star tint. Aldebaran is described as having

92 Life Conditions m other Worlds.

abundance of such dark lines in the orange, green, and blue,
and the stoppage of such portions of the spectrum leaves the
pale red tint which we see. Now if this be the rule im
coloured stars, it will follow that their planets receive rays
mixed in different proportions, and as different coloured lights
have a different effect upon the growth or organisms, we must
expect the planets of a red sun to have a different fauna and.
flora from a green one. To what extent.chemical rays are

stopped by certain sun atmospheres, and transmitted by either, ©

we have little knowledge; but the actinic power, of some
briliant white or sapphire stars is much higher than that of
others which are inclined to an orange tint.* When a binary
system exposes its planets to an alternate or varying influence
of two distinct coloured suns, not only would their skies and
scenery present a splendid and changing aspect, but the sort
of stimulus and the amount of excitement given to living
organisms would vary too.

The last considerations we shall at present offer refer to a
large number of facts now in the possession of naturalists, which
show that particular types both of plants and animals may occupy
a widely different rank from that which we are accustomed to
see them in. Hedgeside weeds in this country are, im many
cases, the local representatives of plants that reach ample
dimensions in other lands, and the humble reptiles of our roads
and ponds claim relationship with gigantic creatures which were
little less than the lords of creation in earlier stages of our
planet’s life. Who knows but that the plants and animals of
other worlds are so related to our own, as that they may exhibit
the perfect condition of types that are only seen by us in a
rudimentary form ?

* Most of our astronomical readers will remember a note to page 111 of Mr.
Webb’s “ Celestial Objects,” in which it is stated, that ‘‘ the American astronomers
at Harvard College, with the great 22-feet achromatic, have found that’ Wega
surpasses Arcturus in photographic power no less than seyen times; presumably
from its different hue.”

ee ee ee ee ae

On Transmitted Illumination. — 93

ON TRANSMITTED ILLUMINATION IN CONNECTION
WITH THE STRUCTURE OF THE SILICHOUS
DIATOM VALVE.

BY RICHARD BECK.

Iv is undoubtedly a remarkable fact that, after all the care-
ful microscopic examination which has been bestowed for so
many years upon the siliceous valves of the Diatomacez, no
person has yet been able to give any explanation of their
structure, which could universally be received as satisfactory.

A few observers appear to have had no difficulty in satisfy-
ing themselves as to the cause of those markings which are so
familiar to every microscopist ; but the opinion of almost every
one, who has refrained from any published statement, is as
undecided as possible.

I believe the conflicting ideas of some, and the uncertain
opinions of others, are easily accounted for by the peculiarities
of the case; of these I would especially draw attention to that
of the siliceous valve being formed ofa perfectly transparent
material, and consequently when light is transmitted through
it, the markings appear because of the refraction or the reflexion
of the light by the various irregularities of structure, and not
because of the dispersion or absorption of the light, which so
invariably and materially assist us in the determination of
almost all natural objects.

Again, it is very seldom indeed that any truly transparent
natural object is presented to the naked eye in the ordinary
course of our existence, and still less, frequently, under such
circumstances as to have a direct light transmitted through it ;
the only instances that occur to me just now, are the drops of —
falling rain, or flakes of snow as seen against a light sky, and
consequently the eye from not being accustomed to the appear-
ances of transparent objects, is quite unable to come to any
judgment upon their appearances.

It has frequently occurred to me, and probably to many
others, that some objects of a tangible size might be found to
show the difficulty of determining the structure of transparent
objects from the appearances produced by passing light through
them, and it was quite unexpectedly that I met with a common
small glass tumbler, the lower portion of which was covered
with small hemispheres. The difficulty of determining the
structure even of this large object, when looking perpendicularly
though the surface, is at once apparent, and may be seen as
well in the accompanying engraving, copied froma photograph,

94, On Transmitted I Thininotiay:

which was taken after the tumbler had been cut in half, so that
the posterior side should have no influence over the illumination
or the appearances presented by the anterior surface.*

Now I think every one who will impartially look at the copy
of this photograph of the tumbler taken under the conditions

of illumination which I have mentioned, must admit that it is .

impossible from such appearances to determine the true struc-
ture ; and to show how small an influence may operate upon

the mind, in coming to any conclusion, it will be found that —

merely altering the direction of the illumination exactly reverses
the appearance—this change resulting entirely from a very
shghtly unequal illumination of the hemispheres which conveys
the idea of shadow, and consequently elevates or depresses the
markings according to the direction of the ight by which it is
examined.

I do not bring this instance forward as a proof of what the
structure of any one diatom valve may be, I believe it would be
most hazardous to draw any conclusion whatever: for my own
idea is, that a piece of glass covered with hemispherical depres-
sions, or even perforated, might be made to produce very
similar appearances.

It may reasonably be asked, what value can attach to such
an illustration as this tumbler affords, for the purpose of deter-
mining the peculiar and minute structure which no doubt
belongs to the diatom valve? I can only give my opinion that
it must be taken as negative evidence, and I would recommend
those observers who are anxious to determine the correct struc-
ture of the siliceous diatom valve, to take into consideration its
function, and consequently the formation that that function

* The cut should be viewed as it stands, and then when turned upside down.
A piece of paper having a hole in the middle three quarters of an inch square, and
laid over the engraving, conceals the true form, and makes it look exceedingly like
a portion of a diatom valve.

a

ee eee eee

SSeS er

Pinks Wondde ond tein Enemies 95

may require ; for how can any reasoning be sound when based
merely on the appearances of the markings under the micro-
scope, which, as [ have endeavoured to show, may be entirely
due to the pecuharity of the illumination, and may give not
the least indication whatever of the true structure ?

PINK MONADS AND THEIR ENEMIKS.

BY HENRY J. SLACK, F.G.S.,

Member of the Microscopical Society of London.

Ir is no disparagement to Ehrenberg’s genius and industry
to say, that the group of Monads (Monadina) contains ob-
jects that must be entirely re-arranged. Most of them are
plants, not animals, and many are probably only rudimentary
forms. In the last edition of Pritchard’s valuable work, Dr.
Arlidge treats the Monads as belonging to a family called
Phytozoa, composed, as the name indicates, of ‘ plant-like
animals.” An arrangement of this sort can only be provisional,
because many of the objects do not present any animal cha-
racteristics, as the mere power of locomotion cannot be con-
sidered to deserve that name. ‘The so-called Phytozoa com-
prehend Monadina, cryptomonadina, hydromorina, volvocina,
vibrionia, and astasia. The extreme minuteness of many of
these objects, and the very small size of their parts, or organs,
rendered it impossible that many details could be made out
with the object-glasses used by Ehrenberg or Dujardin, and
hence we need not be surprised that the former made the
mistake of supposing that they possessed a plurality of sto-
machs, or that the latter found himself unable to do more than
suggest artificial appellations, intended merely to facilitate
their recognition. ‘The Monad group is divided into two
portions, one consisting of isolated individuals, and the other
of aggregated individuals. The former are named according
to their possessing one or more vibratile filaments and the
position in which they are placed; the latter are either always
free, or at some portion of their life attached by a stalk.
Such an arrangement is evidently artificial, as aggregate
groups may, and in many cases do, result from single indivi-
duals or spores.

A source of difficulty to students of these organisms arises
from the confusion between old and new modes of treating
them. Ehrenberg, as we have said, thought them all animal,

96 Pink Monads and their Hnenvies.

and we still find genera, to which animal terms are applied,
mixed up with other genera concerning which nothing ani-
mal can be predicated. It is not, indeed, easy to say what is
an animal or what is a vegetable, and Dr. Burnett observed
some years ago, in an introductory note to his translation of
Von Siebold’s Anatomy of the Invertebrata, that “all the older
criteria by which animals were separated from plants have
long since been regarded as invalid; and some of those which
in late years have been regarded among the most constant,”
have, quite recently, been declared as equally unsound. Cel-
lulose has been shown to be a component of animal as well as
of vegetable structures, and Kolhker has insisted that some
forms that have neither mouth nor stomach, but consist of a
homogeneous mass, are true animals. If these premises are
correct, nothing will remain, I conceive, for a distinctive cha-
racteristic, but voluntary motion.” Afterwards he says, that
if stomachless creatures be admitted as animals, still the
existence of a stomach should be regarded as proving that an
object is not vegetable. Whether or not motion is voluntary,
is often an extremely difficult problem to decide, and where
no distinct animal organs are present, the class to which the
creature belongs must be decided by its preponderating affini- —
ties rather than by any one characteristic, and particular
attention must be paid to its mode of origin and embryonic »
forms. A stomachless, organless thing, hke the Gregarina,
is recognized aS an animal partly on account of its young
form resembling an Amceba, and thrusting out similar pro-
cesses. The negative evidence against this, the possessing
neither mouth nor stomach, does not deanimalise it; as the
tape-worm, which no one would dream of supposing a plant,
has no such organs. Moreover, the nutrition of the Grega-
rina is that of an animal; but as it lives in other animals in
contact with their juices, it can imbibe and assimilate them,
without the machinery for taking in solid matter, and reducing
to a fluid state, which is requisite for the mode of life of other »
animals higher in the scale.
The absence of a mouth does not: suffice to indicate that
living object is not an animal; but the possession of a true
mouth is evidence the other way; and none of the various
things called Monads, in which mouths can be detected, ought
to be associated with other creatures in which nothing but
vegetable characteristics can be traced. When an object is
not in its complete form, but only a germ, or early stage of
something else, it should not be classed with others that may
resemble it, but which do not develope into anything else.
Until, therefore, the life history of all the objects called Monads
is ascertained, their true classification cannot be effected, and —

Fig. 1. Pink Monads (Chromatia).
Figs. 2, 3, 4. The same in early stages.
Figs. 5, 6, 7. Animalcules preying upon the Pink Monads.

\ * erie)

ti hia A

Pine Monads and their Hnemies. 99

I cannot pretend to say exactly where the pink Monads I shall
proceed to describe may have to take their stand.

In the beginning of December, in company with a friend, I
examined some ponds just beyond Highgate Archway, on the
left of the road, and found few symptoms of life. After many
ineffectual dips, I brought up a small twig of some dead plant
which had a reddish hue from the adhesion of minute parti-
cles, that a hand magnifier could make nothing of. Thinking
the unknown objects were probably alive, I brought them
home, and proceeded to examine them with a 1th. The
sight was curious in the extreme. A few particles of the red
matter had been placed in a drop of water on a glass slide and
a thin cover over them, and when I looked through the micro-
scope, hundreds of little sausage-shaped things of a rose-
pink colour were moving through the field. They were
transparent, and for the most part contained little vesicles of
a different refractive power. Their mode of motion was
very peculiar. Sometimes they moved nearly horizontally,
with a wriggling contortion of their bodies; at other times
they stood upright in the water, and spun round and round
about their long axis, appearing to go very fast, but in reality
makine their tee-to-turma performance to rather slow time, as
was shown by the fact that under a magnification carried
as far as 1750 linear, by means if a ~,th, the vesicular spots
could always be seen separated from each, other, which
would not have been the case if the rotation had been quick.
The little bodies varied in size, some appearing half an inch
long, and others about three-quarters when magnified 1750
linear. The width was about one-third of the length. Both
smaller and larger were observed, but the majority were
within the limits mentioned. The colour was a beautiful rose-
pink, and the vesicles looked lighter or darker, according to the
way in which they caught the light. Some only contained a
few vesicles, others were stuffed full of them, as shown in the
drawing. A reference to Pritchard shows that they belonged to
the genus Chromatium of Perty, of which .the description is,
““ body extremely small, red, brown, green, or violet in colour,
containing in the mature condition some internal vesicles. A
motor filament atthe anterior extremity (?). Multiplication by
transverse fission.” In a description of Chromatium Weissi,
it is stated that Perty could not find the alleged motile fila-
ment, and I am satisfied it was not present in my specimens,
as their mode of progression eyidently depended upon an-
other sort of mechanism. No objects are more difficult to
make out than extremely small filaments which have as nearly
as possible the refractive power of water. Letting a speci-
men dry -will not succeed with the most delicate of such

VOL. VII.—NO. II. H

100 Pink Monads and their Hnemies.

objects; but changing the refracting power of the water with
a little glycerine sometimes will. Cases will occur in which
with all care the presence or absence of such a filament must
be inferred. Thus I found associated with the Chromatia a
number of extremely minute euglenz from a ten-hundredth toa
fifteen-hundredth of an inch long, and it was only in a few
specimens the filament could be occasionally seen, though,
doubtless, present in all.

In searching for any filament that might be present im the ~
Chromatia, I adjusted the glass and illumination so as to show
it in other delicate objects m the same field, but never de-
tected any symptom of such an organ in any one of them.
The motion was evidently effected by expansion and contrac-
tion of the delicate membrane covering the little objects, and
when one of them was in a favourable position a wave motion
was seen from one end to the other of the integument. In ~
the annexed plate, a very large Chromatia, is shown in the
act of division, but I think the chief method of propagation
takes place in another way. After whirling and spmning and
wriggling up and down and backwards and forwards for a
considerable time, the little sausages grew quiet and settled
down among a mass of their brethren, who had likewise
retired from the dancing dervish part of their business. They
were not dead, though no longer acted upon by “ life’s fitful
fever,” and, I believe, in their quiescent state the vesicles
escaped and commenced a new growth. When a mass of
stationary Chromatia was examined, it was found to be ce-
mented together by a sort of pellicle, in which various objects,
including the lilliputian euglenss, were embedded. ‘This mass
likewise exhibited particles of pink matter in various stages of
growth, as shown in Figs. 1 to 3. JI could not obtam any
positive proof of the fact, but Ithink the little objects in these
patches were developing into Chromatia; at any rate a tole-
rably complete series of forms intermediate between the little
dots in Fig. 1, and the objects in Fig. 4, could be traced, and
it will be seen that Fig. 4 closely approaches the Chromatium
form. All these objects had a pink tinge, but it was deepest
in the full-grown specimens.

When I first brought the pink Monads home, there were
very few full-grown ones that did not exhibit many vesicles ;
but, after the bottle containing them had been a week in the
house, the majority had very few vesicles, and some none at
all, though quite large enough to be entitled to many. The
development of vesicles had evidently been checked by want
of some conditions I was unable to supply.

It is of no use to give such objects specific names, unless
it can be shown from their life-history that they are really.

Poi Monads and their Enemies. 101

distinct from other objects much like them. The colour can-
not be taken as a sufficient distmction to mark a species, nor
can variation in size, unless both striking and hereditary.
My Chromatia were all rose-pink, but I should not regard
them as distinct from violet or brown sorts. They colour
mud and other objects at the bottom of ponds. Those I took
were only a few inches under water, and the hue is probably
affected by the depth at which they grow, and the quantity of
light they receive.

The most active enemies of my pink Monads were the crea-
tures represented in Fig. 5. Itis quite impossible to represent
the delicate structure of these objects in any engraving. The
reader must imagine the globular body to be white and transpa-
rent ; the little dots inside them represent vesicles obtained from
the Chromatia, and ingulped by a mouth opening wide and slant-
ingly near the filament. Not avestige of this mouth could be
discerned except when it was in the act of opening or shut-
ting. No definite internal organs could be discovered in
my specimens, but no doubt some existed. The filaments
were so delicate and colourless that they could only be seen at
favourable moments. The slightest motion which took them
out of the exact focus, or the best possible illumination, ren-
dered them invisible. The tails were still more delicate, and
although both head and tail were frequently seen in the same
individual, it was rarely possible to focus both at the same
time. Their tails were susceptible of considerable variation
by lateral expansion and contraction, and the animals could
change from the globular form to a pear shape, or even to
the shape depicted in Vig. 6, which represents what may be
another species, as 1b had no tail, and did not become either
globular or pear shaped. ‘The most common forms of these
animals are represented in Fig. 7. They were very active,
swimming freely, squeezing themselves through obstacles,
and dashing furiously against the Monads. Sometimes they
swallowed alittle Monad whole ; but their usual plan was to tug
and thump at the big ones until they could get at their contents.
The object depicted in Fig. 6 was less common, but appa-
rently engaged in the same business.

Fig. 7 shows an animalcule remarkable for the length of
its cilia. It had a conspicuous contractile vesicle and a mouth
at the smaller end. It was an active creature, and seemed fond
of the Monads in an early stage of their growth.

In one instance, one of the Fig. 5 objects used his tail as
a foot, and sprung up and down from it, but without the jerk
of a Vorticellid.

T have seldom met with prettier objects than the pink
‘Monads and their enemies, and if any of my readers notice a

102 The Australian Satin Bird and the King Parrot.

delicate deposit of pink or any other colour at the bottom of a
pond, I recommend them to bottle some of it for domestic use.
The sketches which illustrate this paper are from drawings by
my wife; the objects are all magnified 1750 lnear.

THE AUSTRALIAN SATIN BIRD AND THE |
KING PARROT. ;

BY “AN OLD BUSHMAN.”’

THe male Satin or Shinine Bower Bird (Ptilonorynchus holo-
cericeus), with his silky, glossy, purple coat and bright blue
eye, is, perhaps, take it altogether, one of the most beautiful
birds in the Austrahan forest. But it is not so much on
account of the beauty of plumage that I bring this bird
before the notice of the reader, as to offer a few remarks
on those peculiar little structures called ‘ bowers,’ which
these birds erect in certain places in the Australian bush
for the purposes of mutual recreation, and totally independent
of, and often at a considerable distance from, their nests. .
These bowers are, I believe, built, and certainly are used
by more than one pair of birds. Like human edifices, they
do not appear all to have equal care bestowed upon their
construction, or equal taste shown in their decoration, and,
although uniform in their plan, I do not think that they
are equally so in their dimensions. ‘They may, however, be
generally described as being in plan an oval, intersected at
either end by a wing, or entrance to it. The greatest width of
the oval is generally about eighteen inches, that of the wings
about eight inches at their points of junction with it. The floor
of the oval or bower, and of that portion of the wings imme-
diately adjoming it, is paved with small sticks, along either
external edge of which is built a little ridge composed
of sticks laid longitudinally, and forming, as it were, —
two wall-plates. Into both of these wall-plates a com-
pact hedge of sticks is then inserted; these on either
side inclining inwards, at about an angle of sixty degrees from
the actual covering of the bower, leaving a small space open
at the top, varying in size from one to two inches. These
sticks are longest in the centre of the bower, and are shortened
as they approach either wing. The wings widen as they recede
from the bower, and those forming their sides are placed further
apart; these also incline inwards. The whole of the sticks

The Australian Satin Bird and the King Parrot. 103

used in the construction of this little edifice are either peeled,
or else have a beautifully smooth bark. The decoration of the
bower is accomplished by sticking the feathers of gaudy
parrots into the wall-plates, especially where the bower and
wings intersect each other. The whole of the flooring is also
more or less thickly strewn with these feathers, especially at
the entrance of the wings, forming a kind of tesselated pave-
ment to the whole affair. It is most ludicrous to watch the
grotesque postures and attitudes of a group of satin birds at
play in one of these bowers.

Scarcely less beautiful in plumage, and quite as interesting
in his habits, is the Spotted Bower Bird, which is very
common on the Murray, frequenting the densest part of the
mallee scrub. Shy and retired in its habits, and certainly .
not so gregarious as the bird last described, the male
-bird of this species is certainly a very handsome fellow,
of a rich brown covered with buff spots, and a broad stripe
of feathers growing out of the back of the neck, bearing
a remarkable resemblance to the flower of a Scotch thistle.
But the Murray bird lacks the splendid eye of his royally
apparelled brother of the Western port district, of whom, when
in full and mature plumage, with his glossy coat of satin-like
softness, the lustrous depth of whose purple hue is enhanced
by the still brighter glories of a peerless eye, it may be fairly
said, he is justly entitled to be classed among those “ things of
beauty” which are ‘‘a joy for ever.”

I do not think that any country in the world is richer than
Australia in different species of the parrot tribe; and bril-
hant as many of them are in their colours, to my fancy there is
none to equal the King Parrot (Aprosmictus scapulatus of natu-
ralists), nearly the size of the magpie at home; the body colour
of a rich glossy purple green, with a breast of flaming red.
The king parrct, as he floats from one green tree to another, is
one of the most splendid objects in the Australian bush, and,
although the red lory is a magnificent bird, he must yield
the palm to the parrot we are now describing. However,
beyond the gorgeous plumage of this princely bird, there is
little of interest to be said respecting him, for, unlike the lyre
bird, he has no language, save the confused jabber of his
“ corroboree”’ notes, and the short, but shrill pipe of his mo-
notonous call-note. Unlike the bower bird he is no builder,
and I introduce him here simply in illustration of the fact that
_ Victoria has also her birds of beauty, which can scarcely be
surpassed in richness of plumage by those of the sunniest
clime. The geographical range of the king parrot is I believe
very extensive, but in Victoria, the Gipps’ Land district is un-
doubtedly his chief abiding place, for the further east you

104 The Australian Satin Bird and the King Parrot.

travel, the oftener will your path be crossed by this “ dashing
pioneer.” It is also seen frequently in the Goulburn district,
and I have met with him as far north as Mount Hope; but there,
as in some other places, I found that he had a dangerous rival
in the graceful and golden-fronted green leek parrot, and a
little lower down the Murray by the more sombre, yet noble
black-tailed lory. He is often to be seen m the Bass River
district, sometimes accompanied solely by his unpretending

queen, at others in the mixed company of his compeers. Here, ~

during the months of winter, they are to be found in many of
the gullies on the mountain ranges, keeping company with the
lyre bird and the Yankata cockatoo.; and in the same gully,
and doubtless often under the same trees, whilst they are
quietly feeding in the upper branches, the lyre bird is talking
to them in their own language at the foot. At this time of the

year they are remarkably quiet, and, owing to the density of ~

the upper foliage in these mountain scrubs, you may traverse
gully after gully im these sequestered ranges, swarming with
king parrots and other birds, and yet be entirely ignorant of
their presence, and the only way to arrive at a knowledge of
their vicinity is to repeat at intervals their short and mono-
tonous call-note, and then as likely as not you will hear it
answered from a tree under which you have just passed.

_In the spring the greater portion of these birds leave their
mountain home, and descend into the lower country adjoining
it, and when this is the case, our friend proves himself not only
the “king of parrots,” but the ‘king of robbers,” stripping
the fruit from the trees in the settlers’ gardens ; and of all
vegetables, potatoes appear their favourite. After a time they
return to the ranges to rear their young, and when this is
done they reappear with augmented forces to “raid” in the
surrounding country. I think the king parrot right well and
worthily named; for although some may perhaps say that the
dashing dress of the blue mountaineer 1s brighter in its hues,
and that of the crimson-coated lory deeper in its dye, yet
neither the one nor the other, nor im fact any of the parrot
race, can, in my humble opinion, vie in stateliness of carriage
or splendour of appearance with their “ titled king,” for the
bright red tint of his front and lower garniture stands forth
in bold relief from the dark purple and green of his lordly
back, while the bright reflection from his dark green wing, as
it flashes in the rays of the noon-day sun, dazzles the eye of
the beholder, and proclaims the presence of a ‘“‘ Prince of
the Birds of Air.” |

{
r
i
;
‘

The Dog as a Culprit. 105

THE DOG AS A CULPRIT.
BY JONATHAN COUCH, BE.L.S., Ee.

THE history of the dog, with its peculiar sagacity and fidelity,
has been treated of in several volumes especially devoted to
the subject; and numerous are the tales illustrative of the
same which still remain unrecorded, but which ought not to
sink into forgetfulness. But there is a portion of the character
of this animal which appears to have escaped the notice of
the writers of canine biography, but which has so far a bearing
on its acquired or intuitive intelligence as to show that there may
be times when its fidelity to the master or the public property
may be at fault, while the powers of reasoning and the force
of cunning calculation are not diminished.

The state of things to which we refer is well known to
farmers, and, as far as our information goes, appears to be
confined to that variety of the canine race which is employed
in the care of sheep; which form or variety of this animal is
believed to stand the nearest to what is understood as the
primitive, or natural condition of the race, and which may
therefore be judged to be disposed more naturally than others
to fall back into the true state of nature, and to be less
influenced. or governed by anything which education or long
habit may have implanted within it, but in which the love of —
selfish indulgence has again become the governing principle,
and what remains of the artificial state is employed only in its
own behalf. Other animals which have been brought into
subjection to the dominion of man have sometimes shown a
propensity to fall back or return to the primitive condition of
their race, of which what we term wildness, and an ungovern-
able appetite, are the usual characteristics; and even the
“ half-reasoning: elephant” is not always exempt from the same
propensity ; but in the case of the dog it is remarkable, above
what has been noticed in other Gaeaianeas that with the savage
appetite which has excited the individual to throw aside the
long-practised restraint of education, there should be brought
into exercise so large an amount of shrewdness as even to
exceed what has been manifested on ordinary occasions.

When, therefore, it happens that, amidst the fulness of an
abundant larder at the house, a craving shows itself for a
supply of raw and newly-slam mutton, it is not from the
nearest, and stilllessfrom its master’s flock, that the want is
to be supplied. We can scarcely admit that in this there is
any special regard for the master’s interest, or love for the
individual sheep of the flock; for the depredator trots off to a

106 The Dog as a Culprit.

considerable distance from even the fields of a near neighbour,
for whom no particular feeling of regard can be supposed to
exist. The mischief is also to be inflicted in such situations
and under such circumstances as appear the least likely to be
traced, or the source suspected from whence the robber has
come. As the injury brought on the flock is inflicted at night,
it is highly probable that the first will pass without a
discovery of the perpetrator. But impunity will bring upon

the offender the largest degree of danger, and a watch is ~

kept ; under which circumstances it 1s that our earliest observa-
tions have been made, in pursuing which we have been
impressed with the amount of stratagem that has been put in
practice, more especially to secure the escape of the criminal,
and even to divert the suspicion which might alight upon him.
The only failure in calculation of results appears to be, that
where it has been successful already, a dog will probably resort
again to the same field for the same object, without being
aware that a second attempt will probably lead to discovery ;
but in all besides, no London pickpocket is better versed in the
subtleties of his art. .

As illustrations of the foregoing remarks: A dog was
observed to have throttled a sheep, and after having satisfied
its appetite, it went down to a neighbouring mill-pool, with
what intention it is easy to guess, and there, not aware of
being noticed, it washed itself thoroughly, and then came to
the bank, where it dragged itself along the ground; after
which it went again into the water, rubbed its mouth in the
grass, and only after a long time did it venture to return to its
home—there, however, to suffer the penalty of the trans-
gression, the whole of which had been seen, but of which, if
there had not been other evidence, the appearances on the dog
could not have been brought as a proof.

On another occasion, a dog had killed some sheep at the
distance of about a couple of miles from his home, and ina
secluded situation; but being discovered in the act, it was
shot at with a gun, wounded, and pursued. The farm which
was its home was on the east border of a promontory that
projected far into the sea; but instead of proceeding straight
to the shelter of its residence, the road to which was not
difficult, although intersected with several cross roads, it ran
first to a beach far on the west side of the promontory, and
from thence swam out among the rocks, on some of which it
effected a landing two or three times. It landed finally on the
east of its master’s farm, and there was observed to wash its
bleeding wounds ; after which the parts were rubbed in the
earth, and at last it crept up slyly toits own house, where it lay
down on the straw with the appearance of being asleep. The

The Dog as a Culprit. 107

pursuers who had traced the proceedings of the dog had, in
the meanwhile, roused up the master from his bed, and they
proceeded together to drag out the murderer from his lair ;
but in doing this, poor innocent! it appeared altogether drowsy
and unconscious of harm. Proof was, however, afforded, even
to the master’s conviction, in the discovery of the bleeding
wounds, and summary vengeance was the result.
A dog had worried and much injured a sheep at the distance
of a quarter of a mile from its master’s house; but bemg
discovered by the farmer, who knew the dog, it made all haste to
its master’s house in the neighbouring town, where the master
was sitting by the fire, and another dog lay at his feet asleep.
Advancing, with all the appearance of conscious mnocence,
this one lay down by the side of its canine friend, and
presentiy assumed the appearance of being also asleep. Pre-
sently, however, the unwelcome pursuer appeared also, and
began to tell the tale of the injury inflicted on his sheep. The
really innocent dog continued to sleep on; but the conscious
culprit, without looking up, crept silently away, not directly,
but round the room, and was not long in quitting the house.
Very near to the master’s house was a cellar or room, which was
used for the purpose of barking the nets of the fishermen, and
a portion of the apparatus consisted of a boiler with a flue,
close into which latter it crept, entirely out of sight, and there
it was discovered, to suffer the necessary consequence of the
crime. It is clear that in this instance the dog not only knew
the person of its pursuer, but the purport of his tale, as well
as that its attempt to lull suspicion had failed of effect.
Subtlety, as deep as in these instances, we have known in
a captive fox, and almost as deep in a cat ; but in these actions
of the dog, a nearer approach is made to the human vice of
hypocrisy than we have noticed in any other animal.
While on this subject we will add another narrative, which
represents this creature in a more amiable point of view. A
gentleman possessed a retriever bitch, which had produced
two broods of puppies, all of which had been taken from her
and drowned. She was about to produce another litter, and
was observed to have searched through every corner and spot
about the house; but after a time she disappeared, and when
again seen it was plain she had been relieved of her load.
Search was then made for the young ones; but it was long
before they were discovered, and then it was far from the
_ house—in a secret place on the: shore of the sea, near where
otters had had a residence; and even then the place was so
chosen among the rocks that the young ones could not be got
at. It is plain in this instance that the resolution for this

_ proceeding had been formed in the mind long before, although
only lately carried out.

108 : Microscopic Crystals.

MICROSCOPIC CRYSTALS (URIC ACID AND ITS
DERIVATIVES).

BY GEORGE 8S. BRADY, M.RB.C.S.,
= Secretary to the Tyneside Naturalists’ Field Club.

(With a Tinted Plate.)

A parser on Crystallization in the November part of the Inrun-
LECTUAL OBSERVER, noticing the experiments of M. Kuhlmann,
reminds me of aremarkable group of salts, very little known
except to purely medical or chemical students, but exceedingly
interesting in a microscopic point of view, some short account
of which may be acceptable to the general reader.

The compounds to which I refer are derived from uric (or ~
lithic) acid, a substance met with abundantly in most animal |
excretions, but most plentifully in those of the boa constrictor,
and other serpents, the semi-solid excrement of which consists
almost entirely of this acid, in combmation with ammonia.
From this impure urate of ammonia the acid is obtained by the
following process :—The material to be operated on is dissolved
in boiling water by the addition of caustic potash, until the ©
liquid becomes alkaline. ‘The hot solution of urate of potash |
thus produced is then filtered, and treated with an excess of
hydrochloric acid, which at once precipitates the pure uric acid
in a heavy crystalline form.

The forms assumed by uric acid crystals vary very rere
ably, according to the character of the solutions from which
they are produced, being much influenced by the nature of the
precipitating agent, the organic matter held in solution, and
various other circumstances. Like other crystals, however, the
finest specimens are produced the most slowly. Those occur-
ring naturally in human and other secretions are often strongly
coloured of a deep reddish brown, and have on this account
obtained the name of “ Cayenne Pepper” crystals, a designa-
tion, however, which may be held to have also a covert refer-
ence to the gouty subjects in which they most frequently occur.
Some of the forms in which this acid crystallizes are represented
at Fig. 2 of the accompanying plate.

When uric acid is added gradually to strong nitric acid, it
is dissolved with effervescence, and with considerable evolation
of heat, owing to which, indeed, the operation may become
unmanageable, if not cautiously and slowly conducted. In the
warm liquid there shortly appear crystals of a compound called
allocan and, on cooling, these increase greatly in numbers, so

that from 100 parts of pure uric acid, 90 to 105 parts of rintien i) a

SSS oy g

4,

Zs
ti pe

‘Ty

MICROSCOPIC

Alloxanate of Ammonia.

CRYSTALS.

- i ae:
¢
: - ¢
% an
\ '
‘ c . ‘ * 8 . .
.
:
.
‘ A
‘ oH x '
-
.
- a a ~—
WEP Qane 2
' 6
a
: o
>

Microscopie Crystals. 109

alloxan may be obtained. A solution of this substance stains
the skin pink, but its crystals have no particular interest to the
microscopist, and it is important chiefly as a stepping stone to
the production of other compounds.

Allowantine, a compound. slightly different from the fore-
going, is prepared by passing through the mother-liquor of
alloxan a current of sulphuretted hydrogen gas, and by the
action of ammonia on a solution of these two substances
(alloxan and alloxantine) is formed one of the most splendid
of chemical products, murexide, the crystals of which are
beautiful objects for the microscope when viewed either by
reflected or transmitted light. By transmitted light they are
of a deep red colour, but by reflected light of a metallic
green, very like that seen on the elytra of some insects, such
as the Spanish blistermg fly (Cantharis vesicatoria). In the
preparation of the crystals of murexide, small quantities only of
the required substances should be used, and for the precautions
necessary both in this and other similar operations, as well as
for full instructions as to their successful performance, the
experimenter cannot do better than refer to Dr. Gregory’s
Handbook of Organic Chemistry. To give these details here
would be tedious, and out of place.

Several other compounds of this series form excellent micro-
scopic objects. Alloxanate cf ammonia, when slowly crysital-
lized, sometimes disposes itself in feathery forms of the most
exquisite beauty: one of these is representedin Fig. 1. Uramile
crystallizes in little feathery balls; oxalurate of ammonma m
radiated hemispheres, and thionwrate of ammonia in small
rectangular plates ; the two latter salts polarize beautifully.

One cannot but be struck with the similarity which many
of these crystals bear to the lower forms of vegetable life.
Those of uric acid, for instance, delineated in Fig. 2, must
remind the microscopist of many familiar objects. ‘The oval or
‘‘lozenge-shaped.”’ crystals are very similar in form to certain
diatoms, even to a median longitudinal fissure, seemingly split-
ting them into two valves. Others remind us forcibly of the
Desmidiz, especially of the genera Micrasterias and Huastrum,
while we could scarcely have a more accurate or graceful ideali-
zation of some of the familiar red alge than is presented in the
erystallization of alloxanate of ammonia (Fig. 1). Hven to the
proliferous method of branching from the central midrib, this is
wonderfully true to the sea-weed character. An artist might
have designed it from the genus Delesseria, but would scarcely
have produced a work at once so elegant and so vitally true.

Of course it may be said—perhaps truly said—that these
resemblances are mere matters of coincidence. Certain it is,
that though of constant occurrence, the laws which govern

110 Microscopic Crystals.

their production are but very imperfectly understood. We are
told that the arborescent forms assumed by hoar-frost are
the result of markings of the surfaces on which it is deposited.
Still, though such markings do influence the particular form
assumed, they do not impress upon the crystals the disposition
to follow curved lines and mimic the forms of vegetable life,
We seem here to be on the confines of the organic and imor-
ganic worlds. That the forces which govern both are identical,
we are led, by the progress of science, each day to believe more
strongly. That “vital force” itself will be found one day to
be the simple result of more elementary forces—heat, light,
and so forth—we can scarcely doubt. At present the term
‘vital force ” is a mere cloak for our ignorance. ‘To use the
words of a contributor to the Reader (Oct. 29, 1864), < It is the
compounding in the organic world of forces that belong equally
to the inorganic that constitutes the mystery and the miracle
of vitality. Every portion of every animal body may be re-
duced to purely inorganic matter. A perfect reversal of this
process of reduction would carry us from the inorganic to the
organic; and such a reversal is at least conceivable. The ten-
dency of modern science is to break down the wall of partition
between the organic and inorganic, and to reduce both to the
operation of forces which are the same in kind, but whose com-
binations differ in complexity. The mode in which these com-
binations have been brought about is a perfectly legitimate
subject of scientific speculation, and in this we will here so
far indulge as to ask a single speculative question. It is
generally supposed that our earth once belonged to the sun,
from which it was detached in a molten condition. Hence
arises the question, ‘ Did that incandescent world contain
latent within itself the elements of life?’ Or, supposing a
planet carved from our present sun, and set spinning round him
at the distance of our earth, would one of the consequences of
its refrigeration be the development of organic forms? Struc-
tural forces certainly lie latent in the molten mass, whether or
not those forces, reach to the extent of forming a plant or an
animal. All the marvels of crystalline force, all those wonderful
branching frost-ferns which cover our window panes on a frosty
morning, the exquisite molecular architecture which is now
known to belong to the ice of our frozen lakes, all this ‘ con-
structiveness’ hes latent in an amorphous drop of water, and
comes into play when the water is sufficiently cooled. And
who will set limits to the possible play of molecular forces in
_ the cooling of a planet?” But even if we admit the soundness
of these speculations, we must still look further backwards to
‘one Great First Cause,” by whom are all things, and for whose
pleasure “ they are and were created.”

Notes on some Small Rodents found in North America. 111

NOTES ON SOME OF THE SMALLER RODENTS
FOUND IN NORTH-WEST AMERICA.

(Continued from No. 36, p. 422.)

BY J. K. LORD, F.Z.S.,
Late Naturalist to the British North American Boundary Commission.

THE APLODONTIA LEPORINA (Ricz.).
SEWELLEL OR SHOW TL OF THE NESQUALLY INDIANS.

Synonymes.

Aplodontia leporina, Rich., F.B.A. i., 211, plate xviii.; And Bach. N. A., Qua.
iii., 1853, 99, pl. exxiii.

Hoplodon leporinus, Wagler System, Amh., 1830.

Anisonyx rufa, Rafinesque Am. Month. Mg. ii., 1817.

Arctomys rufa, Harlan F, Am. 1825, 308.

Sewellel, Lewis and Clark’s Travels, ii. 1815, 176.

General Dimensions.—Nose to ear, 2 in. 7 lines; nose to eyes, 1 in. 5 lines; tail
to end of vertebree, 9 lines; tail to end of hair, 1 in. 2 lines; ear, height, 5
lines; nose to root of tail, 14 in. 6 lines.

My first introduction to this rare and curious little Rodent was
on the bank of the Chilukweyuk river. My canvas house was
pitched in a snug spot’ under the shade of a clump of cotton-
wood trees, that grew close to a stream, that like liquid crystal,
rippled past in countless channels, threading its way between
massive boulders of syenite, and trap, and granite, and green-
stone, that had been rounded and polished till they looked like
giant marbles. But is not every one of these stones a silent
record, a history in itself, of the terrible force of the summer
floods? A few short months ago and this tranquil stream was
a roaring muddy torrent, fed by melting snow. Endowed with
freedom, what can resist the force of water? Rocks, and
stones, and gravel, and mud, are dragged slowly along,
grinding their predecessors as they go, until they come into
the light again on the subsidence of the flood, and rest, as
do these worn veterans, far from their mountain home.
Towering up behind me were the Cascade Mountains, their
snow-clad summits dim in the haze of distance, their craggy
slopes split into chasms and ravines, so deep, and dark, and
lonesome, that no man’s footfall has ever disturbed their
solitudes ; so densely wooded up to the very snow-line with
' pine, and cedar, and spruce-trees, that not even a bare rock
peeped out to break the sombre monotony of the dark green
foliage. | |
Before me, stretching away for about three miles, was

112 Notes on some Small Rodents found in Norte. Arnowieth

an. open grassy prairie, one side of which was bounded by
the Chilukweyuk river, the other by the mighty Fraser. At
the junction of the two streams, at one angle of the prairie,
stood an Indian village—the rude plank sheds and rush lodges,
the white smoke curling gracefully up through the still atmos-
phere from many a lodge fire, the dusky forms of the savages,
as they lolled and strolled about in the fitful light, gave life
and character to a scene indescribably lovely.

The Chilukweyuk river heads from a large lake situated -
high up in the mountains, and without exception one of the
most beautiful lakes I ever beheld. It is completely built in
on all sides by vertical walls of trap and granite rock, and so
precipitous and impassable, that when marking the boundary
line, we were compelled to build scows, a rude kind of vessel,
half raft, half boat, to cross over the mules, stores, and provi-
sions, it being quite impracticable to make a road or trailon -
either side of the lake.

Filling up a gap between two rocky peaks is a vast glacier,
that one might easily imagine a mass of brillant beryl.
The Indians say it was once another lake, but so many bad
spirits lived in it, that Swa-nea, their grand saint, suddenly
turned it into crystal, and all the wicked ones are shut up in
it now. Numerous small streams trickle into the upper end of ~
the lake, but the lower angle is dammed in by masses of rock,
through which is a split or chasm, as if rent by some terrible
force. Through this gap escapes the entire river; onward it
goes, down the mountain gorge—leaping from rock to rock, it
neither rests nor tarries in its headlong course, until stealing
out from the dark shadow of the forest, it saunters idly alone
through the waving prairie grass, to mingle its waters with the
Fraser, and with it to journey seawards.

The Indian summer was drawing to a lose} the maple,
the cotton-wood, and the hawthorn, fringing the winding
water-ways, that, like silver cords intersected the prairie, had
assumed their autumn tints, and, clad in browns and yellows,
stood out in brilliant contrast to the green of the pine forest.
The prairie looked bright and lovely, the grass, as yet un-
touched by the frost fairy’s fingers, waved lazily, wild flowers
of varied tints and species peeped out from their hidine-places,
enjoying to the last the lingering summer.

I had been for some time sitting on a loge admiring the
sublime beauty of the scene spread out before me like a gor-
geous picture, the sun was fast receding behind the hill-tops,
the lengthening shadows were fading and erowing dimly indis-
tinct, the birds had settled down to sleep, and the busy hum
of insect life was hushed. A death-like quiet steals over every
thing in the wilderness as night comes on, a stillness that is

Notes on some Small Rodents found in North America. 118

awful in its intensity, such as I have never realized but in the
solitudes of an unsettled country. The sound of your own
breathing, the crack of a branch, a stone suddenly rattling
down the hill-side, the howl of the coyote, or the whoop of
the night owl, seems all intensified to an unnatural loudness,
I know of nothing more appalling to the lonely wanderer
camping by himself than this “jungle silence,’ that holds
supremacy through the weary hours of the night.

This silence was suddenly broken, as was my reverie, by a
sharp ringing whistle ; it was so piercing and clear that I could
not believe it was produced by an animal. It had hardly
died away, when another whistler took it up, then a third, and
so on until at least a dozen had joined in the chorus. I stole
as carefully as I could in the direction from which the sounds
came, but as I neared the spot the whistle ceased, and it was
now far too dark to descry any object on the ground. So, in
doubt, and sorely puzzled to account for such an unusual sound,
and with a firm determination to unravel the mystery in the
morning, I returned to my camp. Could it be Indians? No,
impossible, there were far too many, and the tone of each
whistle was precisely alike. I was equally sure it was not the
ery of the rock whistler (Actomys), that sound I knew too well.
What could it be? |

As the grey light of the morning came peering into my
tent, I started off to investigate the secret of the mysterious
whistler ; but all I could discover, after a long and diligent
search, was, that there were numerous runs and burrows ex-
cavated in the sandy banks of the river, but by what sort of
animal I could not for the life of me guess. Setting a steel
trap at the entrance to one of the holes, I strolled down to the
Indian village, thinking I should possibly be able to find out
from the Red-skins what it was that made such shrill sounds.
Partly by signs, and by using as much of their language as I
at that time knew, I endeavoured to make the old chief com-
prehend my queries.

After attending to my frantic attempts to. produce a ringing
whistle by placing my fingers in my mouth, and blowing through
them until my face was like an apoplectic coachman’s, a smile
of intelligence lit up his swarthy visage; then I set to violently
digging imaginary holes, and. explaining that the sounds came
about twilight, he nodded his head, dived into the tent and
disappeared in the smoke, but shortly emerged again with a
rug or robe made from the skins of an animal that was quite
new to me.

It was beautifully soft, glossy, brown. The skins were
about the size of a large rat’s, and about twenty in number.
Here, then, was the dawn of adiscovery, He called the animal

114 Notes on some Small Rodents found in North America.

Ou-ka-la, and made me understand that it lived on roots and

vegetable matter, and burrowed holes in the ground.

As the daylight faded out, I again took my seat, and just
as before, when everything was silent, the woods echoed with
the Ou-ka-la’s cry. I longed for morning, and hardly waited
for light, but hastened off to my trap, and, joy of joys, I had
him sure enough, caught by the neck. Poor Ou-ka-la, your
friends had heard, and you had given, your “ last whistle.’?

He was dead and cold, trapped, perhaps, whilst I listened, -

wondering, keeping my lonely vigil. A very brief examination
revealed the fact that I had caught a magnificent specimen of
the Aplodontia leporina, of which I had only read.

Captains Lewis and Clark obtained some vague info
tion about this animal, which is given in their journal of travel
Across the Rocky Mountains, in 1804. All they say of its

habits is, “ that it climbs trees and digs like a squirrel.” They -

obtained no specimen of the animal, but saw, probably, robes
made of the skins. It was subsequently described by Rafin-
esque, and by him named Anisonyx rufa, and by Harlan Are-
tomys rufa. In 1829 Sir John Richardson obtained a speci-
men, and after a careful anatomical examination, this eminent
naturalist determined it to be a new genus, and re-named it

generically and specifically. The generic name Aplodontia is —
founded onits having rootless molars, or grmding teeth, amr)oos, ~

aploos, simple; odous, ddons, a tooth. It belongs to the sub-
family Castorine ; dental formula 229 35 22, »

Sp. ch. —Size that of a musk rat 5 ‘tail ver y short, barely
visible. Colour, glossy blackish brown. Male, length about
14 inches; female, resembling the male, but smaller. The fur
is dense and woolly, with long bristly hairs thickly interspersed ;
the short fur is blueish grey at the base, the ends of the hairs
being tipped with reddish brown; the bristles are black, and
when smoothed give a lustrous appearance to the fur. The
eyes are very small, and placed about midway between the
nose and the ear. The whiskers, stiff and bristly, are much
longer than the head, and dark grey. The ears are covered
on both sides with fine soft hair, rounded, and very short, and
not unlike the human ear in shape. ©

Skull—The skull is much like that of the squirrel’s, with

the marked exception of having roctless molars, and the
absence of post orbital processes; the occipital crest is well
developed, the muzzle large, and nearly round. ‘The bony
orbits are largely developed ; the auditory bulle are small, but
open at once into wide auditive tubes; the first molar is un-
usually small, oval, and situated against the antero-internal

angle of the Bexond« all the molars are rootless; the lower

grinders are much like the upper, but somewhat longer and

Notes on some Small Rodents found in North America. 115

narrower. The molars in both jaws are situated much further
back than is usual; the centre of the skull being. about oppo-
site to the meeting of the second and third. The lower jaw is
very singularly shaped, the inner edges of the molars on oppo-
site sides bemg parallel; the descending ramus is bent, so as
to be exactly horizontal behind ; the postero-inferior edge, being
a straight line, nearly perpendicular to the vertical plane of the
skull’s axis. The conformation of the incisor teeth is admirably
adapted to the purposes they have to fulfil; no carpenter’s
gouging chisels are more effective tools than are these exqui-
sitely constructed teeth. It is essential that they should always
have a sharp, cuttimg edge, in order to nip through the tough
vegetable fibre on which the animal subsists; at the same time
streneth and durability are indispensable. The Aplodontia
has no whetstone, or quadrupedal razor-grinder, to sharpen his
tools when they grow blunt; but an all-wise foreseeing Provi-
dence has so fashioned these wondrous chisels in all Rodents,
that the more they are used the sharper they keep; the con-
trivance is as simple as itis beautiful. The substance of the
tooth itself is composed of tough ivory, but plated on the outer
surface with enamel as hard as steel. The ivory being the softer
material of course wears away faster than the enamel, hence the
latter, plating the front of the tooth, is always left with a sharp
cutting edge. Where could we find a more 7 evidence
of design and forethought!

The position this genus should occupy in a systematic ar-
rangement of the Rodents has always been a stumbling-block
and a matter of doubt, in great measure attributable to the fact
that but a single species of the genus is known, and very few
specimens have hitherto been obtained. A fine male specimen
has recently been set up in the British Museum collection, that
I caught near my camp on the prairie.

In many particulars the Aplodontia very nearly resembles
the Spermophiles, particularly the Prairie Dog (Cynomys Ludo-
vicciana), but differs, as in the true squirrels, in the rootless
molars and the absence of post orbital processes. In this
respect it is allied to the beaver. It is quite impossible to
assign it a well defined and settled position, until a greater
number of specimens are procured, from which more minute
and careful examination of the bony and internal anatomy can
be made. At present, however, it would appear to connect
the beavers with the squirrels, through the Spermophiles. All
hitherto known about its habits. is the quotation from the
journal before mentioned.

The name Lewis and Clark gave this animal, Sewellel, is
_ evidently a corruption of an Indian word. The Chinook Indians
are a powerful tribe living near the mouth of the Columbia, and

VOL, VII.—wNO. II. I

116 Notes on some Small Rodents found in North America.

from whom, in all probability, Lewis and Clark obtained the
name, and first heard of the animal. But the Chinook name for
the Aplodontia is Og-ool-lal, Shu-wal-lal being the name of the
robe made from the skins; and this is unquestionably the word,
corrupted into Sewellel, and misused as the name of the animal.
In Puget’s Sound the Nesqually Indians call it Show’tl; the
Yakama Indians, Squal-lah ; the Sumass, Su-ok-la.

A single glance at the conformation of the feet would at
once convince the most careless observer that climbing trees
was not a habit of the Aplodontia. The feet and claws are
digging implements of the most finished and efficient kind;
the long scoop-shaped nails, like. garden trowels, wide
strong foot, almost hand-like in its form, the strong, muscular
arms, supported by powerful clavicles, proclaim him a miner;
his mission is to burrow, and most ably he fulfils his destiny.
His haunt is usually by the side of a stream, where the banks
are sandy and the underbrush grows thickly, his favourite food
being fine fibrous roots, and the rind of such as are too large
and hard for his teeth. He spends his time im burrowing, not
so much for shelter and concealment, as to supply himself with
roots. He digs with great ease and rapidity, making a hole
large enough for a man’s arm to be inserted.

In making the tunnels he seldom burrows very far without
coming to the surface and beginning a new one. Like a skilful
workman, he knows how to economise labour; having to back
the earth out of the mouth of the hole he is digging, the
further he gets im the harder grows the ioil, and so he
digs up through, and starts afresh. They seldom come ont
in the daytime, and I have bui rarely heard them whisile
until everything was still, and the twilight merged into dark
night. !

The female has from four to sx young at a birth, and they
have about two litters nmayear. The nest for the young is
much hke that of the rabbit, made of grass and leaves, and
placed at the end of a deep burrow.

In the winter they only partially hybernaie, frequently dig-
ging through the snow to eat the bark and lichen from the trees.
Their gait when on the ground is very awkward, their broad,
short feet are not fitted for progression, and they shamble rather
than run, and can be easily overtaken. Where a colony of them
has resided for any time, the ground becomes literally nddled
with holes, and the trees and shrubs die for want of roots. J ima-
gine, from having found abandoned villages, that they wisely
migrate when their resources are exhausted. The Indians
esteem their flesh a great luxury, and trap them ina kind of
figure-of-four trap, set at the mouth of the burrows. I dare
say they are as good as a rabbit; still, they have too rat-like

= —E |

Notes on some Small Rodents found in North America. 117

Every one to his taste—De gustilus non est disputandum.
The Aplodontia has a terrible and untirmg enemy in the
(Tazidea Americana). He is always on the hunt for the
poor little miner, and digs him out from his hiding places and
devours him with as much as the Indian. lts geographi-
cal range is not very being, as far as I know, confined
entirely to a small section of North-West America. I have
seen it on the east and west slope of the Cascades, but not on
the Rocky Mountains, although it very probably exists there.
It is also found at Paget’s Sound, Fort Steilacum, on the banks
of the Sumass and Chilukweyuk rivers, West of the Cascades.
On the Nachess Pass; at Astoria and the Dalls, on the Colum-
bia. East of the Cascades.

I have thus endeavoured to jot down a few notes on the
habits and localities of this curious Rodent. Feedi :
on vegetable matter (for I never discovered a trace of insect
or larv# remains in its stomach), passing its life principally im
dark burrows, and limited, as far as we at present know, toa
very narrow section of 4 barren country, it is hard toi
what purpose it serves in the great chain of nature, save it
be that of supplying food to the badger, and both food and
clothing to the savage; and yet we know that the all-wise
Creator fashioned it, and gave it life, for some grand and
specific purpose, if we could but read and rightly interpret
the pages of nature’s wondrous book. If we ask ourselves
why was this or that made? how seldom can we, with all
our boasted knowledge, answer the question. Why did He
who made our world, the sun, and the stars, deck the
butterfly’s wing with timmy scales, that by a simple c in
arrangement produce patterns beside which the most finished

timg is a bung daub? Why were those microscopic
aa the periems and Sisfanocia, formed with shells of
purest fint, of the quaintest devices, but of mathematical cor-
rectness ; atomies that fringe every frond of sea-weed, tenant
every road-side pool, and are in countless millions im every
berg and floe, that form banks hundreds of miles in lengt
and dance in myriad forms in every sunbeam? Why all the
prodigal variety of strange forms crowding the sea—forms
more wonderful than the poet’s wildest dreams ever pictured.
Who can tell? Ali mystery inexplicable; the further we wander
into the enchanted labyrinth of, life, the more we feel our own
littleness, and learn this great truth, that all we see belongs not
to us, but to One greater, and wiser, and holier; and amid all
the stir, and hum, and bustle of nature’s vast garden, in the
babble of the brook, in the whisper of the breeze, we hear,
as of old, “the word ‘of the Lord God walking among the trees
of the garden in the cool of the day.”

118 - Animaleules in the Winter.

ANIMALCULES IN THE WINTER.

BY PROFESSOR RYMER JONES, E.R.S.

It is but too generally taken for granted that during the win-
ter months there is a suspension of activity im the world of
animalcules, and we have not unfrequently heard our friends
speak as hopelessly of obtaining Infusoria at Christmas for mi-
croscopical exhibition, as of gathering hedge-flowers and May-
blossoms amid the snows of January. Indeed, were we to
follow the directions usually given for their procurement, the
one and the other would be equally unobtainable. Nevertheless,
according to our own experience, winter is the very time for
observing the infusorial races in their full luxuriance; at no
other period of the year are certain forms of them so easily
procurable. We well remember in our younger days sallying
forth to Hampstead ponds or Blackheath, equipped with phials
and ring-nets and dipping bottles secundwm artem, and many
a pleasant summer’s day have we thus spent in vain endeavours
to collect rare species, only obtainable, as we were then told to
believe, in specified localities and at particular seasons. Hxpe-
rience has taught us better, and it will perhaps not only save
our readers much valuable time, but ensure them a rich abun-
dance of specimens of all kinds at any period, if they bear
in mind the following circumstances in connexion with the
natural history of the Infusoria generally. We have endea-
voured to show in a former communication that infusorial
animalcules are always to be found congregated in the vicinity
of aquatic plants, many of them appearing to prefer certain
forms of vegetation. It is not, however, with living, but with
decaying vegetable matter that they are associated ; it is upon
the effete elements of plants that they feed, the rotting atoms
just about to decompose afford them nourishment, they seize
upon the macerated tissues of vegetables whilst they are still
organic particles, and before they disband themselves into
their component gases, restore them to the cycle of organized
existences. Far from perishing with the plants upon which
they seem to live, it is only by the death and decay of the
vegetable world that they are called forth in full force and
activity ; and it is more especially during the winter, that is,
when rotting leaves and decaying plants encumber the bottoms
of our ponds, when the “fat weed” dissolves itself to slime,
and the tissues of perishing vegetation are diffused through the
mud and sediment of the pool, that they can be obtained in
their greatest variety.

With this insight into the habits of the Infusoria, the micro-

Animalcules in the Winter. 119

scopist will find no difficulty in supplying his winter evenings
with materials for observation. Furnished with an ordinary
ring-net of muslin and a wide-mouthed bottle, he has only to
proceed to the nearest pond (no matter if the ground. be covered
with snow, or the pond frozen over, so long as the ice is
breakable) and there fish up from the bottom a few of the dead
leaves, bits of pond-weeds or any similar remnants of vegeta-
tion, and having thus half filled his bottle with most worthless-
looking scraps, let him fill it up with the pond water, and
return in full confidence that he has not laboured in vain.
Arrived at home, let him immediately procure three large tea-
cups, into one of which, haying well shaken his bottle, he must
pour its fluid contents and allow it to stand for one minute, so
that the thickest sediment may subside. At the end of one
minute let him pour two thirds of the contents of the first cup
into the second, and there allow it to stand for two minutes for
the subsidence of its sediment, and then without delay, without
shaking it, pour half of the contents of the second cup into the
third. The cups may now be left to stand till the supra-natant
water is clear, and the animalcules have all settled to the
bottom. .

On taking up with a dipping-tube a litile of the sediment
thus deposited, and submitting it to microscopical exammation
in a live-box, or upon a glass slide covered with a plate of thin
glass, we have never yet been disappointed at the result. The
sediment of our ponds and ditches seems indeed mm winter
time to be one vast nursery, in which are cradled all the families
of microscopic life, the very metropolis of the race; and it is
only by seeking them in this their retirement, that many in-
teresting forms are obtainable with any degree of certainty.

Let us, however, place upon a slide a few drops of the
deposit from our second tea-cup, procured, in the manner above
described, from the Serpentine in Kensington Gardens, at this
_moment (Jannary 2nd) partially frozen over, and covering them

with a circle of thin glass, examine them with a 4-inch objec-
tive. The peculiar aspect of the contents of our slide, as com-
pared with the well-known products of the pond in summer
time, is at once strikingly evident—the colours of decay pre-
dominate throughout, all wears the livery of the sere and
yellow leaf—the very Confervee seem as if they had been
bleached with chlorine, and a few ragged masses of semi-
decomposed vegetable tissue tangled in slimy patches constitute,
as a painter would say, the still life of the picture. And yet.
amid the desolation of the scene, the concourse of actors is
quite as great as the dimensions of the stage will permit,
and we at once perceive that a very pretty pantomime is in
process of performance. Navicule of every form and size are

120 _ Animaleules in the Winter.

sailing in little fleets to all points of the compass. Baccillarie,
in sufficient diversity to satisfy Ehrenberg himself, are shooting
forth their intersliding rods, or splitting themselves into all
sorts of zig-zags. Various species of Gomphonema, Echinella,
and Cocconema, borne upon thread-like stems, are conspicuously
beautiful among hosts of Diatoms and Desnudece, while here
and there an isolated Closterium or Micrasterias, the only
green objects in the wintry landscape, shine forth like litle
emeralds set in silver. he.

To those who are only familiar with the spring or summer
scenery of the microscope, this almost total absence of green
is a very remarkable feature ; chlorophyll has evidently become
a scarce article, and the whole tribe of vernal forms, so beau-
tifully coloured by its presence, are here deficient. Huglena,
Astasia, Pandorina, et hoe genus omne, are sought for in vain,
although the Volvoces are represented by a pallid, unhealthy-
looking specimen of Spheerosira.

The Rhizopods are few and far between, a single specimen
of Actinophrys sol seeming to have become bewildered in the
crowd. ‘The ciliated Infusoria, as regards the number of indi-
viduals present upon the stage, are much fewer than would be
met with in summer under the same circumstances—the trans-
parent nymphs of the corps de ballet, with their bewildering
maze of fantastic evolutions, have given place to less numerous,
but more important-looking characters in the masquerade.
Trichodina, under the aspect of a: gold-fish globe of the clear-
est jelly, ornamented internally with coloured bonbons, is
actively pirouetting with Coleps, in the shape of a drunken
beer-barrel; while an animated plum-pudding (Bursaria),
dances a Scotch reel with half-a-dozen Cyclidia, havmg
very much the appearance of transparent mince-pies,
during which evolutions various forms of Leuccphrys and
Paramecium, easily recognizable as masters of the ceremonies,
glide actively from place to place as if they were doing the
polite to the whole party.

Nor are the Vorticellians to be omitted from our list of this
goodly company. Of these, several beautiful arborescent forms
(Epistylis, Zoothamnium) content themselves with gracefully
bowing and curtseying to each other like belles of dignified
deportment, while their brothers, Vorticella cyathina, much
more jovially disposed, seem with uplifted glasses to be
drinking to each other’s health, until, unfortunately for them,
just as they raise their wreathed cups for “one cheer more,” a
blue-looking Stentor (Stentor cceruleus) rushes right into the
middle of them, upsetting the whole group, and raising such a
commotion, that a dozen stewards of the ball might try in vain
to re-arrange the dispersed dancers. Still, however, the

Animalcules in the Winter. 121

masquerade goes on with unabated spirit ; a couple of water-
bears, as they are well named by our German friends, or water
sloths, as the French call them (Tardigrada), next enter upon
the scene, looking for all the world like their quadrupedal
namesakes, provided with a double set of legs, and, mstead of
toes, furnished with formidable-looking Hooks, by the aid of
which they rake and claw themselves into the middle of the
motley assemblage with most unwieldy perseverance. In
another part of the stage we see the empty skin of a Lynceus,
in one corner of which a Swan animalcule (Trachelocerca olor)
has ensconced himself, and where he seems to be amusing the
company by enacting such a series of performances as we never
before witnessed. Itis difficult to say which is most wonderful,
the amazing extensibility, flexibility, and contractility of his
neck, or the activity with which he plies it in every possible, and
apparently impossible, direction. Imagine a swan seated in one
corner of the floor of a large drawing-room, suddenly shooting out
its neck to the opposite corner of the ceiling, and from thence ex-
tending it along the whole length of one side of the room, likea
great Plesiosaurus with a boa-constrictor for aneck, brandishing
its head with the velocity of thought, and then ina moment
shrinking to its natural dimensions. And now agrand turmoil
announces the approach of another visitor ; in rush the chariot-
wheels of Brachionus pala, closely followed by one or two of
his rotiferous brethren clearing away everything before them,
tumbling the poor Swan animalcule and his fantoccini per-
formance into a whole chaos of struggling atomies, and thus
effectually stopping his indescribable exercise. No sooner
have the Rotifers steamed out of sight than in glides a young
Planaria clad in a coat of living velvet, the transparency of
which permits you to admire the smallest details of his inmost
structure. Not much lack of amusement here, we thought, as
the departing skirts of the last arrival seemed to wave their
-adieux. What will come next? The question was at once
answered. by a lively little Nais, whose black eyes suddenly
peeped out from beneath a moving heap, from which she
soon emerged, when, unfortunately, just as we were bringing
her into focus, a couple of eel-lets (Anguillula), apparently
feeling themselves incommoded by the crush, began to fight
their way out of the crowd, and the curtain fell amid a scene
of riot and confusion seldom witnessed within the walls of a
theatre.

From the above list of the occupants of asingle slide, which,
however jokingly drawn up, is strictly accurate in its details,
it will be perceived that, during the winter months, the ani-

-malcule inhabitants of the waters around us are by no means
asleep. The Infusoria neither perish during the inclement

122 Diffraction Hxperiments.

season, nor do they hybernate, but, on the contrary, are in a
much better condition for microscopic observation than during
the summer. The forms which chiefly occur are most of them
of large dimensions, and living, as they appear to do, princi-
pally upon the transparent glair produced from decomposing
vegetables, exhibit a clearness and translucency which is un-
usual at other seasons, and hence they may be fed with carmine
or indigo under peculiarly favourable circumstances. In the
Naides, the Planariz, the Rotifera, and the Hntomostraca, this
glassy transparency is still more remarkable. Their alimentary
canal appears completely emptied of all opaque particles, and
their bodies are entirely destitute of oil globules, so that the
details of their anatomy are traceable with extraordinary
clearness, and moreover, the frequent occurrence among them
of strange-looking creatures, evidently larval conditions of
other forms of life, is well calculated to stimulate the curiosity
of the observer whose time and opportunities permit him to
enjoy the pleasure of watching their development.

DIFFRACTION EXPERIMENTS.

THERE are no experiments in optics more brilliant and beautiful
than those which illustrate the effects produced by what is
called the Diffraction of Light, a term which etymologically mdi-
cates a bending of the rays out of their course, and also a cer-
tain division or separation of them. ‘The name is not perhaps
very happily chosen, and M. Babinet in explaining certain
phenomena of diffraction uses the term paragenie, or lateral
propagation. The precise nature of the action that takes place
in cases of diffraction can only be understood by those who are
capable of following the mathematical illustrations given in such
works as Sir John Herschel’s Treatise on Light. It is, however,
possible to explain enough of the matter to give the general
reader a notion of the subject, correct as far as it goes,
and which, without attempting to elucidate the intricacies
of the question, will augment the interest to be derived
— contemplating a series of easily obtained and splendid
elfects. .

First, let us take from Sir J. Herschel a diagram showing
what occurs when a ray of light strikes against the edge of an
opaque object, and also quote from him a passage describing
the action. He says: ‘‘When an object is placed in a very
small beam of light, or in the cone of rays diverging from an
extremely small point, such as a sunbeam admitted through a

_ Diffraction Haperiments. 128

pin-hole into a dark chamber, or, still better, through an
opening of greater size, behind which a lens of short focus is
placed so as to form an extremely minute and brillant image
of the sun, from which rays diverge in all directions, its shadow
is observed to be bordered externally by a series of coloured
fringes, which are more distinct the smaller the angular dia-
meter of the luminous point, as seen from the object. . . . To
see the fringes in question, they may be received on a smooth
white surface.” M. Fresnel, Sir John tells us, first used an
emeried glass plate to receive the fringes, and looked at them
through it from behind. He then found that when he had
focussed them with a magnifier they continued visible, as if
drawn on the air, when the plate was removed. The first
thing to be noticed is “that the distance (of the fringes) from
each other, and from the border of the shadow, diminishes
as the screen on which they are received approaches the border
of the opaque body, and ultimately coincides with it.’ The
second important thing to be noticed is, “That they are not
propagated in straight lines from the edge of the body toa
distance, but in hyperbolic curves, having their vertices at that
edge, and therefore it is not one and the same light which forms
one and the same fringe at all distances from the opaque
body.” In the diagram subjoined, Fig. 1, “‘O1is
the luminous point, A the edge of the (opaque)

body, and G H a screen perpendicular to the
straight line O A; C the border of the visible
shadow, and D, H, F, the places of the succes-

sive minima of the fringes in a line at right
angles to the edge of the shadow. If the
screen be brought nearer to A as at g h, and if
c, d, e, f, be the pomts corresponding to C, D,

H, F, their loci will be the hyperbolas Ac C,
Ad D,” ete. The diagram shows that the rays
behave as if they were so repelled from A as to
oblige them to continue their path in a curve
instead of going straight on from A to B. The
result of this is that.shadows are seen where
they would not occur if the light did move quite
straight from A to B. ‘“‘ Newton found the

shadow of a hair, =1,th of an inch in diameter, placed at
twelve feet distance from the-luminous point, to measure at
four inches from the hair ;},th of an inch, or wpwards of four
diameters of the hair, at two feet ~th of an inch, or ten diame-
ters, while at ten feet it measured only 1th of an inch, or
thirty-five diameters, instead of 120, which it would have done
if the rays terminating the shadow had proceeded in straight
lines, or rather, to speak more correctly, if the shadow were

124 Diffraction Huperiments.

bounded by straight lines’* The investigations of Fresnel
show that a strict application of the undulatory doctrine of
light, assisted by the principle of interferences, will be found
to afford a full and precise explanation of all the facts, regard-
ing the opaque body merely as an obstacle bounding the waves
propagated from the luminous point on one side.”’+

Let us now endeavour by appropriate analogies to obtain an
elementary conception of light as a system of vibrations of a
subtle fluid, or ether, and therefore bearing a certain resem-
blance to sound, or to water waves. It is easy to realize the
fact that sound consists in vibrations and waves of air. The
large strings of a harp or guitar may be seen to move when
agitated so as to produce sounds, and various contrivances
have been devised to make phenomena of this kind strikingly
appreciable by the eye. When a stone is thrown into a still -
pond we have another illustration of wave forms, and we see
them propagated in all directions, in circles increasing in di-
mensions, until the margin is reached. The most violent of
these waves are those nearest to the stone causing the disturb-
ance, and as they grow wider and act upon a greater breadth of
water, they grow feebler likewise, until at last, if the pond be
big enough, they die away in ripples too faint for observation. ©
If, after we have set one series of waves in action, we start —
another with a different velocity, it will happen that some of
the hollows of the first set will coincide more or less completely
with the elevations of the second set; and when this occurs, a
more or less perfect calm ensues, while the addition of hollow
to hollow, or crest to crest, deepens the disturbance, and mag-
nifies the miniature storm. If waves of sound are started one
after another in due proportion, or if two sound waves, with
just the right difference between them, be started together,
this process of partial fillimg each other up may be produced, ~
and at certain points of the wave march, corresponding with
definite intervals of time, silence will result from the concur-
rence of two sounds. If at certain intervals the hollow of one
wave is exactly filled up by the crest of another, no sound will
be heard ; but a partial filling up will modify the sound, and
make it yield a different note. Much of the art of music con- —
sists in the production of well-managed interferences, giving
rise to varied and highly pleasing effects.

If we pass from sound to light, we find ourselves able to
produce bands of darkness by the interference of two rays of
light. We can also devise methods of interference that
shall give rise to modified waves having the dimensions neces-
sary to excite upon our eyes the effects belonging to all the

* Sir J. Herschel’s Treatise on Light, p. 480. + P. 481,

Diffraction Experiments. 125

colours that we can see. The beautiful prismatic and other
colours, to be obtained by means of the polariscope, and various
bodies with which the microscopist is acquainted, are illustra-
tions of one mode of obtaining chromatic effects by the inter-
ference of rays of white light. They depend upon refraction,
and upon the path polarized light is able to take through
crystals and other substances capable of affecting its velocity.
Certain rays are bent out of their course, they are also more or less
dispersed,* or resolved into prismatic rays, and these rays caused
by further refraction to meet in certain directions, and with
certain velocities, interfere with each other, and make the
gorgeous colour pictures in which the microscopist delights.

If we can obtain interference of rays by any other means,
we shall produce dark bands, or coloured bands, according to
the circumstances of the case.

The extreme red ray of the solar spectrum is produced
by undulations so numerous that, according to tables given
by Sir J.. Herschel, 37,640 of them only occupy one inch, and
4.58,000,000,000,000 occur in one second. ‘These rays are,
however, large in the length of their undulations, and slow in
their movements compared with those of the extreme violet end
of the spectrum, in which 59,750 undulations only occupy one
inch, and take place at the rate of 727,000,000,000,000 in one
second of time.t

Bearing in mind these considerations, let us now borrow -
another diagram from Sir J. Herschel to show a simple case
of interference resulting from a wave of 0
light being partially obstructed by a nar-
row opaque body. O, Fig. 2, is a needle-
hole, through which a small sunbeam is
allowed to pass; A Bis a strip of card,
which, in the experiment performed by
Dr. Young, was ;;th of an inch wide;
EF, its shadow. Let the reader forget
for a moment the obstacle C D, which is -
wanted for a subsequent experiment. A
B will then be the only obstacle in the
way of light getting from O to any point
between H and F. If we take the centre,
X, it will be plain that the light that
reaches, it will result from the spreading
portions of the wave passing the points
A and B, and as each extends laterally,
they will meet at X with equal velocities,

* See paper on “ Spectroscope Apparatus,” No. 34.
; M ase numbers will be slightly altered by the last estimation of the velocity
ot light.

126 Diffraction Hupervments.

and having made their journeys in precisely the same time;
but undulations extending from F towards H will meet other
undulations that started at the same time, but reached HE
quicker than those that came round the other corner. ‘These
will interfere and give rise to dark or coloured bands, according
as their interference is complete or only partial. Dr. Young
introduced the screen C Do cut off the undulations that passed

B, and by so doing he stopped the interferences, and no fringes |

appeared. ate

We have thus arrived at a general explanation of why dark
lines appear when white light is viewed through a very narrow
slit, cut im a piece of metal or card.

If, instead of such a slit, we obtain a piece of glass ruled
with fine lines, a five hundredth or athousandth of an mech

apart, the flame ofa candle seen through them offers a splendid -

spectacle. A glass of this description, ruled very beautifully
by Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite, is m our hands at this
moment ; we hold it near the eye, so that the lines are vertical,
and look at a candle-flame a few feet off, or at the sky in the
day time. The candle-flame is seen in its natural colour in the
centre, then on each side of it a dark space, and after that, m

succession, right and left, a number of images of the flame in -

prismatic colours, the reds being always furthest from the
central flame, and the blues nearest to it. The first few of these
coloured images of the candle-flame are separated by considera-
ble though lessening dark spaces from each other, and they are
followed by numerous other images, running together, and
forming a beautiful spindle-shaped pattern of variegated light.
If we turn the ruled glass round, so that the lines are horizontal
instead of vertical, the candle-flame gives us a continuous
spindle of light, in which the several images of the flame run
into each other. The optical effect is as if a number of coloured
candle-flames were all fixed toa sort of a windmill arm and
rotated about on a central axis, and at the same time each flame
rotated about its long axis, so that whereas, at the beginning” of
the experiment, we saw its breadth and depth from top to
bottom, at the end we see little more than the tips of the
flames. an
The effect varies according to the distance of the candle-
flame from the ruled glass. Close to the fame the coloured
images are confused, near each other, and deficient in brilliancy.
As the spectator (carrying the ruled glass with him) recedes
from the flame, the coloured images. grow brighter, and
separate from each other, and after they are thus separated, to a
certain extent, revolving the ruled glass ceases to change the
jform of the pattern, as just described, and merely causes the
spindle of coloured light to revolve. Hight and twenty feet off

a i S

Diffraction Hxperiments. 127

a candle-flame, we see, with the particular ruled glass em-
ployed, a luminous coloured spindle about eight feet long.

For the next experiment we take a piece of blackened card
and cut a thin slit in it. Wehold this in one hand near the
candle, and look at the light through the ruled glass, with the
lines and slit both vertical. We have now an exquisite ribbon,
composed of dark spaces and coloured light spaces arranged as
before. Ifwe keep the ruled lines in this position, the diffraction

‘light ribbon will be at right angles to them, and as we revolve
the slit, the ribbon will seem to turn so as to present itself alter-
nately edgewise and. full front. If we keep the slit still, and
revolve the ruled lines, the ribbon of parti-coloured light will ap-
pear to experience two motions: one round and round, like a
windmill arm, and the other the kind of revolution just described,
giving us sometimes an edge view and sometimes a full view
of the coloured stripes.

Mr. Slack has devised a very simple apparatus, the
“¢ Diffraction Kaleidoscope,’ manufactured by Messrs. Horne and
Thornthwaite, which will enable a number of brilliant experi-
ments of this kind (mcluding many originally performed by
Frauenhofer) to be made at the very moderate cost of pur-
chasing the instrument, and without any trouble.

THE DIFFRACTION KALEIDOSCOPE.

The Diffraction Kaleidoscope consists of a tube, at one end
of which is a revolving eye-piece, and at the other a revolving
holder of discs of blackened card having certain apertures
through which light is permitted to enter. ‘I'he experiments just
meutioned may be best performed by this instrument. A card
disc with one pin-hole in the centre is placed in the disc holder,
and an eye-piece containing a “ grating” or ruled glass is
slipped on to the opposite end of the tube. On looking through
this at a bright light, obtaimed in the daytime from the sun or
sky, and at night from any good lamp, effects like those just
alluded to as seen with candle flame,may be observed. After wit-
nessing the actions of one “ grating,” and one source of light, a
second grating may be imposed over the first and at right angles
to it. A brilliant chromatic star will then appear, with four
principal rays, and other intermediate rays, which become con-
Spicuous in proportion to the brightness of the light. The

128 Diffraction Experiments.

second grating should then be removed and the effect of the
slit-dise observed, first with one and then with two gratings.
By holding the tube in the middle, either the eye-piece or the
disc holder may be rotated separately as desired.

If a disc pierced with symmetrically-arranged holes in a
circle about the size of a shilling, is employed, a very striking
effect of perspective is noticed. ‘The holes are really in one
plane at nght angles to the eye of the spectator ; but when one
grating is employed, each hole is-seen in the centre of a spmdle
of many coloured light, and all the spindles seem arranged on a
horizontal cylinder, so that when one of them looks exactly before
the eye, and near it, another seems precisely behind the first
and farther off. As the disc holder is rotated, the cylinder of
spindles revolves, each spindle alternately approaching and

receding from the eye. When one spindle looks exactly behind -

another, it is impossible to avoid the illusion that its light is

pone 5
i ‘soe!

A. Holder for ruled glass, etc. B. Screen. C. Box holding apparatus.

literally seen through the light of the other. A singularly beauti-
ful addition to the effect is obtained by the use of the second
“‘ oratine”’ at right angles to the first. The rotation of the
disc holder then gives the spectacle of two cylinders of spindles
rotating at right angles to each other, and crossing their lines
of light in a magical way.

Instead of the dise of pin-holes in a circle, another dise
with a large central hole and smaller ones removed from it may
be used. This planet and satellite disc is very fine im its
effects, especially when the slender light spindles afforded by
the small holes appear to be behind and seen through the big
spindle which the large hole gives rise to. Holes arranged in
a triangle are likewise interesting; but any one who possesses
the “ Diffraction Kaleidoscope” can vary the patterns of the
discs with no more trouble than piercing some discs of
blackened card. .

When the disc with pin-holes in a circle is used with two

Se oe

Diffraction Hxperiments. 129

“gratings,” the revolutions of both gratings (without changing
their relative position to each other) gives the appearance of
double motion in each cylinder of light spindles; but if the
outer grating is revolved while the inner one is stationary, one
cylinder of spindles remains fixed and the other goes round.

Some experiments with gratings require the power of
varying the distance of the source of light. For these Messrs.
Horne and Thornthwaite have arranged a commodious
apparatus, as shown in the cut on the preceding page.

The next apparatus for diffraction experiments which we
shall describe, is the beautiful one exhibited at the scientific
soirées of last season, by Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite, and
to which allusion was made at the time. This consists of a
small telescope mounted on a stand.

BRIDGE’S DIFFRACTION APPARATUS.

The object-glass is covered by an apparatus devised by
Mr. Bridge, by means of which a disc of glass, on which a
multitude of diffraction patterns are photographed, is made to
revolve in a spiral, so that all the patterns in succession, from
the centre to. the circumference of the disc, can be brought
into the field. The exquisite patterns of these discs were
drawn and arranged by Mr. Bridge, and they offer a great
variety of different, curves, chequers, etc., etc. When the
sun is shining, magical and lustrous chromatic effects are
obtained by placing on a table or other stand, a dark screen,
in the centre of which is a lens of short focus. A mirror
behind the screen receives the direct sunlight and directs it
upon the lens, as shown in the sketch. An observer a few feet
off in front of the lens sees a most brilliant spot of intense light,
and if this is focussed by the telescope, and the diffraction disc
revolved, a succession of gorgeous effects delights the eye.
Stars of greater or less complication, lines of parti-coloured

130 : Diffraction Haperiments.

light in beautiful curves and angles appear in succession, and.
the astonishment is great to notice what kind of diffraction
grating gives rise to such unexpected effects. If the princi-
ples explained at the commencement of this article have been
apprehended, some notion may be formed of the way in which
each dark space of a grating may be the occasion of interferences
between waves of light spreading laterally and meeting with
other waves that have traversed longer or shorter paths.

To use Mr. Bridge’s apparatus at night, an electric or oxy-
hydrogen lamp is necessary to develope the full splendour of the
effects. If magnesium wire becomes cheap enough, it would
do admirably, and be always ready. . Some’ notion, though a
feeble one, may be gained by the employment of an ordinary
lamp; but those who have not the command of powerful
sources of artificial illumination must be content to experiment
on sunshiny days.

Some pleasing and instructive effects can be produced by
placing a photographed diffraction pattern near the eye at one
end of a tube, and at the otherastop with a small central hole,
or a slit, or a plurality of holes, arranged in a pattern such as a
triangle, or as the shape of an italic S. ‘The gorgeous colours
do not appear in these experiments, and the pattern seen by the
eye 1s much simpler than when the telescope and night source ~
of ight are employed. It is, however, well to study the -
difference of the effects produced by the two methods, and
Messrs. Horne and Thornthwaite supply the means to those
who require it. Ifa photographed diffraction pattern is placed
at the eye end ofa microscope tube, the small stop of an achro-
matic condenser will do for a source of illumination at the
bottom.

Mr. Bridge’s apparatus gives the most splendid appearances
when a sufficiently brilliant light can be obtained. The
** Diffraction Kaleidoscope” has the advantage, that for its very
important though more limited operations, it is always ready,
and, like the ordinary Kaleidoscope, may be passed from hand
to hand and pointed without trouble at any ordinary source of
light. Other experiments are conveniently performed by aid
of the other apparatus figured above.

Mr. Lassell at Malta. 131

MR. LASSELL AT MALTA.

Mr. Lassztt has addressed a letter to the Astronomische Nach-
richten, giving some account of his proceedings at Malta during
the term of a three years’ residence now drawing to a close.
He describes his telescope—a Newtonian reflector—as mounted
equatorially, in a manner generally resembling that on which
his 9-inch and 2-feet telescopes were mounted, as described in
the Memoirs of the Astronomical Society. ‘The aperture is
nearly 4 feet. There are two large specula, respectively of the
foci of 441°8 and 448°1 inches. They are about 43 inches
thick, and weigh separately about 2700 lbs. The length of the
tube is 37 feet, and its diameter 4 feet 3 mches. It is a lattice
or skeleton tube, made of flat bars of iron, jomed (with spaces
between them nearly equal to the breadth of the bars) by
flange rings at convenient distances.” The object of this con-
struction is to avoid chimney currents in the tube. No roof
covers the telescope; but the observer is placed in a tower,
one or other of whose stories commands the eye-piece at any
elevation required. The storics of the tower are 43 feet
square and reached by an internal staircase. The tower itself
is carried round by a circular railway. It can also revolve on
its own axis, and it has a radial motion to or from the tele-
scope.

Instead of a driving clock, eich Mr. Lassell considered
would be inconvenient from the great weight of the apparatus,
he has a system of wheel-work terminating in a fly-wheel and
winch handle. By turning the latter exactly once in a second,
any object is kept in the field, and a peasant can do this by
accommodating his movements to the indications of a loud
ticking clock. This motion can be stopped, accelerated, or
retarded at pleasure, and not being at all laborious, “can be
continued for hours without beimg oppressive.”

** Attached to the regulating clock are two dials, the finger
or index of one of them haying a retrograde motion and the
dial figured accordingly ; while the other is direct. The first
of course belongs to the eastern hour angle, which is constantly
diminishing—the second to the western. Being set to the
present hour angle at the commencement by the observer, if
from clouds, or any other cause, the observation is interrupted,
the assistant can, by mere inspection of the dial, bring up the
- telescope to correspond with it by another winch having a
quick motion, without the observer having to descend from the
tower, or interfere in any way.”

Among the planets, Neptune has received Mr. Lassell’s
special attention, and he says “the known satellite is so well

VOL. VII.—NO. II. K

132 Mr. Lassell at Malta.

seen, especially when more than 8 or 9 seconds central distance
from the planet, even in bright moonlight, and without any
extraordinary atmospherical circumstances, that I have arrived
at the firm conviction that the planet is attended by no other
satellite which will bear comparison in magnitude with the
known one—not greater certainly than Dione or Rhea, among
Saturn’s satellites, bears to Titan. It may be indeed possible
that a faint satellite several minutes’ distant might exist, though
I have no suspicion of any, and-one so situated would be very
difficult to recognise among the numerous minute stars which
a telescope so large as this generally reveals.”

Equally careful observations were made on Uranus, con- ~

firming the belief that this planet only possesses the two
satellites first discovered by Sir William Herschel, and the
others (interior) discovered by Mr. Lassell m 1851.

Mr. Lassell considers that “in all future treatises a

Astronomy, the proper number of known satellites should be
assigned to these two planets—namely to Uranus four, and to
Neptune one.’

To facilitate observations on Saturn, Mr. Lassell appends
to his letter an Hphemeris of the five inner satellites of
Saturn for February, March, and April, 1865.

A series of drawings of Mars during his late opposition was
much interrupted, as the weather for two months (November

and December) was “ quite as unfavourable as it is usually in
England at the same season.”

A good many drawimgs have been made of remarkable
‘nebulz, including an elaborate one not yet finished of the
great nebule in Orion.

:
}
;

Astronomical Notes. 133

ASTRONOMICAL NOTES.

BY THE REV. T. W. WEBB, M.A., F.R.A.S.

THE GREAT STAR OF 1572.

No one can peruse the account given of the Temporary Star
of 1572 without a conviction that it was one of the most
marvellous phenomena which the Creator has ever exhibited
to the eyes of men. Its sudden apparition; its astonishing
splendour, rivalling, in the opinion of Tycho Brahe, Venus at
her maximum, and rendering it visible even at noon-day, and
that at a period when there were no telescopes to point to its
place, after the mode practised by Schmidt in our own days;
_ its visibility to all eyes during seventeen months, precluding the
possibility of deception ; its invariable position with regard to
the neighbouring stars, proving that, if not equally distant
with them, 1t was far removed beyond the bounds of the solar
system ; its scintillating aspect, indicating, in all probability,
the smallness of its apparent disc, and its community of nature
with other stars; its change of colour corresponding with its
regular decrease in magnitude—all these combine to place it
in the highest rank of celestial wonders. And time, that has
done so much to throw light upon other difficulties, has brought
none to this. Jt is now indeed known that the phenomenon,
though extremely rare, is not unique; twenty-one instances of
temporary, aS distinguished from periodically-variable stars,
having been collected by the industry of Humboldt. These
_are chiefly from the Chinese record of Ma-tuan-lin; and some
of them appear to rest on no good authority ; but there can
be no question as to the splendid star seen by Kepler in 1604,
which almost equalled, and in the opinion of some surpassed,
that of 1572, or that discovered by Hind in 1848, which,
though far inferior in magnitude, exhibited the same character.
Jt has, too, been suspected that such phenomena are periodical,
and, if so, may be looked upon as extreme cases of variable
light. The chief ground for this idea is the statement that
new stars are said to have appeared in the years 945 and 1264
“between Cepheus and Cassiopea,”’ a description which, allow-
ing for the inaccuracy of ancient chronicles, might pass for the
position of that in 1572; nor would the inequality of interval
be a sufficient bar to the supposition, as similar irrecularities
are constantly occurring in the periods of variable stars. If
this could be admitted, and a period of something more than
300 years be reckoned upon, it is plain that observers ought
to. be now on the look-out for its possible return. With this
impression, Professor Argelander, of Bonn, one of the very

134 Astronomical Notes.

highest authorities in stellar astronomy, has recently directed
attention to the subject. Torty years back he undertook an
elaborate computation of its place from the measures of Tycho,
which were taken with a sextant from eight neighbouring stars
in Cassiopea. These, as compared with the observations of
Bradley, W. Struve, Bessel, and Piazzi, give an average error
of + Im. 26s. in R.A., and — 13” in Decl., an amount by no
means discreditable to an instrument of comparatively rude
construction, and employed only with the naked eye. Its place
thus deduced will be, for 1865, R.A. 4h. 19m. 57°7s.—D.N.
63° 23’ 55-4, Our own great computer Hind had found a
result 3m. 10s. less in R.A., and 50” less in Decl., a difference
the cause of which could not be ascertained by Argelander
without a fuller explanation of Hind’s mode of procedure.
But assuming the place as calculated by himself, Argelander
remarks that D’Arrest has observed a star, numbered by him
129, so nearly in the right position (that is, R.A. 4h. 19m. 30s.,
D.N. 638° 229), that the difference does not exceed the un-
certainty of the old observations. This, of course, would not:
be surprismg amid the richness of the starry heavens; but
what has struck Argelander has been the circumstance that he
had formerly, with the 8-foot transit-instrument at Abo, sought
in vain for a star near this place, as well as subsequently (pro-
bably in 1849) with the meridian instrument at Bonn; and the
question has arisen in his mind whether D’Arrest’s star, esti-
mated by him as of 10°11 magnitude, may possibly be that
most wonderful phenomenon in a slowly-increasing stage. He
therefore entreats astronomers, who may possess sufficiently
powerful means, to keep watch upon this little star. It may
be added that the sudden development of the phenomenon of
1572 (as well as of those of 1604 and 1848) furnishes no serious
argument against its periodical character, for a great dispro-
portion between the times of increase and decrease is not —
unfrequently associated with variable ight, and in those less
observant days the earlier stages of its visibility would naturally
escape notice, till it became too conspicuous to be any longer
overlooked. It is not impossible that the parallax and distance
of this wonderful star might have fallen within the grasp of
such instruments as we now possess; and it might even have
exhibited a visible and measurable disc, though this is less
probable from what is recorded as to the intensity of its scin-
tillation. But should any recurrent or fresh development of
this kind take place during the present generation, we may be
sure that the spectroscope of Mr. Huggins will be tasked to
the uttermost to ascertain its real character.

Astronomical Notes. 135

TWILIGHT.

The well-known director of the Athens Observatory, Dr. J.

F. Julius Schmidt, has published a valuable memoir on the
duration of twilight, and mquiries of a kindred nature. The
paper is a long one, and full of laborious computations; but
some of his conclusions possess considerable interest as well as
novelty. The subject, which has been very little explored, and
has received little illustration since the imperfect observations
of Ptolemy and Alhazen, had attracted his attention for twenty
years, but his experimental investigations date chiefly from
February, 1856. His observations, which were very nume-
rous, were spread over a zone reaching from N. lat. 53°°5 to
36°°5, but were chiefly made at Olmtitz, in Germany (N. lat.
49° 357), and Athens (N. lat. 37° 583), where the purity of
the sky afforded far greater facility, and where the subject was
still further pressed upon his notice by a request from the
Athenian Burgermeister in connection with the lighting of the
town by gas! (What would have been the astonishment of
Pericles!) His memoir does not, however, treat of the ter-
mination of ordinary or civic twilight, when 6-mag. stars first
become visible in the zenith, but of that of astronomical
twilight, when the last trace of light vanishes from the hori-
zon, the real night begins, and the sky over the coasts of the
Mediterranean is granulated or powdered over with innumer-
able glimpses of stars of the 6 and 7 mag., too minute to be
fixed by the eye. His observations were always made on the
zenith, under which term he obviously includes a considerable
extent of sky; and his conclusions affect not merely the maxima
and minima of duration, but the height of the atmosphere, as
far as its existence is thus rendered perceptible. He marked,
of course, the progress of twilight by the successive appear-
ance of stars of the first 6 mags.; but, by the term Ist mag.
stars, he designates, otherwise than is usually done, the excep-
tionally bright ones, Wega and Capella, Sirius culminating too
low at Olmutz on a lighter background, and Arcturus, though
sometimes employed, being suspected by him of slowly variable
light. How he classed the smaller stars, commonly reckoned
as of Ist mag., does not appear. These great leaders, if
watched for in the ordinary way, he thinks might be detected
from 18m. to 70m. (probably a misprint for 20m.) after sunset;
_but if due preparation were made, by first finding the star in a
telescope, and then looking along the outside of the tube as a
guide, he found that stars of this brilliancy would come out
very much earlier, though the practice was so trying to the
sight that his results were not numerous. They are, however,
very curious. He found that these large stars, thus hunted _

136 Astronomical Notes.

out, became visible to the naked eye even before sunset.
Sirius, for the reason given above, he thus saw only seven
times; but another of his lst mag. stars, when near the
zenith (he does not specify which, but from the date, June, it
must have been Arcturus), he actually perceived 24m. before
sunset, and gives as the mean of such observations by a prac-
tised eye, 8m., when the centre of the sun is still 40’ above the
horizon.* As to the smaller stars, he found that, at a mean,
the sun’s centre must sink respectively beneath it to 4° 18’,
5° 4’, 6° 50’, 8° 52’, and 11° 39’, in order to admit of those
of the 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 mags. becoming visible; a much
smaller estimate, by 6° at an average, than that given by Wurm
at the beginning of this century. The final extinction of hori-
zontal twilight was not observed at Olmttz from the extreme
rarity of suitable opportunities: at Athens its frequent obser-
vation presented no difficulty on that score, but was not easily
accomplished, from a very different reason—the interference of
the Zodiacal light, which is there never absent from the morn-
ing or evening sky, and disturbs the observation in different
degrees, according to its varying brightness and inclination to
the horizon at different times of year. Jt appears that the old
observers could not have been misled by the presence of this
phenomenon, from the very fair value, 18°, which they have.
assigned for the sun’s depression at the end of twilight; but
he justly thinks it extraordinary, considering the brightness
and singularity of the appearance, that it should have been
mentioned by no one before Cassini,+ and conjectures that in
old times it must have been either less brilhant, or else so
familiarly known in more southern countries that no’especial
notice was taken of it. At the final close of twilight he found
the depression of the sun beneath the horizon of Athens, Dec.

* The old story of seeing stars in the day-time from the bottoms of wells or
pits is fully authenticated. I believe I have met with an account, which I cannot
now verify, of Sirius having been traced for some time after sunrise by an old ob-
server, probably Hevel. More to the purpose is Bond’s statement, that he actually
saw that star on one occasion when “the sun was high above the horizon and
shining clearly ;” and he adds, “from the readiness with which the latter could
be discerned, in a position where much of its light must have been lost by atmos-—
pheric extinction, I should think it possible to see a Lyre also under fayourable
circumstances,”

+ Who was the first discoverer of this phenomenon, the mystery of which
seems to become more and more impenetrable, or rather, who first drew attention
to it, seems uncertain. It has been said, but I know not on what ground, that
Kepler has mentioned it. It appears from Hooke’s Lecture on this ‘“ Glade of
Light,” read before the Royal Society, June 3, 1685, that Dr. Childrey’s observa-
tion upon it, published in 1660, “‘ was translated into French, and printed in the
year 1667, as appears by the Miscellanea Curiesa Academie Nature Curiosorum ;”
and by that means the Advertisement was spread in France and the rest of Europe.
Cassini, however, published his own observation of it in 1683 as an original dis-
covery, and his high character affords a fair presumption that to the best of his
knowledge it was so.

Astronomical Notes. | 137

1st = 17°'7; June 1st or July 1st = 15°'3, and at a mean of the
whole year, = 15°92. His observations at Olmttz, though too
incomplete to give anything like accurate results, sufficiently
show that there are two mazima for the duration of twilight, cor-
responding with summer and winter, and two minima, in spring
and autumn, ‘The longest mean monthly interval between
sunset and the appearing of the minutest stars was 106°3
minutes, occurring in June; the shortest, in January, 69°5
min. Similar maxima and minima were found to exist at
Athens ; the longest interval being, however, only 99:2 min.,
owing to the difference of latitude. He adopts Bauernfeind’s
recent value of the horizontal refraction, 343, as more accu-
rate than the formerly received one, 36’. The diminution
of starlight from passing through the atmosphere, like that
of the blue colour of the sky, he considered imperceptible
as far as 50° or 60° from the zenith; but on the shores
and islands of the Mediterranean days occur in which the
blue tint reaches so completely down to the sea line that it is
difficult to convince ourselves that the tone of the zenith is a
little deeper ; nights, too, when the stars preserve their bril-
liancy to 10° or 8° from the horizon. In the most transparent
nights of Attica, he found that Jupiter, even when 86°07
from the zenith, rivalled Wega overhead, and Arcturus had
sunk to 82°3 before it’ was reduced to equality with a Cygni
near the zenith. His comparative values, taken at Olmutz,
gave for the brightness of Jupiter 45:2 ; for Wega or Capella,
38°7; for Arcturus 36°l. From the habit of such investiga-
tions, when first he caught sight of Canopus, the glory of those
skies which we never see, deep on the sea-horizon of the Isle
of Cerigo, he concluded that it would at the zenith have
exceeded Wega by two or three of the units of his scale. How
that scale was constructed, he has not here given us any
information. gins
From these researches, combined with barometrical and
thermometrical investigations, Schmidt has deduced the height
of the atmosphere, as far as it is made known to us by its
action upon light, equal to 46 miles at Athens on January 1,
decreasing, though not quite regularly, to 35 miles on June 1
and July 1. These values, he thinks, may probably have been
augmented by refraction beyond their true amount; and he
intends to prosecute the subject further. It is obvious that
these inquiries must be materially affected by transparency
of sky and keenness of vision; and when we find that within
the ‘ square” of Pegasus, Schmidt could count with the naked
eye 102 stars at Athens, while Argelander at Bonn could detect
barely 30, we may form some idea both of the extraordinary
facilities afforded by the Southern heavens, and of the difficulty

138 Astronomical Notes.

of combining the observations which they yield so readily
with those which are reluctantly given up by our more turbid
skies.

SOLAR OBSERVATION.

But afew years ago it would have been difficult to realize
the idea of a light exceeding the brightness of thesun. Its
possibility must of course be conceded; but all experience was
against its existence, excepting during the suspension of the
ordinary laws of nature. The ‘“ Carrington-Hodgson’’ obser-
vation of Sept. 1, 1859, was the first to dispel this erroneous
impression in the most effectual manner, by exhibiting a burst
of yet more vivid flame even in front of the glowing solar
photosphere: but this evidence no longer stands alone. Mr.
Brodie informs us that he was permitted to witness a second
phenomenon of this nature on the morning of last Oct. 2,
in the form of a very brilliant body about 4” or 5” in diameter,
“its light far surpassing in intensity that of the Sun’s photo-
sphere,” into which it seemed to fall after a course of about 1’
performed in 0:3s. His sketch exhibits a shghtly curved tail,
which seems to have been identical with its line of flight, but
has ‘‘two very considerable ‘serrations’ on its eastern edge.” _
This recurrence of a most interesting, and till recently quite
unsuspected phenomenon, ought to put all solar observers espe- ©
cially on their guard, to be prepared to catch and to record
these fleeting manifestations of one of the great energies of
this wonderful creation.

OPTICAL DECEPTION.

In the Inre.iectuaL OssEerver for October, 1863, an account
was given of an atmospheric illusion, by which the telescopic
images of the stars were doubled. A similar deception was
noticed on Jan. 21 of the present year. Orion, ascending to
the meridian in the §.S.E., was found studded with double
stars. Betelgewse and Rigel were turned into splendid pairs,
each having acquired a companion of the 4 or 5 mag., while
small stars in ike manner were dignified with 10 mag. atten- —
dants. ¢ presented an especially singular appearance, having a
fresh comes of about 7 mag., nearly opposite the ordinary one,
but at half the distance. These secondary images, which
were almost as neatly defined as real discs, were formed verti-
cally above the true star, about 1:25 or 1°50 distant from it,
upon the first diffraction ring, the light of which, on that side,
seemed to be intensified into a bright spot. The appearance
was unaffected alike by turning round the object-glass or the
eye-piece, or by a change of magnifiers, and evidently resided
in the atmosphere. Some 3-mag. stars at a similar altitude in

a

Astronomical Notes. 139

the S.W. showed no traces of thisillusion. Procyon in the H.
was affected in rather a different way, the light spreading along
a broader segment of the ring, and oscillating to and fro.
This double refraction was noticed from 8h. to 8h. 30m. p.m.,
the air being quite still and very favourable for observation,
excepting a slight flare in a vertical direction, which latterly
became horizontal, pulling out the rays on each side of the discs,
and giving them (if so incongruous a metaphor may be per-
mitted) a kind of grinning appearance. ‘This passed away in
turn, and though there were traces of irregularity in Orion as
late as 9h., very beautiful definition succeeded. ‘The circum-
stances were singularly unlike those of the previously recorded
avirage, that having occurred on July 27; this in so cold an air
that the thermometer marked 19° at 8h. 80m., and 15%5 at
10h. 30m. The complete calm, however, rendered it very
bearable, and the quality of the definition may be estimated
from the fact that I never saw the trapezium in the Great Nebula
of Orion so finely, and for the first time (excepting a single
elimpse one beautiful night) the 6th star came out occasionally
as a distinct, though excessively minute point. One eye-piece,
however, alone out of three was capable of showing it. The
5th star was a steady object. The grandest astronomical dis-
covery of the age has surely been that of the gaseous consti-
tution of this astonishing nebula. On sweeping upon a sub-
sequent occasion (Jan. 28th), with a power of about 30, over the -
whole sword of Orion, while wondering at the magnificence of
the spectacle, I could not but be struck with the similarity of

’ aspect of allthe adjacent nebulosities—that round 42 and 45 to
the N., and that encompassing’ s to the §., as well as the great
nebula between them. Secchi sees them all connected, as parts
of one extended mass, whose outlying portions are still more
widely spread; and in all probability the whole of this lumi-
nous cloud, traceable, according to the Roman astronomer,
through more than 5°in a vertical, and 4° in a horizontal direc-
tion, may be fairly presumed to be of the same extraordinary
composition. The idea of incandescent gas, lying possibly in
advance of, rather than beyond, the stars with which it happens
to be optically connected, is certainly less magnificent than that
of a complication of stellar galaxies of incomprehensible re-
moteness; but what it has lost in sublimity it may be almost
said to have gained in mystery.

DOUBLE STARS.

A little ranging about among the glories of Orion has
brought forward some pairs which, though small, will repay
the search. The first is .

- 127. 84 P.V. This is very near W' Orionis, which is

140 Astronomical Notes.

pointed at by the three gems in the Giant’s belt, at a distance
equal to their full extent, but lymg somewhat n of the line.
ay! itself is worth looking at for the beautiful low-power field
with its open pairs in which it is found. Our object, however,
lies rather further, f, a little nm. Itis > 708. 2’°607. 323°18.
8:2 and 9°8 (of his scale, equal to about 9 and 103 Sm.).
1831°81. It is pretty, though minute.

Reverting to y', we shall perceive, in the finder, about 2
of a degree sp from it, three dim objects in a slightly curved
line pointing s, a little p, the brightest at the s end, the famtest
in the middle, but nearer s. Of these the » is

128. 67 P.V., a wide and very unequal, but pleasing pair,
orange and blue. The s is

129. & 700. 47-528. 5°27. 8 ands8-2 (= full 9 ced.
White. 1831:48. Madler and Secchi’s measures combine to
show its fixity. Secchi made them equal, 1857-104. I thought
them a little unequal, 1865-052.

Two or three degrees to the 8.H., nearly of ¢, the central
gem of the belt, but a little f, in a situation forming a tolerably
isosceles triangle with « and 6, the uppermost gem, a little
sweeping will pick up a group of small stars, whose longest
axis hes nearly parallel to the equator, from which indeed it
is very little removed. This pretty configuration, which is all
in the field of a moderate power, bears a slight resemblance
to the constellation Sagitta. ‘The stars are all white, and not
very unequal in size. ‘The two last form a wide pair, our

180. 3% 758. 117-062. 297°72. 8:5 and 9 (about 9 and
93 Sm.). These, however, are much less beautiful than the
central object of the group, at 51” distance, which is

181. % 757. 1688. 239°°83. 8 and 8:2 (perhaps 84 and
9 Sm.). Secchi’s observations in 1859 were only sufficient to
show that there has been no considerable motion in the group
during 28 years. Its insulated aspect would seem, however,
to bespeak comparative juxtaposition in space.

Our list of Double Stars has contamed so preponderating
an amount of easy objects that it would be only fair towards
such of our readers as possess instruments of considerable
power to introduce an occasional test of a higher class. Such
an one we are about to insert.

132. % Orionis. This beautiful pair, which does not appear
in the Bedford Catalogue, was discovered by Dawes, Jan. 15,
- 1848, who gave its approximate distance and position 1” and
87°, with mags. 4 and 5. Mr. Knott has favoured me with the
following recent measures :—0"947. 88°83. (1863°12). Itisa
serious objection to many of the more difficult pairs as tests,
that their orbital motion is continually altering their distance,
of which » Ooronce Borealis and 86 Andromede, both now so

Astronomical Notes. 141

much easier than formerly, are remarkable instances; others
of them again are not easily found without circles. The fixity
and conspicuousness of the present object would render it a
far superior criterion, were it not unfortunately situated so far
S. that, like the comites of Antares and Sirius, it becomes
rather an atmospheric than an instrumental test. On really
steady nights, however, it affords an excellent trial. I have
often seen it divided, and occasionally with a good black sepa-
ration, with 461, and even 212 will sometimes split it. The
smaller component has aruddy hue. It is readily made out as
a moderately bright star lying sp from 6, the uppermost of the
three in the belt, about 4% far off as the belt is long.

PLANETARY NEBULA.

In the Intetizcruan Osserver for March, 1864, p. 139,
mention is made of my having missed an extremely faint
planetary nebula among the northern stars of the fine cluster
46 M (Argis). A remark by Mr. Knott (to whose kind assist-
ance the present paper owes much of its details) induced me
to examine it more carefully, when I found it in a low-power
field (65) with so little difficulty that I can only suppose that
my eye, which seems to fail me in the search for minute objects
near much brighter ones, had previously been distracted by the
general sparkling of the more brilliant assemblage. Tull once |
seen, however, it could hardly be called obvious with 54 inches
of aperture. I saw it as a feeble and very ill-defined luminous
disc, with a star about 10 mag. on its sf border, and some
_Sparklings in it as of 13 or 14 mag. stars. H., who, in 1833,
calls it ‘‘ exactly round, of a faint equable ight,” says it has
a very minute star a little N. of its centre, and is not bright in
the middle, nor fading away, but a little velvety at the edges. .
Lassell, who examined it at Malta in 1853 with his noble
24-inch speculum, and speaks: of it as ‘‘an astonishing and
interesting object,” says it has a star or stellar nucleus nearly,
but not quite, in the centre, with another fainter star rather
nearer the centre than the circumference ; and that the nebula
seems to retreat from the larger star, leaving it on a much
darker ground than the external part of the nebula: two or
three points or bright spots in the nebula also occasionally
catch the eye. It appears rather singular that the star towards
the sf edge, so readily seen by Mr. Knott and myself, should
find no place in the descriptions of either of our two great
observers. Possibly it may be variable. Sm. says most
appropriately that the impression given by this nebulosity is
“that of awful vastness and bewildering distance”; but this
is on the supposition of its starry nature. If gaseous, it may

142 Progress of Invention.

lie even between our eye and the cluster; but its ight may
prove insufficient to admit of spectrum analysis. Its synonyms

are 89 WIV; 464 H (1833) ; 1565 General Catalogue.

OCCULTATIONS.

March 3rd. & Tauri, 5 mag., 10h. 16m. to 11h. 2m.—8th.
A? Cancri, 6 mag., 7h. 16m. to 8h. 36m.

PROGRESS OF INVENTION.

Ratway over Mont Cents.—Notwithstanding all the aids
afforded by modern science, the tunnel under Mont Cenis cannot be
finished for several years. It has therefore been decided, in the
meantime, to carry a line over the Alps, following, almost
throughout, the route afforded by the pass of Mont Cenis. France
and Italy will thus enjoy the benefits of railway communication
within a very short period of time. To effect this, however, it will
be necessary to overcome engineering difficulties, which, not long
since, would have been deemed insurmountable. The line naturally
divides itself into two portions—that on the French, and that on
the Italian side; and it is not the least interesting feature of the
undertaking that the engineers of these two nations have resolved
on attaining the very same object by totally different means. On the
French side, locomotives will be used, on the Italian, traction by ropes.
On the French side steam, on the Italian, water power. With such
gradients as must necessarily be found on this line, a sufficient
adhesion between the driving-wheels and rails could not possibly be
attained by ordinary means: a very ingenious method of producing
any required amount of friction has, therefore, been adopted. A
species of rail is to be placed between the ordinary rails: against
the upper and lower sides of this, rollers, driven by the engines
of the locomotive will act. The central rail being caught between
these rollers, any amount of compressing force can be obtained, so
as to render it impossible for the engines to work without progressive
motion being produced, and equally impossible for the train to
descend the inclined plane of its own accord, or too rapidly when
descent is intended. On the Italian side, the system of traction is
altogether different from that ordinarily used when ropes are em-
ployed, and it avoids some of the most serious objections to the use
of ropes. A strong cable is placed in the middle of the line, and
also an endless wire rope, which is very light, and is kept constantly
in motion by power obtained from falling water. Within a waggon,
constructed for the purpose, is placed a drum which forms the last
element of a system of wheels and pinions. One turn of the cable
is passed round this drum. The first element of the system of
wheels and pinions is capable of being brought into connection with

Progress of ‘Invention. 143

the constantly moving endless wire rope. Ifthis element is connected
with the ascending portion of the wire rope the train ascends: if
with the descending portion, it descends, and exactly at the proper
speed: if it is connected with neither, the train remains stationary,
being prevented from descending by that part of the cable which
happens at the time to be around the drum. The velocity with
which the wire rope moves is very great; but this velocity is
changed into power, by the system of wheels and pinions in the
traction waggon; the required fulcrum being supplied by the strong
cable.

Noven use or Water Pressure.—Few persons not familiar
with mechanics have any idea of the enormous loss of power which
occurs when the masses to be moved are large, and the velocity is
high. Friction is greatly diminished by lubricating substances, and
still more by friction rollers, but, with ponderous machinery the
application of the latter is rarely possible. A contrivance calculated
to supply the place of friction rollers, and even to surpass them in
efficiency, is coming into usein France. Water, to which a sufficient
pressure has been imparted by forcing air into the tank in which it
is contained, is made to flow out between the axle and the bearings
which sustain it—so as actually to keep the axle lifted out of contact
with the surfaces on which it rests. A water pressure of ten atmos-
pheres was found sufficient to effect this with a fly-wheel weighing
39,000 kilogrammes. When this wheel is first started, the bearings
are merely lubricated in the ordinary way : but the water is turned
on immediately, which causes a very great increase in the velocity
of rotation, without any change in the amount of moving power..
In experiments which were made to ascertain the efficiency of the
principle, it was found that, with merely well greased bearings, the
co-efficient of friction was ten per cent., but that, when the water
pressure was used, it fell to 0:001, and was never more than 0°003.
This arrangement is well suited to the bearing of screw propellers,
etc., where heavy weights are to be moved at high velocities ; and
to test its efficiency, the French Government has ordered it to be
applied to the propeller of the screw steam-tug, “ Hlorn.”

Use or Noy-rysutatep Wire For Execrro-Macnerism.—A com-
’ munication made by M. de Moncel to the French Academy of
Sciences, at its sitting on the 6th of January, has excited con-
siderable interest, and caused a large amount of controversy.
He announced that, in verifying some experiments of M. Carlier,
with regard to the use of non-insulated wire, which was described
in our last number, he not only ascertained the correctness of
M. Carlier’s assertions, but arrived at results that filled him with
astonishment. He found that not only are helices made of non-
insulated wire capable of producing all the results attainable with
those in which insulated wire is employed, but that the power is
often doubled. He ascertained that, to effect this, it is only
necessary to separate the different layers of coils with paper,
and, if the bobbin is of metal, to insulate it. He considered the
- inereased power, obtained in this way, as due to the derivative
currents which pass across the coils at the points of contact,

144 Progress of Invention.

and which, though they weaken the current travelling along the
wire, augment the total effect by producing an extra excitement of
the battery, so that far more is gained in one way than is lost in the
other. He ascertained, however, from subsequent experiments, that
advantage is on the side of non-insulated wire only when the battery
is calculated to produce, or is arranged for, guantity—which greatly
limits the advantages that such an arrangement may possess.
Among these is the partial or total absence of an extra current.
Still more recent researches have led him to discover that a large
amount of the supposed superiority of the non-insulated wire was
due to an accidental superiority as to conducting power, which it
happened to possess over the insulated wire that was used in the
comparative experiments. Making, however, every allowance for
this circumstance, it is still certain that non-insulated wire is best
when a quantity-battery is employed. Not only is it cheaper, but
it allows a greater number of coils to be put within the same space, .
which of itself augments the electro-magnetic effect. The use of
non-insulated wire for electro-magnetic purposes is not new.

A NEW KIND oF Hnectrirying Macuine.—The electro-magnetic
coil has, in a great measure, superseded the electrifying machine :
the latter, however, will never cease to be an object of interest ;
and, it is probable, will always be preferred for some purposes. The
expense and difficulty of managing large plates and cylinders of glass
have hitherto been obstacles to the use of large electrifying machines.
These obstacles appear now removed—glass being rendered unne-
cessary by the discovery of a far more convenient and effective mate-
rial. M.Hdmond Bequerel exhibited to the Academy of Sciences on a
recent occasion an electrifying machine, the plate of which was
made of indurated red sulphur, the invention of a civil engineer.
It was eighty centimetres in diameter, and afforded a spark fourteen
centimetres in length. No amalgamated cushions were required
with it, the skin of a cat being quite sufficient to produce every
desired effect. Sulphur undergoes extraordinary changes by suc-
cessive fusions; becoming extremely hard and tenacious. After
the third fusion it no longer acts on metals, or possesses its cha-
racteristic odour. The plate used by M. Bequerel was formed by
fusing the sulphur three times in a cast-iron vessel, at a temperature
between 250° and 300° Cent., and allowing it, after each fusion, to
cool thoroughly. After the first and second fusions it was crushed
to a coarse powder; and, after the third, it was poured into a plaster
mould. Plates four metres in diameter may easily be made in this
way; they cost extremely little; and, besides being more efficient,
are far less hygrometric than glass.

New Meruop or Corrine Crysrats.—To produce very beautiful
copies of crystals, M. Kuhlmann coats a thin plate of copper with
sulphate of magnesia or of zinc, thickened with gum; then lays the
copper-plate against another, with the coated surface between, and
passes both plates between powerful rollers. The second plate may
be employed at once in printing, or it may be reproduced by the
electrotype. Instead of a copper-plate he sometimes employs glass,
taking impressions of the crystals in gutta-percha, and reproducing

Progress of Invention. 145

the designs, as before, by the electrotype. As no two erystalliza-
tions are exactly alike, and they cannot possibly be copied by the
engraver, nor by the photographer, if coloured ink is used, it is
considered that printing them from the electro-plates on bank-
notes would afford a great additional protection against forgery.

ImproveD THERMO-Hincrric Pinz.—Up to this time, bismuth
and an alloy of antimony have been considered the very best ele-
ments for thermo-electric piles. Professor R. Bunsen has, how-
ever, recently found that pyrolusite may be employed with far better
effect than bismuth, and copper pyrites, with far better than pyro-
lusite. The pyrites must be used in the natural state, since fusion
reduces its power below that of bismuth; but it is easy to form it
into a plate of the required size. It was’ found that a pair con-
sisting of a plate of copper pyrites seventy milimetres long, forty
broad, and seven thick, with two copper pins, platinum plated, in-
serted into it at a distance of thirty-five milimetres from each other,
the upper pm having a projection which was heated by a non-
luminous lamp flame, while the lower edge of the plate was
placed in water, afforded a ten times greater effect than a pair con-
sisting of antimony and bismuth; and a combination consisting of
ten such pairs produced all the effects of a Daniel battery, having
a copper surface of fourteen square centimetres. During these
experiments, the pyrites was heated above the melting point of tin
without undergoing any change. Copper pyrites and platinum ,
affords also an excellent pile.

Meratiic Coatine, so as TO Propuce A WHITE Surrace.—This
is effected in a very simple way, by M. Weil. He makes an alka- |
line solution of the metal which he intends to deposit, and adds to
it tartaric acid, glycerine, or some other organic matter. Iron,
steel, etc., may with such a fiuid be coated with copper, zinc,
nickel, etc., and beautiful bright surfaces be obtaimed. It is usually
sufficient to place the object to be coated in the alkaline solution ;
but, if required, a weak galvanic current may be generated, by bring-
ing it into contact with a piece of zinc.

Lucirer Marcurs.—There are many reasons which make it
highly desirable that phosphorus should be rendered unnecessary
in the manufacture of matches. Phosphorus produces one of the
most terrible diseases of the jaw in those who manufacture it. No
doubt this would not occur were amorphous phosphorus employed ;
but the latter is dearer, and how few are there so philanthropic as
to pay more than is absolutely necessary for anything they require.
Also phosphorus, especially the ordinary kind, is highly combus-
tible. How many buildings have been burned, how many lives lost
through the careless treatment of lucifer matches! Lastly, phos-
phorus is one of the essential elements of plants and animals,
though it is found in comparatively but small quantities. It is
highly mischievous, therefore, to place vast quantities of it in cir-
cumstances in which it is scarcely possible for it again to return
to the soil, where it is so much needed. Two German chemists
seem to have made good lucifer matches, containing no phosphorus.
One of them, Dr. H. Poltzer, uses for the match heads a mixture of

146 . Progress of Invention.

chlorate of potash, and, as he believes, a compound of hyposul-
phurous acid with soda, ammonia, oxide, and suboxide of copper.
He obtains this compound by dividing a solution of copper into
two equal parts, supersaturating one with ammonia, and the other
with hyposulphite of soda; then mixing the two solutions, and
stirring briskly. One part of the violet coloured powder which
precipitates is mixed with two parts of the chlorate of potash, a
little powdered glass being added. This composition detonates by
percussion, and ignites when rubbed in a mortar. It is not soluble
in water, nor is it hydroscopic; but even when made with moist
chlorate of potash and solution of gum its cohesion is so imperfect,
that it often crumbles off the matches when they are rubbed. It is
also lable to the objection of requiring no particular kind of
surface for ignition, which involves the danger of causing confla-
erations. Dr. Hierpe uses for the match heads four to six parts
chlorate of potash, two parts bichromate of potash, two parts ferric
oxide, and three parts strong glue. The ferric oxide may be
replaced by oxide of lead, or of manganese. Matches made with
this composition will ignite only on a surface coated with a mixture
containing twenty parts sulphide of antimony, two to four parts
bichromate of potash, four to six parts oxide of iron, lead, or man-
ganese, two parts glass powder, and two to three parts strong
glue or gum.

Gas Encivus.—lIt is one of the advantages of modern progress:
that many operations formerly performed by the painful efforts of
man and animals, are now effected with much greater ease and
economy by means of power obtained from other sources. A
striking illustration of this is found in the use of portable steam-
engines in public works. Perhaps a still more striking is the
utilization of the enormous water power’ available in Paris for the
lifting of heavy weights to great heights, and in the employment
of Lenoir’s gas engine for a similar purpose. It is evident that for
intermittent efforts the steam-engine is far from economical, on
account of the necessity of keeping up the steam during the
intervals of inaction. This objection does not hold with the gas
engine. It consumes nothing when it is not actually at work, it
is, besides, very portable, and the gas, as also the water for refri-
geration, it requires may be had almost anywhere. It is not
surprising, therefore, that it 1s coming into use in France in building
operations, any defects it may possess being more than counter- -
balanced by the advantages it offers.

Tue Hiecrric Licnt Apaprep to Usz in Mines.—Notwith--
standing the excellence of Davy’s lamp, especially in its improved
forms, the most lamentable accidents are of constant recurrence in
mines ; sometimes, no doubt, they are due to imperfection in the lamp,
but most usually to imprudence inthe miners. The use of electricity,
as a means of illumination, would remove all danger of this kind ;
but hitherto its light, though very intense, was useless for ordinary
purposes on account of the impossibility of rendering it sufficiently
diffused; and, besides, its arrangements were complicated, on
account of charcoal points being necessary. These objections seem

Progress of Invention. 147

to have been overcome by a lamp maker of Paris. Instead of
charcoal points he employs an apparatus of glass, within which the
air is greatly rarified, so as to allow a passage to the electricity, and
afford a mild light, something like that of an aurora borealis, but
quite sufficient for the miner. As this lamp produces no heat
whatever, it is impossible for it in any circumstances to ignite
an explosive mixture of gases. The galvanic battery it requires is
enclosed in a small box, which is carried on the back of the miner,
or is placed in any convenient situation near him.

Mr. Stewart Harrison’s Seir-Actin¢ PreserveR VALVE, FOR
THE PRESERVATION OF Lire AND Property From Fire.—This valve
is part of a system designed by the inventor to prevent the occur-
rence of fires, in the official sense of that word, by extinguishing
them at their commencement. He proposes that in warehouses, at
the docks, in public buildings, libraries, etc., wrought-iron pipes
connected either with a tank on the top of the building, or with
the fire mains in the street, shall be put up on the ceiling of each
floor, so as to divide the surface to be protected into spaces, greater
or less, according to the combustibility of the goods. To these
pipes,the preserver valve is to be attached. The valve, which is
globular in form and perforated with numerous holes, is kept closed
by a screw passing through a stirrup of brass, whose ends rest on
two small pins of fusible metal, which melts at 212 degrees Fahr,
Upon a fire breaking out, the heat ascending to the ceiling,
and melting one of the pins belonging to the nearest valve, the
water is poured down on the precise spot at which the fire
is commencing. Should the heat be sufficient, it will melt
several of the pins immediately surrounding the central point,
and the water falling on the goods below will prevent the
spread of the fire to them. In this way, it is believed by the
inventor that it would be impossible, with a proper supply of water,
for the damage under any circumstances to be very great. For
libraries, dwellings, etc., the valve can be concealed beneath orna-
ments on the ceiling, without any disfigurement to the rooms in
which it is fixed. Forships and steam-vessels, where a large tank
of water is not possible, the pipes run along the beams, and are
connected with a cistern on the highest part of the deck. When the
valve opens, the altered level of the water in the cistern causes a
float to sound an alarum ; on which the ship’s fire-engines are con-
nected with the system of pipes, and the water from them is directed.
exactly on the seat of the fire. The water is not, therefore, as at
present, blindly thrown wherever the smoke may appear (however
falsely) to indicate the part on fire, injuring the cargo as much as
the fire itself. Mr. Stewart Harrison has also designed an alarum,
which sounds whenever the water flows through any of the valves,

_thus giving timely notice to the watchman, porter, or passer-by, that
the fire is being put out, and enabling them, on its being extinguished,
to prevent further damage by turning the water off from that set of
pipes. The valve and alarum, we believe, can both be seen in action
at the inventor’s, No. 133, Upper Thames Street, H.C.

Miscrertansous.—The lime light has been applied to the produc-

VOL. VII.—NO. II. L

148 Progress of Invention.

tion of enlarged images of opaque objects, such as photographs,
for the use of portrait painters, etc. It is reflected from a large
concave mirror through a nine-inch condensing lens ; and passing
thence to the object, which is placed at an angle of 45°, itis
reflected to a double acromatic object-glass, which refracts it so as
to form a picture on the screen intended to receive 1t.—_— Aluminium
bronze, consisting of ninety parts copper and ten aluminium, is used.
with very great advantage asa casing for bearings which, when
ordinary materials are used, are liable to become heated, on account
of the high velocities of the moving parts. It was found to answer
admirably for a mandril, which made 7000 revolutions in a minute,
and with which, every other bearing tried, had proved a failure.
Electro magnetism has been applied by- Sir Charles Fox to the over-
coming of one of the greatest difficulties connected with railways,
namely, the want of sufficient adhesion between the driving-wheels
and the rails. For this purpose, deflected belts of insulated wire
are placed round the lower portions of the driving-wheels of the
locomotive, which, when these belts are connected with a galvanic
battery, become powerful electro-magnets that attract, and are
attracted by, the rails. As the wheels revolve within the belts,
their lower portions, for the time being, are always magnetic. The
belts are supported by slings, and steadied by stays, and are capable
of being connected together, ete.——It is supposed that the sudden
and spontaneous extinction of burning magnesium wire arises from
the presence of particles of oxide. Magnesium possesses no duc-
tility ; and hence, to form it into wire, it is forced in a fluid state
through holes in a steel die. This causes portions to be oxidized,
as the metal is highly oxidizable in the fluid state, and the particles
of oxide are incorporated with the wire. All inconvenience from
this oxide is prevented by adding to the magnesium lamp a spirit
lamp, through the flame of which the magnesium wire is transmitted
at a proper speed, by means of suitable mechanism.——lIt has been
proposed to propel omnibuses, etc., through Paris by means of a
motive power, which is to be derived from gaseous ammonia. It has
been calculated that if twenty kilogrammes of liquefied ammonia
are vaporized, and the vapours are received in sixty kilogrammes of
water, a power equivalent to that of two horses for one hour, and ~
sufficient to propel an omnibus through Paris, will be obtained.
This use of ammonia is believed, by the projectors, to be feasible, —
because, first, gaseous ammonia may easily be liquefied ; secondly,

its vapour affords at ordinary temperatures a pressure that is
utilizable, and it may be superheated without recourse being had to

a high temperature ; and, lastly, the latent heat may be recovered

from the utilized vapour, and communicated to the vapour which is

about to be produced, by a mere solution of the gas in water. It is

proposed to manufacture liquid ammonia-in large quantities in a’
central establishment, from which it will be distributed, as required,

to the various omnibuses, etc. ; and to bring to the same establish-

ment the water in which the ammoniacal vapour will have been
condensed, that the ammonia may be recovered from it.

Interary Notices. 149

LITERARY NOTICES.

Harmonious Maxims or Science and Rewicion. By the Rev.
Wiiiam Baker, M.A., Vicar of Crambe, near York (Longmans).—
The author of this work contends that the reconciliation of science -
with theology must be effected by tracing out in both departments
a series of truths, which only became cognizable through accurate
study, and which often contradict those interpretations of natural
or revealed phenomena that are accepted by the unlearned. We can
only mention the scope of this book, without offering any opinion on
its merits or defects.

PsinosopHy OF Rericion. By Hugs Docuzrty, M.D. (Triibner
and Co.)—This is a short pamphlet of controversial divinity, a
subject with which we do not meddle. Those parts which touch
general philosophy appear to us to want precision and distinctness.
Dr. Dogherty is too fond of long-tailed words and learned-looking
expressions. We certainly do not feel disposed to attack his
“ epicosmology” with its “ sacred numbers in individual organisms ;
discrete organisms in the indivisible unity of human nature,”
its “one primary and three secondary classes in its realm in epi-
cosmic nature ;” or its “three degrees—individual, realmic, and
epicosmic,”’ A wise man will always distrust thoughis that cannot
_ be expressed in simpler terms.

Inventive Drawine:. A New Practical Development of Elemen-
tary Design. By Epwarp Barn. (Hardwicke.)—This is an ad-
mirable work. Mr. Ball’s notion of teaching drawing is both
practical and philosophical. All objects in nature, and beautiful
productions in art, may be analysed into simple elements. The
most elementary forms will ‘be combinations of rectilineal angles,
or angles formed by straight lines. Mr. Ball shows how, from the
simple meeting of two straight lines, the pupil may proceed to
pleasing pictures formed by combinations of straight lines; and
he likewise illustrates the approximate mode in which they can be
made to represent animal forms grotesquely caricatured. Part II.
relates to the combinations of triangles, in which the progress of
rectilineal design is carried further than in Part I., and we arrive
at patterns of considerable elegance, entirely formed of a multi-
plicity of triangles of various sizes, and in which the effect of shading
is produced by making nests of triangles, one inside the other, re-
peated five or six times. In Part III. four-sided figures assist the
triangles in building up fresh devices, and in Part IV. simple curvi-
linear figures are introduced, and excellently applied. Part V. is
devoted to geometric figures, bounded by right lines; and the
subject is continued in Part VI., im which curves and right lines
’ are combined. Part VII. is devoted to “ designs from nature, illus-
trating the use of the elementary and compound forms in diapers ;”
and Part VIII. shows how simple, but effective patterns for windows
may be composed. The merit of this work consists in the execution
as well as in the idea. It will lead the student on pleasantly and

150 Interary Notices.

quickly, first, to see in the objects around him the artistic ele-
ments of which they are composed, and, secondly, to perceive how
these may be combined so as to produce an endless variety of effects.
The book offers suggestions that will be valuable to practised adults,
but its well-arranged steps and excellent illustrations will soon
conduct any tolerably clever child to a substantial, though rudi-
mentary knowledge of drawing and of decorative art. The book
will be a favourite in every family in which it is introduced, and it
will be found that most children begin to attend to form at a much
earlier age than is commonly supposed. We remember a clergy-
man at Huntingdon who managed some schools for his poor
parishioners with great skill, and he found that little creatures,
four or five years old, took great delight in tracing the outlines of
forest leaves on a scrap of paper. In many cases this was the
foundation of considerable proficiency in subsequent life.

Two Monts 1n A Lonpon Hosprtat; its Inner Life and Scenes:.
A Personal Narrative. By Arnoztp J. Coonry, Author of ‘“ Cyclo-
peedia of Receipts, Processes, Dates, and Collateral Information,”
“ Dictionary of the English Language,” “ Latin Grammar,” etc.,
etc. (Groombridge and Sons.)—A severe and dangerous accident
unfortunately made Mr. Cooley the inmate of a London hospital,
and he improved the melancholy occasion by watching all that
occurred within his sphere of observation, his own sensations in-
cluded, and compounding his experience into a very readable book. .
The details of hospital life are well described, and many pathetic
and startling incidents graphically pourtrayed. Mr. Cooley suffered
with an attack of erysipelas, which made him delirious, and he has
recorded the strange fancies that arose in his disordered mind, and
the various scenes in which he imagined. himself to be an actor or
spectator. These chapters will interest many readers, and they are
not without scientific psychological value. He remarks, with refer-
ence to this part of his experience, that “the quiet delirium of
erysipelas—that variety which has chiefly to do with my narrative—
is more closely related to dreaming than the others. Indeed,
whether occurring by night or by day, it clearly resembles a con-
tinuous day-dream of a varied and very vivid character, occurring
with the senses, or some of them, more awake than in what is
popularly called ‘ day-dreaming,’ by which the sequence of ideas or
illusions, though irregular, are usually more connected, persistent,
and continuous than in ordinary dreams. In general, as in .
dreaming, the illusions and irregular trains of thought primarily
depend on the suggestions of immediate influences. Among these,
sounds heard and misunderstood by the patient are the most pro-
lific. His pains and sensations also act in the same way. The
subject, the thoughts floating through his mind as he passes into a
delirious state, likewise frequently furnish the groundwork on which
his subsequent wanderings are raised. Then imagination begins
her work, and memory supplies her stores to continue and diversify
the vision or illusion, And, lastly, the usual habits or bias of the
mind in health give a tone to the whole, and leave the thoughts
rambling on a train of favourite subjects, until the patient is

Tnterary N otices. 151

aroused, or until he sinks into a state of actual sleep or stupor
from exhaustion.”

Notes upon THE Hrrors or Grotoay: Illustrated by Reference
to Facts observed in Ireland. By Joun Ketty, Vice-President of
the Royal Geological Society of Ireland. (Longmans.)—Mr. Kelly
is acquainted with a considerable number of geological facts, and
he puts them to a very curious and singular use. He thinks men
like Lyell, Murchison, Phillips, and Ramsay all wrong. They can
only account for the appearances they observe upon the supposition
that the causes producing them were in action during very long
periods, while Mr. Kelly requires all sedimentary rocks to be made
inahurry. He supposes that a few thousand years ago there was
a turmoil in the interior of the earth, and “its hard nucleus of
granite was split up into large blocks by volcanic agitation.”
“ Suppose,” he says, ‘‘one of these blocks heaved up by the expan-
sive power of steam, and, on the escape of the steam, let down
again by its own gravity. In the fissures or joints about the block,
after having been put in motion, there would have been a consider-
able amount of ground granite made by the sliding or friction of
the moving block.” Notwithstanding that this process is supposed
to have taken place at the bottom of the sea, the “ granite would
be,” in Mr. Kelly’s hypothetical arrangements, “red-hot, or nearly
so.” Having obtained a large quantity of powdered granite, nothing

is easier than to make it into strata, sorted out according to the
size of the particles. It only requires “another volcanic heave
and a puff from below” to scatter all the materials about in the
water, and allow them to subside into any quantity of sedimentary
rock that might be required. The operation commences with the
formation of “oreat cracks in the sea bottom. “Call every such
fissure a Grinding Machine. In this way give it steam power
to lift the block, gravitation to cause it to slide down, friction to
grind off projections in the act of sliding, and make sandy depres-
sions to receive this sand; and steam again to blow out the ground
stuff, a vacuum left in its place, ‘cold water to rush into the vacuum,
hot granite to convert that into steam again, for a new effort.” Ten
or twenty thousand of such grinding machines all going at once in
a hundred square miles of ocean bottom, would, according to Mr.
Kelly’s computation, make a bed over the whole area twenty miles
thick in a century, or, working at half speed, they would turn out
“any of our geological systems” in that time. We ought to add
that Mr. Kelly knows of actions of this sort in Ireland, we presume
in some parts, verifying the old joke, that the laws of nature refuse
to operate in that interesting country.

152 Archeologia.

ARCH AIOLOGIA.

THE season is very far from favourable to any new archeological
discoveries, and we are obliged to fall back upon some of the later
explorations of the past autumn, which are still occupying the
attention of antiquaries. Among these may be specified the less
recent discovery of the foundations and floors of BUILDINGS IN
Custer, the Deva of the Romans; under whom it was the station
of the twentieth legion. Two lectures on local antiquities have
recently been delivered at Chester, by Dr. Brushfield, a prominent
feature in the second of which was a searching inquiry into the
grounds upon which Mr. Tite founded his opinion, that a building
laid open during the last year in the heart of the town was a
Roman temple. Mr. Tite had published his reasons in a paper read

before the Society of Antiquaries, and Mr. Scarth, in his “ Roman —

Bath,” has drawn attention to its analogy to a temple discovered
years ago in that city. Dr. Brushfield disputes the correctness both
of Mr. Tite’s conclusions and of his facts, and the close attention
he and his coadjutors gave daily to the remains during the dis-
covery adds weight to his views. The lectures, with illustrations,
are about to be published by the Chester Archeological Society.

We have already described the Excavations at BRADWELL juxta -

Mare, which appear to have brought to light at last the remains of

the lost Roman military station of Othona, the Ythancester of ©

Bede. These researches are, we believe, still continued as the
weather permits. Some antiquaries had already conjectured that
it stood somewhere near this locality ; but what caused others to
pause before deciding was not only the fact that no vestiges were
to be seen here, but the conflicting fact, as it seemed, that at Felix-
stowe, on the Suffolk coast, the sea had overthrown a Roman
castrum, parts of the walls of which are still to be seen at low
water. At one place, therefore, remains existed without historical
evidence or any affinity in names; at the other, the site on the river
Pant is pointed out by Bede, but no remains were to be seen. The
site at Bradwell had, as we have stated in our former notice, a ruined
church named St. Peter’s-on-the-Wall, apparently of late Norman
work, and constructed in part of Roman materials. It was hardly
supposed that this church was so termed from standing upon one
of the walls of a Roman station, yet this turns out to have been the
case. Further investigation will no doubt throw more light on this
interesting question.
In these days of universal explorations, it is something note-
worthy to bring to light 4 Roman WALLED sTaTION ; butit is probable
that, even in our own country, remains of this kind are yet to be
found for the trouble of excavating ; and this is the case, to a more
remarkable degree, in some parts of France. It is only_a few
years ago, a French antiquary, M. Boilleau, discovered at Largay,
near Tours, a fine and very well-preserved Roman fortress, with its
massive walls almost entire. It stands a short distance out of the

Archeeologia. 153

road, and no one ever thought of looking for it. Mr. Roach Smith
has given some account of this discovery in his “ Collectanea,”’
vol. 11. p. 218; and im the same volume, p. 103, he has given a
longer and still more interesting account of the extensive remains,
at the village of Jublains, in the department of Mayenne, of the
ancient chief town of the Diablintes, which, until recently, had been
almost as little known. The whole district of Mayenne and Jub-
laims is, indeed, almost unknown ground; and Mr. Roach Smith
informs us that, on his visit to Jublains, he found im the woods
remains of large buildings, the walls of which had been cased with
thin slabs of polished marbles of various kinds, and an amphi-
theatre, not excavated.

We have just received information of an interesting discovery
lately made in this last-mentioned district. Ata particular part of
the river, where there seems to have been a bridge or ford, in the
route from Jublains to Avranches, portions of a milestone have
been found, and upwards of three thousand coins, many of which
are of the flower of the die, having been preserved from the action
of the air by the water, precisely like those found in the Thames at
Liondon Bridge. Of these coins, three are consular, many of
Augustus, seven hundred of Claudius, many of Nero, more than
five hundred of Tiberius, others of Caligula, Germanicus, Hadrian,
Nerya, Trajan, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian; some rare colonial
coins; five or six of the two Faustine. Of the lower empire there
appears to be only a few, three of which are of Gallienus, Postumus,
and Tetricus. Among other remains found with them are a bronze
axe, or, as we understand it, one of those implements our anti-
quaries are accustomed to call celts. The miliary column alluded
to has an inscription, of which only the following letters
remain :— Eats
NIO.V
INVIC
AUG.P.

) ILL
The last line gives, no doubt, the distance from Jublains, the capital
town of the Diablintes (about four miles).

‘We can hardly allude to the progress of archeology in the
month of February, without a passing word on the loss of one of
the great patrons of this science, who has just been gathered to
his fathers. The late Duke of Northumberland was a zealous and
enlightened encourager of antiquarian research, especially in that
part of England in which his own ancestral estates chiefly lay. He
had patronised largely the labours of Dr. Bruce on the antiquities
and history of that great monument of the Romans in Britain, the
wall of Hadrian; and he had expended large sums of money in an
efficient survey not only of the wall, but of the other Roman

remains in Northumberland, the result of which was an important
work, printed for private distribution, under the title, ‘‘ The Roman
Wall, and Illustrations of the Principal Vestiges of Roman Occu-
pation in the North of England; consisting of Plans of the Mili-
tary Works, the Stations, Camps, Ancient Ways, etc., from Original

154 - Proceedings of Learned Societies.

Surveys made by direction of his Grace the Duke of Northumber-
land, K.G.,” by Henry Maclaughlan, folio, 1857. These antiquarian
researches were, we believe, continued till near the time of his
demise. T. Wises

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

BY W. B. TEGETMEIER.

NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN.—Jan. 6.

On Fisstparous REPRODUCTION OBSERVED IN ANTHEA CEREUS.—Dr.
EH. H. Bennett read a most interesting account of an instance of
fissiparous generation which he had been enabled to observe accu-
rately. One morning last July he brought from Seapoint three
specimens of Anthea cereus (the ash-coloured variety), and put
them into a large aquarium. They were uninjured, and at once
attached themselves to the stonework of the aquarium, expanding
their tentacles to the full. He had on previous occasions failed in
getting this species to do well in the vessel, from some fault in its.
management, and consequently watched these with some interest.

During the evening of the day on which they were put into the’

vessel he was surprised to see one of them moving about in a most
unusual manner. The species is always rather restless as compared
with others, but this individual seemed to be suffering from some
extreme excitement, being constantly in*rapid movement along the
stone-work, and waving its long ash-coloured tentacles in the wildest
manner. Late at night the Anthea was on the highest point of the
stonework, in the centre of the vessel; in the morning it was attached
high up the front glass of the vessel, and was still in the same state
of excitement. Its position on the front of the vessel afforded the
best possible opportunity for the examination of its structure and
movements. He made a most careful examination of it, and assured
himself that it was. perfectly free from any injury. On his return
home, at about three p.m., he at once examined it and found that

there was in the centre of the base a small, irregular opening; the

base itself was no longer circular, but had extended itself in the
vertical direction to the utmost, and formed a long, narrow oblong.
So great was its extension lengthwise, that the column of the animal
was almost flat on the glass. The opposite ends of the base seemed
to be working to the utmost to increase the distance between them,
and the tentacles waved about more vigorously than in the morning.
It occurred to him that this excitement. and muscular exertion in
the base was owing to the fact that the animal was attempting to
divide spontaneously. He determined to watch the process, and
sat down in front of the vessel. In a few moments the opening in
the base became wider, more irregular, and was evidently increasing

— a

Proceedings of Learned Societies. 155

from the violence of the muscular efforts. Presently the opening
in the base extended to the margin, and up the right side of the
column, exposing to view the internal structure—the septa and so-
called craspeda. At 4:20, twenty minutes after the rent had reached
the right margin of the base, it extended to the left, and so divided
the whole base into.two nearly equal segments. It is a curious
fact that the tentacles corresponding to the two parts now contracted
separately ; hitherto the contractions were convulsive, and set in
suddenly at intervals and altogether, now there was a distinct pause
between the convulsion of the upper and lower division, the upper
always preceding the lower by a few seconds. At 5°10 the walls of
the stomach could be seen strained across the fissure, and they
presently gave way, the rent extending right through the column
to the oral disc. This appears to suggest that the seat of the central
nervous system of Actinia occupies the base, as Spix thought he had
demonstrated, although this demonstration has been rejected by
every authority who has followed him. On one margin of the disc
the rent involved the base of one of the outer row of tentacles, and
extended along it. He was much interested in watching its pro-
gress along. the tentacle, as it seemed doubtful whether it would
tear along its whole length, or detach one or other half from its
attachment to the body. The strain seemed great on the parts, and
at last the lower half tore off from its base, and, immediately closing
into a perfect tube, hung as a branch from its parent trunk. The
wound in this, too, seemed to close at once when the strain was
taken off. Dr. Bennett mentioned this apparently trivial detail as
it appeared to explain the occasional occurrence of the double or
branched tentacle which has been observed in Anthea cereus. At
5°45, less than three hours from the commencement of the process, the
division was complete, the upper half falling to the bottom of thevessel.
At 65 the lower followed it, and the two new individuals lay together
almost motionless. Next morning one attached itself to the glass,
and showed its base nearly perfect ; the other lay much in the same
place as the evening before. Dr. Bennett was unable to continue
his observations on these two animals any further; the water in the
vessel became turbid, and many of its inhabitants died, including
the two Anthee. They were able to move about for some days, but
never with activity. They seemed, however, to have quite closed up
their wounds. He could not examine them anatomically, as they
were so softened before removed from the vessel that dissection was
impossible. The others of the same species which were put into
the vessel had also tried to divide, and apparently in the same way,
from base upwards. The observation proves that division was com-
pleted, and that the two halves lived as independent animals for a
few days. The whole time which the division took, from the first
observation of the opening in the base to the complete separation of
' the halves, was barely three hours. The exciting cause of the pro-
cess seems to have been the condition of the water in the vessel,
just verging on decomposition. The most important-part of the
observation is the mode of the division.

The only case recorded of a similar kind is in Gosse’s Tenby,

156 _ Proceedings of Learned Societies.

where, speaking of the rarity of the occurrence of fissiparous gene-
ration in Actiniaria, he states that he had never seen it occur spon-
taneously himself, but quotes the following observation of a friend :
—‘‘* An Anthea cereus, which had been in captivity thirteen days,
devoured with great relish a dead shellfish. I watched the opera-
tion of seizing and swallowing, and there was nothing remarkable
in the appearance of the Anthea on Monday. On Tuesday morning,
going to look at my prisoner, I observed the rejected shell at the
bottom of the jar, and, to my great puzzlement, instead of one
Anthea there were two, of nearly equal size, but smaller than my
old friend. Both appeared languid, and from the margin of one
two tentacua appeared sprouting ; they hung in so very flaccid a state
that I could not examine the mouth yesterday, but to-day one ex-
poses a mouth fully formed.” We have little else recorded here
than the fact of the division and its extreme rapidity. There can
be little doubt that in this case, as in Dr. Bennett’s, the division

was effected by muscular action. Nearly a century ago Decquemare ~

observed that several Actinize could be divided artificially in almost
any way, the several parts being capable of forming independent
animals. Sir J. Dalyell has recorded a mode of reproduction
in one species—Actinie lacerata—accomplished, apparently, by
muscular action. He describes, in this species, the outline
of the base becoming sinuous, and the prominences gradually,

in the course of a week or two, becoming pinched off, main- _

taining their connection only by a very slender lengthened

filament, not in contact with the glass, but free above it. -

Rupture of the connecting thread at length takes place, and the
independent fragment becomes developed into a perfect anemone.
He says of the process :—‘“It is not quite obvious how the pro-
longation is effected, unless by contraction of the basis and reces-
sion.” All authorities agree in stating that fissiparous generation
occurs either in the way described by Dalyell—by separation of a
part of the margin of the base, or by division from above down-
wards, not from below upwards, as I have described. Milne
Edwards says :—“ Spontaneous fissiparous generation occurs either
by detachment of fragments from the inferior border of the body,
which, continuing to live, become developed into perfect animals,
or at other times division commences by a narrowing or strangula-
tion (etranglement) of the superior extremity of the body, which,
becoming more and more pronounced, causes a bifurcation, the
branches of which complete themselves each on its own side, so as

to constitute two distinct individuals. These may remain united by

the base, and so cause an aggregation of polypes, or may be sepa-
rated completely.” Dalyell is the only authority who attributes
the separation of the fragments, in any case, to muscular action.
How the process is effected when it occurs in the more common way
—from above downwards—is difficult to imagine, unless it be similar
to ulceration in higher animals, or due to muscularaction. Gosse
evidently attributes it to a process of growth. He says :—“ The
greater part of the Astreeacea increase by disc buds and spontaneous
subdivision, the dise of the polype gradually widening by growth,

Proceedings of Learned Societies. 157

and finally separating into two portions, which become independent.”
Whatever be the means by which the separation is accomplished, in
the greater number of cases it was evident that, as in the exceptional
case recorded, the animal absolutely tore itself into halves ; and fur-
ther, that the division occurred in a direction from below upwards,
the reverse of that which is supposed by some to be the constant
mode in the class.

PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF MANCHESTER.—Jan. 24.

On THE PuystoLocicaL Hrrects or Carzonic Acip.—Dr. Angus
Smith related the results obtained by some very valuable experi-
ments on breathing in close chambers. Dr. Smith had an air-tight
leaden chamber constructed, containing 170 cubic feet of air. On
remaining in this chamber until the carbonic acid produced by his
breathing, and the burning of candles amounted to 3°9 per cent. of
the enclosed atmosphere, he found that his pulse fell so low that he
was scarcely able to count the beats, which diminished rapidly in
number. As this effect was speedily produced, and as there was no
time for the accumulation in the air of any large amount of organic
matter, the effect must have been chiefly due to the carbonic acid.
The experiments were frequently repeated, each time with the same
results, the number of beats of the pulse diminishing as the car-
bonie acid increased in quantity, and the breathing quickening in
the same ratio. ‘The lowest amount of carbonic acid producing
these unfavourable results ‘was found to be 0°1 per cent., an amount
often greatly exceeded in private houses and public meetings, where
it often rises to 0°2 or even 0'3 per cent. As a proof that the long-
continued action of an atmosphere charged with an undue quantity
of carbonic produces permanently injurious results, Dr. Smith
' quoted the cases of the Cornish miners, who are remarkable for
the peculiarity of a feeble pulse. In Dr. Smith’s experiments the
pulse and the breathing returned to the normal state after a few
minutes’ exposure to fresh air, the rapid, gasping, or panting effect
produced by the carbonic acid quickly passing away.

ROYAL INSTITUTION.—Fvb. 3.

Mover oF DETERMINING THE Atomic WelcHT oF AN Huement.
—Professor Odling’s discourse on some new compounds of the
metal aluminium, although of especial interest to the chemist,
offered a good opportunity to every one moderately conversant with
science, of becoming acquainted with a most important chemical
doctrine. The question which has been agitating the chemical
world during the last few years is this :—“ How can we tell the
true atomic weight of an element?” In other words, ‘‘ What is
the smallest proportion of any element, taking hydrogen as the
unit, which can enter into a chemical compound ?”’ In the annexed
abstract of Dr. Odling’s remarks, an answer to this question, so far

158 _ Proceedings of Learned Societies.

as it relates to the element aluminium, is given. The subject was
introduced by a few words relating to the more ordinary aspects
under which this element is generally regarded.

Of all the elements, aluminium is the third in order of abundance ;
among the metals themselves it is the mostabundant. Yetit seems
not to be a necessary constituent of the animal or vegetable king-
doms; in the mineral kingdom, however, it is widely distributed,
and occurs in immense quantity in rocks, and clays, and gems. It
has been turned to many useful purposes in the arts, as in the manu-
facture of pottery and porcelain, and in mordanting fabrics. In
spite of the abundance and the universal distribution of aluminium,
and notwithstanding its importance in the arts, the chemical con-
stitution of its compounds has received less attention than has been
accorded to the compounds of some of the rarer metals.

The evidence as to the constitution of compounds, and the atomic
weight of elements is twofold :-—

a. Specific Heat.
b. Vapour Density.

a. Specific Heat. We know that equal weights of different
elementary metals, heated to the boiling point of water, melt
different quantities of ice; e. g., 1 part by weight of silver
melts twice as much ice as 1 part by weight of bismuth—

the specific heat of silver is, therefore, twice that of bismuth.

But, on the other hand, it is found that the atomic weights

of these two metals, taken, say in decagrammes, melt the same

quantity of ice; therefore we conclude that atomic weights of
silver and bismuth have the same specific heat. Hxtending this
experiment to other elements, we find that the weights capable of
giving equal “‘ melting power’ will be for certain metals :—

GUHA, op eaeprene oy ==" 0 || GLU | eit hieegs gp. Set SIE ge ae
Marnesinm......,, Mg == 24.) Mercury,.;. 0.2, «Hg, ==,200
NTN na rs iiat ale wae Ye OD oy MUeA <sijaiaih eke savipeaial Oia eee
Arsene 60.6) eigep As = 75) Dismimtly, i Abie ana lai

ilver le oyiev ie enone 108

The foregoing numbers are, then, the atomic weights of the
above-named elements.

Now the amount of aluminium having equal melting power to ©

108 of silver is 27°5, not 9:2, nor 18°38, nor 86°7. The chloride is,
therefore, not Al’ Cl, nor Al’ Cl, nor Al” Cl, but Al”’ Cl,.

6. Vapour Density. The atomic weight of a metal will be the
quantity contained in two vols. of the gaseous chloride. Thus two
litres of hydrochloric acid, H Cl = 1 erith* of hydrogen, H, + 35°5
criths of chlorine, Cl: the atomic weight then of H=1. And so

* Crith. ‘The term crith has been lately introduced into chemical language.
A crith of hydrogen is the weight of one litre of that gas at the standard tempe-
rature and barometric pressure. One litre of chlorine contains consequently 35°5
criths, 35°5 being the atomic weight of that element, and so on with other gases.

Ee

Notes and Memoranda. 159

with other elements. With regard to aluminium, Deville has shown
that two litres of gaseous chloride of aluminium = 55 criths of
Al + 6 times 35:5 criths of Cl :—the atomic weight then of Al=55,
and the formula of the chloride is consequently Al’”’” Cls, or
All C],.

Which determination of the atomic weight is right? Specific
heat says one thing, vapour density another. But take the vapour
density of another aluminium compared. Dr. Odling finds that two
litres of aluminium methide, or ethide vapour, contain only 27°5
criths of aluminium; Al” Cl], is, therefore, the right formula for
the chloride and the atomic weight of Al= 27:5. This deter-
mination of the atomic weight by the vapour density of the new
bodies thus confirms the results deduced from the specific heat of
the metal itself. The vapour density of the chloride is not an
adequate guide, being, as is the case with some other chlorides,
anomalous.

Jn the concluding part of his discourse Dr. Odling illustrated
the properties of the new substances made by Mr. Buckton and
himself; namely, the aluminium methide, a compound of the
organic radicle methyle (C H,*) with aluminium, thus—AlI Me; f¢ ;
and aluminium ethide Al Ht;; Ht representing ethyle, C, H;.
These bodies occur, according to the temperature, either in crystals
or in the liquid, or in the gaseous form: they are spontaneously
inflammable, and explode under water. They are made by digesting
the mercury compounds of methyle and ethyle respectively, with
aluminium clippings.

/

NOTES AND MEMORANDA.

METEOR OBSERVED AT SEA.—The following communication has been received
from Joseph D. Dickinson, Hsq., late 4th Regiment, and was written by him on
the voyage to New Zealand, a few days before landing :—“ On board ship ‘ British
Trident, October 23rd, 1864. We were yesterday in lat. 46° 49’ south, and long.
124° 12’ east, when, at about ten o’clock p.m., our attention was drawn to a very
brilliant streak of pale light, extending right across the heavens from east to west.
The side of the streak next to the south was well defined, that next the north not
so well. In breadth it was about 7°, but narrowed a little, and was less brilliant
towards the extremities. When I first caught sight of part of it, between two
sails, I thought it was the tail of a comet, which, indeed, it much resembled; but
when I saw more of it I knew I was wrong. ‘There was at the same time a clear
pale light in the south, from which I could, for a short time, distinguish a very
faint ray extending upwards. This part of the heavens was, however, soon ob-
scured by a thick bank of clouds, which rose up so as effectually to prevent our
seeing anything more in that direction. The streak overhead lasted (sometimes
fading a little, and then getting bright again) until quarter-past eleven p.m., when
it appeared to break up into a number of streaks like tails of comets, extending
from the southern side of the original streak in an H.N.E. direction, the wind at
the time being W.N.W. ‘These remained very bright for a few minutes, and then
faded away. During the whole time there were no clouds to be seen, except the

* C= 12. + Al = 27°5.

160 ~ Notes and Memoranda.

bank in the south. I supposed the appearance above described to have been the
Aurora Australis ; but the captain and officers of the ship, as well as those passen-
gers who have been living in the southern hemisphere, all said that they had
never seen anything like it before, and that all the auroras which they had seen
showed bright lights of many different colours, constantly shifting, but never this
steady pale light.—[It must have been an exhibition of the aurora: the colours
often seen are not essential to the phenomenon |.—Mr. Alexander 8. Herschel, to
whom the above description was shown, has kindly sent the following account of
a somewhat similar appearance, described by Dr. J. D. Hooker, Himalayan
Journals, large 8vo edition, vol. ii. p. 385 :—‘* 1848, Feb. 14, nine p.m. Baroon
(east bank of the Soane River, lat. 24° 52’ N., long. 84° 22’ E., alt. 345 feet, bar.
corr. 29°751, temp. 62°, dew point 41°0. -Calm, sky clear, moon # full, and so bright
that the milky-way and zodiacal light could not be discerned, and the stars and
planets were very pale). Observed avout thirty Jancet beams rising in the north-
west, from a low luminous arch, whose extremes bore W. 20° S., and N. 50° H.;
altitude of upper limb of arch, 20°; of the lower, 8°. The beams crossed the
zenith, and converged towards 8. 15° H. The extremity of the largest was forked,
and extended to 25° above the horizon in the S.E. by 8. quarter. The extremity
of the centre one bore S. 50° H., and was 45° above the horizon. The western
beams approached nearest the southern horizon. All the beams moved and
flashed slowly, occasionally splitting and forking, fading and brightening. They
were brightly defined. At ten p.m. the luminous appearance was more diffused.
No beam crossed the zeinth, but occasionally beams appeared there and faded
away. Between ten and eleven the beams disappeared from the S.E. quarter, and
the longest and broadest beams were near the N. and N.E. horizon. Those who
were witnesses of the appearance considered it a brilliant display of the aurora.”
Mr. Herschel observes that in this case the beams ruled the sky from N.N.W. to
8.S.E., and nearly from horizon to horizon: i.e. nearly north and south, and

nearly horizontal, which is an uncommon appearance. 2

TEMPERATURE AND DEVELOPMENT.—M. Dareste has communicated to the

French Academy the results of experiments on the development of embryos in
fowls’ eggs, at comparatively low temperatures. He finds that the germ does not
become an embryo below 30° C. or 86° F. Embryos formed between 30° and 34°
C. grow very slowly, and none are hatched. Many of the embryos became mon-
strous, some presenting anomalies in the head, others were like cyclops, and these
often exhibited two rudimentary hearts.

StooL FOR ASTRONOMERS AND ARTISTS.—In using telescopes of three or four
inches aperture, mounted at 53 or 6 feet from the ground, a great many objects
are conveniently seen when the observer is seated on a firm stool capable of ad-

justment, varying its height from 19 to 31 inches. For this purpose, Mr. Slack —

has had a stool constructed of oak, well dovetailed together. It consists of two
parts. The outer part, 183 inches high and 11 by 13 wide, is like an oblong box,
open at top and bottom. Into this slides a similar box, closed at the top by a seat
slightly overhanging the sides, and half an inch thick. On opposite sides of the
outer part are cut two slits three-eighths of an inch deep, and three inches wide.

These slits are two and a half inches below the top, and exactly correspond with |

each other. On opposite sides of the inner parts there are two sets of slits of the

same dimensions. Hach set contains thirteen slits, and when the inner part is.

dropped down as far as it will go, a bar of oak three-eighths of an inch thick, and
three inches wide, passes from side to side through the two outer slits, and through
the top slits of the inner sets. From centre to centre, the inner slits are.one inch
apart, and when the stand has to be raised, the slide is pulled out and pushed in
again through the slits, which correspond with the elevation required. A little
practice enables this to be done in a moment, even in the dark, and the stool is
quite firm at its greatest elevation. A stool of this kind must be thoroughly well
made, or it would be a ricketty, troublesome affair. The one described, made by a
first-rate workman, cost 35s., and has been in use for several months, leaving

nothing to be desired. It is evident that a stool of the same description would often ,

be very convenient for artists.

a ee a

Notes and Memoranda. 161

Propuction oF DraBetTes By Cotp.—The Proc. Roy. Soc., No. 70, con-
tains a paper by Dr. Bence Jones, on the production of diabetes in rabbits by sur-
rounding them with ice, and thus arresting the processes of oxydation going on in
their bodies. The urine of rabbits naturally contains a little sugar, but the quan-
tity was notably augmented by exposing them to a low temperature.

INVISIBLE RADIATION oF Exectric Ligut.—Professor Tyndall describes the
distribution of the heat rays in the electric spectrum, in the Proc. Roy. Soc., No.
471. Melloni, Franz, Miller, and others, found the heat to augment from the
violet to the red, while the maximum effect was beyond the red, and at a distance
from the red, in one direction, equal to that of the green of the spectrum in the
other. The augmentation of temperature beyond the red is sudden and enormous.
If the amount of heat in different parts of the spectrum is indicated by a curve
following its increase or decrease, a steep peak must be described beyond the red,
aud this peak is much steeper and more abrupt in the electric than in the solar
spectrum. Professor Tyndall supposes that the aqueous vapour in our atmos-
phere has toned down the solar rays. A solution of iodine in bisulphide of car-
bon stops all the light rays, and allow the heat rays to pass freely. Professor
Tyndall converges the rays of an electric lamp by a concave mirror, stops the
light by a screen of the iodine solution, and ignites wood, lights cigars, etc., in the
dark focus of the non-luminous rays.

Nature oF Sun Spors.—Messrs. De la Rue, Balfour, Stewart, and Benj.
Loewy, have communicated to the Royal Society (see Proc., No.71) the results of
numerous observations on solar spots. The majority confirm the belief that the
umbra of a spot is at a lower level, or nearer the crater than the penumbra.
The facule, or light-streaks, appear to be above the spots at a high elevation in
the solar atmosphere. The bottom of the spots is supposed to be of a lower
temperature than the photosphere, and this luminous photosphere is considered not
to be composed of solid or fluid mattter,“ but rather of the nature of a gas or cloud.”
Observations of a sun spot, by Professor Phillips, of which details will be found in
same publication, detected perspective appearances, which showed that it was, on
a whole, not sunk very much below, or raised very much above, the general level
of the region. He thinks the black nuclei of spots the sun’s body ; the penumbra
that body partially seen through the atmosphere. The faculz, he supposes, trans-
mit rays which have acquired a higher refrangibility than that with which they
started. f

Mr. Hueaeins oN THE Orton Nesura.—In Mr. Burv’s article on Celestial
Chemistry, it was stated that Mr. Huggins had obtained a gaseous spectrum from
the Great Nebula in Orion. Since then a paper on the subject appeared in the
Proc. Roy. Soc., No. 71, containing some fresh particulars. Nebulse 4760, 4678,
in Sir J. Herschel’s catalogue, which are “ well resolved’’ by telescopic power,
give continuous spectra, indicating their difference from other nebule, which give
only. certain lines of light, indicating that they are gases producing rays of one
degree of refrangibility. When the Orion nebula was examined, the light from the
brightest part near the trapezium was resolved by one prism into three bright
lines, in all respects similar to those of the gaseous nebule described in our
January number. When tke stars of the trapezium were brought upon the slit,
continuous spectra were obtained. The whole of the nebula that was bricht
enough to be examined, gave the same spectrum of three bright lines only. Thus_
the detection by large telescopes, in this or other nebula, of an assemblage of
minute points of light, can no longer be accepted as proof that the object consists
of true stars. Mr. Huggins remarks, “it is worthy of consideration that all the
nebule which present a gaseous spectrum, exhibit the same three bright lines ;
in one case only, 18 H.IV., was a fourth line seen.”* Mr. Huggins’ theoretical
suggestions are, we think, open to some objection. He says, if we suppose the
gaseous substance of nebule, the nebulous matter which, by condensation, forms
stars, ‘‘ we should expect a gaseous spectrum, in which the groups of bright lines
were as numerous as the dark lines due to absorption, which are found in the
spectra of stars.” Are we not equally entitled to say we should not expect
anything ofthe kind? If the nebulous theory of star formation be accepted, we

162 . Notes and Memoranda.

should expect the nebulous vapour to consist of matter in a much simpler form
than most of the vapours and gases we are acquainted with, and it would only be
as condensation progresses that the chemical compounds which we know would be
produced. We agree with Mr. Huggins that it would be an improbable supposi-
tion to consider the nebulous spectra of three bright lines indicates matter im its
most elementary forms. The supposed ether of space may be still more elemen-
tary, but the nebulous matter very elementary, as compared with other matter in
a much more condensed state. Mr. Huggins inclines to the opinion that the
gaseous nebule “are systems possessing a structure and a purpose in relation to
the universe, altogether distinct, and of another order, from the great group of
cosmical bodies to which our sun and the fixed stars belong.” With great admi-
ration for Mr. Huggins’ brilliant discoveries, and great respect for his scientific
knowledge, we should, in the present state of information, reject this hypothesis.
It seems to us more likely that we must enlarge our chemical theories to take ac-
count of the probable nature and properties of matter in so wnterrestrial a condi-
tion as that of the nebuls, than that we shall be compelled to assume those nebule
to stand aloof from the general scheme of construction, change, and reconstruction,
which apparently enfolds all the bodies in the physical universe.

Proressor Puintips on Mars.—In Proc. Roy. Soc., No. 71, Professor
Phillips remarks that as the relative solar influence on the Earth and Mars, arising
from the different distance of the two bodies, would be as 100 on Mars to 231 on
the earth, the surface of the more distant planet might be expected to be in per-
petual frost, which is not apparently the case. He considers that its atmosphere
may obstruct radiation of dark rays to a greater extent than our own, without
differing very materially from ours. He adds: ‘It seems, however, requisite to
suppose a greater communication of heat from the interior of the planet, for other-
wise the additional vapour, to which the warming effect is in the main to be
ascribed, could not, probably, be supported in the atmosphere.” He likewise
mentions a curious result arrived at by Mr. Main. “ Computing by the known
rotation velocity, and the admitted measures and mass of Mars, its ellipticity
should be about _!. Mr. Main’s observations with the splendid Oxford helio-
meter give asthe most probable result sty for 1862.” Professor Phillips found
at the late opposition, that the substances round the south pole appeared less ex-
tensive than in 1852, and were not really observable with distinctness, except on

a few evenings. The axis of Mars being at this opposition nearly at right angles ~

to the line of sight would prevent much snow being seen even if it existed.

Tue Surz Canat.—M. Lesseps states, that since the Ist of January a daily
communication has been established between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
A boat, containing twenty or thirty people, was tugged by a steamer through the
canal in twenty-four hours.

5 ee DART HAF i=
a Cs te ¢

iN KOH

WHITE-SPORED MUSHROOMS.
(The Ring Bearers.)

1.—Agaricus caesareus, Scop. 3.—Agaricus cepestipes, Sow. var.
2.—Agaricus excoratus, Scheeff, 4.—Agaricus mucidus, Ir.

THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER,

APRIL, 1865,

NOTES ON FUNGI.—No. II.
WHITE-SPORED MUSHROOMS (THE RING-BEARERS).

BY THE REY. M. J. BERKELEY, M.A., F.L.S.

(With a Coloured Plate.)

Or the six divisions of the great genus Agaricus mentioned in
my last article, that which is characterised by the spores or
reproductive organs being white is one of the most important,
from the number of esculent species which it comprises,
though it does not include the true mushroom. Only one or
two indeed ever appear in our markets, but the merits of
several of the species are becoming more widely known every
day, and on the Continent they yield an abundant supply of
good and wholesome food.

The white-spored mushrooms, or Leucospori, are divided
by Fries into eight sub-genera, Amanita, Lepiota, Armillaria,
Tricholoma, Clitocybe, Collybia, Omphalia, Mycena, and Pleu-
rotus, on each of which I shall have to make a few observa-
tions. The three first and afew species of the last division are
in general characterised by the presence of a veil covering the
gills and stretching from the stem to the edge of the pileus, either
in an ascending or descending direction. Itis true thatin one
section of Amanite there is no veil, but then there is a distinct
universal wrapper, or, as it. is called by mycologists, a volva,
which alone separates the division from all the rest, for the
universal veil in Lepiota is not distinct from the pileus. The
first question then to be asked on examining a white-spored
Agaric is, has it, or has it not a volva, distinct from the cuticle
- of the pileus. If the former is the case, we have an Amanita,
and may at once proceed to discover to what species it
belongs.

There is, indeed, some difference in the appearance of this

VOL. VII.—NO, IIT. M

164 : Notes on Fungi.

volva. Sometimes it is a distinct white membrane, which in
an early stage covers the whole pileus, and which, as the plant
swells, bursts and appears at the base of the stem as a lobed
cup; sometimes a large portion of it remains on the pileus in
the form of mealy or wart-like patches, while the free portion
below is a mere rim; but sometimes, again, it is incorporated
more or less with the base of the stem, beimg entirely
irregular.

Now, every one who has paid the slightest attention to
Agarics must be acquainted with the magnificent fly Agaric,
which is such an ornament to our birch woods, with its bright
scarlet pileus studded all over with white or yellow warts, and
there is such a strong family likeness between the species that
it is almost impossible to confound an Amanita with a species
of another section.

Amanita * contains some of the most dangerous fungi, but -
it also comprises a few of the very best. Amanita cesarea
(Fig. 1), distinguished by its bright smooth pileus free from
warts, its capacious volva, and its yellow gills, is confessedly
one of the most delicious of fungi, and is the pride of southern
markets, where it has been known from the times of the
Romans, and is the Boletus of the Satirists, as from its pre-
eminent qualities it was often made the vehicle for poison. -
This lovely species, which has a very close ally in the Hima- ©
layas, north of Calcutta, may some day reward the research of
mycologists in the south of England or Ireland, as is the case
with the coral-red Clathras. ‘There is a species with white
gills in Italy, Agaricus ovoides, which closely resembles. it,
which appears to possess almost equal excellence.

In England we have one or two which may be eaten when
young, but it must be with caution, as the sub-genus contains
several poisonous species. Agaricus vaginatus, which has no
ring, and is remarkable for its highly developed volva, and the —
grooved margin of the pileus, which assumes various colours,
though it has an evil report when fully grown, may, according
to Vittadini and others, be eaten when young. It is, however,
seldom abundant enough to be of any great consequence as
an esculent. Dr. Badham considered Agaricus solitarius, —
which sometimes grows to an enormous size, as excellent,
if in good condition, and this comprises, perhaps, all of
the section which may be eaten with impunity. I should be
sorry to sanction a trial of our more abundant species, even
when young, as Agaricus rubescens, which sometimes grows in
enormous quantities, especially in fir woods, where its red
stains at once distinguish it. Agaricus virosus bears its own

* From duavira, a name given to certain poisonous fungi, by Dioscorides and
en.

Notes on Fungi. 165

bad character in its name, and Agaricus ewcelsus has almost as
bad a report as Agaricus muscarius, whose narcotic qualities
are notorious, a single specimen being quite sufficient to pro-
duce a very unpleasant degree of intoxication, for which pur-
pose it is dried by some tribes in the north of Asia.

The species of the section, as said above, are recognized
without difficulty, and without experience it is far better to
abstain from so insidious a group, for we are sure not to meet
with the true or white oronge, A. ccesareus and A. omnes
except in the far south.

There is one small division to which the English eae
megalodactylus belongs, which may prove a puzzle, because the
volva at length entirely vanishes, leaving the pileus smooth;
but an examination of young specimens will at once decide the
matter, and will distinguish it from the second sub-genus
Lepiota, which derives. its name from the scales (Xezis), which
are so highly developed in most of the species.

Now, as said above, there.is a universal veil im Lepiota as
well as in Amanita, but in the latter it is evidently quite dis-
- tinct from the cuticle, however closely united it may be, while
in Lepiota it is completely confluent with it, and with it often
breaks up into scales. Thereis another character besides that
of the possession of a universal veil im which the two sub-genera
agree, which is, that the portion of the pileus which bears the
gills (hymenophorum) is perfectly distinct from the stem;
and it is with reference to the distance of the base of the gills.
from the apex of the stem that they are said to be remote or
approximate, and not to their distance from each other, as the
student might at first suppose.

The portion of the universal veil which separates from the
pileus leaves a more or less distinct trace on the stem, which
is moreover encircled with the partial veil, which is concrete
with the former or distinct, and either moves freely up and
down, or is permanently fixed. The rimg is said to be superior
when it originates and hangs down from the top of the stem ;
inferior when it grows like a sheath upwards to the edge of the
pileus; medial when its origin is distinct in neither direction.
In a few species, there is a viscid coat; and in these conse-
quently there are no scales on the pileus, though the stem
is occasionally floccose.

Some of: the species of this division are found occasionally
in great abundance, as the tall A. procerus, which has the
_ strongly bossed pileus covered with rough, coloured scales, and

the bulbous stem spotted hke a snake. It is one of the
best of our Agarics, and yields an excellent, though not
abundant ketchup. It is occasionally sold in Covent Garden
Market ; ; and A. rachodes, which is closely alhed, but known at

166 Notes on Fungi.

‘once from every part turning a deep red when bruised, is a
welcome addition to the basket of the mushroom gatherer,
who is not very particular what he gathers so long as it yields
a dark juice, though it is not so good for food, if indeed it is
always perfectly safe. Three or four closely allied species
occur in groves and pastures, the esculent characters of which
have not been fully ascertaimed, but they are all probably
harmless.

A. procerus and its more close allies, of one of which, Agaricus
excoriatus, we have given a figure (Vig. 2), attain a consider-
able size. There are, however, several smaller species, some
of which are doubtless wholesome, but some, as indicated by
a nauseous smell, of dangerous character. ‘They are, however,
too small, and occur in too small quantities, to make them of
any great culinary importance. I must not, however, omit to
notice those which occur occasionally in large masses in hot--
houses, especially where spent tan is used. They are mostly
extremely pretty, but of very suspicious quality, and one or
two are probably of exotic origin. Agaricus cepestipes
occurs in Java in very nearly the same form as that figured
in Sturm’s Deutschsland Flora,* and it is probable that A.
meleagris was also originally exotic. A. rachodes occurs occa-
sionally in hothouses, where itis very ornamental. The scaleless’
stem forming a contrast to the very scaly pileus is very striking, |
and indicates apparently a specific difference from A. procerus.
It must, however, be confessed that intermediate states occur
which it is difficult to refer to either. |

We now come to a third division; Armillaria (named from
Armilla, an armlet), which has a well-developed ring, though
there is no universal veil. The division is, however, rather arti-
ficial than natural, and the species might be classed with the
three following divisions. Here the hymenophorum is not dis-
tinct from the stem, but confluent with it. Ifthen, as Fries
‘well remarks, the divisions are to be considered as generic,
Armillaria must be rejected, and the species merge in Tricho-
loma, Clitocybe, and Collybia.

The species are not numerous, and in this country cannot
be considered as of much importance in a culinary point of
wiew. Agaricus melleus, however, which is one of our most
abundant species on stumps where trees have been cut down,
and which is known by its well-developed rmg and honey
coloured scales, is much eaten in some parts of the Continent
under the name of Halimasch. Itis, however, a detestable spe-
cies, producing an unpleasant constriction of the cesophagus, and

* Fig. 3 is copied from a drawing made by Herr Van den Bosch’in Java, and

forwarded to me by Dr. Anderson from the Calcutta Botanic Garden, amongst
many other interesting matters.

London Birds.. 167

in all probability in many cases must lead to unpleasant con-
sequences. Salt and vinegar, which are so much used in
Hastern Hurope, especially m Russia, as a pickle for Agarics,
neutralise, in all probability, the deleterious alcali. There is
no chance, indeed, of any one in England, except by way of
experiment, cooking so uninyiting an Agaric, which may there-
fore be dismissed without any scruple. In Sweden it is justly
neglected, and Fries does not give it a word of commendation,
though he says that it is esculent.

A very beautiful species, A. mucidus (Fig. 4), occurs on
beech trees in the southern counties, being a sure indication
of imminent decay. The viscid, pure white, or slightly ash
coloured pileus and distant gills, together with the highly
developed ring, readily distinguish it.

The fioures. of Agaricus ceesareus and excor SB are copied
from Vittadini, and that of A. mucidus from the Flora Danica,
as my own original sketches of the two latter species are not at
present accessible.

LONDON BIRDS.
BY SHIRLEY HIBBERD.

TxoveH London grows at such a rapid pace, that it threatens
soon to cover the greater part of the county of Middlesex,
nature is very beneticent, and has hitherto resisted the com-
plete eclipse by dirt which the speculative builders appear to
have had in contemplation. It was said by Leigh Hunt (or
somebody else), that you could not proceed far in any direc-
tion through the City of London without seeing a tree ; and to
that it may be added, that you can scarcely proceed a single
yard anywhere in the City, or in parts more close and crowded,
without seeing a bird. London is, indeed, far richer in birds
than it deserves to be. The municipal authorities and the
parochial and district boards rarely expend a penny or bestow
a site for the planting of a tree, the open spaces are for the most
part disgracefully filthy and desolate, and consequently there is
little encouragement within the town itself for birds of any
kind. In the suburbsitis otherwise. Nowhere in all England
is gardening pursued with so much ardour, and generally with
such good taste. As we proceed outwards from London, no
matter in what direction, we see the gardens beautifully
planted ; and the soil being everywhere good, trees are plen-
tiful and birds abound. A few birds, however, seem to be

168 London Birds.

specially adapted, not merely for London as viewed from with-
out, but for London par excellence, that is to say, for the
smoky, noisy, almost treeless City ; with these for pioneers,
nature invades the Stock Exchange, the Court of Aldermen, the
Bank, and all the railway termini, as if to say, “Shut me out
if you can.”

Of what race or descent, of what origin or history, are the
Guildhall pigeons, I know not; but if any naturalist mquires ~
after City birds they claim first mention, and might well have
a place in the civic emblazonment of arms. The first birds it
was ever my lot to keep, when a very small boy, were a pair
of pigeons that were trapped for me. by a young friend, who
lived within a stone’s throw of the Guildhall. They were sentin
a basket to Stepney, and there | made for them a large cage
by placing laths im front of an empty box, and the box was
hung up im the garden close to the kitchen door. In due time ©
a pair of young pigeons came forth, and the Penny Pigeon
Book, which I used to pore over in hope of learning the
whole art and mystery of the pigeon fancy, told me that as
soon as they had young I might allow them to fly; they would
never leave the spot where they had young to care for. So, on
the first day of the chicks coming out of their eggs I drew
away one of the laths, and away went both the birds. They ~
circled round to reconnoitre, as is the custom of pigeons, and
then they took a direct flight westward, and were never seen
in Stepney more. My friend averred that he saw them come
home, for the young thief (he 1s now an eminent citizen)
spent all his time watching the Guildhall pigeons, and to con-
firm his statement, he offered to entrap that identical pair
again any day if I would have them. But I never did have
them, and never wished for them. ‘The little ones died in my
lap, wrapped up in flannel ; and that was the first and last of
my experiences in pigeons. It is very rarely any one has the
audacity to trap or harm aCity pigeon. They are as sacred as
storks in Holland, and the birds of good omen that built m
the temples and residences of classic Greece. They are the
pets of policemen and railway porters, and woe to any one
found engaged in devices for their destruction. Those met
with elsewhere in the City, appear to be colonies originally
sent out from Guildhall. There is a large colony at the ter-
minus of the South Eastern Railway at London Bridge, and
greatly do the porters and the drivers of public vehicles rejoice
in them, and kill time when waiting for incoming trains by
robbing the horses’ nosebags to feed the pigeons. At the
Royal Exchange there is‘ small colony, but it is fast increasing.
Their breeding-places are principally the capitals and cornices,
but they are not particular. Any place that affords a little

London Birds. 169

shelter suffices, for safety they seem to have little care; fami-
larity with the noise and bustle of the City renders them
fearless, and you see them foraging under the heels of horses
and along the line of cab ranks with much the same non-
chalance as those mysterious ragged urchins who swarm about
the pavement of the Exchange, and live no one knows how.
Next to the pigeons, the City sparrows claim attention.
They are a sooty race, inured to City life and usages, and
exhibit in their habits an indefatigable determination to
* get on.” During the mid-day hours, when Cheapside is in
a constant tremor with the clatter of hoofs and vibration of
wheels, the sparrows are as busy as the people. If there be
but for an instant a blank space in the roadway, down drop
half a dozen and forage with furious impetuosity among the
droppings of horses for scraps of undigested grain, and for
the flies that settle on the disjecta even more quickly than
themselves. You may observe that they calculate almost to ~
an inch and a second their escape from the next team, alight-
ing on the nearest window sills, and waiting to descend again
the next moment any blank occurs. There are very few
City houses that afford accommodation for sparrows to nest.
The builders take the best care to prevent their gaining a
settlement anywhere, for they damage the properties they
select for their habitations much more than is generally sup-
posed. The boxes placed at the summit of water spouts,
where the rush of water from the roof finds its way from the
slope to the perpendicular, are their usual nesting places; and
when the next heavy rain comes the nest stops the way, and
the water leaps over the top of the spout and comes down
sputtering on the pavement in an inky flood. Thena plumber
is sent for, a ladder is placed, and presently a conglomeration
of hay, straw, rags, shoe-strings, bits of paper, tufts of hair
(human), strips of parchment, corks, bristles, and other
~ rubbish is dragged out, with mayhap, if it is the right season,
eggs or callow young, and an end is unceremoniously made of
Mr. and Mrs. Chirk’s establishment; and that removed, the
water betakes itself to its proper channel. But the majority
of the City sparrows build about churches and large public
buildings. The sparrow is a public character, and loves the
neighbourhood of boards, vestries, committees, and people
who dine gloriously; for these happy folks have not only
plenty of brickwork, and warm chimneys, and gable ends, and
cornices, and architectural pockets; but they have also a few
trees or a bit of garden hard by their places of assembly, and
these suit the sparrow, who loves a bit of country even when
gorged with refuse from the ‘‘ Albion.” The love of sparrows
for trees is well known by Londoners. There are certain spots

170 | London Birds.

especially favoured with patches of green umbrage, and where-
ever there is one fine tree or an imposing group of trees, there
also will be established what in London is termed a ‘‘ Sparrow’s
Chapel.” In the garden of the Bank of England are some
noble lime trees, and soon after daybreak a sweeter music
issues from their leafy branches than the chink of coms which
comes afterwards in the penetralia of that august establish-
ment. At the corner of Wood Street, where there was once >
a rookery, there is now a grand -chapel in the tall plane tree
there. The trees at the foot of Southwark Bridge (Middlesex
side) resound with the chirping of a thousand sparrows, every
morning and evening all the year round. There is a small
twitter among the plane trees of Bucklersbury, but it is too
small to give the place any claim to be called a chapel. Tower
Hill is great in sparrows, and the Tower itself is a sort of |
Cantelo hatching apparatus for the brood of impudent foragers
that almost deserve to be described as mice with feathers.
But there are two grand sparrow chapels (there may be hun-
dreds): one in Wilton Crescent, Belgravia, where there is a
tree that affords a thousand perches for a million chirpers ;
the other is a fine old poplar at the northern extremity of
Goswell Road, at the junction of Goswell Road and City Road,
fifty yards south of the Angel, Islington. At dusk and day-
break, these two spots.are like fairyland. The sparrow is no
songster unless taught, and then a tolerable musician ; but the
untaught melody of the myriads that assemble in these trees
for matins and vespers is by its volume almost sublime. They
seem to come from all quarters at the hour of meeting, as per-
tinaciously and as solemnly in garb as Quakers, but the very
antipodes of that sect in volubility ; and they literally make
the welkin ring spite of the roar and rumble of cabs and
omnibuses. Their song is all to one tune, simul et semel;
and this they smg with all their might, and, lke the great
Koenig of brazen memory, the compass is limited to two or
three notes.

One can understand that pigeons and sparrows are at home
in London. The fact is, the place is full of food for them.
But it is hard to understand why rooks should cling so perti-
naciously to their ancient homes. No one ever saw rooks build
on housetops. They must have trees. And ina great many of
the spots where large trees still remain, there rooks do still
congregate. Yet among the rookeries there is no parallel to
the misery which is too common a characteristic of those
abodes of the outcasts of the human family, which strangely
take the same name: no, the rookeries of Gray’s Inn and
Spring Gardens are agapemones, they are abodes of peace and
plenty ; no one hurts the rooks in London; the only smell of

London Birds. 171

gunpowder they are familiar with is the occasional curl of smoke
from a volunteer review, and to traps and gins and poison,
aye, to persecution of every kind, they are happy strangers,
held in a kind of sanctity, as precious living relics within the ~
town of the glorious world of greenness that lies beyond.
The rookery in Holland Park, Kensington, one of the most
ancient in the land, is still in fine feather, and the clamour
there is just now being renewed, and the air resounds the
whole day long with the harsh “‘ caw, caw,” that tells unmis-
takeably of their anti-malthusian propensities. In that de-
lightful collection of personal reminiscences, London Scenes
and London People, by “ Aleph,” there are some amusing
anecdotes of rooks and rookeries in London. We are told of
the ‘‘ famous rookery in Carlton House Gardens; but when, in
1827, the trees were cut down, the rooks emigrated to a plan-
tation at the back of New Street, Spring Gardens. * * *.
_ There is a rookery near Kensington Palace. Taking a long

stride into the heart of the City, we find a rookery in the south
burial-ground of St. Dunstan’s in the Hast, Tower Street.
Before the old church was pulled down, there were at least
twenty nests; and the kindly parish officers annually supplied
them with osier twigs and other necessaries for constructing
their homes. When the church was removed, in 1817, the
disturbed rooks took refuge at the Tower of London, and
rather ambitiously built in the White Tower ;* yet they were |
unable to reconcile themselves to the change; and no sooner
had the workmen left their former haunt, than they returned
to their ancient quarters. In 1849 the kindness of the autho-
rities was again extended to them, their nest-making being
aided by Mr. Crutchley, the assistant overseer. They built m
some venerable plane trees.”” It is rather odd that the author
of London Scenes should know of the rookery that once
existed in the large elm trees behind the Hcclesiastical Court,
Doctors’ Commons, and yet not know of the last chapter of
its history. A mischievous fellow living in a ten-pair back
overlooking the rookery, furnished himself with an air-gun,
and from time to time popped off the rooks with noiseless
missiles. In another ten-pair back dwelt an observant philo-
sopher, whose curiosity was awakened by seeing the rooks fall
from time to time without visible or audible cause. That ob-
servant philosopher communicated to the Royal Society that
rooks were subject to the falling sickness, and to this disease,
of which the air-gun was the unknown predisposing cause, is
to be attributed the extermination of the rooks that made a
clerical ‘‘ caw”’ from their clerical throats in that sanctuary of

* Which belies the remark of mine just above, that ‘* No one ever saw rooks
build on housetops.”’

“a72 London Etrds.

ghostly intentions. The most noted of all the City rookeries
was the plane tree at the corner of Wood Street, Cheapside.
It is a rookery no longer; when the rooks finally quitted it
*no man can tell. I tried to discover when the rooks were last
seen there by a query on the subject printed in the City Press,
but there was no response. Mr. Alfred Smee, in his volume
on Instinct and Reason, says there were four nests there in
1850. I saw birds there in 1858, but have never seen them .
since ; but yet at the present time one nest remains, and it is,
I believe, annually occupied by sparrows.

The transition from rooks to daws is easy enough, for they
are boon companions. Yet daws are nowhere seen in the
heart of London, except at the Tower, where there are always
afew. In the immediate suburbs, however, daws are tole-
rably plentiful wherever there is an old architectural pile, be it
church, mansion, or what else, for them to nest upon. Our ~
pretty old village church, at Stoke Newington, has a few daws
for habitants, and, from the noise and fuss they make in the
early part of summer, one might think the very atmosphere to be
made of daws, so clamourous are they, and so active in rush-
ing to and fro. I know that they watch for my small annual
crop of walnuts—I have but one walnut tree—and generally
manage to carry off all the nuts just at that critical moment ~
when they are ripe enough to be. eatable, yet not ripe enough
for use. It is the same with my neighbour, Mr. Dobinson.
He has a fine tree that bears plentifully, and the daws gather
the produce as regularly as a landlord comes for his rent. I
expect the folks at Kensington are equally unfortunate im wal-
nut culture, for, last summer, I saw a lot of daws sailing along
over the houses in High Street in the direction of the church ;
and I remember that, when a boy, at Stepney, we used to
throw cricket balls at the church clock, and now and then get
a daw’s nest by climbing up the old flmt buttresses, saying
the Lord’s Prayer backwards, at the same time, to raise the
Devil, a sort of killmeg two birds with one stone, though the
“‘ killing ” was,.in one case, a quickening, and we used always
to drop the nest with fright as soon as we had made a clutch at
it, fancying we heard the footsteps and smelt the sulphur of
the darker party as we finished the incantation. The jackdaw
ie in fact, a common London bird, though a stranger to the

ity. .

Now that we have got to the suburbs, birds abound. In
all the gardens, especially on the south, west, and north, the
song thrush is one of the most plentiful of birds. On the
eastern side of London song birds are rather scarce, though in
a few favoured spots, as at Bromley by Bow, and in the more
rural parts of Homerton and Hackney, the thrush is still a

London Birds. 173

constant resident. The blackbird is more scarce, yet at Stoke
Newington, Stamford Hill, and Highgate, on the north ; and
at Dulwich, Battersea, and Wandsworth, on the south ; it is
commonly seen and heard, and builds and breeds without fear, ©
wherever there is a sufficient amount of seclusion. Westward
I have never seen the blackbird nearer London than Ux-
bridge, and beyond that point blackbirds are almost as plenti-
ful as blackberries. The storm cock is a rare bird everywhere
near London, but is occasionally seen at Stoke Newington.
As for the robin, it is not a London bird in the same sense
as a haymaker is not a Londoner. But as you may see hay-
makers in London, so you may see robins; its indomitable
pluck and its solitarmess of habit will carry it anywhere.
Robins are seen among the hay-carts at Whitechapel, Smith-
field, and Cumberland markets, in all the squares, in Lincoln’s
Inn, Gray’s Inn, and other gardens; in the open roadway of
Farringdon Street, Ludgate Hill, the Strand, and Blackfriars
Road; nay, I once saw a robin on a lovely autumn afternoon
perch upon the edge of a tombstone in St. Paul’s Churchyard,
and trill out a carol as sweetly as in any rural nook at home ;
and I think I may say, that of all the crowd then within seeing
and hearing, I was the only one that saw and heard, for when
the bird ceased, and I turned round to pursue my way, there
did not appear to have been a single soul conscious of the
angel visit but myself. ;

Tam afraid that at this pomt we — done with true
London birds. Yet itis hard to quit the subject. I call to
mind that here (Stoke Newington), one of the commonest and
most welcome of songsters is the hedge accentor (Accentor
' modularis, Cuv.). I never see it in the squares or real London
gardens, yet it abounds in all the suburbs, wherever im fact
there are gardens sufficiently large to separate houses by the
distance of a hundred yards or more, if those gardens contain
old hedges, or clumps of scrub, and wilderness. So with the
wren, common enough in all real gardens, I never saw it
nearer town than Pentonville, and there I have seen it with my
own eyes. But very scarce near London is the fine crested
wren, it is indeed a rara avis.

Among the visitants, the blackcap must take precedence for
plentifulness. It is the precursor of the nightingale, and tells
us that surely spring is come at last. At Dulwich, Hornsey,
Kensington, and St. John’s Wood the blackcap may be heard
every season, soon after the last days of March; but it makes
its way only into, such of the more urban districts as enclose
within their boundaries much rural scenery. Soon after comes
the nightingale, who haunts many more localities of the
London suburbs than the sleepy Londoners are aware. Strike

174 London Birds.

a radius of three miles from St. Paul’s in any direction, except
due east, and find at the termination of the radius some spot
where there are tall elms, avenues of limes, orchards, or well
planted gardens, and there, if you have ears, you may enjoy,
any time durimge the month of May, the nightingale music.
And here it occurs to me to make a special note on London
songsters, that many true British residents are true migrants
as to London; and all the true migrants come into song later ~
near London than elsewhere throughout the land. 1 have
heard the nightingale on the 2nd of April at Ringwood, Christ
Church, and Minster, in Dorset ; but never before the 15th or
20th at Stoke Newington. Shall I tell you that my heart leaps
within me to know that the builders, spite of their desperate
efforts, have not yet driven this queen of British song birds
from our district. The nightingales sung in Lordship Road
and over all our gardens, reaching as far back as Clissold’s
Park, all through the season of 1864, just as if builders were
nonentities, and new bricks were as poetical as old trees, which
we all know they are not. At Stepney, Bromley, Bow, Old
Ford, and Stratford, the nightingale is unknown except in
books. Elsewhere in the three-mile circle it is a constant
visitant ; it loves trees, is rarely hunted by cats (which destroy
many thrushes), and has but one terrible enemy, and that is
the birdcatcher.

The chaffinch, bullfinch, goldfinch, and linet, are all
migrants in and about London. They ‘come like shadows,
so depart.” Sometimes the air rings with the delicious but
brief and monotonous song of the chaffinch for days together
during May and June, and then we see no more of them for
months. So with the bullfinch ; they come down on the fruit
trees like swarms of locusts, eat their fill, and go away fat as
butter. As for the goldfinch, it is the rarest of all the finches
near London; to see a group of them in late summer haunting
a patch of thistles, or taking toll in the kitchen garden where
there is a good crop of lettuce seed just ripe, is to have reason-
able occasion for making an entry in one’s diary. ‘The linnets
behave in a similar manner ; they come in clouds in autumn,
twitter, and disappear. Starlmmes come at all seasons, but
most of all im winter and spring, and then always in large
flocks, so that those who are wicked enough to shoot them
may filla bag at every pull of the trigger; thatis if they can hit
a haystack, which few cockneys are able to do. Now and then,
during winter, I see that rare but lovely little oddity, the siskin.
During the past few months several have appeared here, and
as of yore always careless, merry, full of antipodean feats, and
singing a song which is the most comical ever heard out of an
avicular larynx. All the tits haunt the London suburbs, and

London Birds. 175

most interesting birds they are. The most common is the
coal tit, a true acrobat, and a very sociable, innocent creature.

Swallows make their way pretty well into the heart of
London, but not as in White’s time are they met with in Al-
derseate Street. There are nests to be seen in the older parts
of Kensington, Lambeth, Kentish Town, and Stoke Newing-
ton, in plenty. Knowing the last-named spot I can tell you
that in High Street, nearly opposite Church Street, there is a
long file of swallows’ nests under the coping-stones of: the
houses kept by Mr. Engisch, Mr. Davidge, Mr. Rumney, and
thence northwards, and all the summer long the birds dart to
and fro, over the tops of omnibuses and loaded wains, up the
defile of Church Street, and over the beautiful expanse of
Abney Park Cemetery, in apparent unconcern as to the noise
and traffic. At the other end of Church Street, where the
bold sweep of the New River, skirting Newington Park,
makes “a silence all day long,” you may see not only swal-
lows, but.swifts, and the nests of these latter are to be found
on the upper parts of the fine old houses which overlook the
Park at that spot; and thus within the distance (as the crow
flies) of three and a-half miles of St. Paul’s, are all the ele-
ments of rural life, and the aspects of the place are, as yet,
those of a country village.

I should have concluded here had I not suddenly called to
mind that the flycatcher has built in these gardens within ~
three years past; that I used to trap redpoles in a field at
Stepney, where is situated now the Metropolitan Cemetery ;
that, towards the approach of winter, and sometimes late in
the spring, flocks of wild geese go over head, in wedge-shaped
masses, crying as if for fear to find themselves in such dan-
gerous proximity to smoky chimneys; that wood-pigeons often
come over these gardens in flocks in autumn (a friend who
resides at Tottenham, reckons on a few pigeon pies thereby
every year); that fieldfares and redwings are seen in the
open meadows every year in October and November, and fall
victims to the fowler’s gun; and that jays, magpies, crossbills,
and hawks of all kinds are rarely or never seen at all within
at least seven miles of the mighty Babylon.

176 Auroral Arches.

AURORAL ARCHES.

It will be interesting to compare the accounts of the remark-
able auroras recently seen in Scotland with descriptions of
sunilar phenomena observed in other places.

The following passages are extracted from the Daily Review
(Edinburgh) relative to an auroral arch, on Wednesday even-
ing, the 15th February. They occur in two anonymous letters
addressed “ to the Editor.”

1. Peniewck. ‘There was observed on Wednesday evening,
the 15th February, an extremely rare phenomenon. About
half-past eight on the evening in question an arch appeared,
spanning the heavens from N.H. to S.W., and, what is un-
usual, its path was directly overhead for the first half hour.
At either extremity it ended in a point about 8° above
the horizon; and it gradually expanded until it reached the
zenith, where it attained a breadth of about 5°. It was
throughout brilliantly white, and contrasted remarkably with
the blue sky. It was quite transparent except at the extre-
mities, the stars shining through it; and the night bemg
cloudless it was of singular beauty and grandeur. After the
first half hour the arch began to decline towards the south-
east, and by half-past ten it had lost much of its brilliancy.’

2. Hdinburgh. ‘For volume and power of light the phe-
nomenon of Wednesday night, the 15th February, far exceeded
any single streamer of the Aurora Borealis. The arch ran east
and west, almost directly overhead, and stretching out to both
horizons. The shape presented to the eyes of most persons
was that of a dead straight line of briluant light, at first
yellow, but when it commenced to melt out of sight, of a
silvery hue. It resembled a magnificent javelin horizontally
suspended over the city, and produced at one end to a point
in the horizon directly beyond Holyrood, at the other to Cor-
storphine Hill. The light at first surpassed that of the Comet
of 1858, and there was an entire absence of motion in the
luminous pathway ; nor did it change its direction in the least
in the last half hour of its existence, as was proved from
bearings taken of it when first seen.”’—X.

Mr. J. Anderson, of Pratis, Fifeshire, in a letter to the
Fifeshire Herald, exclaimed concerning the same aurora—
<The wondrous beauty of the arch on Wednesday evening can
hardly be described. It seemed a heavenly pathway of gold,
shedding its brillant light across the land, and leading

909

‘Right onward to the golden gates of heaven.
Similar arches to that described were seen on the 29th

Auroral Arches. 177

March, 1826, near Nottingham, and on the 22nd of March,
1841, at York, Durham, etc., when the height was estimated
at more than 150 miles from the observations of Professors
Chevallier, Phillips, and Stevelly (Lowe’s Treatise on Atmospheric
Phenomena, p. 144, et seq.). A similar arch was observed at
Edinburgh on the 27th August, 1846, and an auroral band of
the same kind observed by Mr. E. J. Lowe at Nottingham,
and by Sir J. Herschel, at Hawkhurst, in Kent, on the 9th
March, 1861, was estimated by the latter to have been eighty-
three miles high midway between the two places, or over a
place thirty miles north of London. Finally, a similar arch
was observed by Professor Challis, at Cambridge, on the 21st
February, 1862, which was vertical at Newark, in Lincolnshire,
but other observations were wanting to determine the height
of this arch.

It appears from these instances that such arches are most
common in the months of February and March, and that they
vary from 80 to 160 miles in their height above the earth.

We append a description, furnished by Mr. Herschel, of
the appearance of the Aurora Borealis, as seen in Kent in the
month of January last.

1865, Jan. 28th, 7°35 p.m., Edenbridge, Kent. Two
arches of the Northern lights appeared in the N.W., bright
and colourless, the uppermost 7° or 8° above the horizon.
Both preserved their brightness for a few minutes only, when
the uppermost arch merged into the lower arch, resting
together upon a black segment not more than 2° or 3° hich.
This black segment was cloud, for stars of the third magnitude
setting behind it were immediately eclipsed.

9°35 p.m., Hawkhurst, Kent. In four or five seconds of
time an army of small streamers shot upwards from the border
of the dark segment to a height of 10° in the north. These
were yellowish, and covered an area of 10° or 12° in azimuth;
they immediately began to course each other rapidly across
the area from west to east, so as to run over the whole width
of the area in less than one or two seconds, when, disappearing
in the east, they were replaced by new streamers in the west.
This running motion was renewed at intervals (for a few
seconds at a time), until, m less than two minutes, the
streamers subsided as quickly as they came, and disappeared.
The arch and segment afterwards became less distinct, and no
other display occurred until 11°30 p.m., excepting a wide
_ diffuse streamer of brief duration at 10°50 p.m.

178 - Lepidoptera Feeding on Ferns.

- LEPIDOPTERA FEEDING ON FERNS.
BY M. G. CAMPBELL.

Att along the shady side of my small garden, situated in the
heart of the town, I have planted British ferns. Trees and a
low wall screen them from the sun, as well as shelter them >
from wind. LHarly in the summer before last, I observed one
of my lady ferns, Athyrium filia-foemina, partially eaten by
some insect. I searched for the depredator without success,
until after giving the whole plant a thorough shaking, when
two or three larvee of the Great Tiger Moth, Arctia caja, fell
to the ground. I took up two of them, and confined them in
a box, covering it with green gauze, and there I fed them, not _
with my ferns though. I gave them what I knew they would
eat, namely common plantain, Plantago major, as, accustomed.
for years to feed large numbers of lepidopterous insects, noc-
turnal and diurnal, the little furry-coated gentleman was no
stranger to me; but, as my habit is, | hke to prove every-
thing for the satisfaction of others as well as myself.

In this cage they were by no means unhappy. They feasted _
on the fresh food supplied to them twice daily, increased in
size, performed their due moults, changed into the pupa state
when fully grown, and eventually evolved perfect imagoes of
the Arctia caja, their gorgeous wings even more brilliantly
coloured than usually found when roaming free, because they
had been sheltered from the effects of wmd and rain, and those
wing's are now displayed in one of the drawers of my cabinet,
pinned on to its cork lining.

But what of my ferns all this time? After securing the
first intruders, I did not again examine my ferns for three or
four days, 1magining I had all the mischief-makers in safe
custody. But when about the fourth or fifth morning I went
to look at them again, what was my consternation to find that
my Athyriums, which had but a week before looked so lovely
in the tender green of their lacy beauty, were completely eaten
away, all but the primary rachis, and the branchlets, or
secondary rachids issuing from it, which presented the appear-
ance of so many dry threads, almost every atom of the soft,
green, leafy portion of the plant being stript from it. Several
fronds of a Lastrea filix-mas, which stood near, had also paid
tribute. On the small bit which remained of the laminar portion
several of the ‘ Woolly-bears” were busily at work. I shook
the ferns well, sweeping them in all directions with my hand,
and the caterpillars fell from them in multitudes. They re-
minded me of nothing less than the plagues of Egypt. Morning

The Achromatic Telescope. 179

by morning for weeks myself and a servant hunted them
out, and it is not too much to say that we often took
from twenty-five to thirty of these intruders from a single
plant, although the day before we had thought there could not
be one left, so careful had been our search. I had been proud
of my ferns, but my pride was sadly humbled; and all unwilling
as I am to kill anything, I was obliged to allow these devourers
to be crushed.

Last summer again the same thing happened. They came
in incredible numbers. Before I was aware, they had again
despoiled my Athyriums of every vestige of green, and in
order to save my remaining ferns, we were compelled again to
perpetrate a daily massacre.

Their plan was, each year, to attack the Athyriums first, then
Lastrea fikz-mas, after that the other Lastreas, then the Royal
Osmunda, and when these failed, but not till then, they were
not too dainty to try Polystichum lobatum. The Polystichums
were always the last in requisition, they evidently preferred
something more tender. I hope next summer they may take
it into their heads to commit their depredations elsewhere than
in my garden.

THE ACHROMATIC TELESCOPE, DIALYTES, AND
FLUID LENSES—NEBULA—DOUBLE STARS—
OCCULTATIONS.

BY THE REV. T. W. WEBB, A.M., F.R.A.S.

In several previous papers we have endeavoured to give a
tolerably comprehensive idea of this: beautiful invention; but
a.few particulars, not unworthy of notice, yet remain.

The chief impediment to the manufacture of object-glasses
of sufficient aperture to compete with the lght-grasping
power of large reflectors, used to be the want of homogeneous
flint-glass; the salt of lead. which is employed in its manufac-
ture, and which gives it its superior dispersive power, having
a tendency from its weight not to mix uniformly with the
other ingredients, and if intermingled by mechanical means,
to form streaks and veins very prejudicial to neat definition.
- Small discs might easily be procured, but with increasing
size all kinds of imperfections increased with fatal rapidity, so
that, as recently as 1820, lenses of five or six inches were
scarcely procurable. In order to obviate this serious evil a
remarkable modification was devised in the year 1828, by Sir

VOL. VII.—NO. III. N

180 : The Dialyte Telescope.

John Herschel’s tutor, Mr. Rogers.* In this construction the
object-glass is a single plate lens, and the correction of the
two aberrations is produced by a combination of a plate and a
flint lens interposed in the cone of rays before they reach
the focus. ‘To comprehend the method of doing this, we must
consider what would be the effect of placing together two
lenses, one convex and one concave, of equal focal lengths.
Then, if each were of the same kind of glass, or of glass
having the same amount. of dispersive action, the rays would
pass through quite colourless; but if their dispersive powers
were unequal, though the general mass of rays would still be
transmitted parallel, yet colour would be produced in propor-
tion to the inequality of the dispersions, and in the direction
of the stronger of them. In the case, therefore, ofa plate con-
vex and flint concave of equal foci, there would be colour due to -
the superior dispersion of the flint, and acting in a concave
direction, or opposite to that of the object-lens. Now, supposing
this uncorrected colour to be equal in amount to that of the
object-lens, it is plain that if the two lenses producing it were
placed immediately behind the object-lens, they would destroy
its chromatic aberration, and we should have a combination
similar to Dollond’s triple object-glass already described (In- ©
TELLECTUAL OBSERVER, vi. 401). This, of course, would require |
the flint disc to be of the full size. If, however, we could in-
crease the amount of the dispersion produced by the two com-
‘bined lenses, we might remove them from the object-lens
towards its focus, to a point where its convex or positive dis-
persion, increasing as it departs from its source, would be
exactly balanced by their negative excess of colour, and since
the cone of rays would there-be smaller, we should gain in
respect of the size of the flint lens exactly in proportion as we
could remove it from the object-lens. But as the excess of
concave dispersion in the two combined lenses, which we may
collectively term the corrector, depends entirely upon their
focal length, we have only to shorten their foci, in order to in-
crease the excess of dispersion to any required amount ; and thus
in theory an object-lens of plate glass, however large, may have
its colour corrected by a disc of flint glass, however small. In
practice, however, a limit would soon be reached, as the
deepened curves required to produce the shortened foci would
introduce too much spherical aberration to be even approximately
corrected; for it is only with very small segments of a sphere, as
* A similar idea had, it seems, occurred several years before to Sir David
Brewster, who had described and constructed lenses of this kind, and perceived
their applicability to telescopes ; but he admits that the vention was original
on the part of Mr. Rogers. The late Dr. Dick stated that a four-inch achromatic

was actually constructed on this principle with success by Mr. Wilson, of Glas-
gow, before he was aware that Mr. Rogers had proposed a similar plan.

The Dialyte Telescope. 181

we have already observed, that this kind of compensation can
be rendered perfect; and hence a moderate ratio between the
apertures of the object-lens and corrector is preferable; if we
assumed one-half, which would give very practicable curves,
we could still employ a flint disc of only four inches (or a litile
more, in order not merely to take in one point, but some
extent of field) to correct an object-lens of eight inches
aperture.

This construction, as compared with the ordinary double
achromatic, is attended with several advantages and disadvan-
tages. The latter are obvious: the loss of hght, perhaps
12 per cent., from two extra reflections and one transmis-
sion, and the greater chances of error in centring and working
two additional surfaces; and, besides these, which are com-
mon to it with the triple achromatic, there is less possibility of
correcting pencils oblique to the axis, and much difficulty in
preventing the corrector from getting out of that perfect ad-
justment with the object-lens which is absolutely necessary.
Flexure, too, in the tube would, from the position of the cor-
rector, be more prejudicial; and this has been found an
annoyance even in the ordinary achromatic when the tube is
of great dimensions; it was noticed by Airy in the magnifi-
cent telescope of Poulkowa, and no wonder, since in an expe-
riment by the German optician, Reichenbach, a 24-pounder
gun was found to exhibit very sensible flexure when sus-
pended by its centre. But to these defects are opposed great
and peculiar advantages; not merely the diminished size of
the flint disc, which, in the present totally changed state of the
manufacture, is of much less importance, but an experimental
mode of final correction, which the constructors of the ordi-
nary achromatic would often be happy to have in their power.
For while it is difficult in the usual form to ascertain the pre-
cise ratio of dispersion in the plate and flint, and a slight mis-
take may require the reworking of one of the lenses, in the
dialytic construction it is only necessary to obtain a near ap-
‘proximation as to dispersion, the final correction being, as will
be readily seen, more easily and accurately accomplished by
varying the distance of the corrector from the object-lens, till
the most perfect achromaticity is obtained; while, as regards
the spherical aberration, this, when such curves have been
given to the correcting lenses as may be expected to neutralize
it, may in like manner be finally,destroyed experimentally by
“Separating the lenses to a short distance from each other.
Such at least was the opinion of the inventor, Rogers. The
possibility of this latter ultimate adjustment has, indeed, been
questioned on mathematical grounds, by an eminent writer on
these subjects, Santini of Padua; but Rogers’s conclusion was

182 The Dialyte Telescope.

not only founded upon a self-evident principle, but (unknowm
of course to Santini) was actually found to answer perfectly in
practice. In addition to these conveniences it possesses
another of considerable importance. We have supposed the
corrector to exert merely a concave dispersion, without general
refractive power; but this is by no means necessary. Its
curves may be so proportioned as to give it a concave refrac-
tion also; the result of which will be the enlargement of the
focal image, or, which is the same thing in practice, the short-
ening of the instrument materially, with the same apeaere
and magnifying power.
Possessing advantages so much more considerable, on the
whole, than its defects, it seems remarkable that this con-
struction should have attracted so little notice. It was carried
into effect by Dollond, for Rogers, on a scale of five inches,-
with success; but I have not heard of another instance of its
being even attempted in this country till of late years one was
worked by an excellent optician, Wray, for Mr. Buckingham,
the constructor of the magnificent achromatic of 20 inches aper-
ture, and about 30 feet focus, which made so conspicuous an
appearance in the nave of the International Exhibition. It
had 83 inches of clear aperture, and its possessor has spoken
very highly of its defining quality. But with these exceptions,
it seems to have been ignored in England. On the Continent,
however, its advantages were more fully appreciated. At the
recommendation of the celebrated German mathematician, Von
Littrow, it was taken up towards 1833* by an optician’ of
Vienna, named Plossl, by whom a great number have been
constructed, and some of considerable magnitude. About the
year 1850 one was completed of 6°4 inches for Jassy, another
for Biczke of 8°5 inches, and another for Athens of 8 inches.
The latter has now been for some years under the charge of
the celebrated Dr. Schmidt, who does not, however, speak
very favourably of its present condition. One of 64 inches
was also ordered for the magnificent establishment at Poul-
kowa. The Baron Dembowski, well known as a very indus-
trious and careful measurer of double stars, employed one for
a long time at Naples of 54 inches aperture, and 5 feet 4 inches
focus, which would perfectly separate ¢ Bodtis, and elongate
y? Andromede. His subsequent adoption of an ordinary
Merz achromatic of larger size (see IntELLucTUAL OBSERVER,
vi. 59), may however be taken as a tacit preference of the
other construction. But the chef-d’cuvre of Pléssl appears to
have been an instrument made for the Sultan about 1851,
which had an aperture of fully 11 inches, and focal length of |

* Herschel’s date is 1889, when perhaps it became generally known, but that
in the text is from a contemporary publication by Gruithuisen.

Eiuid Lenses. 183

11 feet 9 inches, and with a power of 610 would divide y
Coronze Borealis, 0:6, 4 and 7 magnitude. This seems to
justify Von Littrow’s opinion, that it might set itself boldly in
competition with the productions of the best workshops in
Hurope. It would be interesting to know what may have
been the subsequent fate of this noble, but, as may be appre-
hended, most unfortunately destined instrument. The neglect
with which the construction has been treated in England
seems matter of regret. It is true that some of our first
opticians look unfavourably upon it, but it has never had the
advantage of a trial at their hands. Many of Pléssl’s smaller
instruments bore a very high character. Prof. Schumacher
had one of 251 Paris lines aperture, with powers 60 and 86,
which would separate e Bodtis, and which was thought by
Struve I. and himself superior to anything they had seen of
that size. Sir J. Herschel’s opinion, too, that it is “a very
artificial and beautiful invention, highly deserving further
trial,’ ought surely to lead to a more practical inquiry into
its capabilities; and this, our readers will be glad to find,
has been undertaken by Mr. H. Ingall, with much prospect
of success.*

The dialyte, however, was not the earliest attempt to
obviate the difficulty arising from the scarcity of large discs of
flint glass. We have given it priority, because its construc-
tion with glass alone follows most easily from that of the
common achromatic, but it had been anticipated by an in-
genious contrivance of Prof. Barlow. This celebrated mathe-
matician had perceived that, as our readers will readily
understand from what has been said of the dialyte, a material
possessing a stronger dispersion than flint glass might be set
back from the object-lens by a distance corresponding with its
chromatic power, and such a material he found in sulphuret of
carbon. This extraordinary fluid was just suited to his purpose
from its perfect transparency, absence of colour, and high
dispersive quality; and to form it into a concave lens it was
only necessary to enclose it between two discs of glass, each
wrought to the requisite curve, but with parallel faces like a
watch-glass, so as to have no refractive or dispersive action.
These were applied to the two opposite sides of a third disc,
which being wrought to corresponding curves exactly coincided
with them, but whose centre was bored out so as to convert it
into a broadring. The three dises and the fluid being all gently
- warmed toa temperature higher than any likely to occur in
practice, the ring was placed horizontally upon one of the discs,

* M. Valz, the ex-director of the Observatory at Marseilles, had undertaken

the construction of two dialytes, with apertures of about 73 and 153 inches ; but
their execution was frustrated by his retirement (an unwilling one) in 1863.

184 Fluid Lenses.

and the other slipped on one side so as to leave a small portion
of the interior of the ring open; through this the fluid was
poured in, and the upper dise slipped over it into its place.
The subsequent contraction of the fluid in cooling would leave
a vacuum-bubble, which was kept out of sight by allowing
the ring an extra amount of aperture. Cement with tinfoil or
paper being applied round the edges, the lens was rendered
complete and permanent; and being placed like the corrector
of the dialyte would have a similar effect in all respects,
excepting the invariability of the spherical correction. In
1827 Barlow constructed a 6-inch telescope of this kind, and
in 1829 one of 7°8 inches, with a satisfactory result. A sub-
sequent attempt with eight inches, undertaken in 1833 for the
Royal Society, proved a failure; and such might be considered
my own humble imitation in 1830, with four inches. It served -
me, however, for four years, with tolerable achromaticity, but

much uncorrected spherical error. Whether the plan may

have been tried by others, I do not know. Several limpid

fluids have since been discovered whose properties might merit

investigation, especially chloroform, which from its density

seems to promise well.

But we have not yet mentioned one very serious drawback, -
affecting more or less every one of the constructions already |
described. Not one of them answers to its name. They are
not “ a-chromatic,” 7.e., colourless; and no workmanship of
man can render them so. However carefully the correction
may be adjusted, there is invariably-a fringe of colour sur-
rounding every bright object in focus; and a single glance
with a high power at the planet Venus will make it visible, or
even at the foliage of a dark tree against a white cloud or
bright blue sky. This uncorrected fringe, or “ outstanding
colour,” is a serious drawback to the beauty of the telescopic
image, and a waste of valuable light. Its cause, technically
termed the “irrationality” of the spectra of plate and flmt
glass, may be easily understood by observing that not only is
_the whole amount of dispersion into colour different in plate
and in flint glass, but their action on different parts of the —
Spectrum is not the same—the plate throwing the more lumi-
nous central rays of the spectrum nearer to one of its ends,
the flint nearer to the other. Hence, it is impossible to neu-
tralize the whole spectrum by lenses of two kinds of glass. If
we unite the extremities, the central rays will go on one side,
and be “outstanding” in focus; if we correct the colours
nearer the centre, the extremities will not balance each other.
The great art, therefore, of the optician is to neutralize the
most vivid and predominant. tints; he can do no more; the
rest must take their chance. There is; however, some dis-

Outstanding Colour. 185

cretionary latitude, and a choice of evils, and different makers
do not prefer the same mode of correction. Glasses which are
technically said to be “ over-corrected for colour,” are gene-
rally thought the best. In these, the dark-blue rays which,
from their great refrangibility, naturally fall short of the
general focus, are projected beyond it by the concave flint, and
consequently form an external fringe to the image, which, from
their loss, is slightly tinged with the complimentary reddish-
yellow ;* but this over-correction may be carried too far, pro-
ducing a needless excess of blue, as is said to be the case
with the Munich object-glasses. Sir John Herschel has said,
that the whitest pencil is produced by uniting the brighter
red bordering on orange, and the most vivid blue, where it
begins to pass into green. Glasses thus corrected show a
purple or lilac frimge round a white object within the focus,
and a green one without it, and “ to go beyond this point,” he
adds, ‘‘ with the ordinary materials, seems hopeless.” In the
various forms that we have described, the defect uniformly
exists. Jt may be somewhat reduced in more than one way:
in the triple achromatic (and by parity of reason it might be
so in the dialyte) by employing a third kind of glass, called
Savoy plate; in the peculiar form of double object-glass, pro-
posed by Gauss, and modified by Steinheil (Inrettecruan Os-
SERVER, 1. 148), by means of a slight separation of the plate
and flint lenses: Barlow had hoped. to remoye it in his con- -
struction, but was disappointed; quadruple object-glasses
have been produced by Steinheil, of Munich, and Grubb, of
Dublin,+ in which it is reduced, but with a serious loss of
light by reflection, unless the inner surfaces are cemented
together, which is considered objectionable by the best
opticians. ‘T'o one man alone has it been given to.devise and
accomplish the complete removal of this great defect, and he has
never yet received that general acknowledgment of his great
ingenuity and skill, which was his unquestioned due. To-
wards the close of the last century, Dr. Robert Blair, Profes-
sor of Practical Astronomy in the University of Hdinburgh,
carefully investigated the subject, and ascertained the exist-
ence of transparent and colourless fluids, whose separate action
upon the green ray (which may be considered the standard of
deviation) were respectively greater, and less, than that of

* This should be carefully borne in mind in examining the colours of stars.
Struve I. found that the higher powers of the Dorpat telescope (532 to 848) gave

them a yellowish tinge.

+ The observatory at Armagh is provided with one of these instruments of
_seyen inches aperture, with the unusually short. focal length of sixty-eight inches,
which is probably rendered practicable by the double number of curved surfaces,
each, therefore, only half as deep asin the ordinary form, (These are Sir J.
Herschel’s data, but I am informed that the aperture is really eight inches.)

186 - The Achromatic Telescope.

crown glass, and which, therefore, in conjunction, would pro-
duce exactly the same effect with it. In some cases he en-
closed the separate fluids in distinct cells; in others, where
they would not decompose each other, he mixed them in one
cell between two convex crown-glass lenses. The object-
glasses thus formed were of such exquisite quality as to cor-
rection, that no trace whatever of colour remained; and the
mathematical skill of the inventor enabled him so to remove
the spherical error (for which. purpose, however, a separate
class lens seems to have been requisite with large apertures)
that he actually constructed, in 1791, an object-glass of excel-
lent definition, with only about nine inches of focus to three
wmches of aperture! while, with less exaggerated proportions,
there was no comparison between the performance of his tele-
scopes under very high powers, and that of the best ordimary
achromatics.* Little notice, however, was taken of this beau-
tiful discovery. Dr. Blair’s attention was subsequently di-
rected to a still more important object, in which he was
equally successful—the preservation, during long voyages, of
lime-juice, on-which the health of our seamen materially de-
pends; he instructed, however, his son in his processes, and
that gentleman publicly announced, in 1827, his intention to
commence the regular manufacture of these instruments, if
sufficient encouragement could be obtained. To the sole ob-
jection which could be raised—namely, on the score of want of
permanency—Mr. Blair was able to give a full reply, the object-
glasses having remained unchanged for twenty-one years; but
I regret to add, that I have never heard of a single telescope
being constructed in consequence of this announcement. Let
us hope, that since those days we have made some advance in
scientific zeal, and, with the wish that something may yet be
done to give due effect to this admirable discovery, we will
close our lengthened examination of the construction of the
Achromatic Telescope.

NEBULA.

28.—In the Philosophical Transactions for 1789, Herschel
I. describes a star 9 mag. f 6 Geminorum, 9m. 6s. of R.A., 1° 1’

* It is curious how narrowly this discovery escaped Newton. He says, in
one place, that “it did not seem to him impossible for contrary refractions so to
correct each other's inequalities, as to make their difference regular ; that, for this
purpose, he examined what may be done, not only by glasses alone, but more
especially by a complication of divers successive mediums, as by two or more
glasses, or crystals, with water, or some other fluid between them, all which toge-
ther may perform the office of the object-glass, on whose construction the perfec-
tion of the instrument chiefly depends; and that the result of these trials, as well
as the results of theory, would probably be given on some future occasion.” Yet
we find him, after all, acquiescing in the hopelessness of any such improvement
upon the old refractor.

Nebula. 187.

more 8., as having “ a pretty bright milky nebulosity equally
dispersed all round it,” which he calls “a very remarkable
phoenomenon.” He numbers it 45 of his 1Vth Class, 2.,
that of Planetary Nebulce. In the earlier catalogue of Herschel
IT. (1833), where it stands No. 450 (it is 1532 of the General
Catalogue), it is termed “a star 8m. exactly in centre of an
exactly round bright atmosphere 25” diam. The star is quite
stellar, not a mere nucleus. Another star 8m. distant 100”,
and about 85° np, has no such atmosphere. A most remark-
able object.”” The Harl of Rosse calls it “ most astonishing,”
and represents it as a star surrounded at some little distance,
rather nearer perhaps on the np side, with a bright nebulous
ring, within which again is a less luminous area, brightening
up as it approaches the star near its centre ; leaving, however,
a small dark space close to the star on the j'side. his curious
object does not require a large instrument to bring out all its
interest. I have seen it formerly, on two occasions, with 34%
inches of aperture, as a small telescopic comet. 1864, Dec. 1,
on looking for it with 54 inches | caught it with about 30,
and saw the central star with 65. The haze, I found, bore
maenifying well (whence Hf probably gave it its planetary
rank) ; it appeared slightly more extended sa little f, and with
451 there seemed to be a very feeble trace of a narrow border
of greater brightness at the edge in that one direction, some-
thing like a cometary envelope. At this time I had so indis--
tinct an idea of what Lord Rosse had seen, that my observation
may be fairly considered an independent one.* The most
striking thing, however, that I noticed, was the angle of
position with the neighbouring 71 mag. star. This was given.
by Sm., 1836°22, = 355°, identical with H’s angle, 1833, de-
nominated by the quadrant, as was his practice at that time.
I had no micrometer or cross wires in the field, but a simul-
taneous view of Polaris with the left eye, and in four eye-
‘pieces, gave the line joining the stars an inclination below the
pole of about 5°, consequently bringing it out of the np into
the nf quadrant.

With very little reason, generally speaking, to trust to
my own estimates, all the circumstances of this case induced
me to feel unusual confidence in my result; and I was much
more gratified than surprised when Mr. Knott obliged me
with a very full and careful set of measures with his 7+ mch
object-glass, the mean of which gave for 1864-97, 1002.

* T have since found that Lassell also has figured it much in the same ways
but making the bright annulus very feeble on the py side, reducing the interior
darker area to a narrow ring, and omitting the dark spot close to the star. He

-says, “ The dark circle is very striking, and altogether the object is very beautiful
and interesting.”

188 Nebula.

2°44. It seems then to follow that either the nebula (together
with its stellar centre), or its companion star, must have moved
very sensibly during the last thirty years; and this conclusion
is confirmed by Mr. Knott’s reduction of Argelander’s inter-
mediate places. It is impossible at present to say which of
the two has changed its position, but this will be demonstrated
by future measures ; and there is a very minute star p, forming
the apex ofa triangle with the others, which, as Mr. Knott
has remarked, would form a good point of reference, if it has
sufficient brightness for measurement. Since Mr. Hugegins’s
wonderful discovery, we are more prepared to accept the
alternative of motion in either; and the nebulosity, if it pos-
sesses h¢ht enough, wili be a most interesting object for the
spectroscope. If it were not waste of time to reconcile so
rough a guess as mine with the results of admirable micro-
metric measurement, it might be observed that they would be
very closely approximated by allowing for the extra-polar
position of Polaris, and for a remarkable bias in vision with
which I have since become acquainted through the writings
of Sir J. Herschel. That eminent philosopher, in discussing
some ancient and valuable observations-of Castor by Bradley
and Pound, in which the telescopic position of the components
was found to be parallel to the lines joining certain other stars
as seen with the naked-eye, found that angles thus estimated
required a correction for a tendency in the two eyes, when
comparing two straight lines, or two parts of the same straight
line, beheld by each separately, to give them a different posi-
. tion with regard to the vertical. The difference amounted in
his own experience to 2° 43’, at which angle lines really parallel
would seem to converge upwards, if so viewed, that while
both lines are looked at simultaneously, each eye sees only the
one opposite to itself. The experiment is easily tried with
any kind of thin screen edgeways in front of the face, but
requires a little care in manipulation ; for if the eye is very
unequally distant from the opposite extremities of the parallel
lines, the deviation will be reversed; nor have I been able to
bend a horizontal line in the middle, as described by Herschel,
till it is placed in an oblique position. The following simple
mode of conducting the experiment, I have found effectual.
Take a large thin book, the thinner the better, provided it can
support itself without being opened, and set it on end upon a
table. On each side of it, pretty close to it, but not touching,
lay a sheet of white paper on the table, with a weight on it, so
that it may not easily be displaced ; then rest the nose on the
top of the book, when, of course, only one sheet will be visible
to either eye. While using both eyes arrange the sheets care-
fully, so that their nearest edges shall be as sensibly parallel

Double Stars. 189

as may be; remove the book, without disturbing them, and
they will be found very perceptibly convergent; replace the
book, and the nose upon it, and they will appear parallel as
before. This peculiarity, which Herschel tells us was observed
by Bessel also, may perhaps give us a hint for the improve-
ment of stereoscopic vision. It seems probable that if the
two pictures were so arranged that their sides were not pre-
cisely parallel, their coimcidence would be more ready, and =
illusion in proportion more complete.

T have since observed (having had my attention drawn fo: it
by some of my correspondents) that with low powers there seems
to be a minute nebulous star or speck nearly s of the nucleus,
about 15” or 20” distant, which high magnifiers show as a
patch of light; a denser portion apparently of the external
ring, between which and the nucleus the haze is less luminous.
Mr. Knott has remarked that Sm. has measured from the
nebulous star, as if it had been the brighter of the two, which
it certainly is not at present.

To find this pair (for as such -they are treated in the Bed-
ford Catalogue) we must first get 6 Geminorum, which is the
first conspicuous star in a line from Pollua towards the Great
Nebula in Orion. If we then know, as we ought to do, the ©
dimensions of the field of the finder, there will be little diffi-
culty in turning it to a point 1° 8. and rather more than 2° E.
of the star, when the nebula will be im the field of alow
power. Its place for 1860-0 is R.A. 7 h. 20m. 54°43.—D.N.
as T2678".

(Appenpum.) Since describing in our last number, the
Planetary Nebula 39 H IV., I have found that Lord Rosse’s
6-foot spedulum shows it as an annulus with a wisp projecting
into the interior, and faint fringes all round its edge. He
figures the two minute stars, but takes no notice of the larger
' one belonging to the cluster 46 M., which I still see as I saw it
aa year, and which appears to have been seen by H. at the

ape.

DOUBLE STARS.

Before the season passes we may add two more pairs to
our list.

133. 5 Geminorum. 72. 196°8. 84 and 9. Pale white
and purple. Stationary, according to Sm., 1838°92. Secchi,
however, thinks the angle increases, having been 184° 15 in
1781, and found by him 200°, 1856:107. Both with my
former and present telescope I have thought the large star
pale yellow. The companion also has appeared to me, with
both, very small for 9 mag.—smaller than the attendant of

190 Occultations.

Castor, rated 11 mag. by Sm. Secchi, likewise, makes the
former 8, the latter 7 mag.—equal to about 81 and 71 of Sm.
The mode of finding 6 has just been given.

134. 38 Geminorum. 5:8. 170°°7. 54 and 8. Light yellow
and purple (1839°17). This pair Sm. considered as probably
in motion, with a very slow period, which may be upwards of
2000 years. Its binary character has been confirmed by
Secchi, who gives, for 1856112, 6-137 and 169°-18, to be
compared with >’s 5-736 and 174°-88, 1829°24, and Hi’s 179°-9
in 1783. This beautiful object is pointed at by a line drawn
from Procyon through its np comes B Can. Min., but it must
be bent towards the 8.; or it may- be found by a line from
Pollux to Bellatrix (y Orionis), which points out y Geminorum
(3 mag.) in mid-distance; a little f, but more s, from this star
we find a wide pair, &', 5 mag., and &, 4 mag., about 2° f
from which lies 38.

OCCULTATIONS.

April 5.@ Leonis,6 mag., 11h.538m.to12h.43m. (For anotice
of this remarkable star, see INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER, iv. 352.
The present will not be an unfavourable opportunity for the
observation.)—6th. 16 Sextantis, 6 mag., 8h. 7m. to 8h. 14m.
—12th. 3 occultations: 5 Libre, 6 mag., 7h. 50m. to 8h. 51m. ;
8 Libre, 6 mag., 10h. 40m. to 11h. 52m.; a* Libre, 24 mag.,
10h. 51m. to 11h. 59m.—28th. 120 Tauri, 6 mag., 7h. 59m. to
8h. 53m.—30th. 68 Geminorum, 51 mag., 1lh. 48m. to
12h. 6m. :

a
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oo

On the Development of the Pycnogons. 191

ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PYCNOGONS.
BY GEORGE HODGE.

(With a Tinted Plate.)

In a former part of the Inrentecruat OssErver,* the leading
characters of the Pyenogonoidea were briefly glanced at, in
such a manner as to serve as an introduction to the study of
these animals.

Observations extending over several years, with admirable
opportunities of obtaiming a plentiful supply of specimens,
have enabled the writer to gather somewhat into form certain
vague and conflicting notions regarding them—more particu-
larly with reference to their development.

Few observers have made the development of these ani-
mals their study; and in most cases, if not in all, investiga-
tion has been directed to the earliest stages of the larvee, owmg
in a great measure to the extreme difficulty experienced in
pursuing the subject further—all attempts to rear the larval
forms having failed.

Developmental studies of the lower forms of life are mostly
fitful and uncertam—a fact here, another there, gradually
builds up the framework we desire, and enables us to link the
whole together. Frequently we may have to wait a year, or
even longer, to confirm a single observation, and when this
delay is experienced in cases where abundance of material can
be obtaimed, it will readily be conceded, that in the case of rare
animals, the progress cannot fail to be slow. This is especi-
ally the case with the Pycnogons, for with the exception of the
littoral species, few of our marine animals are more difficult to
procure. They can only be obtained im a suitable state for
_ developmental studies, by the expenditure of much time, and
with considerable personal discomfort. The dredge must be
kept going on every possible occasion, to afford a supply of
living specimens—and it is the dredger alone who knows the
discomfort and uncertainty of this pursuit.

The generative function in the Pycnogonoidea still con-
tinues a profound mystery, with every likelihood of remaining
so. It is one of those secrets which defy solution. Not a
trace of an internal ovary has been detected; neither is there
any difference in the form of ‘the male, as compared with the
female—so far as has been made out to the present time—
further than the well-known “false feet” or “ egg-carriers,”

which in certain genera are only possessed by the so-called

* July, 1863, Part xviii.

192 On the Development of the Pycnogons.

females, whilst in others (according to Kroéyer) both males
and females possess them.

These false feet, or egg-carriers (for no other office has
been assigned to them), are jointed limbs, produced from the
anterior portion of the thorax, between the origin of the ros-
trum and the first pair of legs; the number of jomts of which
they are composed varies in different genera, and affords a
generic character in the case of Pallene and Phozxichilidium :
the former having nine or ten joimts, and the latter only five.
The ova, which are found in masses of a globular form, to
the number of two or three, are attached to these limbs ; the
limb usually passing through the centre of the globular
mass. At the earliest stage at which the ova has been exa-
mined, they are merely little granular bodies, each the =1,th of
an inch in diameter, or thereabouts, according to the relative
size of the species producing them.

The “ oviferous mass’ is composed of a large number of
these ova, and invested by a tough skin, which nevertheless
admits of extension during the enlargement of the granules.
Jt seems highly probable that the earliest stage of this mass is a
single germ, which undergoes segmentation, and resolves itself
into a number of independent ova. This view is suggested
by the fact that in early stages the oviferous mass is a hard
ball, consisting of a number of closely compressed ova, which
by degrees assume a globular form, and then separate from
each other; and further than this, each ovum is attached by
two or more filaments to the skin, which invests the whole,
proving that it has a close and intimate connection therewith.
But how this oviferous mass becomes attached to the false feet
or “ egg-carriers,” no one has been able to discover, nor even
surmise. The development of these animals in their earliest
stage is consequently involved in obscurity.

Various observers have recorded the result of their ob-
servations respecting the earliest stage of several species.
Kroyer has, however, done more than any one else, for he
figures several stages ;* whereas other writers have merely
recorded their observations on the stage immediately after
quitting the egg.

I have only been fortunate enough to trace out the entire
development of two species (Phoaichilidium coccinewm and a
species of Nymphon) ; but they present such totally different
results that neither can be taken as a type of the develop-
ment of the order, and it seems highly probable that each
genus will be found to vary considerably from those associated
with it. ;

* Sur les Metamorphoses des Pycnogonoides. Par M. Kroyer. Ann. des
Sciences Naturelles, 1842. M. Kroyer in Gaimard’s Voyages en Scandinavia.

On the Development of the Pycnogons. 193

The writer has already published his observations on the
development of Phowichilidiwm coccinewm.* It may not, how-
ever, be altogether supererogatory to briefly reproduce some
of the circumstances attending the singular metamorphoses of
this animal, as it is principally the object of the present paper
to present a reswmé of the state of our knowledge respecting
the development of these animals.

This species is common on our rocks at extreme low
water, and is doubtless familiar to most persons conversant
with our littoral fauna. During the winter and early spring
months the females are found with large oviferous masses
attached to their false feet, which in course of time produce
curiously formed larve (see Fig. 4). They are of a rounded
form, and possess two pairs of legs, a pair of foot-jaws, and
a rostrum; they retain this form for a few days, and are
usually attached to the oviferous mass by four long filaments,
which proceed from the tips of the legs. The connection does
not, however, last long, for the little beings soon enter upon .
a free and independent existence, during which they must
moult, for on again meeting with them, they present a very
different aspect. Now comes the singular portion of their life
history, which to understand requires us to be somewhat
acquainted with a totally different animal.

During the spring and early summer months the rocks
begin to furnish their annual growth of Alge and Zoophytes.
Conspicuous amongst the latter, on the Durham coast, is a ~
very elegant little Hydroid Zoophyte, Coryne eximia, which,
for the information of those not conversant with this order of
animals, may be described as a tiny shrub of a horny nature,
bearing club-shaped polypes at the termination of each branch.
These polypes are produced by the gradual accumulation and
growth of the fleshy and chitinous substances of the polypary.
At first a mere short rounded stem, the terminal part being
less dense than the stem, an accumulation of organized
material takes place, which in due course developes into a
polype. Whilst examining some stems of this Zoophyte I
noticed that there were a number of sacs attached to the stems,
which, although a part of the polypary, were nevertheless
different to any growth or part of the animal. On being
opened, these sacs were each found to contain a curious little
animal of a bright red colour. The subject was followed up,
and it was shortly afterwards proved that the animal in
question was a stage in the development of Phozxichilidium
coccineum, in advance of the larval forms observed imme-
diately after escaping from the ege. Other stages were found
oe within the Coryne), showing further advancement, until

* Annals and Magazine of Natural History. January, 1862.

194 On the Development of the Pycnogons.

finally the egg was traced to the mature animal, disclosing a
very singular and unexpected mode of development; for the
question at once arises, How do the larve gain access to the
ZLoophyte ?

The development of Pallene, a genus which in some
respects resembles Phoxichilidiwm, varies from that described
in certain important respects. The writer has only had an
opportunity of examining one of the larval stages in a speci-
men of Pallene brevirostris, the observations being unfortu-
nately brought to a somewhat hasty termination—the speci-
men being accidentally destroyed. It was, however, observed
that the young in a far advanced stage were attached to the
false feet of the female, in what manner could not be made
out, owing to minute size, and being very much crowded.
They possessed foot-jaws, a’ rostrum, and three pairs of legs,
all of sinular form to those of the adult animal; proving that
the young remain attached to the parent up to a late period of
their development, and perfect the growth of their limbs—or
most of them—whilst so attached, in such a manner as leads
one to suspect the development of the genus must be upon a
plan altogether distinct from others examined.

In Nymphon the development takes a much simpler and
more easily understood plan. Several species have been
examined in their earliest or larval stage, at which time the -
young animal is about the ;{,th of an inch in length, and
scarcely so broad. It possesses two pairs of feet, which are
three jointed, the last joint beg elongated and in the form of
a claw; a rostrum and a pair of foot-jaws of large size, which
are quite out of proportion to the remainder of the animal:
the nippers are strong, the moveable finger usually overlap-
ping the other. es |

A stout spine-like appendage is produced from the summit
of the first joint of each foot-jaw; from the outside proceeds a
long slender filament, by which the larva is attached to the
oviferous mass for a short period after its birth: beimg of an
active habit, it soon frees itself, and is then carried about by
the motion of the water until it finds a lodgment amongst the ©
stems of Zoophytes or the like, where it receives food and
shelter. Doubtless, large numbers are carried about by the
currents of the sea and perish, for although all of the Pycno-
gons are decidedly prolific, and each individual carrying ova,
- must produce many hundred larvee in a season, the mature in-
dividuals are unquestionably rather rare. Mature Nymphons
are usually obtained amongst Zoophytes from deep water, but
appear to be very rare between tide-marks ; it is, therefore,
singular that the stage im advance of the larval ova, just de-
scribed, should only, have been found nestling amongst the

On the Development of the Pyenogons. 195

stems of Bugula plumosa, a littoral Zoophyte on the Durham
coast—although various Zoophytes from deep water have been
subjected to the most careful scrutiny. Several curious little
animals were found on this Zoophyte a few years ago, at a
time when the early stages of the Pycnogons were unknown
to the writer ; they proved a complete puzzle until earlier and
later stages were found, when an insight into their probable
character was gained, and extended observations on the de-
velopment of these animals clearly established the early life of
Nymphon.

A reference to the plate accompanying this will enable
the reader to understand the further changes which take
place. It will be observed that the posterior portion of the
body is obtusely rounded, this gradually changes, until at
last a slight notch appears on each side, which becoming more
decided presents the appearance of three narrow lobes. These
separate from each other, those on each side gradually elon-
gating and developing into legs; whilst the centre one,
increasing in width, pushes out the newly formed limbs in a
lateral direction. The joints are then visible, at first close to
each other; but by degrees they increase in length, after
which the claws on.the terminal joint appear. The hairs are
also produced, and the little animal presents a.most grotesque
appearance (see Fig. 2). The posterior portion, meanwhile,
continues to elongate, and gomg-through the process just
described, a second pair of legs is the result; again it repeats
the operation, when a third pair is produced, The young
animal now closely resembles a Pycnogon, excepting the pre-
sence of the anterior rudimentary limbs and the large spine
on each foot-jaw ; if it were rid of these, it might readily pass
for a young Pycnogon about to produce its fourth and last
pair of legs. We accordingly find that these rudimentary
limbs, having served the requirements of the larval stage, are
now no longer needed, and are readily got rid of by a moult,
which takes place at this stage, the fourth pair of legs being
usually produced at the same time. Having neither palpi
nor false feet it is of course far from perfect, and might be
either a Nymphon, a Pallene, ora Phowxichilidium, for what we
could tell. These important organs are afterwards produced,
the palpi being the first of the two to appear. Near the base
of the foot-jaws a wart appears, which gradually elongates
and developes into these well-known and characteristic parts.
The false feet are produced in a similar manner, from a wart
growing near the origin of the first pair of legs, and on
the full growth of palpi and false feet the animal attains
maturity.*

. * See figure in INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER, 1863, p. 416, fig. 2.
VOL, VII.—NO, III. 0)

196 On the Development of the Pycnogons.

The larve of Pycnogonum, Achelia and Zetes, resemble
the species just described in their general contour, although,
as might be expected, there are certain characteristic dif-
ferences. They all possess foot-jaws similar to those described,
from which are produced the filamentary appendages as in
Nymphon. These organs in all the species examined are kept
constantly in motion—a sort of “‘ whipping action,” which it
seems probable may assist in impelling the little animal through
the water. ‘lhe presence of foot-jaws in the larvee of these genera
is a very singular circumstance, for the mature animals are
quite destitute of them. Lxcepting, therefore, for the fact of
having obtained the mature animal with the larve attached,
one might reasonably be disposed to question the possibility
of the immature animal being in apparent advance of its
parent in certain respects, for foot-jaws are undoubtedly a_
type of elevation.

Much has yet to be learnt respecting the development of
these animals, and so far as one can judge from analogy, all
must undergo some singular metamorphosis between the two
stages known, the earliest and the mature. Those observers
who have opportunities of obtammg living specimens would
do well to endeavour to make out the development of Pyeno- ~
gonum littorale, as it seems highly probable it will prove quite
distinct from those just described. Hitherto it has eluded the ©
writer, possibly some one else might be more fortunate.

EXPLANATION OF THE FIGURES.

Fig. 1. Larva of Nymphon, as attached to parent (mag-
nified). 2. Second stage of the same animal, ditto. 3.
Third stage of the same, ditto. 4. Larva of Phoxichilidiwm
coccmeum as attached to parent (magnified). 5. Embryo of
Pyenogonum littorale, ditto. 6. Larva of Pyenogonum littorale,
ditto. (All represent the under surface, to show origin of
rudimentary limbs.) .

Note on “ Infe Conditions in other Worlds.” 197

NOTH ON AN ARTICLE ENTITLED “LIFE CONDI-
TIONS IN OTHER WORLDS.”

CoNTAINED IN THE “INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER” FOR Marcu, 1865.
BY GEORGE E. ROBERTS, F.G.S., HON. SEC. A.S.L.

We are familiar with many subjects said to be, in the common
parlance of the day, of ‘‘ world-wide import,” but it so rarely
happens that an imquiry is introduced im a liberal philoso-
phical spirit, which soars beyond our mundane economy, that
it appears to me highly desirable that the subject upon which
I offer a ‘‘ Note,”’ one illustrated by so many cautiously-chosen
facts and excellent suggestions, should not at once be lost
sight of amid the crowd of natural history papers which enrich
the Inreniectuat Osserver. We have been so much accus-
tomed to limit the cause, or the extension, or the working of
a natural law to the earth and its surrounding atmosphere,
when reasoning upon geological or biological subjects, that
many of our theories, derived from such a limited reading of
the book of nature, have had to be abandoned, and others
modified as the area traversed by our intellectual perception
became more extended. And now that it may reasonably be
surmised that no element in the physical construction of the
earth, or law which governs it, is confined either in existence
or operation to our globe, it becomes more than ever certain
that many of our conclusions and deductions will have to be
re-examined under the light of a broader philosophy, and more
than ever imperative that the utmost caution should be exer-
cised in propounding any theory. If, as it appears most
probable, this world and all it containeth of animate life is to
be expressed merely in mathematical formule, as a term of a
connected series, which, varying in value each from the other,
together make up the perfected scheme, it will assuredly lead
to a more large-minded method of studying the higher and
more complex branches of natural research, and give a better
moral tone to the work.

Studies in comparative natural philosophy, ase. g. between
the earth’s atmosphere, chemically or otherwise, and that of
Mars or Jupiter, will be more extensively made; and who can ~
say how many remarkable relationships with, or divergences
from, the standard we have until lately set up from examina-
tion of the earth alone, as one common to the universe, may
not be discovered? And although we may never by any means
of research make out with certainty the actual existence of life
on any one of the planets, yet after discovering the conditions
which they may possess favourable for its existence, we shall

198 Aids to Microscopie Inquiry.

be less puzzled in our endeavour, hitherto so fruitless, to make
up the paleontological and zoological record of life, extinct
and existant, upon the earth’s surface; and hemitypic birds,
reptilian fish, creatures retaining through life rudimentary
limbs or organs, or embryonal characters, may appear as
significant of orders of life existant in other worlds, perhaps
in a more typical or perfected form. We shall not be the less
wise if we are thus compelled to study the fauna and flora of
the earth as a fragment of a scheme of life, in which, may-be,
much is but shadowed to us, and some elements concealed
altogether. If increase of such knowledge as the author of
the paper suggests will lessen our’ dependence on schemes
drawn from objects ocularly or tangible before us, it will
surely aid our faith in the wisdom and beneficence of the
Creator.

AIDS TO MICROSCOPIC INQUIRY.—No. V.
Srmpte Forms or Lis.

We do not propose to publish this series of papers in the
order in which they would be most logically arranged, as a.
less regular method will afford more variety, and enable us
more quickly to meet the wishes of subscribers requiring dif-
ferent kinds of information. We shall, therefore, postpone the
further consideration of certain points of physical science
essential to microscopists, and devote our present attention to
Simple Forms of Life. We will suppose a collection of ordi-
nary objects obtained from a pond or clean ditch, by brmging
home weeds as well as water, and that the student has thus
before him specimens of animals and vegetables the characters
of which will be more or less definite and distinct. The first
question a young microscopist puts is, “ How am I to know
animalcules from plants ?”’ and, although the query may appear .
easy of solution, the establishment of fixed lines of demarca-
tion not only remains a permanent difficulty, but at last a mo-
dification of the old notion of zoophytes, or animal-plants, is
actually revived, although, by no means including the objects
for which the designation was originally employed, nor sug-
gesting the precise ideas which the older naturalists enter-
tained. If we were to say that the simplest form of life con-
sists of a single cell, we must so far modify that term as to
make it comprehend a globule or molecule, in which there is
no special distinction of cell wall and cell contents. Properly

Simple Forms of Infe. 199

speaking, a cell is a chamber of some sort enclosed on all
sides, and physiologists employed it to designate a litle
chamber, or space, enclosed by a membrane or tissue, and
holding ‘inside it living matter. Itis not necessary that we
should explain the details of cellular physiology as it was laid
down a few years since, as scientific men have pretty well
agreed that it must be greatly modified, and it is impossible
to avoid recognizing the fact that the functions of life may be
performed by little globules or molecules of appropriate mat-
ter, which are not surrounded by any distinct membrane or
wall. It is, however, probable that the smallest living object
consists of matter in at least two states, and if from no other
cause than the influence of position, the outside layer will
differ more or less from the inner portions.* It might appear
difficult to conceive of a simpler animal than an amceba, but a
high power shows that the gelatinous material, or sarcode, of
which it is composed contains a number of spherical mole-
cules or granules, and any one of them, if isolated and capable
of sustaming its life, might, perhaps, represent what, if we
adopt the cellular nomenclature, might be called a unicellular
creature.

The ameeba, in its simplest state, is an illustration of life,
with predatory habits and considerable activity, carried on
without the help of positive organs. Former numbers of the
InreLLectuaL Ozserver have described the villous projection, .
discovered by Dr. Wallich, in certain forms of this. creature,
and it also possesses an apparatus for reproduction, as he has
shown. We may, however, regard all its ordinary proceed-
ings as carried on without the aid of distinct organs, although
the various globules it contains, and which present no dis-
tinctive character to the eye, may still have separate functions
to perform. Young microscopists are pretty sure to pass over
small delicate amcebee without notice, and it is a mere chance
-whether they happen to turn upon large easily-noticeable
forms. If they have any more experienced friends to help
them, they should see an object of this kind as early as they
can, as some conception of its appearance and ways is very de-
sirable at the commencement of a study of organic beings.
We see a mass of jelly moving by the faculty of thrusting out
portions of its substance into projections termed pseudopodia,
or false feet. Out goes, or rather flows, a dribble of the jelly,
extending into prolongations longer and thinner, or thicker
and broader, according to the particular specimen under
notice. The outside layer (which may soon become the

* See a former article, Vol. vi. p. 75. The last sentence, page 79, is especially
applicable.

200 | Simple Forms of Life.

inside) gets on first, and sticks to the glass slide on which we
view it, then comes the rest of the creature, globules and
granules, flowing and rolling over each other, until the point
of vantage gained by the false foot is reached by the mass.
Now another false foot is thrown out, and the same plan
repeated. Ifa suitable morsel of food comes in its way—and
it seems very fond of coloured monads, which often give it the
appearance of having dined on glittering gems—it opens a
cavity, sucks the article in, and the hole closes up, leaving no
trace that any solution of continuity has occurred. Though it
has neither mouth nor stomach, it exhibits full animal charac-
teristics. It lives upon organic matter already prepared, while a
typical plant absorbs inorganic matter and organizes it for itself.
Though it has no nerves, it must have some sort of sensitive-
ness, as it knows when to open a cavity in its flesh and what
to swallow in, and we also notice a capacity of adapting itself
to the circumstances it meets in its somewhat slow and limited
journeys ; thus, if it encounters an obstacle, it does not per-
sist in trying to force through it, though it will squeeze
through a narrow gap, nor does it merely bound back in a
mechanical way. It appears therefore to have volition of a
humble sort. Here then we see that a few molecules of a
protein substance* connected together under that species of
partnership and co-operation which is implied by the term life,
are able to do most of the acts essential to the mere existence
of higher kinds of animals.

We shall not now anticipate veces that will come appro-
priately in subsequent papers, but we may observe that matter
in the condition of the flesh or sarcode of the amceba not
only reappears in other groups of animals, some of which,
like the Foraminifera and Polycystina, form exquisite shells of
lime or flint, while others build up the fabric of sponges, the
harder portions of which act as supports for the soft linin
material ; but we find something lke it in the highest kinds
of being, and, paradoxical as it may appear, there is reason to
suppose that if we ourselves did not lead the lives of amoebae,
we should not be able to lead the lives of men. Dr. Bower-
bank has the merit of pointing out the persistence of the
sarcode system throughout the animal world. He says, “As
we descend in the organic scale of life, we find the great
systems of animal functions, the osseous, the muscular, the
nervous, the sanguineous, all becoming simplified, until at last
one or more of them is found entirely wanting. But the
sarcodous digestive system appears never to be absent, we find
it, from the highest organized mammals, in the form of the

+* A substance chemically resembling that which composes the tissues of higher
animals.

Simple Forms of Life. 201

mucous liming of the alimentary organs, passing through
animals of every degree of development, until the animal itself
becomes simplified to the degree of appearing as a mass of
gelatinous sarcode only, or with possibly a central nucleus of
membrane, as in Actinophrys sol,” etc.

The animalcules which the beginner will find in his col-
lections are all composed of sarcode, and the differences to be
observed amongst them concern first the degree to which
a distinct integument exists, and secondly the character of the
organs or parts that can be seen in all but the most elemen-
tary and minute kinds.

We shall have occasion to recur again to the animal series,
but it will be convenient to take a preliminary glance at some
simpler vegetable forms, and although the beginner in collect-
ing objects for the microscope is very likely to pass over the
amcebee he may acquire, he is sure to see plenty of quite a
different object, the euglena, a lively little green fish-like thing
that abounds in the green scum of ponds. When he sees this
creature swim rapidly hither and thither, lashing about the
filament which springs from its head and constitutes its organ
of locomotion, when he further beholds it change its shape,
now taper and spindle, now squat and pear-like, now round,
and so forth, who can doubt that a veritable animal is in view ?
Not so; the euglena is merely a plant, and further inquiry will
show that it is nob uncommon for simple plants, or for their .
spores, to possess cilia, and exhibit what is easily taken for
voluntary motion.

The possession of a cilium, of which a vibratile filament may
be taken as a modification, gives no clue to the animality or
vegetality of the object employing it. A cilium may be an
organ of voluntary or involuntary motion. We find it con-
tinually moving, through mere physical stimulus, in creatures
of both high and low organization, or, as in the tentacles of a
rotifer like Stephanoceros, evidently under the command of a
will directed by a noticeable amount of intelligence.

When a swarm of euglene and other infusoria move
quickly through the field of the microscope, we have a (rela-
tively) powerful lashing of whips and twirling of cilia, without
a single muscle to do the work. ‘Thus the contemplation of a
few simple microscopic forms has introduced us to locomotion
without limbs (as in the amceba), sensation (of some kind)
without nerves, ingestion of food without a mouth, digestion
without a stomach, and active exertion, with motion of ap-
pendages, without a muscle to do the work. It is like the
German story, in which the blind man shoots a hare, a lame
one runs after it, and a naked one puts it in his pocket.*

* Kinder und Hausmarchen “ Knoist un sine dre Siihne.”

202 Simple Forms of Life.

It is no part of the intention of these papers to act as asub-
stitute for works of microscopic natural history, to which the
reader must be referred when he wishes to discover the name
of any particular object, but we shall make some general
remarks that may facilitate his search. A simply organized
body is likely to be a plant when it contains a substance like
chlorophyll, or green sap, or when it is brown, or red, of the
tints well known in leaves. Of course the distinction must be
made between the chlorophyll matter properly belonging to an
organism, and that which may have been swallowed byit. The
possession of cilia or whips does not decide animality or vege-
tality, but moveable styles, hooks, ett., characterize some of the
higher animalcules. Red spots looking like eyes are no evidence
of animality. The euglenz possess them, and they can only be
distinguished from true red eyes, as may exist in rotifers, by .
the use of high powers, which shows whether an optical
structure really exists.

In studying simple vegetable forms, no object is more
accessible than the green slimy stuff that grows on damp
stones. A little piece should be scraped off and placed in a
drop of water, on a slide, covered with thin glass and gently
pressed. It is then ready for view, and is seen to be com- -
posed of oval or rounded patches of green matter, enclosed
in a gelatinous envelope. ‘The multiplication of these patches ~
takes place by division of the cells. First the cell contents
take an hour-glass form, then a constriction appears, finally
a division, each half finishing itself off, secreting more of the
gelatinous casing, and’ being ready to split again as before.
Sometimes two cells will joi and fuse together, with a certain
mingling of contents. This is called cunjugation, and from it
a spore results, and that in its turn gives rise to a new indi-
vidual, which by the mode of fission just described soon pro-
duces a fresh generation. In damp weather this plant, the
Palmoglea macreeccca, and many other objects more or less
resembling it, multiply with great rapidity by the method of
division ; a little more warmth and dryness promotes the con-
Jugation, and checks the fission. This is somewhat analogous -
to what takes place with the aphides, or plant lice, which mul-
tiply by an internal method analogous to vegetable budding,
while the circumstances favour their rapid growth, and start a
fresh generation by the united action of males and females,
when the means of subsistence, and the temperature, are less
plentiful and propitious. .

A great many simple vegetables -exist during a portion of
their lives, or in one of their stages, in a motile form, and
many little objects taken by early observers for animalcules
are plants in this condition. This is the case with the euglenez,

Simple Forms of Infe. 203

which may'be easily observed in their resting stage. Many
plants emit spores that swim freely for a time (zoospores), and
others form in little receptacles antherozoids, which swim
and meet another class of cells, the fertilization of which they
effect, somewhat as the pollen, borne on true anthers, acts upon
the germs of higher plants.

_ The entire life history of the lower forms of animals and
vegetables is very incompletely known. In a few cases a
complete cycle of changes has been traced out, but it is pro-
bable that a great number of objects to which specific names
are given, are not in themselves complete in their kind, but
only early forms of more complicated organisms.

A student is always surprised to find that a great many
adult forms have lost faculties or organs that might have been
expected to remain. Thus locomotion seems an attribute of
dignity, and the loss of the power might be taken as an indi-
cation of retrogression; but in many of the lower vegetables,
and in many animals also, the locomotive stage is that of
infancy, while the adult approaches more to the Buddhist
idea of perfection, and enjoys repose. That which should
elicit attention is the relation between the structure and
attributes of any cbject, in any stage from that of the ege to
maturity, and the observer should watch the work it has to
perform for the perpetuation of its own species, and its
defence against foes. In both the.animal and the vegetable
worlds we notice cases in which the infant form must either
perish or be able to take care of itself, while in others
it may be safely left to depend upon maternal aid. Nature
supplies an infinite variety of conditions in which life is pos-
sible, and a corresponding variety of living beings capable of
thriving under circumstances having the right relation to their
structure and ways. As Darwin has shown, those best fitted
for their conditions thrive, those least fitted pass away; but
such is the harmony of the entire system, that no group can
perform its own duties without benefiting others. And in
the microscopic world of life we see the interdependence of
different sorts of beings displayed conspicuously on a scale
which is extremely small if we contemplate only the spectacle
afforded in our slides and preparations, but which is enormously
large in nature, inasmuch as no process of growth or decay
occurs on the surface of the globe without minute organisms
contributing towards, or even determining the result.

In the protoplasm of the plant, and in that similar substance
the sarcode of the animal, as we can see it through the micro-
scope in the simpler organic forms, we may trace actions that
le at the foundation of all terrestrial life. In the lower kinds
a few actions are co-ordinated and combined for a simple

204. Naturalists’ Field Clubs.

result, in the highest the number of such combined actions
is incalculable, the variety great; so if we look to human
society, savage existence co-ordinates little and accomplishes
little, while civilization grows in proportion as it multiplies
the number of actions that conduce to a given end, and
exhibits the greatest quantity of individual diversity har-
moniously directed to secure the welfare of each in the.
advantage of all.

NATURALISTS’ FIELD CLUBS; THEIR WORK AND
WAYS OF DOING IT.

BY GEORGE S. BRADY, M.R.C.S.,
Secretary to the Tyneside Naturalists’ Field Club.

Now that naturalists’ field clubs have become so numerous and
so widely popular, it may be useful to devote a few pages
to the consideration of the manner in which they are usually
conducted, and the ends which they chiefly aim to pro-
mote. Their capacity of usefulness is perhaps greater than at
first sight might be imagined ; and it will be matter of regret.
if the opportunities within their grasp are not turned to the
best account. Possibly the present widely spread mterest in
them may prove to be, like other popular hobbies, somewhat
evanescent ; at all events, it is prudent to act on the maxim,
“Make hay while the sun shines.”’

The first-established of field clubs was the Berwickshire,
which began operations in 1831, and owed its formation mainly
to the zeal and energy of the late Dr. George Johnston, of
Berwick. In 1846 the Tyneside and the Cotteswold clubs
were instituted, and since that time a large number of clubs—
mostly flourishing associations—have been formed in various
parts of the country. The following table exhibits the dates of
formation, numbers, and rates of subscription of some of the
more important : =

Annual Number of
es Spoons, Entrance. wees
B. tidy 3s. da.

Berwickshire Naturalists’ Field Club | 1831 6 0 sind 206
Tyneside % Fe 1846 5 0 5 0 522
Cotteswold 3 * 1846 |10 0 | 21 0 94,
Warwickshire _,, 1854 |about3séd) ... 93
Manchester Field Naturalists’ "Society 1860 | 10 6 | 10 6 | about 500
Liverpool Naturalists’ Field Club . | 1860 5 0 Ae 633

Bristol Naturalists’ Society . : 1862 5 0 ie 195

Naturalists? Field Olubs. 205

It may be noted that the Manchester and Liverpool clubs
include amongst their members a large proportion of ladies.
There is considerable variety in the modes of procedure adopted
by the different societies, but an essential feature of all of them
is the holding of “ field meetings” in their respective districts
during thesummer and autumn. In most cases the excursionsare
made to occupythe entire day; in others, chiefly thosewhere there
is a profusion of the fair sex, the afternoon onlyis usually devoted
to the excursion. In these cases, too, the general arrange-
ments seem to be devised very gallantly with reference to the
lady constituents, even to the measurement of the stiles on the
line of march ; for in one of the Liverpool club’s circulars for
last season I find “the minimum stile guage” stated at one
foot—a discouraging announcement, one would think. In some
cases the practice exists of offering prizes for the best collec-
tions of plants obtained during the day’sramble. For my own
part, I can see nothing to commend in this system. Indeed,
in the case of rare plants existing only on a very limited area,
one can scarcely imagine a better device to ensure their speedy
destruction. During a recent visit to Manchester, I learnt
that such a result bad actually been brought about, to some
_ extent, in that neighbourhood.* Moreover, this prize system
is not very likely to promote the good of science in any way.
The study of nature ought to be, and is, to every real student,
its own reward; and such a one will scarcely be found condes-
cending to a competition of this kind.

Very few of the field clubs—indeed, so far as I know, none
except the Berwickshire and the Tyneside—attempt the publi-
cation of “ Transactions”? on a more ambitious plan than the
simple reporting of their meetings. It is, however, very much
to be desired that they should generally make an effort to pub-
lish carefully prepared catalogues of the different natural pro-
ductions of their respective districts. This has, to a lmited
extent; been accomplished by some clubs, and is one of the
most useful directions im which surplus funds can be employed.
Local floras, at any rate, might mostly be compiled; but it
should be remembered that the value and interest of these

* Since writing the above I find it stated, in the Annual Report of the Man-
chester Society, that “it is gratifying to the committee to be assured that no rare
plant has suffered through the society ;” so that there appears to be a diversity of
opinion amongst the members of the society on this question. The committee,
however, propose to enrich the natural flora and fauna of the district, and so to

- “add to the beauty and interest of the country round Manchester, by taking with
them on their excursions any surplus roots and seeds they may possess, especially
of native plants brought from a distance, and also living fresh-water mollusca, and
depositing them in places where they would be likely to become permanently
established. . . . Also to enrich the neighbourhood by a judicious sowing of
the seeds of exotic plants.”

206 Naturalists’ Field Clubs.

publications would be much enhanced by their embracing
something more than a mere record of names and localities.
The hthological and climatological distribution of plants, and
the altitudes which they attain, are matters which should
receive attention. And now that a good pocket barometer is
so easily attainable, a more useful and agreeable pursuit than
the collection of such data can scarcely be recommended to the
excursionist, provided that he is already familiar with the
plants themselves. ie

The recording of meteorological observations is a matter
quite within the legitimate range of a field club’s operations.
There are in most districts many observers who keep regular
records of rain-fall, temperature, etc. ; and if these observa-
tions could be got together, and annually tabulated, the result
would in time form a record of very great value. As an off-
shoot of this system, records might also be kept of the periodi-
cal return of the seasons, as indicated by the flowering of
plants, arrival and departure of birds, etc. Printed forms
adapted for these entries have for several years past been dis-
tributed amongst its members by the Tyneside Club; and itis
not unreasonable to suppose that the habits of observation thus
fostered in those who carefully fill up the forms may lead to
still more interesting results in other departments.

Those clubs whose district includes any portion of sea-coast
would do well to encourage its exploration by means of the
dredge. Near the shore this may very easily be accomplished
by private means, but when it is desired to explore the more
profound depths at a considerable ‘distance from land, the
necessary expenses of the work are such as to be beyond the
reach of most naturalists. In these cases the pecuniary aid of
the clubs may be most useful; and where the work contem-
plated is beyond even their means to accomplish, it is quite
likely that an application to the British Association (provided —
a competent managing committee could be named) would not
be made in vain. During the last three years considerable
dredging operations of this kind have been conducted by the
Tyneside Club on the north-eastern coast, and they have been .
largely assisted by grants from the British Association. Alto-
gether a sum of about £130 has been expended; many new
forms of life have been discovered, and much interesting
information as to the relations of our deep-sea fauna has been
brought together; besides which, the training thus given to
those who have taken part in the work has been most valuable,
and will probably bear fruit for many years to come. ~

But besides the direct encouragement of natural history and
the cognate sciences, a large sphere of usefulness is open to
them in endeavouring to discourage the wanton and useless
destruction of natural objects, antiquities, etc. Many evils of

Naturalists’ Field Clubs. 207

this kind are probably beyond their reach or control; others
might possibly, by judicious treatment, be partially or altogether
averted. One of the most grievous of these is the constant
destruction, by gamekeepers, of birds of prey and other animals,
under the notion (often a very mistaken one) that they prey
upon game birds or their eggs. That predatory birds, etc., do
kill off, to some extent, the weaker species, cannot, we sup-
pose, be disputed, but those which fall victims must generally
be the weak, old, or diseased individuals ; and it may very well
be doubted whether the natural destruction of these would not
be a benefit rather than a loss to the game-preserver. Disease
amongst grouse used not to be so much heard of before
the inauguration of the present system of “ vermin’’-killing.
Much might be written upon this part of our subject, but the
present is not the place to enter further into it. Whether the
various field clubs could, by the distribution of printed appeals
to landowners and game-preservers, do anything to stay this
gradual extermination of our most interesting fere nature, is
a matter well worthy of their consideration. If an intelligent
interest in natural history could be communicated to the
gamekeepers and their masters, much would be done to
stay the havoc. The wholesale destruction of small birds by
indiscriminate bird-nesting in the neighbourhood of large vil-
lages and towns is another growing evil. In some districts
where song-birds used not long ago.to be abundant, they are
now becoming lamentably scarce. It is needless, here, to
dwell upon the destruction thus indirectly caused to trees and
crops by the multiplication of insect pests, which should have
formed the natural food of the smaller birds. So true is it
that not one of nature’s arrangements can be broken without
causing a wide-spread disorganization. The extermination of
rare plants and ferns is perhaps a smaller evil, but still a
grievous one; moreover, it is generally brought about by
hands more polite than those of gamekeepers and country lads,
perhaps even by members of field clubs. themselves. It is
difficult, too, to speak in very sweeping terms in condemnation
of it, for when a man really wants a plant for his herbarium,
or a fern for his greenhouse, it is hard to say he may not take
it. We would exhort the botanist to be content with the
flower, and to leave the root ; the fern-grower to pause awhile,
and think of Wordsworth’s beautiful lines—

“ Hre from the mutilated bower I turned
Exulting, rich beyond the wealth of kings,
I felt a sense of pain when I beheld
The silent trees, and saw the intruding sky.
Then, dearest maiden, move along these shades
In gentleness of heart; with gentle hand
Touch—for there is a spirit in the woods.”

208 Outlines of Meteoric Astronomy.

Yes, kind reader, leave the fern; so, in the aftertime, shall it
often in its quiet, unmolested beauty, “ flash upon that inward
eye which is the bliss of solitude.”

There is even some risk of plants once tolerably common
becoming rare, owing to the constant depredations of collectors.
A very few years ago in far Hasedale, an unfrequented glen
near Grasmere, the banks of the stream were rich with forests
of Osmunda regalis. Last autumn I heard that not a plant re-
mained. From the more accessible habitats of Rydal and
Grasmere it has long disappeared, though it once fringed the
lake with a luxuriant beauty which sent De Quincey ito rap-
tures, and drew from Wordsworth a line which the Opium-eater
styles “the most beautiful mdependent line in the whole
records of poetry ”—

“Fair ferns and flowers, and chiefly that tall fern,
So stately, of the Queen Osmunda named ;
Plant lovelier, in its own retired abode
On Grasmiere’s beach, than naiad by the side
Of Grecian brook, or Lady of the Mere,
Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance.”

OUTLINES OF METEORIC ASTRONOMY.
BY A. S: HERSCHEL, B.A.

(1.) Tux history of Meteoric Astronomy may be briefly divided
into four periods—of Speculation, Observation, Explanation, and
Prediction. The first of these periods dates from the time of
Aristotle (380 B.c.) to the time of Cornelius Gemma (a.p. 1450).
In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we may suppose
the opinions of Aristotle to have prevailed during the whole
of the period, and the following summary of his views is derived
from the chapter of his works m which he treats of meteor-
ology.
“The Principle of Heat, or “ Phlogiston,” to borrow a word.
from later chemical writers, must, he says, levitate, or
tend upwards, while all other known bodies gravitate towards
the earth. Suppose that, by combining with “ phlogiston,”
large quantities of humid and terrestrial vapours have been
elevated to the summit of the atmosphere, they will there
come into immediate contact with the revolving celestial
sphere, and the “ phlogiston”’ being set free by friction they
inflame, and the northern-lights are produced. When the
vapours are drawn up in a column and kindled at the summit
of the atmosphere, a fire-ball is generated, just as a flame runs —

Outlines of Meteorie Astronomy. 209

down the smoke and gas when a lighted match is approached to
the wick of a smouldering taper. Other vapours again are too
heavy to be lifted completely to the summit of the atmosphere,
which is the native region of heat. The “ phlogiston” then
escapes upwards, and projects downwards the ponderating
vapours, as a cherry-stone is jerked from between the finger and
the thumb. ‘These are the shooting-stars. Aristotle regarded
aérolites as having been carried up into the air by whitl-
winds, and thence let fall. Anaxagoras, on the contrary,
believed them to be pieces of the heavenly bodies.

(2.) A century after the time of Cornelius Gemma, whose
work illustrates the views of Aristotle, Copernicus and Galileo
flourished at the end of the 16th, and Kepler at the beginning
of the 17th century. These astronomers combined to raise the
science of astronomy to a new point of perfection by their ob-
servations, and Kepler was the first to publish an “‘ Epheme-
rides,” or yearly journal of his observations, in one of which
there is described a fire-ball that passed over the whole of
Austria from east to west with a terrific explosion, on the 17th
of November, 1623. On the 31st of March, 1667, a similar
detonating fire-ball was observed in Italy, and described by
Montanari. A meteor was seen at twilight in Hngland on the
20th of September, 1676, and taken by Wallis to have been a
comet. A detonating meteor that visited England on the 19th
of March, 1719, was described by Halley, and attributed to the
combustible gases imagined by Aristotle. This meteor was,
he thought, seventy miles high, and, therefore, at the very
summit of the atmosphere, and the great explosions were ex-
plained by remarking that they might very well be caused by
gas, which often produces in coal mines frightful catastrophes.
These meteors he recommended for the future to be carefully
observed, in order thereby to determine the longitudes of dis-
tant places. These recommendations, Lynn, a few years later,
extended to shooting-stars, for he observed that they were never
noticed on cloudy nights, and must therefore always stay a con-
siderable height above the clouds. Saussure and Spallanzani,
also, at the end of the last century, on the Alps and Ap-
penines, remarked that they appeared to be quite as high
above their heads from the tops of mountains, as they usually
appear from the level of the plains below. ‘Two students at
Géttingen, Brandes and Benzenberg, determined, in 1798, to
sift this question to the bottom. An opinion had sprung up
_in Germany, of which a short outline may very well serve as
an introduction to the third period, or that of explanation, in
the history of shooting stars.

(3.) In the choir of the cathedral at Hnsisheim (Alsace)
there was preserved, until recently, a dark-looking stone

210 Outlines of Meteoric Astronomy.

of large size, with a strange inscription, written in three lan-
guages, Latin, French, and German :—
“Tn fourteen hundred ninety-two

There happened here a great ado ;

For close without, before the town,

The seventh of November’s moon,

A stone was fall’n and there it lay,

With thunder, and in open day !

Two hundred and a half it weighed.

Its colour iron. Then they made

Procession, and *twas hither borne,

But much by force from it was torn.”

The remainder of the stone, weighing only 16 lbs., was
removed to the Museum of Natural History in Paris, where
it is the most ancient known example of an aérolite of which
authentic accounts have been preserved. Many such instances
were however not wanting in later years, and a monk was
struck and killed at Padua by an aérolite in 1660. Toaldo
on this occasion proposed to consider them as projected from
volcanoes on the moon. More recently, namely, in the year
1768, not less than three aérolites fell in different parts of
France. Of these the stone of Lucé was given to be analysed
by the French Academy to the great chemist Lavoisier, who
four years later returned his opinion that the reputed meteorite
was a mass of iron pyrites that had been disfigured by light- »
ning, and at the same time exposed to view in the place where
it was found. This mistaken verdict of Lavoisier led to the
error by which certain nodules of iron pyrites having a rough
surface and radiated structure are ‘still vulgarly known im
England by the name of “thunderbolts.” These of course are
totally earthy concretions, altogether different in their nature
and origin from real meteoric stones. Montanari and Ferret
had proposed to consider that aérolites are projected by
earthly volcanoes, and Jussieu laboured to. prove that
aérolites are at least a different class of minerals from fossil
shells or flint arrow-heads and implements. Nevertheless,
after the verdict of Lavoisier, the reality of such occurrences
was wholly discredited in France. Nor was opinion more ©
settled with regard to luminous meteors, but one meteorologist,
Toaldo, ascribed all fiery meteors to the combustion of pure
“ Phlogiston,” or hydrogen, and Muschenbroeck attributed
shooting-stars, like Aristotle, to humid exhalations from the
ground, especially in marshy places, where, and on the banks
of rivers, he remarked, their gelatinous residues might often be
discovered on the ground. In 1752, Franklin and Dalibard
discovered the source of lightning in atmospheric electricity.
This discovery acquired great fame, and Pringle, in 1758,
and Blagden in 1783, attributed to this agent the two remark-

Outlines of Meteoric Astronomy. 211

able fire-balls observed in Hngland in those years. The dis-
charge of electricity is, unfortunately for this theory, exceed-
ingly diffuse in thin air, while the light of fire-balls is brilliant
and intense. The explanation of luminous meteors now
generally accepted is that due to Chladni, of Wittemberg,
well known for his researches in the theory of sound, and
from whom are named the figures formed on glass and other
flat surfaces, when strewed with sand, and made to vibrate
with a musical note. Chladni visited Gottmgen in 1792,
where he became acquainted with Lichtenberg’s electrical
experiments, and was induced to reject the electrical theory of
luminous meteors as altogether untenable. The work in which
the new views of Chaldni were made known was published in
April, 1794, under the title, “The tron of Pallas and other
masses of stone and von reputed to have fallen from the air.”
In this work, Chiadni supposes that all the accounts hitherto
received of the falls of aérolites were founded in reality,
and conjectures that the planetary velocity with which these
bodies enter the air is sufficient, by compressing the air, to raise
them toa heat of vividignition. The property of compressed air
here assumed can be made evident by an instrument called a
fire-syringe, in which air confined by a piston in a tube, and
moderately compressed, readily ignites punk, tinder, or amadou.
With greater compression a proportionately greater effect might
be produced. In this way, not onlythe fused surfaces of aérolites,
but also fire-balls and shooting-stars can be accounted for. It ©
is only necessary to suppose that the latter kinds of meteors
are so small as to be consumed before they enter the
atmosphere to any depth, and both shooting-stars and fire-
balls will be seen to be the same class of bodies as aérolites on
a smaller scale.

(4.) To test this theory, Brandes and Benzenberg, in 1798,
undertook to determine the heights and velocities of shooting-
stars under the direction of Lichtenberg. The heights were
found to be in perfect agreement with Chladni’s supposition.
Fire-balls and shooting-stars occur, namely, at a common
height of forty to eighty miles above the surface of the earth.
Their velocity is somewhat greater than that of the earth in
its orbit, and (although they may sometimes appear to do so)
they in reality never shoot upwards, but always downwards
towards the earth. In this way Chladni’s position was fully
confirmed, and more attention came to be paid to the fall of
aérolites than they had ever before received. A variety of
explanations was at this time hazarded to account for the pre-
sence of the flying particles in space. Among these the
theory of Toaldo, that meteorites were stones projected by
volcanoes from the moon, obtained the most adherents, and

VOL. VII.—NO, III. P

212 Outlines of Meteoric Astrononvy.

was advocated in succession by Olbers, Laplace, Poisson, Biot,
and others. Lichtenberg was also of the same opinion, and
as late as the year 1839, Benzenberg affirmed that shooting-
stars migrated from the moon. He quoted Lichtenberg’s remark,
that ‘‘ the moon was a bad neighbour to the earth, and pelted
her with stenes.”? Laplace and Poisson, however, abandoned
this explanation on the ground that no projectile forces exist
upon the earth or moon sufficient to eject the stones with
planetary velocity. The native source and origin of fire-balls,
shooting-stars, and aérolites, still remained to be discovered ;
and some advance in this direction was shortly afterwards
effected by an extraordinary occurrence in America. On the
morning of the 13th November, 1853, there was witnessed in
the United States of America such a surpassmg shower of
luminous meteors that every description of the display appears
to have fallen short of the reality. One fact, however,
remained certain, that a perfectly similar shower to this was
observed by Humboldt in Cumana on the morning of
the 13th November, 1799; and another, that the meteors
streamed outwards on all sides from the direction of a fixed point
near the star Gamma Leonis, during the continuance of the
shower. ‘These two particulars Arago, the late French astro-
nomer, declared to be decisive in favour of a new theory for
the origin of luminous meteors. ‘ They are,” he said, “a
new planetary world, beginning to be revealed to us ;” they
circulate like planets round the sun. Shooting-stars obey the
Newtonian law of gravitation, and their orbits may be calcu-
lated like those of the planets or thevmoon. It is now a fact -
well proved by evidence that the November meteors return m
their greatest magnificence every thirty-three years, so that
their next central conjunction with the earth will take place on
the 13th or 14th November, 1866.

(5.) Another date for periodical meteors, namely the 10th
of August, was shortly afterwards discovered by M. Quetelet ~
at Brussels, in 1836, and at this epoch may properly be said
to commence the period of prediction. M. Quetelet predicted
the return of this shower on the following 10th August, 1837,
and the prediction was fully confirmed, and. has not failed since
to be verified in Brussels every succeeding year. M. Quetelet,
moreover, prepared Catalogues of Star-showers in 1839 and
1841, and specified particular dates for their return, all of which,
as will presently be shown, have since been verified. Of these
showers, the meteors of the 10th of August, although not the
brightest, are the most regular in their return. They appear
to fail every eighth year, the last minimum having taken
place in 1862 ; but the display of August 10th, 1863, is pro- .
bably the brightest star-shower that has been witnessed in

Outlines of Meteoric Astronomy. 213

Hngland since the night of November 12th—13th, 1832,
when it is related the horses of the mail between York
and Richmond were terrified by the brightness of the
meteors. Shooting-stars are now better observed, by await-
ing their arrival every year upon the 10th of August, than
they could have been at any former period of their history.
Star-showers also return (but not regularly) on the 2nd
January; 9th—10th, and 20th—26th April; 25th—30th July ;
15th—23rd October; and 6th—12th December; with their
radiant points respectively at v Herculis, 6 Virginis, a Lyre,
y Cygni, v Orionis, and 0 Geminorum.

(6.) On the 10th of August, 1863, the tracks of twenty
meteors were observed at the English national observatories in
such a manner as to determine their heights and velocities with
precision. On comparing these results with nearly two hundred
instances formerly observed, a remarkable uniformity is dis-
covered, and it may be stated on an average, with an error of
not more than two or three miles, that shooting-stars, from the
smallest visible to those as bright as the planets, appear at
seventy-three, and disappear at fifty-two miles above the sur-
face of the earth. Hither a different composition must pre-
vail in the second forty miles of the earth’s atmosphere to
account for this remarkable uniformity (perhaps the fluid which,
according to Mr. Airy, occasions magnetic storms), or else we
must admit that shooting-stars, whatever their size and splen- _
dour, are composed of such fragile materials, that they are all
alike dissipated by an equal opposition of resistance. The lower
portion of forty miles is generally called the crepuscular atmos-
phere from its giving rise to the phenomenon of twilight. The
upper portion of forty miles might, in the absence of any other
name, be termed the meteoric atmosphere, because it generates
the light of meteors, but M. Quetelet assigns the names of
stable and unstable to the upper and lower portions of the
atmosphere.

(7.) Not only periodical meteors, but also ordinary shooting-
stars, which may be observed in small numbers every night,
are shown to belong to showers, many of which at present are
as well determined as of those of August and November.
They return with their attendant radiant points, without con-
fusion or chance, at regular seasons of the year. Although
not so rich in meteors, they are even more regular in their re-
turn, more constant and long enduring than the extraordinary
occurrences of star-showers. The latter are evidently groups
in circulation round the sun, but the meteors of August
must compose a narrow ring encompassing the sun, for
otherwise they could not return, on one and the same date,
regularly every year, with only a single interruption,

214 _ Outlines of Meteoric Astronomy.

and that apparently a small one, every eighth year. The
ordinary, or general star-showers, on the other hand, compose
belts of vast extent, and must either be the embers of former
star-showers now absorbed by the earth, or else the original
distribution of meteoric matter round the sun in its primitive
unaffected order. We may suppose this matter to have been
in a state of dust or infinitesimal division, so that im general
the ordinary star-showers represent the primitive prevailing
currents. Occasionally, and at some places, the currents of
microscopic dust are found concentrated into shooting-stars ;
and these, by some unknown predisposing cause, have been
collected into star-showers. Finally, it would appear that fire-
balls themselves are nothing more than the compacted elements
of star-showers.

(8.) On the morning of the 19th of October, 1863, a very
luminous fire-ball was observed at Athens, under highly
advantageous circumstances, by Dr. Schmidt, in such a manner
as to illustrate by a striking example the ordinary composi-
tion of these meteors. The fire-ball advanced slowly through
an arc of 80°, and during fourteen seconds it was kept in view by
Dr. Schmidt in the field of a comet-seeker telescope magnify-
ing eight diameters. ‘The meteor appeared twin, or double,
followed by a multitude of lesser companions, all of these
advancing with parallel paths and drawing behind them parallel
trains of light. Similar followers were visible to the naked eys, -
ina striking manner, in the great meteor of the 18th of August,
1783. In Cavallo’s drawing (taken near London), there are de-
picted eleven such; in Robinson’s (Newark) nineteen; and in
Sanby’s (Windsor Castle) there are thirty-eight followers to the
meteor. In ordinary cases they follow the body of light so
closely as to give the meteor an elongated appearance, com-
pared to a wheatsheaf, a fish,a ninepin, etc., but at other
times the meteor appears divided, doubie, or pursued by two
or three balls, as in the case of Pringle’s meteor of 1758, and ~
the great meteor in America, on the 20th July, 1860. The
ordinary forms are kite-shaped, pear-shaped, or globular. —
Besides the followers, a permanent streak often remains upon.
the track of a fire-ball, either fading away quickly or con-
timuing visible for many minutes after the disappearance of
the meteor. In the latter case it rarely remains straight, but
changes its shape and position very sensibly, like a cloud
transported by the wind. In all these respects, fire-balls re-
semble gigantic shooting-stars. .

(9.) The heights of eleven fire-balls in England, in the years
1861-2, were found to be from 102 to 30 miles above earth’s
surface at the moments of first appearance and disappearance. ~
Nearly fifty fire-balls observed before the date in question

Outlines of Meteoric Astronomy. 215

(im the Old and New World), present the average values of
62 and 35 miles. The upper limit appears therefore sufli-
ciently uncertain ; but the lower limit is more depressed in the
air than in the case of shooting-stars. Fire-balls which pene-
trate to within twenty miles of the earth’s surface, generally
produce violent concussions in the air, and are called Detonat-
mg fire-balls. These frequently precipitate stones upon the
ground, and are occasionally called Aérolitic meteors, to distin-
guish them from the class of silent fire-balls, or Bolides.
Bolides vary in magnitude from the apparent diameters of the
planets to fire-balls which throw shadows, and are often bril-
hant and surprising objects at noonday. The velocities of
bolides, as well as of detonating fire-balls, average more than
thirty miles per second, and no distinction can be drawn in this
respect between shooting-stars and fire-balls. |

(10.) The coincidence of dates and directions evince
the common origin of bolides and periodical shooting-stars.
Only those fire-balls which are truly aérolitic will, it ap-
pears, require to be explained ina different manner. Among the
240,000 meteors said to have been visible above the horizon in
America, during the night of the 12th—13th November, 1833, a
considerable proportion consisted of fire-balls, varying in bright-
ness from the apparent magnitudes of Jupiter and Venus to
that of the Moon. The same was also observed in England,
though on a less striking scale, on the night of the 10th of
August, 1863. Shooting-stars and small bolides radiated on
that night from ten o’clock till midnight, from the direction of
the usual radiant pomt in Perseus. Again, a catalogue of
nearly 1500 fire-balls, compiled from all previous catalogues,
and from other independent sources, by Mr. Greg, shows that a
large preponderance of fire-balls were observed on the dates
of the LOth of August, 13th of November, and 6th—12th
ot December. Aérolites, on the contrary, are wanting on the
same dates; for if the aérolitic date on the 13th—14th of De-
cember may be omitted, there is no approximation of aérolites
to the star-showers of August and November. TF ire-balls are
shown by the catalogue to be abundant on the 10th of April
and 18th of October, and on both of these dates star-showers
have been observed. There appears therefore a variety of
evidence to show that shooting-stars and fire-balls have a
common origin; and furthermore that the sun is irregularly
encompassed by zones of meteoric dust, concentrated at some
points into shooting-stars and bolides, which by some unknown
predisposing cause have been collected into star-showers. The
concentration of the materials appears to have taken place with-
out consolidation, nevertheless some portions might be so
far compacted by, chemical affinities or crystallization, as to

216 - Outlines of Meteorie Astronomy.

enter the atmosphere deep enough to produce concussions, but

not to reach the ground. Aérolites, it will presently be seen,

cannot have owed their origin to such a process.

- (11.) The falls of aérolites must be reckoned very rare occur-

rences in England, but in Europe the number of falls recorded

since the beginning of the last century to the present time

exceeds 130. Aérolites are not (by any means) so frequent as

earthquakes, but so violent are their concussions im the air,

that they may have been at times mistaken for this cause.

Some might also occur at night, and many in unfrequented

parts, which could not be recovered and transmitted to

museums. If the number preserved is reckoned at one-tenth

part of those which have really fallen, this amounts on a

moderate estimate to one meteorite per diem on the whole

surface of the sea and land. ‘This department of science is
therefore likely to be extended by the increased facilities of
intelligence and intercommunication which prevail in every

part of the inhabited globe. At Barbotan, im the South of
France, a perfect hail of stones took place on the evening of
the 24th of July, 1790, from a large meteor which burst over
the town, so that the inhabitants ran for refuge in their houses.

This report was generally disbelieved mm France, but specimens.
were nevertheless preserved in private collections. A shower

of stones was again reported to have taken place at L’Aigle,
in Normandy, on the 26th of April, 1803. J.B. Biot, an

Academician from Paris, was deputed. to inquire into the truth

of these reports. Having provided himself with a specimen

of the Barbotan stones, Biot proceeded to the spot, and soon

assured himself of the truth of all that was related. Biot him-

self dug up a stone from the ground where it had fallen, and

im afew days returned to the Academy the followimg report :—

“1. A violent explosion was heard at L’Aigle and for 80
miles in all the country round, about one p.m. on the 26th of
April, 1803.

«2. A few minutes before the explosion was heard at
L’Aigle, a luminous meteor with a very rapid motion was seen
in the air, not at L’Aigle, but at several very distant place
round.

“3. The explosion that was heard at L’Aigle was the con-
sequence of the luminous meteor which burst m the air. .

«4. Stones fell from the sky on the 26th of April, 1803.”

More than 2000 stones fell, upon trees, pavements, and
the roofs of houses, so hot at the moment of their fall as to
burn the fingers when incautiously handled. One person was
grazed by a stone upon the arm. ‘This shower of stones ex-
tended over an area of oval figure nine miles long from south
to north, and six miles wide. In this respect it was perfectly

Outlines of Meteorite Astronomy. 217

similar to the shower of stones which fell at Stannern, between
Prague and Vienna, on the 22nd of May, 1812. At six o’clock
in the morning, after violent concussions, followed by rumbling
noises for six or eight minutes, nearly 200 stones fell in the
fields round Stannern, and were brought from the high
road to the village in great numbers. Von Schreibers, who
reported this stonefall to the Vienna Academy, collected sixty-
one specimens of the stones, and consigned them to the Im-
perial Museum, where the greater number may still be seen.
At the time of the stonefall at L’Aigle, only three specimens
of aérolites were to be found in the Imperial Museum at Vienna,
namely those of Hnsisheim, Mauerkirchen, and Hichstadt, but
after the occurrence of that at Stannern greater interest was
awakened, and the Museum at the present day contains 220
specimens of meteorites. It is only exceeded in this respect by
the magnificent collection at present exhibited at the British
Museum.

(12.) The meteorites of Barbotan, L’Aigle, and Stannern are
memorable instances of aérolitic showers. They must, in the
opinion of Haidinger, of Vienna, have entered the air as a crowd
or swarm of stones ; but istancesof solitary meteorites have also
been abundantly recorded, of which the following are examples.
The meteorite of Hnsisheim, already mentioned above, is the
earliest existing mstance, and the large stone which fell in
Yorkshire on the 13th of December, 1795, should be a familiar -
example to all who have visited the department of mmerals
exhibited at the British Museum. It is a cubical block
weighing 56 lbs. The large meteorite which fell at Juvinas
(Ardéche) in France, on the 15th June, 1821, although similar
in its texture and minerals to the aérolites of Stannern, was a
solitary stone. It weighs 220lbs. Of meteorites which fell m
smaller numbers those only need be noticed in which the
height and velocity of the attendant fire-ball was accurately
determined. The meteorites of Weston, in America, fell at
daybreak on the morning of the 13th December, 1807, a date,
like the 13th of October, justly rendered .famous for aérolitic
falls. The stones were few in number, and fell at three points
of the meteor’s path, corresponding, according to Bowditch,
to three explosions which took place at heights of twenty-five
to sixteen miles above the earth. The velocity of the meteor
was estimated by Prof. Bowditch at only three miles per second.
The two stones which fell at Charsonville, near Orleans, in
France, on the 23rd November, 1810, were preceded by a fire-
ball, of which the explosion and disappearance was estimated
by Dutrochet at seventeen miles above the earth. They weighed
40 lbs. and 20 lbs. respectively, and are crossed by dark veins

which give the mass a marble-like appearance. The meteorites’

218 Outlines of Meteoric Astronomy.

of Orgueil (in the south of France) fell at evening on the 14th
of May, 1864, from a meteor apparently as large as the full-
moon, which moved from east to west with a velocity of
fourteen miles per second, descending from a height of forty
to sixty miles above Nerac to fifteen or twenty miles above
the town of Orgueil, where it burst, and the stones were
scattered over several miles. They contain an unusual quan-
tity of carbon, sulphate of ammonia, and other salts. The
explosions of aérolites have. been compared to those of
“Prince Rupert’s drops,” small beads of glass brought mto
a high state of tension by sudden change of temperature at the
surface. On the slightest fracture, they fly into a thousand
pieces. This explanation is however doubtful: at least the
stones so described cannot be made to decrepitate in the flame
of the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe. In the few instances, soon.
to be described, where disruption has certainly occurred, this
took place when the heat on the surface had subsided. In
ordinary cases separate fragments of meteorites cannot be
fitted together into a single block.

(18.) Aérolites are invariably covered with a dark crust, not
thicker than an ordinary playimg-card, of their own substance,
fused or molten into slag. This is evidently caused by the heat-
of the fire-ball by which at first they are surrounded. Chladni-
and Vauquelin supposed that the dark veins inthe stones of Char-
sonville were portions of the black crust, cementing together
broken pieces of the stone. Certain falls have, however, occurred
to prove that no slag is formed upon -meteorites after the time
that they are broken by concussion. The meteorites of Queng-
gouk (in Peeu) for example, which fell on the 27th December,
1857, fit so exactly to one another at the surfaces which have
not been crusted over, that the meteorite evidently parted
after the fire-ball ceased to melt the surface. These pieces —
were discovered a mile apart. The meteorites of Butsura,
which fell near Goorka, in India, on the 12th of May, 1861, are a
more striking example in point. Five stones, in this case, weigh-
ing together more than 380 Ibs., being joined together by their
fresh uncoated surfaces, fit so exactly into one large uniformly —
crusted mass, that two fragments only are wanting at the
angles to prove that the stone was only broken in pieces when
the heat of the fire-ball had ceased to have any effect upon it.
These fragments of a meteorite were found at four different
places, lying two to three or even four miles distant from one
another. Sections of this meteorite and its model are ex-
hibited in the British Museum. With regard to veined stones
like those of Charsonville, the opinion of Berzelius is more |.
defensible that the black veins were formed in the primitive —
rock of which these stones are native pieces.

Outlines of Meteorie Astronomy. 219

(14.) Some meteorites, called aérosiderites, are metallic
iron, more or less alloyed with nickel. These kinds are
generally found fossil, two only having been observed to
fall from the sky, and these nearly a century apart. The
first occurred at Agram in Croatia, on the 26th of May,
1751, weighing 72 lbs., and is preserved in the Imperial
Museum at Vienna, where is also exhibited the aérosiderite
of Braunau, that fell on the 14th of July, 1847. The largest
fossil iron remains immoveably fixed im the desert of Bahia, in
the Brazils. Another from La Plata, weighing 7 cwt., 1s
exhibited in the British Museum. One was found at Var, im
France; and recently a specimen, weighing 33 lbs., was dug
up near Melrose, in Scotland. ‘The iron of these blocks is
nearly as regularly crystallized as a piece of ordinary spar, as
may be shown by etching their polished surfaces with acid.
Some meteorites (a good specimen is the meteorite of Hain-
holtz) are composed partly of iron and partly of stone. They
are called siderolites, and the meteorite of Butsura, already
mentioned, is not far removed from this class.

(L5.) By far the greater majority of meteorites are aérolites,
or stones resembling grey lava, with scattered grains of iron and
pyrites, etc., and covered, as above described, with a shining or
dull black crust. In their form they are rough, unshapen pieces,
weighing from one to’ two hundredweights in ‘the largest, and
one or two ounces in the smallest specimens. The mixed —
minerals, mostly crystalline, of which they consist, have been
studied with the microscope, and in the laboratory by chemical
analysis. By the microscope they are shown to have been
slowly consolidated from a state of fusion ; and by analysis they
are hardly to be distinguished from terrestrial lavas, excepting
that iron, carbon, phosphorus, and nickel are present in a state
uncombined with oxygen. Aérolites are, therefore, erupted or
unerupted foreign lavas—specimens of the igneous frame of some
unknown planet, melted in mountains, cooled in rocks, roughly
broken off and projected into space. It deserves to be men-
tioned, as a curious coincidence, that the earliest well-known
historical aérolite in existence, that of Ensisheim, fell upon the
earth in the same year, and within a month of the same day, as
that on which America was discovered by Columbus. The
minerals brought back by Columbus and his contemporaries to
the court of Spain did not furnish with more positive proofs of
the existence in the Atlantic of a “New World,” than the
presence of a meteorite upon the globe supplies to astronomers,
that planets are to be found in the vicinity of the earth, of
which the positions and capabilities are not yet computed, even
by Le Verrier and his most accomplished adherents. That
bolides and shooting-stars owe their existence to belts of

220 - Outlines of Meteorite Astronomy.

matter in a state of extremely fine division encompassing the
sun, it seems hardly possible to doubt. Aérolites, on the con-
trary, are fragments of solid stone, and of these the source and
origin must at least be on a larger scale, and composed of the
same materials. The conclusion appears inevitable that parent
planets in the immediate vicinity of the earth, too small and
powerless to reclaim their fragments, have scattered the lapide-
ous morsels broadcast into space. These circulating round the
sun with their initial projectile velocities, should the orbits of
both intersect each other, must sooner or later encounter the
earth.

(16.) It may be presumed thatthe suspected planets are
situated within the orbit of the earth, because by far the
greatest number of aérolites are experienced by day, while
the sun is still above the horizon, and the largest detonating.
fire-balls occur about the time of sunset. In this way the pas-
sage of dark bodies across the disc of the sun, and more
rarely across the disc of the moon, may be explamed. For it
can be calculated that a planet twelve miles in diameter, at ten
times the moon’s distance from the earth, subtending 1” of arc
at its passage across the sun, would appear as a morning and
evening eighth magnitude star. But as at the time of its.
greatest brightness it would also be stationary, or nearly so,
and almost lost in the rays of twilight, it is not impossible
that such planets, if accidentally observed, should have
been mistaken for fixed stars. Should the suspected planets,
however, be situated outside the orbit of the earth, it is dif-
cult to perceive how they could so long have eluded the gaze
of our sharp-eyed astronomers, as their lustre in this case would
be vastly superior. But in the meantime the bombardment
of aérolites continues ; and whatever may be their origin, some
new light must before long be obtained from these “ pocket-
planets” themselves, as they have been termed by Humboldt, -
to settle the perplexing Lanes and to open out new fields
for speculation.

Instinct of Birds. 221

INSTINCT OF BIRDS.
BY THE REV. JOHN WEBB.

Tue following remarkable instance of instinct (or what we are
pleased to call by that name) came under the observation of
the writer :—

1863, July 26. Scene—Mrs. M.’s drawing-room. Present:
Mrs. M——, Miss C. B » Rev. J. W: Two birds in
two separate cages on the table—an Australian parroquet in a
brass wire circular cage, with a hoop swing m it, the cage
rather too small for the bird; a canary-bird in a cage of the
shape of a parallelogram, larger, but with only a perch. The
doors of each cage were opened, the doors of the room were
closed, and the birds are set at liberty. At first they flutter about
upon the chairs and tables, then amuse themselves by hopping
about upon the carpet and picking up crumbs, now and then
fluttering past each other without taking any particular notice.
They had often been let out before; it was said that the
canary bird was the master of the two. At last they make a
little nearer approach; a few passes with the beak take place
between them, but with little more than a flutter. At length
the parroquet tries to bully his companion after the manner of
the tribe, by facing him, and making a few rapid bows at him,
without producing any very great impression. The canary-
bird goes off to amuse himself, apparently not carmg a straw
about him; when, taking a few quiet steps (both cages having
been placed on the ground), the parroquet advances to the
door of his companion’s cage—the larger cage of the two—hops
upon the threshold, mounts upon the perch, and takes posses-
sion. This feat accomplished, the other, after a few détours
about the room, discovers an intruder in his cage, sidles
towards it, looks in, does not like the state of things, flutters
off, makes two or three turns, hops on the threshold, looks in
again, and is off again. When he was gone, the intruder de-
scends from the perch, places himself upon the threshold, draws
to the door with his beak, and with his beak makes it fast.
What, is this an untaught bird? Is it instinct, or is it a spark
of reason? The canary-bird perceives what he has done; got
to the top of his own cage (which he had done before the door
was shut), fluttered about to alarm the offender, who seemed
to take no notice of it at all: he then made an expedition into
_ the circular cage, did not like it,'and came out again, fluttered
about his own cage, got on the top of it, and appeared very
uneasy.

One of the party present then opened the door of the
canary-bird’s cage, in which the intruder was sitting with

299 Instinct of Birds.

great composure. Presently the canary returned to his own
home, entered, and placed himself upon the perch beside the
parroquet. The latter at first took no notice; they had a few
flutters about the cage, without any real fighting; the canary
did not find it comfortable, and got out again, the other still
keeping his hold. After this abandonment, while he was con-
soling himself by hopping about upon the carpet, the Aus-
tralian descended from the perch to the threshold. And here
he gave another proof of his-sagacity; the door being wide
open, and more difficult to draw to than when, as in the former
instance, it was half open, after two or three ineffectual efforts
with his beak to bring it to, he hopped down, went to the end
furthest from the hinge, drew it half to, placed himself upon
the threshold, finished the operation by closing it and fastening
the wire latch once more. It remains to be added that the.
canary-bird, findmeg it impossible to get in, took possession of
the other cage, but had not the wit to close the door of that,
which was closed for him. Here a long struggle took place ;
he could not fix himself comfortably upon the perch; the
swing hung too low, and in attempting to place himself in the
centre, the swing came against his sides, and he continued to
flutter from one end of the perch to the other, the swing still
keeping in motion. At length, after many useless efforts, the
swing hanging rather transversely and affording him a trifle
more room on the one side than on the other, he selected the
widest aperture of the two, trifling as the difference was, and
the evening being now advanced, tucked his head under his
wing, and went to sleep. Thus they passed their night. It
is but right to add, that ultimately justice was done, and they
were restored to their cages on the morrow.

The Partridges of Bengal. 223

_ THE PARTRIDGES OF BENGAL.

BY R. C. BEAVAN, LIEUT. BENGAL SURVEY DEPARTMENT.

Tuer are three kinds of partridges commonly found in Bengal.
The grey partridge (Perdix Ponticeriana, Hardwicke, Ill. Ind.
Zool., col. plate 213), the ‘‘ Gora tetur” of the natives, is a
bird very much like its English congener im colour, but a trifle
smaller. It affords fair sport for the gun, but unless properly
dressed, is not thought much of for the spit, being generally
hard and dry. ‘They are invariably found in pairs, m low
bushy scrub, where the soil is dry, and occur in great abun-
dance in the Rajhmahal Hills, the slopes of which are covered
with low, thick, and thorny bushes, growing in a dry, stony soil.

The general method of shooting them is to employ beaters,
who, armed with long sticks, and almost nude, work willingly
the whole day for a few coppers, and forming line through
the jungle, drive everything out before them.

This jungle seldom exceeds five feet in height, and the
plan usually followed is for one or two of the guns to go ahead
and look out for chances, while the remainder march with the
beaters. The game thus procured consists generally, in the
districts I am alluding to, of these ‘‘ grey ” partridges, hares,
and quail, and it is well to have a servant near with a rifle,
as often a deer or hog is disturbed, and sometimes even a tiger.

The grey partridge does not seem to care much about water,
being generally found in very dry country, at some distance
from cultivation or crops of any kind; its food consists
chiefly of grass seeds, jungle berries, insects, and occasionally
dhar. or rice, when the fields of the latter run up, as they do
in Maunbloom, between patches of thick cover.

The difference of the sexes is not perceptible outwardly,
except by the spurs, with which the male bird is armed ; these
are very slightly developed in the female. According to Mr.
Blyth, the habitat of this bird extends throughout India gene-
rally, as far as Ceylon, but it is not found to the east of the
Bay of Bengal. The call of this species is loud and clear.

We next come to the black partridge (rancolinus vulgaris,
Stephens, pl. 147, 148), called ‘ Kala tetur’’ in Hindostanee.
It is a much handsomer and finer bird than the grey, affording
- better sport, and considered equally superior for the spit. It
is about the size of the English partridge, perhaps slightly
larger. The greater part of the plumage of the male bird is
black, varied with dark brown on the wings, and spotted
sparingly with white on the breast ; but the female is of a more

224, The P artridges of Bengal.

sober hue, a mottled grey and white, delicately pencilled in
parts with dark brown.

Dogs are of great assistance in shooting this species, as
they run but little, compared with the grey, afford good scent,
and are often found in or uear dry cultivation. I use the word
dry advisedly ; they are not found in wet or rice cultivation.
They almost invariably get up in pairs. As far as my experience
goes I have never seen or heard of such a thing as a covey of
partridges in Bengal, three or four are sometimes found
together, but they invariably, when disturbed, fly off in pairs.

The usual habitat of these birds is grass about three feet
high, not far from water. They also frequent the fields of
‘“raly dall,’ a kind of pea grown largely in some districts to
four or five feet in height, and affording good cover. Where
plentiful, they give very good sport either with dogs or beaters, -
and make a welcome addition to the cuisine of a hungry tra-
veller. They have a peculiar sibilating call, low but clear, very
much like that of the English grasshopper lark, at one moment
appearing to issue from the grass close by, at another some
hundred yards off. ‘Their food consists of graim and various
grass seeds. They are to be found plentifully in the dry grass
savannahs bordermg the Ganges, to the north of Moorshe- -
dabad and the base of the Rajhmahal Hills, and im all favour-
able localities in Upper Bengal. The range of this bird seems —
large. Blyth, in his catalogue, gives Afghanistan, Persia,
Syria, Cyprus, Sicily, and North India, as their habitat. I
have found them abundant in the Maunbhoom jungles, and
they probably extend as far south as Midnapore.

A third species is the khyer partridge, Perdiz gularis, Tem.
(Hardwicke, Ill. Ind. Zool.),, sometimes called the Bengal
chickoor, or wood partridge. This is a large bird, and weighs,
when full grown, 1+ 1b. In several places along the banks
of the Ganges, and of some of the other large rivers in Bengal,
there is a strip of low land on either side, which is periodically
flooded when the- rain causes the rivers to rise. On their
subsiding, this soon gets covered with a thick jungly growth
of high reeds, intermingled with thorny bushes of a white dog- —
rose, which together form an almost impenetrable mass of
vegetation, in places some 16 or 20 feet high, affording capi-
tal cover for wild buffaloes, pigs, deer, etc. On the gradual
fall of the river Ganges, various irregularities in the ground
in this tract of country remain filled with water, forming
small lakes, which, scattered here and there, soon get sur-
rounded by the above-named dense vegetation. In the begin-
ing of the cold weather, one can run up by train from
Calcutta, and im one day reach these fine shooting grounds,
which extend for miles along the base of the Rajhmahal Hills,

The Partridges of Bengal. ew

and the Caragola side of the river, and are invariably well
stocked with these partridges. They are always found close
to these small pools of water, and frequent the densest part of
the high reeds. If one attempts to beat them up in the day
time it 1s necessary to force a way through the tangled
mass on an elephant; and though, with five or six more as:
beaters, plenty of birds will be put up, it is extremely difficult
to recover them when they fall mto the thick jungle. The
best plan is to go out with men as beaters, either in the
morning or evening, when the birds leave their almost im-
penetrable coverts, and venture out into the lower grass to
feed; then capital sport may be had, as on rising they imme-
diately make for the thick cover, and when beating at right
angles to it, must necessarily pass along the whole line. The
gun nearest the cover has, of course, the best chance; but
unless he kills his bird dead, it is quite useless hunting for a
wounded. one in the tangled mass. They often perch upon the
rose bushes, and give good chances to the pot-hunter. The
bird is of a grey colour, handsomely barred across the thigh
coverts with brown, and streaked on the breast with the same
colour. It is quick in flight, and requires a hard blow to bring
to bag; and last, though not least, is capital eating. Tis range
appears limited to the country between the Himalayas and the
Ganges, and not higher up that river than Benares.

Near Caragola Ghaut a couple of good guns may in a few
hours bag eighteen or twenty brace, with ‘about a dozen or
twenty beaters, which is very good sport indeed for India,
where birds are never preserved. The high reeds that form
this thick cover are the same that, cut in small pieces, are sold
all over India for the purpose of making pens suitable for
writing the native character. When cut down close the
stumps are rather dangerous, often piercing the boot and
running into the foot; but if, on the other hand, one discards
this open but thorny ground, another danger is likely to occur,
which once happened to a friend. As he was raising his gun
to fire at a bird which had just got up, one of these reeds
caught in the trigger, the gun went off while yet low, and the
charge penetrated a thick bush a little ahead of the beaters,
from which immediately issued a series of terrible shrieks.
Soon, two small boys were brought to light, badly lacerated
by shot, one with his eye put out. It appeared that, contrary
to orders, they had smuggled themselves in with the rest of
. the beaters, in the hope of getting a few pice, and being so
small, had managed to wriggle ahead more easily than the
men through the reeds. They were both sent off to the nearest
hospital, distant thirty miles, and their disconsolate parents
easily comforted with a present of a few rupees.

226 The Partridges of Bongal.

The fourth, and last, Bengal species is, from its limited
range, but little known. I allude to the double-spurred
partridge, Galloperdiz lunulosa (Hardwicke, Ill. Ind. Zool.,
and Jerdon, Ill. Ind. Zool., pl. 42), generally called the Spur
Fowl. It is about the size of the grey partridge, but much
handsomer. It is coloured with a kind of dark bronze on the
wing coverts, which gives to the bird when first shot the
appearance of a general green hue. This fades after death,
and it then appears dark brown on the back, blackish about
the head, neck, and tail, and chrome yellow on the breast; the
whole, except the tail, speckled with black and white lunules
or spots.

' This species is pretty common in the Rajhmahal Hills, near
Hazareebaugh, and extends throughout the Maunbhoom jungles
towards Midnapore. It is also found sparingly in Beerbhoom.
Its native name in Maunbhoom is “ asko.”’

Its habits partake much of those of the jungle fowl, Gallus
ferrugineus, which is also found in the same jungles. Its food
consists of seeds, rice, grain, and the flowers of the Mhowa
tree (Bassia latifolia), which abounds in the Maunbhoom dis-
trict, and generally throughout Chota Nagpore, and is much
sought out, when its waxy flowers fall, by all kinds of game,
both winged and fourfooted. Bears and various species of
deer are excessively fond of them, as also are the peacock, .
jungle fowl, and most partridges. The natives, too, collect
and distil from them a spirit called dart. This partridge does
not give good sport. It frequents thick bushy jungles, and
runs rapidly through it when disturbed, but is good eatime
when kept until tender.

Interary Notices. 227

LITERARY NOTICES.

Cosmogony, OR THE PrincrpLes or TERRESTRIAL Puysics. By
Hyaw Hopxins, C.E., F.G.S., Author of “‘ Geology and Magnetism.”
(Longmans.)—Mr. Evan Hopkins, like Mr. Kelly, whose lucu-
brations were noticed in our last number, desires to reform
geology, so as to do away with the long periods supposed necessary
for the formation of the various strata. He does not, however,
resort to the steam-grinding apparatus of the last-named philo-
sopher. His process is more simple. LHlectro-magnetism is the
motive power on which he relies. He has convinced himself that,
during the last 2140 years, “the entire surface of our globe has
moved to the north-west in a spiral path 30°, and northward 12°.” —
He invites us to reject any astronomical or geological doctrines that
do not coincide with this hypothesis, and he tells us that “the south
polar basin is the starting-point of the embryo of the crystalline
film of our globe, 7.e., our terrestrial habitation; and the north
polar basin is the receptacle of the final dissolution of all terrestrial
substances.”

Homezs witHout Hanns. By the Rey. J. G. Woop, M.A., F.L.S.
(Longmans.)-—The recent numbers of this entertaining work fully
_ maaintain Mr. Wood’s reputation as an admirable popularizer of
natural history. He comes in No. 14 to the weaver bird, the hive
bee, the hornet, and several other sociable insects, the “ homes”
of which he describes. No. 15 contains an account of driver
ants, mud wasps, and corder bees, and then passes to the curious
question of parasitic nests, of which several illustrations are given,
taken from the domestic economy of both birds and insects. The
illustrations are, as usual, numerous and good; and we can only
repeat what we have said in former articles, that ‘‘ Homes without
Hands” is a good and instructive family-book.

Tue Pavper, tHE TalEr, AND THE Convict: Sketches of some of
their Haunts, Homes, and Habits. By THomas ArcuzEr, Author of
“ Wayfe Summer,” “Madame Prudence,” etc. (Groombridge and
Sons.)—Few persons will go for themselves into the haunts of
wretchedness in which town crime is so prolifically bred; nor will
many become personally acquainted with the physiognomy of the
workhouse or the jail. It is, however, an indispensable foundation
for reformatory efforts, that the condition of the erring and suffering
classes should be distinctly understood. In many cases, terrible
poverty is patiently borne, without its immediately or directly
leading to actual delinquency. ‘This is the case when a once-
thriving class like the Spitalfields weavers have become depressed,
and stil retain many heart-touching traits of tastes and habits
which belonged to better days. Below these unfortunates are
thousands who have not even the traditions of a happier state of
things to fall back upon, and they furnish a constantly-recruited
army of pauperism and crime. Mr. Archer has put into a compact,
well-written book a great deal of information concerning our

VOL, VII.—NO, III. Q

228 Interary Notices.

depressed population. He gives enough of their dark surroundings
and deplorable habits to make his picture striking as well as true,
and he judiciously avoids details that are not fit for family reading.
If the subject were not so intimately connected with human misery,
we should call his pages very entertaining: interesting they cer-
tainly are, and carry their instruction with them. The chapters,
“« Amongst the Poor,” “Tiger Bay,” and ‘‘ Weasels Asleep,”’ strike
us as excellent of their kind; and the book cannot fail to assist in
rousing the intelligent and benevolent part of the community to the
necessity of dealing, on a large and bold scale, with evils that mimor
efforts may expose, but cannot correct. Hvery large town has
whole streets, or districts, which are nothing else than elaborately-
arranged factories for the production of pauperism, disease, and
crime. No circumstance of dirt, filth, darkness, bad ventilation,
ignorance of what is good, and early acquaintance with what is bad,
is wanting in these horrible localities ; and although they may lie close
to respectable or even wealthy neighbourhoods, they seem as far out.
of the influence of civilization, and as far removed from the eye of
the happier portion of society, as if they were situated in a remote
quarter of the globe. Mr. Archer’s travels in such regions have
enabled him to describe them with graphic power.

Tue Pusiic ScHoois CaLenpar ror 1865. Hdited by a Graduate
of the University of Oxford. (Rivingtons.)—This work is, we
believe, quite new in the extent of its plan. Preference is given, as.
the preface tells us, to the nine public schools forming the subject
of Her Majesty’s Commissioners’ Report. The school lists of
these nine, and the roll of cadets at Woolwich, are given in full, as
well as the honours’ lists of all the schools. Various other schools
are described, but the list does not pretend to include every school
to which the name of “ public’ properly belongs. In future years,
we should recommend an extension of the list; but we suppose to
make it complete would change the size of the work. A great deal
of information has been collected together concerning the studies,
discipline, and amusements of the various schools, and the work
supplies a void in this kind of literature which its editor has well
filled up.

Tue ANTHROPOLOGICAL Reyrnw, No. 8. (Tribner and Co.)—
There is interesting matter in this number, which includes the |
Journal of the Anthropological Society of London. We cannot
say we admire the tone of the reviews. They lack a calm, philo-
sophical spirit, and trench on the ludicrous in passages intended for
fine writing. The most important paper is a reprint from the
Canadian Jownal, in which Dr. Wilson discusses the peculiarities
of the ancient and modern Celt of Gaul and Great Britain. The
information on the extent of the tendency towards an unsymmetrical
development of heads is very curious.

Tur AsrronomicaL Recister.—The successive numbers of this
useful periodical meet the wants of a considerable body of observers.
The information supplied is generally very good; but one of the

Interary Notices. 229

contributors, who calls Uranus not worth looking at, except with
very large telescopes, should not be attended to. A good 38-inch
glass gives an image of this planet which it is very interesting to
contrast with that afforded by any small star.

Nrw Entozootic Matapy: Observations on the Probable Intro-
duction of this Formidable Disease, and on the almost inevitable
Increase of Private Diseases in general, as a Consequence of the
Proposed Utilization of Sewage. By T. Spencer Cossoxp, F.R.S.,
F.S.L. (Groombridge.)—We recommend attention to Dr. Cobbold’s
** Hntozoa,” a work which embodies an immense collection of
information relating to parasites. The utilization of sewage cannot
be stopped by an alarmist pamphlet, but the knowledge conveyed in
Dr. Cobbold’s important treatise cannot be too widely diffused, if
the great evil of parasitic disease is to be kept down.

FouncrionaL Disrases or THE StomacH. Part I—Sea-sickness;
Its Nature and Treatment. By Joun Cuaprmay, M.D., M.R.C.P.,
M.R.C.S. (Triibner and Co.) —The discovery that the sympathetic
nerve causes contraction of the blood-vessels led Dr. Chapman to
believe that, by exciting or diminishing its action, he could diminish
or augment circulation, and thus obtain a remedial power over
certain disorders. Experiment verified his anticipations that cir-
culation could be increased by applying cold to the back, and thus
diminishing the contractile action exerted by the sympathetic on
the arterial vessels. Dr. Chapman first employed his process on
epileptic patients, and he now recommends a sausage-like bag filled
with ice, and laid down the spine, as a cure for sea-sickness. Many
cases are mentioned of the success of the plan, and the patients
describe it as less uncomfortable than would be supposed. Perhaps
a more complete study of narcotics will enable the same result to be
accomplished by the aid of some substance having a specific action
on the sympathetic system.

Herat ConstipDERED AS A Mops or Motion. By Joun TynpAtt,
F.R.S., etc., Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Royal Institu-
tion, and in the Royal School of Mines. Second edition, with addi-
tions and illustrations. (Longmans.)—We are glad to welcome a
second edition of this admirable work, which is increased by some
seventy pages of new matter, embodying researches completed since
the publication of the first edition. It is undoubtedly one of the
most valuable and profound books which this generation has pro-
duced. And the learned professor deserves great praise for avoiding
the besetting sin of ordinary scientific men, who seem to fancy that
their reputation for wisdom will be increased by the dryness of their
style and the number of unintelligible words they employ. Pro-
fessor Tyndall is eloquent, simple, and clear, exemplifying the double
genius of discovery and exposition.

Tar Oxp Ciry anp irs Highways AND Byways: Sketches of Curious
Customs, Characters, Incidents, Scenes, and Events, illustrative of
London Life in Olden Times. By “ Atrps,” author of “London
Scenes and London. People.” (Collingridge.)—This is another of

230 Archeologia.

* Aleph’s” pleasant, gossiping books about London, which is all the
more valuable, as the rapid changes going on in the metropolis lead
to the rapid destruction of the architectural and other links between
the present and the past. The subjects touched upon in this
volume are very numerous, beginning with a “Bargain at the
Auction Mari,” and ending with “Twelfth Day ” as it was cele-
brated by our forefathers. ‘“ Milton as a Londoner” is a very
agreeable paper. ‘‘ Aleph” is evidently a fervent admirer of the
great poet, although his political sympathies are the very opposite of
Milton’s. The sketch of “James Lackington” is another good
paper, and, indeed, we might find something commendatory to say
ofeach. The illustrations—ithree dozen in number—are well exe-
cuted, and the volume presents a handsome and appropriate appear-
ance, with its red edges and substantial binding.

ARCHZOLOGIA.

Art the meeting of the British Archeological Association, March 8,
the Rey. E. Kell, F.S.A., gave an account of the discovery of
Roman Burmprxes in THE Istze oF WicuHtT, which form a rather
important addition to our knowledge of the Roman occupation of
that island. In the Roman period, a road ran across the Isle of
Wight from north to ‘south, from what is now called Gurnard, or
Gurnet Bay, where it is called Rue Street, by way of Niton to-
Puckaster Cove, where there was, probably, a port for shipping. At
the termination of this road, on the northern coast, the shores of
Gurnet Bay have been much gained upon by the sea, which has
left them in low cliffs. Under these cliffs, near the Rue Street,
fragments of objects formed of metal, tiles, and other building
materials, and other objects of evident antiquity, had been
frequently picked up on the beach, but without attracting much
interest, until, during the last autumn, the occurrence of Roman
coins among the objects thus gathered up, excited the attention of
2 local inquirer, and he was led to examine more carefully the face
of the cliff, in which he discovered, at abouta foot below the top, the
line of the floor of a building formed of small brick tesselle. This led
to excavations on the ground above the cliff, and the foundations and
floors of buildings were uncovered. These buildings, which ran
east and west, consisted of three distinct rooms, of no very large
dimensions, the southern wall of which remained to a length of
forty-two feet seven inches, and the northern wall, which had
suffered greater dilapidations from the inroads of the sea, to an
extent of thirty-five feet. Two of the rooms included within these
walls were about fifteen feet long, by nearly ten feet wide, and were
paved with the small square tiles which form the usual floors
of the inferior rooms in Roman villas in Britain. The western
termination of one of those rooms has been carried away in the
fall of the cliff .but the other, or middle room, was found to be

Archeslogia. 231

perfect, except that the foor was much broken. In this room a
quantity of broken Samian ware and other poiiery, as well as a
few coms, were found scattered about. To the east of this was
the third room, which was entered from the apartment last deseribed
by a door, and had in the middle a large fiat stone, on which, as we
ceeded the deseripiion, ashes were found. On this account,
We suppose, Mr. Kell assumes this stone io have been a fire-place,
and the room a kitchen. Im differenti paris of ihis room were
found what Mr. Kell terms a bill-hook or chopper, the blade of
which is six inches and a half long and three broad, and the
handle eight inches and a half long, a knife handle, abundance of
broken earthenware, chiefly of a coarse descripiion, bones of
animals, oyster and limpei shells, and one Romancom. A econ-
sideration of these buildmgs can leave no doubié im our mind that
they formed part (probably of one side of ihe court) of a con-
siderable Roman villa, the principal aparimenis of which probably
lay to the westward, and have all been washed away by thesea. The
remams of charcoal and burnt maierials marae | about show thai,
like most of the Roman villas m these islands, this had been destroyed
by fire. A great abundance of roofiiles and slabs of stone were
also sirewed over the floors and on ihe ground ouiside the walls;
the roof-stones formed, as usual, im hexagons, so that by lapping
over each other they formed lozenges.

The latest of the coms found m removing ithe remains of these
buildings was of the Emperor Gratian, which brings us down io the
latter part of the fourth century. The poiiery consisied of some
fragmenis of Samian ware, of no great imieresi, and of a quantity of
broken earthenware of ihe common sorts usually found on Roman
sites in Britam, some of which was identified with the ware, of which
the potteries have been traced in the New Forest, at Crockle. Besides
these objecis, and a few fragments of iron and bronze, there were
found a quantity of what Mr. Kell deseribes as “leaden tickets,”
which bear some resemblance, though rather disiani, io the
leaden Roman siamps found at Brough-upon-Sianmore, and de-
scribed im a recent number of the Iymuiecrust OsszevEz, m our
netice of Mr. Roach Smith’s Collectanea Antiqua. These “tickets,”
which are round, and about the swe of an English farthmg, are
marked, some with letters, and others with ornamenis. Mr. Kell
suggests that they were used as tickets to some sort of merchandize
of which a traffic was carried on im this direction; and he imagines,
without any apparent reason, thai they were connected with the
ancient tin trade. A closer examination, Pagel gg aig ce
our ideas of their great antiquity; wee accordingly, Mr. Syer
Cuming, the honorary secretary of the Archzologiecal Association,
declared that they were all of quite moderm manufaciure, and ex-
plained them im a manner which appeared perfecily satisfactory. A
- few of them appeared to be leaden weights which had been aiiached
to fishermen’s nets to make them sink, while the rest were the small
leaden medalets or butions called by boys dumps, and used for play-
img at a game to which boys give the same name. Mr. Kell men-
tioned several objects found on this site which were undoubtedly of

232 Archeeologia.

modern manufacture, among which were two or three leaden but-
tons, which he supposes may be of the fifteenth century; but he
places among the genuine Samian ware a fragment of pottery of
extremely beautiful workmanship, with ornament in relief, which
was undoubtedly made in the seventeenth century.

This circumstance of finding OBJECTS OF MODERN MAKE AMONG
ANTIQUITIES in the original and undisturbed deposit of the latter is a
fact which has now been often observed, and is deserving of parti-
cular attention in connection with another class of researches carried
on with great zeal at the present-day. It is no doubt the result of
different accidents, some of which are easily understood, while others
are more difficult of explanation. We have met with articles of
modern manufacture lying on or near the floor of a deep Anglo-
Saxon grave, which had never been opened, among the objects of the
original deposit. This and other similar cases can only be explained
by circumstances with which we are not well acquainted, but which
caused the heavy body in those cases to sink gradually in the ground.
Some years ago, when a tumulus, called British, was opened, we
believe in Hast Yorkshire, a tobacco-pipe was found nearly in its
centre, and the excavators supposed at first that they had found
evidence of smoking among the ancient Britons; but when the pipe
was examined by somebody acquainted with the history of pipe-
making, it was pronounced to be of the age of James I. or Charles
I. As there were indications of old disturbance in the tumulus,
we must suppose that some people had dug into it in search of
treasure in the first half of the seventeenth century, and that one:
of the diggers had dropped his pipe into the hole before it was filled
up again. Yet some antiquarians of eminence and name have been
nearly betrayed into believing such tobacco-pipes to be Roman, or
perhaps even Celtic. Among these are Dr. D. Wilson, who, in his
Archeology of Scotland, states his conviction that they are of much
greater antiquity than the date assigned for the introduction of
tobacco into England ; and Dr. Bruce, who, in the last edition of his
excellent work on the Roman Wall, asks, “‘ Shall we enumerate smok-
ing pipes, such as those shown in the cut, among the articles belonging
to the Roman period? Some of them, indeed, have a medieval
aspect, but the fact of their being frequently found in Roman sta-
tions, along with pottery and other remains undoubtedly Roman,
ought not to be overlooked. Thespecimens in the cut are one half
the size of the original ; the larger of these is from the Roman sta-—
tion. at Pierce Bridge, the smaller from the north of Northumber-
land. Some have been recently found at Bremenium.” Any one
acquainted with the history of the manufacture of these pipes will
recognize the two examples given in Dr. Bruce’s cut as figures of
pipes belonging to the earlier part of the seventeenth century.
Similar pipes are described by the Abbé Cochet, in his Normandie
Souterraine, as found on Roman sites. in France, and even that
careful antiquary seems to have been almost persuaded of their
great antiquity. This circumstance of the occurrence of objects
undoubtedly modern in immediate association with others
which may be [pronounced with equal confidence to be ancient,

Archeeologia. 233

is important in connection with the researches now pursued with
so much earnestness among the monuments of the antiquity of
man.

One of those curious heaps of the débris of the refuse from the
tables of our primitive forefathers, which the Danish antiquaries
call Kocken-moppines, and which we might translate by kitchen-
middings or kitchen-mixens, has recently been found at NEWHAVEN,
in Sussex, and we believe that a full account of it is in preparation,
to be read at a future meeting of the Anthropological Society.
Among the objects found were limpet and other shell, bones of
several animals, a few flint flakes, broken pottery, and two or three
rather fragmentary objects of metal. Among the latter are a leaden
hook, which appears to have been intended for a fish-hook, and a
small coin, but in such a dilapidated condition that it cannot be
identified. The pottery appears to be all of the Roman period,
and presents several specimens of the dark-coloured ware, made
in what some antiquaries have termed smother-kilns, and two
fragments of fine Samian ware. The flint flakes were found, as
we understand, above the Samian ware. They all belong, probably,
to the later Roman period.

The attention of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland has been
called, at a recent meeting, to the existence of ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS OR
CRANNOGS, as they are called, in the Scottish lakes. They are repre-
sented as formed by stockading, and intended evidently for places
of temporary refuge, and not as permanent residences, in
which circumstance chiefly they differ from the pile-buildings of
Switzerland. One of these stockaded islands, of which an ac-
count was given at a recent meeting of the Scottish Antiquarian
Society, is situated in the loch of Dowalton, in Wigtonshire, on
the property of Sir Wiliam Maxwell; but others were mentioned
as having been destroyed within the memory of living people, with-
out any observation of the antiquities which were found in them,
and it is believed that many of them yet remain. A short ac-
count was also given of a crannog found in a moss near Apple-
garth, in Dumfriesshire, which consists of a platform of oak-trees
resting on moss, and covered by moss of six or seven feet in depth.
This foundation platform was covered with layers of brick, twig,
and bracken, and, as far as it is at present uncovered, is about a
hundred and fifty feet in length by twenty or thirty in width, with
the appearance of a hearth at one point. Among the objects found
at the Dowalton crannog was a bronze dish of Roman manufacture,
which was the only object indicating a date. TW.

Roman VILLA In THE Iste oF Wicut.—A correspondent remarks
concerning the Roman villa at Gurnard Bay. “The excavations
appear to have been but partially carried out, and without much
method ; but portions of the limestone walls, the material for which
is found on the spot, may be traced. The flooring, also, of one apart-
ment, with its small square red tiling, is exposed in a good state of
preservation. From the discolouration of one portion of the stone-
work, it is presumed the situation of an oven or flue is well deter-
mined. The remains stand on what is now the extreme verge of the

234 Proceedings of Learned Societies.

cliff, and, from the formation of the latter being alternating beds of
clay and limestone, they are rapidly falling in and wasting away ;
indeed, so much so, that in all probability scarce a vestige of the
remains will appear after the usual high tides of the spring.”

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

BY W. B. TEGETMEIER.

CHEMICAL SOCIETY.—WMarch 2.

Action or SmicaTe or Sopa on Corron.—The injurious action
of the soluble glass or mineral sizing used in cotton printing is well
known, the strength and durability of the fabric being materially
injured by its employment. Dr. Crace Calvert considered that the
injury depends on the deposit of liberated silica in the cotton cells,
and that the fibre is then weakened by the caustic action of the free
alkali. Drs. Frankland and Abel, on the other hand, differed from
Dr. Calvert, regarding the inquiry as being of a mechanical rather
than a chemical character, and as being due to the expansive force
exerted by the carbonate of soda as it crystallizes, after being set free
from the silica. The consideration of this subject is an important
one, in a domestic as well as a manufacturing point of view, as the
employment of the crystallized carbonate of soda used in washing is
known to have avery injurious effect on the strength of cotton
fabrics washed by its aid, unless it is completely removed by pure
water before the process of drying.

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—Warch 8.

THE Fossius or WinpMiLL Hinn, Giprattar.—A very interesting
communication was received from Mr. Busk and the late Dr. Fal-
coner on the fossils of the Genista Cave of the Rock of Gibraltar.
The authors stated that the rock abounds in both seaboard andinland ~
caverns, the Genista Cave being one of the latter class. It has been
traced downwards to a depth of 200 feet, but the external aperture.
has not yet been discovered. It was stated to be full of the remains of
quadrupeds and birds, some of the former being now wholly extinct ;
others, as the Hyena brunea, are now extinct in Hurope, and repelled
to distant regions of the African continent; while others again
live now either on the rock or in the adjoining Spanish peninsula.
It was inferred that there had been a connection by land, either cir-
cuitous or direct, between Europe and Africa at no very remote
geological period. The authors observed that the wild animals
whose remains were discovered evidently lived and died upon the
rock during a long series of ages.

Progress of Invention. 235

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.—Warech 13.

On Srereoscopic Maps or Movunrarnous Counrries.— Messrs.
Galton described a new application of photography to the delinea-
tion of mountainous districts, whereby stereoscopic slides of the
ordinary size could be printed for the use of tourists. The best
maps fail to impart a correct idea of the inequalities of mountainous
regions; this can be done only by models in relief, which are, of
course, too cumbersome to be of use in travelling. By taking
stereoscopic views of good models (previously coated temporarily
with white paint), and giving an index of names of places on the
back of each slide, referring to numbers on the stereoscope, all the
advantages of a model could be given ina portable form, which
could be viewed with a common eye-glass stereoscope, to be carried
in the waistcoat pocket. In the case of models representing a
large area they could be divided into squares, and separate stereo-
graphs taken of each division. This method offers great advantages
for the illustrations of guide books of mountainous districts.

MANCHESTER PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE WinGsS OF BurrEeRFLIES AND Morss.—An
interesting paper was read by Mr. Sidebotham on the great and rapid
increase in the size of the wings of Lepidopterous insects immediately
after they emerge from the chrysalis. This increaseis caused by air,
which is taken in through the spiracles or breathing pores, and sent
into the vessels of the wings. By this means the membrane is
expanded, and the scales which were previously packed under each
other as closely as possible are forced. to slide out, until they are
arranged in the same manner as the scales of a fish or the tiles on a
roof. The wing of a moth in an unexpanded state, before it has
emerged from the chrysalis, is not folded, but lies perfectly flat ; and
all the markings can be seen in miniature as indicated by the edges
of the scales, which are then alone visible.

PROGRESS OF INVENTION.

ApaPTaTION OF PHoTrocraPHy 10 Woop Eneravinc.—Among the
numerous advantages derived from photography, none is of greater
importance than the assistance which it affords to the artist. But
its uses, in this respect, have been greatly circumscribed by the fact
that, hitherto, it has been almost impossible to avoid the necessity
of transferring the picture, by the tedious and necessarily imperfect
means of the pencil, to the wood on which the designs are to be
reproduced. There is no difficulty in obtaining the photograph on
_ the wood itself; but, unfortunately; in doing so, the nitrate of silver
employed disorganizes it, and destroys its most valuable properties.
A varnish may, it is true, be used to protect the wood; but then it
is difficult, if not impossible, for the engraver to perform his part of
the process with delicacy and effect. The use of the Worthley type,

236 Progress of Invention.

however, puts an end at once to all these inconveniences. Not only
does the uranium-collodion contain so little of the silver salt as to
be perfectly harmless ; but, when the picture has been obtained, the
collodion may be removed, by means of soft cotton dipped in ether,
and the image will be found on the surface of the wood as distinct
as, and infinitely more perfect than, if it had been produced by the
pencil.

A Smete Crock.— Clocks have, long ago, been constructed
which were capable of going for a very considerable time with one
winding up. But they haye been found objectionable, from -
their great weight, complication, and costliness. A clock was pre-
sented to the Society of Natural Sciences, at Versailles, which it is
stated will go without winding for a-year, or even a longer period,
and yet is lable to none of these objections. The only difference
between it and an ordinary clock is stated to be, the replacement of
the pendulum by a horizontal lever, which is made to oscillate by
the torsion of an elastic vertical wire. Varying the dimensions of
the lever, varies the rate of oscillation—that which was presented
to the Society vibrated once in six seconds.

Sexr-Acting APPARATUS FOR STEERING.—Hlectro-magnetism has
been already applied to purposes so varied and so numerous, that it
would be difficult to enumerate them. It has recently been pro-
posed to employ it in the steerage of ships. The idea is both novel
and ingenious, and, therefore, deserves attention, although, in its
present state, it can hardly be deemed either simple or reliable
enough, in practice, to secure the attainment of the object con-
templated.

Dr. J. P. Joule proposes to attach to one end of a compound
system of needles, or magnetized bars, suspended with great deli-
cacy, a bent wire or commutator, one extremity of which will dip into
a central mercury cup, connected with one pole of a galvanic bat-
tery, and the other extremity into the one or the other of two con-
centric semicircular mercury troughs, which are, respectively, in
connection with two electro-magnets, and, through their helices,
with the other pole of the battery. Which of the electro-magnets
will be excited will depend on the position of the ship at the time,
with reference to the plane of the magnetic meridian, as on this will
depend the mercury trough which, by means of the commutator, will
be brought in connection with the central mereury cup. Whichever
of the magnets happens to be excited, will attract an armature placed
between both of them: and this, by means of levers, will act on
valves, so as to cause steam to move a piston in one direction or the
opposite, as may be required, until the vessel shall have returned to
its proper course. It is obvious, however, that, were no: other ob-
jection to suggest itself, in practice, the pitching and rolling of the
ship must be very likely to seriously interfere with the action of
such an apparatus.

PHorocraPHi¢c ENAMELiinec.—M. Poitevin, to whom the Academy
of Sciences awarded the Trémont Prize, for his discoveries in litho-
photography, on the 6th of February last, had advanced, step by

Progress of Invention. 237

step, until at length he found the method of fixing, on any sub-
stance, by means of materials which become hygrometric under the
influence of light, carbon, metallic oxides, and other impalpable
powders. And the development of this principle led to his disco-
very that a mixture of tartaric acid and perchloride of iron, which,
when acted on by light, becomes hydroscopic, is well suited for
fixing metallic oxides on enamelled plates, so as to give the ut-
most permanency to photographs, by transforming them into ena-
mels. Thus an immense stride in progress was made at once;
perishable compounds of silver and gold being replaced by sub-
stances of the greatest durability.

A Snreiiriep Pume.—We have already * directed the attention
of our readers to one simplification of the common pump; another,
which would seem to be still more generally applicable, is coming
into use. In the modification already alluded to, the valve in the
piston was rendered unnecessary ; in that we are about to notice,
the piston itself is discarded, The vacuum is obtained by means of
a diaphragm, which divides the suitably formed chamber of the
pump into two compartments. When the diaphragm is moved to-
wards one extremity of the chamber by a rod, one end of which
is attached to its centre, the space at the other side is enlarged, a
vacuum being formed, and water rushes in through a valve to fill
up this vacuum. When the diaphragm is moved by the rod in the
opposite direction, the water which has just entered is driven for-
ward in any required direction; a vacuum being at the same time
formed at the other side of the diaphragm. The movement of the
rod, therefore, in each direction causes both water to enter the
chamber to fill up the vacuum, and water to be forced from the
opposite side of the chamber. The action is, by consequence, both
as to suction and forcing, almost continuous.

PropucTion oF A Vacuum By Means or Ammonia.—The empty-
ing of the cesspools in Paris has always been attended with great
inconvenience. Among the methods proposed for obviating this,
has been the use of air-tight tanks as carts, the causing a vacuum
within them by pumping out the atmospheric air, and then filling
them, when arrived at the cesspool, by atmospheric pressure. In
theory this method was excellent, in practice it was found impossi-
ble to maintain the vacuum for the required length of time. M.
Tellier, who suggested liquified ammonia as a source of motive
power, considers that gaseous ammonia may be used for the produc-
tion of a vacuum in these tanks. For this purpose, he would have at
the establishment whence the carts are to be despatched, a boiler con-
taining water of ammonia. From this, gaseous ammonia is to be
liberated by heat, and transmitted to the tank in which it is in-
tended to form the vacuum. The atmospheric air is thus driven
from the interior of the tank; and any ammonia that may pass off
along with it is to be retained by water, through which the mixture
is passed for the purpose. Ammonia is allowed to enter the tank,

* INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER, No, xxxvii. p. 78.
+ INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER, No, xxxviii. p. 148.

238 Progress of Invention.

until the pressure within it very slightly exceeds that of the ex-
ternal atmosphere; there will then be little tendency to leakage,
but ifa leak should exist, it will be readily detected and stopped.
When the tank arrives at its destination, it is to be put in connec-
tion with the receptacle to be emptied, and at the same time with a
small quantity of water properly situated for the purpose. The
ammonia is, of course, instantly condensed, a vacuum is formed,
and the tank is filled by atmospheric pressure, The water used for
condensing the ammonia may be transferred to the boiler already
mentioned, so that nothing will be wasted.

REGULATION OF TEMPERATURE BY MEANS OF A SeLy-Actinc Tuur-
MOMETER.—A thermometer intended for this purpose has been in-
vented by General Morin. It is simple and effective; it would
seem to be applicable to the prevention of either too high or too
low a temperature ; and even, by a further development of the
principle, to be capable of lowering the temperature by a ventilating
apparatus it might set in action; or raising it, by producing a
required modification in the supply of heat.

To construct this thermometer, a piece of platinum foil is her-
metically fixed in the bulb of the instrument, and another in the
stem just at the point to which the mercury will reach, when the
temperature is exactly what it should be. These slips of platinum
are to be connected with the poles of a galvanic battery, the helix
of an electro-macnet forming part of the circuit. When the mer-
cury sinks too low in the stem of the thermometer, battery connec-
tion is broken, the -electro-magnet loses its excitement, and an
armature, which it had previously continued to support, immedi-
ately falls. This completes an electric circuit, setting in motion a
current which throws a loud alarm into action, and continues to
sound its bell until the proper temperature has been reproduced.

A New Catorrc Encins.— A new kind of caloric engine has
been lately invented in Germany. Its chief peculiarity consists in
air being forced for the support of combustion into an air-tight
furnace, within which is placed a fireplace of refractory clay. The
products of combustion, mixed with a little steam, which is in-
tended principally to furnish a kind of lubrication for the reciproca-.
ting portions in contact with it, give motion to two pistons of pecu-
liar construction, after which they escape into the atmosphere.
The combustion produced in this way is very energetic, being, it is
said, sufficient, when a pressure of about four atmospheres is em-
ployed, to fuse malleable iron. Increase of velocity produces an
immediate increase in the intensity of combustion ; and this increase
of intensity reacts at once on the velocity, so that there is a great
tendency in this engine to avery rapid motion—which in many
cases is a great advantage. It is asserted that, with this arrange-
ment, a much greater “calorific effect is obtained from a given
amount of fuel than in the ordinary way.

MiscELLangous. — Improved Bunsen Battery. — The vapours
evolved by the ordinary Bunsen battery are very prejudicial to
health. M. Hmile Duchemin gets rid of them without a loss of

Progress of Invention. 239

power, by replacing the nitric acid with an aqueous solution of
perchloride of iron. He found that substituting a solution of chlo-
ride of sodium for sulphuric acid, left the battery still very effective,
and that even if the zinc is surrounded with pure water the battery
is well suited for telegraphy. Antozone.—The existence of this
substance has been the subject of serious doubt. Schénbein has,
however, obtained it, by means of a powerful galvanic battery. He
found its specific gravity less than that of hydrogen ; it is, therefore,
the lightest substance known. It is liquified by a pressure of 150
atmospheres. Mixed with ozone, it is exploded by the non-lumi-
nous rays of the spectrum, and by positive, but not by negative
electricity. If this latter fact shall have been established by fur-
ther experiments, it will afford a seemingly unanswerable proof of
the existence of two electricities. New Mode of Softening Pho-
tographs—M. Mathey, for this purpose, interposes a lace veil
between the sitter and the camera—the nearer the latter, the more
useful it is. It produces the effect of a drawing im chalks; and
softens down prominent characteristics in the model which would
impart harshness to the picture——New Mode of Silvering Mir-
rors.—Two-thirds of an ounce of platinum are dissolved, with the
aid of heat, in two ounces and a-half of hydrochloric acid and one
ounce and a-sixteenth of nitric acid. The solution is next evapo-
rated, and the residue is pulverized and dissolved in alcohol. The
alcoholic solution is applied to the glass, which is then heated to
a cherry red, and afterwards cautiously cooled. An excellent, a
very durable, and a cheap reflecting surface is thus obtained.
Application of the Magnesium Light to Medicine—The laryngoscope
is an instrument consisting of two mirrors, and is used for in-
spection of the throat, etc. It has been rendered much more effec-
tive by employing for its illumination the light of burning mag-
nesium. ‘The rays from the ignited metal are thrown on the mirror
situated at the end of the throat, and prajected downwards, so as
brilliantly to illuminate the larynx and trachea, and form their
image in the other mirror. The minute image thus obtained is
greatly magnified, by means of a double convex lens, which is held
in front of the patient’s mouth; and the smallest symptoms of
disease in the respiratory passages are rendered distinctly visible.
——Improvement of the Jaquard Loom.—tThe necessity for cumber-
some and expensive cards has always been found a source of great
inconvenience with this loom; but they have been, at length,
rendered unnecessary by M. Acklin,a French engineer, who has
substituted for them punched paper, which saves about one-third of
the cost, renders lacing—a tedious process—unnecessary, and econo-
mizes both labour and time, while it enables the work to be exe-
cuted more perfectly. The invention is applicable to looms already
in use,

240 Notes and Hie ional

NOTES AND MEMORANDA.

THE FLowInG or Ick AND OTHER SOLIDS UNDER GREAT PrREssuRE.—M.
Tresca made a second communication to the Academy of Sciences of Paris at a
recent sitting, on this very interesting subject. An account of his first paper was
given in our Vol. vi., p. 464. He uses a strong cylinder, almost six inches in
diameter, and having at its lower end an aperture about two inches in diameter.
The more nearly the diameter of the opening approaches that of the cylinder in
size, the less the pressure which will be required. To render perceptible the
modifications which the bounding surfaces of the different portions of the ice
would undergo during their passage through the cylinder and aperture, portions
of it were either coloured throughout their masses, or on those faces which con-
stituted the joints. -It was found that the ice comported itself in exactly the same
way as lead and ceramic pastes had done in the previous experiments, which we
have already described. But while a pressure. of about 1792 lbs. per square inch,
or that of a column of water about 4000 feet high, was sufficient to cause the
flowing of the ice, lead had for the same purpose required a pressure of about
9000 Ibs., or that of a column of water nearly 20,000 feet high. The effects
produced were very remarkable. The surfaces of the joints, originally plain,
were changed into concentric tubes, and the ice as it issued from the aperture in
the cylinder was furrowed by transverse fissures, so as to resemble a series of
dises rather than a continuous solid. This peculiarity had been observed also
with the less flexible porcelain pastes. It was apparently dependent on the nature
of the material used, and was evidently a secondary phenomenon, which took
place after the flowing had happened, and while the ice was actually within the
aperture of the cylinder, being due to the cessation of pressure. Hach disc con-
sisted of many concentric layers, which must have been produced before the
separation into discs occurred. These experiments were believed to throw consi-
derable light on the theory of the movement of glaciers. Superimposed layers
were displaced, surfaces were distorted, layers were curved at the’ extremities of
the partial tubes, fissures were produced when pressure ceased, etc., just as in the
case of the glaciers. It was remarked that although the ice lost its original form,
it did not lose its transparency under the influence of pressure.

Dissociation oF SutpHUROUS AciD.—M. H. Deville, as explained in an
article, Vol. iii., p. 191, to which the reader is, referred for a description of the
apparatus, applies this term to the separation of the constituents of a compound,
at a temperature lower than that which would cause complete decomposition.
Sulphurous acid transmitted between the tubes he employs, the outer one being
at 2192° Fahr., and the inner, which ‘was of plated copper, about 50° Fahr.,
was decomposed, sulphur being deposited on the silver, but not combining with
it; and sulphuric acid being formed with the oxygen, liberated and undecom-
posed sulphurous acid.

AGE AT WHICH THE MOON CAN BE SEEN.—A subscriber at Runcorn remarks
on this subject that he saw the moon on the 8th of February, 1864, when it was
little more than 23 hours old. On another occasion he saw it when 43 hours
40 minutes old, and persons to whom he pointed it out said it was the narrowest
moon they had ever seen. It is obvious that the early visibility of our satellite
will depend upon her latitude at the time, and upon the state of the atmosphere.
Mr. Webb obligingly informs us that “‘ Hevelius never saw the moon earlier
than 40 hours after conjunction with the sun ; and Schréter’s nearest points were
about 283 hours on either side. Beer and Midler saw it 18h. before conjunc-
tion, 1834, October 1, when the moon was 11° distant from the sun, and almost
vertically over it, 8° 36’ above the horizon.” Jews and Mahomedans are likely
upon religious grounds to watch for the earliest appearance of a new moon, and it
would be interesting to know what their experience has been.

Action oF VENUS ON THE SuN.—In the IntELLEcTUAL OBSERVER, Vol. v.,
p. 448, we published a very important paper, by Mr. Balfour Stewart, “On the
Origin of the Light of the Sun and Stars,” and since that date we have men-
tioned the further researches of that careful observer. We now find in the Pyo-

Notes and Memoranda. 241

ceedings of the Royal Society a paper detailing additional facts, which tend to
show that an external influence operates on the production and behaviour of sun
spots. All the planets might actin this way with a force proportioned to their
masses and distances, Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter being presumed the most
influential, the first from proximity, the second from being both near and tolerably
large, and the third from its great size. The question to be resolved is whether
the spots break out, increase and decrease in any regular manner, corresponding
with the relative positions of planets andthe sun. An examination of thirty-two
series of spots shows that their behaviour seems to be connected with the positions
of Venus “in such a manner that spots dissolve when that part of the sun’s
surface in which they exist approaches the neighbourhood of this planet, while,
on the other hand, as the sun’s disc recedes from the planet, spots begin to
break out, and reach their maximum on the opposite side.”

DiFrusion OF CRYSTALLIZED SUBSTANCES THROUGH THE Bopy.—Dr. Bence
Jones calls the attention of the Royal Society to facts of this class ascertained by
spectrum analysis. He found that if half a grain of lithium was given to a guinea
pig for three successive days, it could be detected in every texture of the body.

Inszect Me&tTAaLLURG@ists.—Cosmos describes an article by Dr. Sjogreen, a
Swedish naturalist, in which it is stated that the particles of pure iron found in
Swedish lakes result from the deoxydizing action of certain insects. Their larve
are stated to absorb oxygen from the oxydes of iron, and to give themselves a
coating of the pure metal, which acts like a cocoon, and protects them during
metamorphosis.

REPORT ON SPONTANEOUS GENERATION.—Our readers will recollect that the
French Academy appointed a commission to witness»and report upon the expe-
riments and counter-experiments of Messrs. Pasteur, Pouchet, etc., on this sub-
ject. The experiments hitherto made and reported upon confirm the statements

of M. Pasteur that if due pains are taken to destroy existing germs in a fermenti-
ble liquid, and to prevent. the access of fresh germs, no life is manifested. The
liquid used by M. Pasteur was obtained by washing yeast from beer. Other expe-
riments are to be made with infusions of hay during the approaching spring and
summer.

Moprriep SurpHur.—In a former number we mentioned that a modification
of sulphur could be produced by fusing it with a little iodine. Messrs. Moutier
and Dietzenbach have laid further remarks on this subject before the French
Academy. One four hundredth part of iodine changes the sulphur, so that on
cooling it remains plastic, and is only partly soluble in sulphide of carbon,
Napthaline, paraffine, creosote, camphor, and spirit of turpentine, mingled with
sulphur to the extent of one four hundredth or one six hundredth, permit it to cool
in a soft ductile state, which passes slowly into the usual hard brittle condition.
Oil and wax make the sulphur soft, but leave it entirely soluble in sulphide of
carbon. The experimenters have ascertained that the carbon particles effect the
change in these cases.

Bonp’s DiscovERY IN THE Orton NEBuia.—We learn from the address of
the President of the Astronomical Society, as given in Monthly Notices, that Pro-
fessor G. V. Bond, to whom the Society’s gold medal was awarded just before his
lamented death on the 17th February, discovered “a great re-entering loop of
nebulous matter, extending around nearly the whole of the previously known
portion, and enclosing as with a nebulous wall a large space exterior to the well-
known figure. It was discovered by employing with the 22-feet refractor of 15
inches aperture, an eye-piece magnifying 90 times with a field of 30’.”

ApnormMaL Mumory.—tThe last illness of Friedrich Struve, the late Director of
the Poulkowa Observatory, was characterized by a not unusual, but very inte-
resting condition of the memory, which is, thus alluded to in the biographical
memoir to be found in the Monthly Notices :—‘t When he began to recover from
the exhaustion occasioned by the first attack of his malady, his memory, for all
events of recent occurrence, wholly failed him, while at the same time it exhibited
its usual, or even increased tenacity in things long passed away. On such occa-
sions, he would seem to be living wholly in the scenes of the past, reciting pas-

242, Notes and Memoranda.

sages in Greek, Latin, or Hebrew, and speaking in some of the many dialects in
which he had learnt to converse in his youth. In the midst, however, of this vivid
resuscitation of the past, co-existing with the temporary oblivion of all recent
associations, it is a touchingly suggestive circumstance that he never forgot the
face of a friend.”

DIFFRACTION EXPERIMENTS.—Mr. Bridge informs us, with reference to his
apparatus described in our last number, that if the object-glass is removed, and
the point of light viewed with the telescope out of focus, a new series of appear-
ances may be obtained, and that by moving the object-glass to and fro to dif-
ferent distances from the eye-glass, a new form of figure is given by each posi-
tion. Many of the spectra Mr. Bridge considers would offer valuable sugges-
tions to designers of glass windows, carpets, etc.

Microscorr Lamup.—Mr. John Bockett sends us a photograph of his method
of mounting and using a microscope lamp. A pillar upon a foot carries a glass
lamp with a reflector bebind it, and a condensing lens in front. The reflector is
about 33-inches in diameter, and the bull’s-eye condenser about 2inches diameter,
and: placed a little within the focus of the reflector. A shade is also provided. We
have long used and recommended the addition of a silvered reflector behind a
lamp. It not only economizes light, but for many purposes improves its quality,
as objects may be illuminated almost entirely by the reflected light when the wick
is turned low, and thus the glare of the direct flame is avoided. Mr. Bockett
burns Belmontine, which gives a whiter light than parafline.

PROPERTIES OF MuscuLaR Tissvzr.—Dr. William Marcet has communicated
to the Physical and Natural History Society of Geneva, a paper on the physical
properties of muscular tissue. He finds that it is a porous body, and feebly par-
ticipates in the properties of colloid substances. Its porosity allows it to be
traversed by solutions of albumen, which, however, only proceed through it at.
half the rate of solution of phosphoric acid, thus showing that, like colloid bodies,
it opposes a certain obstacle to the transfusion of other colloids, and facilitates
the passage of crystalloids. ‘Those ‘to whom these terms are new should read the
paper on “ Dialysis,” Vol. i, p. 381. Physiologists will perceive the relation
which Dr. Marcet’s researches bear to the question of the nutrition of muscles.
Dr. Marcet’s paper appears in the Archives des Sciences, No. 86.

SIMPLIFIED OpTHALMOSCOPE.—Messrs. Smith, Beck, and Beck have intro-
duced a simplification of Liebreich’s Opthalmoscope, which renders this instru-
ment suitable for general use. The optical part is arranged ina single tube, which
carries both the mirror and the magnifying lens. The apparatus can be adjusted
to any height, and is fitted with a moveable arm, at the extremity of which is a
small lamp, furnished with a screen to keep the light off the face of the individual
under examination. A rest for the chin is also provided, and the whole packs
into a small case. j

Fossin EquisETUM IN GNEISs.—M. Elie de Beaumont lately presented to the
French Academy a paper by M. A. Sismonda, on a block of gneiss, it the Turin -
Museum, bearing the impress of a plant, which M. Adolphe Brongniart states is
allied to the Kquisetum infundibuliforme of the coal measures. He proposes to
name it Hquisetum Sismonde. 'The block of gneiss appears to have been an
erratic from the Valtelline, and belonging to the,infra Liassic group, which form
the general substratum of Alpine sedimentary rocks. At first M. Sismonda thought
the markings of a dendritic mineral character, but experiment and observation
showed them to be carbonaceous. The discovery of this fossil shows the meta-
morphic character of the Alpine gneiss.

Ke DATA AN A® Sy!
Ee Seat eS

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THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER,

MAY, 1865.

DERVISHES AND HADJIS.

BY ARMINIUS VAMBERY.

Tau Dervish is the veritable personification of Hastern life.
Idleness, fanaticism, and slovenliness are the features which in
him are regarded as virtues, and which everywhere are repre-
sented by him as such. Idleness is excused by allusion to
human impotence, fanaticism explained as enthusiasm in reli-
gion, and slovenliness justified by the uselessness of poor
mortals to struggle against fate. If the superiority of Huropean
civilization over that of the Hast was not so clearly established,
I should almost be tempted to envy a dervish, who, clad in
tatters and cowering in a corner of some ruined building, shows
by the twinkle in his eye the happiness he enjoys. What a
serenity is depicted in that face; what a placidity in all his
actions ; what a complete contrast there is between this pic-
ture and that presented by our European civilization! In my
disguise as a dervish, it was chiefly this unnatural composure
which made me nervous, and in the imitation of which I made
of course the greatest mistakes. I shall never forget one day
at Herat, when, after reflecting on the happiness of the early
termination of the painful mask I had been wearing for so
many months, I suddenly jumped up from my seat, and in a
somewhat excited state began to pace up and down the old ruin
which gave me shelter. A few minutes afterwards I perceived
that a crowd of passers-by had collected at the door, and that
I was the object of general astonishment. Seeing my mistake,
I blushingly resumed my seat. Soon afterwards, several people
came up to ask me what was the matter with me, whether I
_was well, etc. The good people thought I was deranged, for
to oriental notions a man must be out of his senses if, without
necessity or a special object in view, he suddenly leaves his seat
to pace up and down a room.

_ As the dervish represents the general character, so he does

VOL. VII.—NO. IV. R

244, Dervishes and Hadyjis.

the different peoples of the Hast. It is true, Mahommedanism
enforces the dogma, “ All the true believers are brethren ;”
but the origin and home of the different sects are easily
recognized. Bektashi, Mevlevi, and Rufai are principally
natives of Turkey, because Bektash, the enthusiastic founder
of the Janissaries, Molla Djelaleddin Rumi, the great poet
of the Mesnevi, lived and are buried in Turkey; the
Kadrie and Djelali are most frequently met with in Arabia,
the Oveisi, and Nurbakhchi Nimetullahi in Persia, the Khi-
lah and Zahibi in India, and the Nakishbendi and Sofi
Islam* in Central Asia. The members of the different frater-
nities are bound together by very close ties; apprentices
(Murid) and assistants (Khalfa) have to yieldimplicit obedience
to the chief (Pir), who has an unlimited power over the life
and property of his brethren. But these fraternities do notin |
the least trouble themselves about secret political or social
objects, as is sometimes asserted in Europe by enthusiastic
travellers, who have even discovered freemasons amongst the
Bedouin tribes of the Great Desert. The dervishes are the
monks of Islamism ; and the spirit which created and sustains
them is that of religious fanaticism, and they differ from each
other only by the manner in which they demonstrate their
enthusiasm. For instance, whilst one of these religious orders
commands constant pilgrimages to the tombs of saints, the other
lays down stringent rules for reflection on divine infinity and
the insignificance of our existence. A third compels his vota-
ries to occupy themselves day and night with repeating the
name of God (Zikr), and hymns (Tellin); and it cannot sur-
prise us to learn that the greater number of a company which
has continually been calling out with all its might ‘Ja hu!
Jahakk! la illahi ilahu !” are seized with deliriwm tremens.
The orthodox call this condition Medjzub ; 1.e., carried away
by divine love, or to be in ecstasy. A person to whom such a
fortunate event happens, for as such it is regarded, is envied by |
everybody ; and as long as it lasts, the sick and the maimed and.
barren women try to get in his immediate presence, taking hold
of his dress, as touching it is supposed to have healing power.
What the dervishes are able to do durimg the ecstasy caused.
by Zikr, I had once an opportunity of witnessing in Samar-
kand. In Dehbid, close to the tomb of the Makhdun Aazaram,
one of these howling companies had grouped themselves around
the Pir (chief) of that district. At first they contented them-
* Sofi Islam is a sect which originated about thirty years ago. Its founder, a
Tadjik, from Belkh, was desirous of opposing the ever-increasing influence of
the Nakishbendi. In this fraternity prevails the principle of communism and
blood relationship. The Sofi Islamites wear a cap trimmed with fur, and are

most frequently met with this side of the Oxus, as far as Herat, and also amongst
the Turkomans.

Dervishes and Hadjis. 245

selves with repeating the formula in a natural tone of voice,
and almost in measured time. The chief was lost in the
deepest thought, ali eyes and ears were fixed upon him, and
every motion of his hand and every breath he drew was audible,
and encouraged his followers to utter wilder and louder ejacu-
lations. At last he seemed to awake from his sleep-like
reflections, and as soon as he raised his head all the dervishes
jumped up from their seats like possessed beings. The circle
was broken, and the different members began to dance in
undulating motions; but hardly did the chief stand upon his
feet than the enthusiastic dancers became so terribly excited
that I, who had to imitate all their wild antics, became almost
frightened. They were flying about, constantly dancing, right
and left, hither and thither, some leaving the soft meadow and
. getting upon the rough stones, constantly dancing, till the
blood began to run freely from their feet, still they kept on their
mad excitement, till most of them fell faintmg to the ground.
Tt is the same with dervishism as with all the other oriental
institutions, customs, and manners; the more we penetrate
towards the Hast, the greater is the purity with which they
have been preserved. In Persia the dervishes play a much
more important part than in Turkey; and in Central Asia,
isolated as it has been from the rest of the world for centuries,
this fraternity is still in full vigour, and exercises a great
influence upon society. In my Travels I have frequently
alluded to the position occupied by the Jschan, or secular
priests, in Central Asia. Their influence may be called a for-
tunate one contrasted with the fearful tyranny existing in those
countries. This is the reason why every one occupies himself
with religion ; every one tries to pass himself off as a worker
of miracles (Hhli Keramet), or if he fails in that, he endea-
vours to be recognized as a saint (Veli Ullah). Those who
make the interpretation of the sacred writings their business,
are great rivals of the Ischans, who by the mysticism by which
they surround themselves, enjoy a large share of popular
esteem. The native of Central Asia, like the wildest child of
Arabia, is more easily imposed upon by magic formulas and
similar hocus-pocus than by books. He may dispense with
the services of a Mollah, but he cannot do without a Ischan,
whose blessing (fatika) or breath (hafest) is required when he
sets out on one of his predatory expeditions, and upon which
he looks as a talismanic power, when moving about his herds,
his tent, or the wilds of the desert:
_ After the Ischanes, the most interesting class are the men-
dicant dervishes (Kalenter*), which the Kirguese and Turko-

* Kalentor is a corruption of the old Persian Kelantor, 7. ¢., the more power-
ful. In Eastern Persia the title is still given to the judges of villages.

246 Dervishes and Hadjis.

mans call Kudush* or Divane (insane). In the whole of the
great deserts which stretch from the eastern boundaries of
China to the Caspian Sea, it is only these people, in their ragged
dress, who are able to move unmolested. They do not take any
notice of the differences of tribe or family, and the mighty
words Jaghi or Il (friend or enemy) have to them no meaning.
In travelling along they join whomsoever they meet, be it a
peaceful caravan or band of robbers. The dervishes who travel
through Kirguese or Turkoman steppes are generally this class
of people, who from a strong inclination to do nothing, follow
a trade which, throughout the Hast, is considered respectable,
viz., that of a mendicant. All they have to acquire is a few
prayers and a certain power of mimicry, with which the chiro-
mantic feats are performed, and I have never seen a nomad
who has not been moved when he found himself in the close
presence of one of those long-haired, bare-headed, and bare-
footed dervishes, who with his fiery eyes, stared hard at the
son of the desert, and whilst shaking his Keshkul} howled a
wild “ Ja hu”

The arrival of one of these fakirs in a lonely group of tents
is regarded as a joyful event, or almost a festival; it is of
especial importance in the eyes of the women; and the time of
his arrival is differently interpreted. arly in the morning
signifies the happy birth of a camel, or a horse; at noon a
quarrel between husband and wife; and in the evening a good
prospect of marriage to the marriageable daughters. The
dervish is generally taken in hand by the women, and is well
suppled with the best thigs the tent.contains, in hopes that
he may be tempted to produce from beneath his battered dress
some glass beads, or other talisman. Alms, which amongst
the nomads seldom consist of money, are rarely denied him ;
and he often receives an old carpet, a few handfuls of camel
hair or wool, or an old garment. He may also stop with the
family for days, and move about with it without his presence
becoming a burden. If the dervish possesses musical talent,
z.e., able to sing a few songs and accompany himself on the two-
stringed instrument called Dutara, he is made much of, and has
the greatest difficulty in getting away from the hospitable host.

lté is very seldom that dervishes are insulted or ill-treated ;
this, however, is said to be the case amongst the Turkoman,
whose rapacity knows no bounds, and prompts them to commit
incredible acts of cruelty. A dervish, from Bokhara, of

* Kuddus (Hungarian: Kédus, i. e., beggar), is derived from Kudurmak, to
become mad ; thus the Arabs call the dervishes ‘“‘ Medjnun,” 7. e., insane.

+ Keshkul is a vessel formed of half a cocoa-nut, the vade mecum of the der-
vishes, in which he plunges all the food he has collected by begging, whether dry

or fluid, sweet or sour. Such a dish of tutti frutti would but il suit our gastro-
nomers, and yet how delicious it tasted to me after a long day’s march,

.

Dervishes and Hadjis. 247

robust figure and dark curly hair, whom I met at Maymene,
told me that a Tekke Turkoman, prompted by the thirty
ducats which his athletic figure promised to fetch in the slave
market, made him a prisoner, to sell him a few days after-
wards. “I pretended,” my colleague continued, “to be quite
unconcerned, and repeated the Zikr and Tesbih, whilst shaking
my iron chains. The time was fast approaching when I was
to be taken to the market, when suddenly the wife of the
robber of my liberty and person was taken ill, and prevented
him from starting. He seemed to see in this the finger of
God, and began to be pensive, when his favourite horse,
refusing to eat his food, showed signs of illness.” This was
enough. The robber was so frightened that he removed the
chains of his prisoner, and returned to him the things he had
robbed him of, begging him to leave his tent as soon as
possible. Whilst the Turkoman impatiently awaited the de-
parture of the ominous beggar, the latter fumbled about his
dress, and pretended that he had lost a comb, which his chief
had given him as a talisman on the road, and without which he
could not go a single step. The nomad returned in great
haste to the place where the plunder had been kept, and as
the comb did not turn up he became still more frightened, and
promised the dervish the price of twenty combs if he would
only take a single step beyond the boundary of his tent. The
cunning Bokhariat saw he was master of the situation ; he pre-
tended to be inconsolable about ‘the lost property, which he
kept im his pocket, and did not lose at all, and declared
that he now would have to remain for years in the tent.
Imagine the confusion of the deceived and _ superstitious
robber! Like a madman, he ran about asking his neighbour
for advice. Formal negotiations were now commenced with
the dervish, to whom, finally, a horse, a dress, and ten ducats
were presented, to make up for the loss of the comb, and on
condition that he should leave a tent, whose proprietor will
probably think twice before he ventures again upon molesting
a travelling dervish.

Besides the dervishes, who, as physicians, miracle-working
saints, or aimless vagabonds, are wandering about in Central
Asia, there is a class called Khanka neshin, or convent
dwellers, who always wish to appear as the poorest, and are,
without doubt, the most contemptible fellows in the world.
Generally speaking, they are opium eaters, who by their exces-
sive filth, skeleton-like body, and frightfully distorted features,
present a most repulsive appearance. ‘The worst is that they
do not confine themselves to practising this fearful vice them-
selves, but, with a singular persistency, endeavour to make
_ converts aia all classes, and, supported by the want of

248 Dervishes and Hadjis.

spirituous drinks, they succeed but too frequently in their
wicked attempts. What surprised me most was that these
wretched people were regarded as eminently religious, of
whom it was thought that, from their love to God and the
Prophet, they had become mad, and stupefied themselves in
order that in their excited state they might be nearer the
beings whom they loved so well.

Speaking of dervishes, we may mention a class of hypo-
crites, who, under the pretence of carrying out sacred vows,
indulge in their desire to travel; and after their return assume,
under the title of Hadji Pilgrims, authority and a good social
position. The Koran says: “ Hidju, ala bezti min isti-taatun
Sebila *”,—“ Wander to my house (Kaaba) if circumstances
permit.” These “ circumstances” are reduced to the followmg
seven conditions by the commentators :—The pilgrimage must
be undertaken with, 1st, sufficient money for travellmg ex-
penses ; 2nd, bodily health; 3rd, im an unmarried state; 4th,
without leaving debts behind; 5th, in times of peace; 6th,
overland and without danger; and, 7th, and by persons who
have reached the age of puberty. That our good Tartars ill
observe these conditions will be evident to all who have some
idea about the countries situated between Oxus and Taxartus.
In Persia people go to Kerbela, Meshed, or Mekka, only when
sufficient funds enable them to do it comfortably. In Central
Asia, on the contrary, it is always the poorest class who under-
take pilgrimages. A certain taste for adventure, coupled
with religious enthusiasm, are the two motives which prompt
the inhabitants of Central Asia to start from the remote Hast
for the tomb of their Prophet. True, they do not suffer any
material losses, for a beggar’s bag is a money-bag ; but they
frequently lose what is most precious to them—their life—as
every year at least one-third of the pilgrims from Turkistan
die from exposure to the climate.

This sacred, or profane, desire to travel, braves all danger ;
this vague thought of tearmg himself away from his family, and
friends, and countrymen, to see the wide world, surrounds the
hadjis with a certain poetry. I have lived weeks with my
companions, and yet it always interested me to behold them,
palm-staff in hand, as a sacred memento of Arabia, vigorously
making their way over the deep sand or mud. They were
returning happily to their homes; but how many did I meet
who had only commenced their long and tedious journey, and
yet they were equally happy. On my road from Samarkand
to Teheran I had as a companion a native of Chinese Tartary,
who, in total ignorance of the route he had to take, asked me
every evening, even when we were yet at Meshed, whether
we should see to-morrow, or at the farthest after to-morrow,

Dervishes and Hadjis. 249

the minarets of Mekka? ‘The poor fellow had no idea how
much he would have to endure before he reached his destina-
tion. However, this should not surprise us, when we remem-
ber that durmg the time of the Crusades so many honest Teu-
tons undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and after two or
three days’ journey hoped to behold the walls of Jerusalem.*

The routes to Arabia adopted by the pious Tartars are the
following, viz.,1, Yarkend, Kilian, Tibet, Kashmir ;+ 2, through
Southern Siberia, Karyan, and Constantinople; 3, through
Afghanistan and India to Djedda; 1, through Persia, Bagdad,
and Damascus. None of these routes is a comfortable one,
and the amount of danger to be imcurred is very much depen-
dant upon the season of the year and the political state of the
countries through which they pass. The travellers form
themselves in larger or smaller companies, and elect a chief
(Chaush) from amongst themselves, who also fills amongst them
the office of Imam (the person who first says the prayers to be
repeated by the rest), and who enjoys a considerable supe-
riority over his companions. A visit to the Kaaba and
the tomb of the Prophet (which may be paid at any season)
is not so much the culminating pomt of the whole pilgrimage
as the ascent of Mount Arafat. This can be made only once a
year, viz., on the Kurban festival (10th Zil, Hidji), which is
nothing more or less than the sacrifice of Abraham and Isaac
dramatised. All those who have taken part in this festival,
and have jomed in the cry, “Lebeik, Allah!”? (Command,
oh God)—im allusion to Abraham’s implicit obedience—are
regarded as genuine hadjis. ‘This cry of “ Lebeik! lebeik!”
uttered at the most solemn moment of the whole pilgrimage,
seems also to have the deepest impression upon the pilgrim
himself. My travelling companions, whenever they became
excited, or were in a happy mood of mind, always alluded to
it; and the stillness of the Tartaric deserts was often broken
by this memento of the stony districts of Arabia.

However painful and heartrending separation from home
may be when so long and dangerous a journey has to be
undertaken, the joy which the hadjis experienced on their
return fully counterbalances it. Friends and relations, in-
formed of their near arrival, go out to meet them several days
in advance. Hymns are sung, and tears of joy are shed when
the hadji makes his entry into his native place. Hvery one
wants to embrace him, to touch him, for the atmosphere of

* See Nosselt’s Geschichte fiir Téchter schulen I., who also states that
many pilgrims, ignorant of the road, allowed themselves to be led by a frightened
goose which ran before them.

+ From Yarkend (Jarkend) to Kilian, on the boundary line, are three days’

journey; from there by way of Tagarma and Kadun to Thibet, twenty days;
_ and thence to Kashmir, fifteen days.

250 Dervishes and Hadjis.

holy places still surrounds him, the dust of Mekka and Medina
still covers his garments. In Central Asia the hadji is held
in much greater esteem than in any other Mohammedan
country. It has cost him much to obtain his dignity, but he
is amply repaid. Respected and supported by his fellow-
citizens, he is better protected against the tyranny of the
government than any other citizen. The title of a “ hadji”’
is a patent of nobility, which during his lifetime he parades —
on his seal, after death on his tombstone.

The hadjis—of course such as are not mere beggars—often
transact, during their pious pilgrimage, a little commercial
business. ‘‘ Hem tidjaret hen zvaret,” “ commerce and pilgrim-
age together,” are not allowed by their religion; but nobody
seems to suffer any pricks of conscience in taking to his co-
religionist in Arabia a few articles from distant Turkomania.
The products of Bokhara, and other holy places of Central
Asia, are in high esteem amongst the people of Arabia;
besides, every one wishes to show a hadji some favour, and is
easily induced to pay double the value for any article offered.
This small trade is carried on between the easternmost point of
-Islamitic Asia to the Galata bridge of Constantinople. Amongst
the crowd of that famous capital one often sees a Tartar whose
features contrast as strangely with the rest of the population
as the colours of the thin silk kerchief differ from those of an
Kuropean manufacture, Fine ladies seldom become purchasers
of such articles, but old matrons are frequently seen, inspired
by feelings of piety, paying a good price for them, pressing
them repeatedly to their face and forehead while repeating a
loud “ Allahumu Sella,” and continuing their walk.

That the successful sale of the exported articles leads to
the importation of similar merchandise, needs no confirmation.
No hadji leaves the holy places without making some pur-
chases. At Mekka he lays in a stock of scents, dates, rosaries,
and combs, but especially water from the sacred well, called
Zem Zem.* In Yambu and Djidda are bought Huropean
goods; these go by the name of Mali Istambul, 1.¢., Stam-
boul goods, as the unbelieving Franks must not obtain credit
for anything, and they consist of penknives, scissors, needles,
thimbles, etc. Aleppo and Damascus enjoy the reputation of
supplying the best Misvak, a fibrous root, used as tooth-
brushes by all pious Moslems. In Bagdad are bought a
Hirkia, made of camel’s hair, and of superior quality at this

* Zem zem is the name of a famous well on the road, of miraculous power,
the water of which is exported in small vessels to all Islamite countries, as a
single drop of it, taken just at the moment of death, frees from five hundred
years of purgatory. The origin of the well is ascribed to Ismail, who, after
being left behind by Hagar, stamped his; little foot, and made the well spring up..

Dervishes and Hadjis. 251

place, as it is this kind of garment which the Prophet is said
to have worn next his skin. Finally, in Persia, ink powder,
and pens, made of canes, are purchased. In Central Asia all
these articles are great curiosities, and they are paid for hand-
somely, partly from necessity, partly from religious motives.

Generally speaking, a caravan of hadjis, I mean one
whose character has been well inquired into, are the best tra-
velline companions one can have in Central Asia, or rather in
the whole of the Hast, provided one can manage to agree with
them. With regard to the travelling necessaries, the hadji
is well supplied, and it was always surprising to me to see
how aman, who had only one poor donkey he could call his
own, could make a display of a separate tea-service* (4 la
Tartar), pilou apparatus, and carpet, when arrived at the station
at which we halted. . Nobody is more clever than a hadji in
negotiating, be the people he has to deal with believers or
unbelievers, nomades or agricultural tribes. A hadji may be
converted into anything, he being thoroughly penetrated by
the principle, “Si fueris Rome.” Instead of being cast
down and gloomy, as his ragged exterior would lead us to
suppose, he is of a merry disposition, and, during the lone
marches, the greatest samt and miracle-maker occasionally
indulges in a profane joke. T’he comicality of these generally
serious faces has often made me forget the privations which I
was myself undergoing.

* The tea-service consists of a can-like vessel made of copper, and is, next to
the Koran, the most indispensable vade mecum of every travelling Tartar. Even
the poorest beggar carries it, suspended by the handle, about with him. ,

252 Gold Currency in India.

GOLD CURRENCY IN INDIA.

BY JOSEPH NEWTON,

Tuer recent introduction, under warrant of Government, of a
gold currency throughout the three Presidencies of British
India, is an event of sufficient importance to justify some
remark. ‘The imnovation is one which must create consider-
able excitement among the native mbhabitants, who have
always entertained a very strong prejudice in favour of silver
money. That that excitement will be of short duration, and
that the prejudice will soon die a natural death, may be fore-
told without much prescience, and without a shadow of a
chance of the non-fulfilment of the prophecy.

The advantages likely to arise from the existence of a gold
coinage in India had indeed forced themselves upon the atten-
tion of such of the wealthy and more mtelligent natives as
were engaged in the transactions of commerce, long before
the order m council legalized its use in our Indian possessions.
The Government, therefore, in admitting gold coins to a legal
position, have only recognized actual facts, and inaugurated a
financial reformation which growing commerce and enlarged
experience had proved to be not only expedient but absolutely
necessary. It is not a theoretical crotchet, but the enligh-
tened recognition of a want and the application of a means of
supplying it. The change would probably have been effected
at an earlier date, but for the circumstance that the comed
sovereign and half-sovereign do not exactly tally with any
combination of silver coins circulating in India. ‘The alterna-
tives presented for overcoming this inconvenience were to
disregard the relative difference of value between the rupee
and the sovereign, or else to remodel the silver coinage of that
country, and make it harmonize in its divisions with our own
gold currency. In the latter case the serious evil would have
had to be encountered of inciting much popular discontent, if —
not of something worse, and therefore the idea was necessarily
‘abandoned. It remained to adopt the former, or to leave
things as they were. Thanks principally to Sir Charles Tre-
velyan, the late financial secretary to the Government of
Bengal, the determination was arrived at to make the sove-
reign and the half-sovereign current at the value of ten and
five rupees respectively, and thus to confer, apparently, a favour
upon the present holders of silver money. —

The legalization of a gold currency throughout the Presi-
dencies cannot be construed, by any perversity of reasoning or
ingenuity of argument, into an arbitrary interference with the

Gold Currency in India. 253

native coin, so to speak, but must be regarded as a super-
addition to it, rendered imperative by the extension of trade
and traffic, and one which will facilitate largely the prosecution
of both. It is not impossible that in the fulness of time, when the
native population shall have become familiar with the gold coins
of Great Britain, and can appreciate their portability, the
sovereign may become the unit of commercial calculation in
India as it is at home. Thus the way would be paved for the
introduction of English silver coins as well. Such a consum-
mation, however, if it be attaimed at all, must be arrived at by
natural, and not artificial means, and cannot be forced.

A perfect assimilation and uniformity of the coinages of Bri-
tish India, Australia, and the mother country, would, no doubt, be
of immense advantage to all; but, like other reformations where
nationalities, prejudices, and peculiarities of habit consequent
upon them, have to be combated, the change will be the work,
not of a day, but of a generation at least. Perhaps the Decimal
System may eventually prove to be the lever by means of which
the improvement is to be effected. It is exceedingly proba-
ble that the general circulation of a gold currency in India may
lead to a similar result in China. There is a great interchange
of bullion and specie constantly goimg on between the two
countries, and a common and well understood coinage of gold
would, undoubtedly, be found conducive to a facility of remit-
tance and disbursement. The Chinese authorities, of course,
exercise exclusive control over the. currency of China, but
English coins, from their known value and unvarymg degree
of purity, pass current, or at a very slight depreciation, at
present, and it is pretty certain that Chinese merchants will
accept the same coin when they know that it is already a legal
tender in India, with which place they have close and facile
communication.

In this way then it is, to say the least of it, not unlikely
that our own gold coinage will find its way not only to Chinese
seaports, but up the great Chinese rivers to the inland seats of
trade of that vast, populous, and mysterious country. Thus
may be foreseen the opening up of a great future for the gold
comage of England, and a gradual iapsing of the dollar, rupee,
and general silver currencies of China and India into the sub-
sidiary positions which silver coins occupy in almost all other
states of the globe. Whether the relative values of the two
precious metals will be affected by this social change, isa ques-
tion which as yet can only be suggested. It is positive,
nevertheless, that the legahzation of gold, as a medium of
circulation in our Indian territories, will speedily liberate
enormous quantities of the inferior material, and that this latter
will flow over a much wider area than it could while it remained

254 Gold Currency in India.

an exclusive standard. Without entering into a discussion of
the ulterior consequences of the extensive gold discoveries of
the last twelve years, and, the future price of that metal—
which form important and interesting subjects of debate in
themselves—it may be remarked that a no less eminent
authority than M. Chevalier contends that the extensive em-
ployment of a gold comage in France has retarded a fall im the
value of gold. How likely, then, that the circulation of gold
coins among the millions of inhabitants of India will retard it -
still further ?

During the reign of Napoleon III. gold coms have indeed
almost displaced those of silver, except as to the smallest de-
nominations of them, and thus the order of things, as compared
with the reign of his uncle, has been reversed. An extra-
ordinary exportation of silver to the Hast, where it has been
hitherto in great request, has resulted from the alteration.
For example, the export of silver from France in the year 1853
was valued at nine millions sterling; in 1854, it was more than
ten millions and a half; in 1855, it amounted to twelve
millions and three-quarters; while in 1857 it had reached
eighteen millions and a-half. Since that period the exports
have lessened in value, because the fountains whence they were
drawn had become comparatively dry. The adoption of a
gold currency in India will check this draining of silver from
Hurope yet more effectually, and the Hast will naturally absorb
gold from Australia to supply the place of the subsidiary
metal, for which it previously yearned. Perhaps, indeed, the
masses of silver, borrowed as it were from France and, in a
lesser degree, from England, may flow back again, by the
action of the self-same law which drifted them away! The
tendency of the new arrangement will inevitably be towards
such a restitution.

One other reform it would be well for the Government to’
consider, in connection with the gold currency of India, and it ©
refers to the Australian sovereign and half-sovereign. Those
coins will find their way to India, as a consequence of the —
recent enactment, and they should be at once, therefore, im-
perialized. Their distinctive and comparatively imelegant
impressions render them in every way a nuisance, when inter-
mixed with our own gold money, and that inconvenience will
be found intolerable among Her Majesty’s lieges in India. It
is not enough to make the Sydney coins simply a legal tender.
They should forthwith be assimilated in appearance, as they
are in weight, fineness, and intrinsic value, to those issued
from the British Mint. |

This is an essential addendum to the wise measure of
reform to which we have adverted, and without which that

The Lunar Taurus (S.) and Argeeus. 255

reform will be shorn of much of its usefulness. The demand
for gold coins, both from England and Australia, will be for
several years to come very great, and it is desirable that there
should be no incongruity in the emanations from the stamping
presses of the Royal establishment in London and its branch
at the Antipodes.

THE LUNAR TAURUS (S8.) AND ARGAUS.—
OCCULTATIONS.

BY THE REV. T. W. WEBB, A.M., F.R.A.S.

WE recently described the northern division of the lunar range
‘ denominated Taurus, and have now to proceed to its southern
region, which lies between the 8.W. angle of the Mare Sereni-
tatis (H) and the N.W. of the M. Tranquillitatis (D). The
direction of the ridges which compose it is so exclusively
S.S.W., that it even flattens two sides of the considerable
craters Inttrow (a double formation, next on the 8. to Lemon-
mer, the bay described in our last paper), and Maraldi (a
little further S.W.). S. of Littrow and S.E. of Maraldi lies a
more conspicuous crater, Vitruvius, nineteen miles across,
remarkable for its contrast of reflective power, the interior
having only 2°, the ring 7° to 8° of brightness. Its H. side is
4500 feet above the bottom. JLohrmann remarks that it has a
beautiful central hil. “The neighbourhood of Vitruvius,”
say B. and M., “is, in respect. of colouring and luminosity,
one of the most remarkable in the lunar surface, and its aspect
alone quite sufficient to set aside the idea that the moon is
nothing but a wide field of ice and snow, or, generally speak-
ing, thoroughly homogeneous in.its component parts. .
The sea is here considerably dark, and this dark colouring
extends itself in one of the narrow bays as far as the N. edge
of Vitruvius. Other portions, on the contrary, show a mixture
of brighter and darker points, compared with which the rest
possesses an almost bluish aspect.”? Among the many island-
like hills, which reach out from Vitruvius into the sea, B. and
M. observe that a high mountain, rising furthest to the east,
“elevates itself 8384 feet above the H. surface, and 5850 feet
above the bay to the W. At its broad southern foot stand
two craters—one large but barely perceptible, and another
small, very distinct, 6° bright in full moon.” lLohrmann
considers this ridge, with some curious hills and valleys on its

256 The Lunar Taurus (S.) and Argeus.

N.W. side, the most remarkable region in the whole of his
Section ITI., which forms a square of about twenty-five lunar
degrees. Attention had been previously drawn to it, however,
by Schréter. In his first observation, 1788, November 4, he
describes it as a straight chain of five summits, divided by-
parallel ravines, about thirty-seven miles long, and of a greyish
colour. This, contrary to the usual rule, he found brighter
when nearer the terminator, 1791, December 30, at which
time he ascertained the heights of each of the summits: that
furthest to the S.W. cast no measurable shadow ; the others
ascended gradually through successive heights of 1980, 3170,
and 6570, to 10,190 feet at the opposite extremity of the
range, where it drops at once in a vast and awful precipice to
the plain beneath it, as is shown by the extraordinary straight-
ness of the N. side of its spire of shade, and the perpendicu-
larity of its direction towards the terminator. Hence Schroéter.
justly remarks that the materials of the moon must be, at
least in part, as coherent as those of our globe; and adds:
“ Cliffs, in our terrestrial mountains, of even 200 to 300 feet
and upwards, from which we look down into the valleys lyme
beneath them, make a powerful impression upon the suscep-
tible observer of the works of God. What a vast nature-scene
now would not open itself fully to mortal eye? And how
great, beyond all imagination great, would not the impression _.
be, if 16 could gaze away from the steeply set-off peak upon
the soft lunar plains of the M. Serenitatis and M. Tranquilli-
tatis 2”? Another measure, 1796, August 9, under less favour-
able circumstances, gave him 11,490 feet, the shadow being
then very differently shaped and directed—a variation which
he was disposed to ascribe to atmospheric obscuration, but
which might more naturally be referred to irregularities in the
surface of the plain below. In two other observations he again
saw it straight-edged, but shorter, and cut off square at the
end.

On two occasions only have [any record of having observed
this magnificent precipice ; the former, 1855, November, 14d.
6 h., the moon being 5 d. old, and 3 d. 14 h. past the greatest
8.H. libration, when, notwithstanding a very low position and ~
dim and agitated image, I could perceive a grand pointed mass
of shadow; the latter, 1858, February, 18 d. 7 h. 45 m.—4d.
21+ h. after new, 4d. 4h. after greatest N.H. libration. The
distance of the terminator at this time from the N.H. end of
the range was about equal to its length; and the great steep-
ness of the enormous cliff was finely shewn by the very
straight edge of its shadow, cast across the plain to the termi-
nator, by which, though already narrowing in rapidly, it seemed
to be truncated; only 1h. 15 m. later, the spire of shade |

The Lunar Taurus (S.) and Argeus. 257

extended not more than 2ths of the distance to the terminator.

I have entered into these minute particulars because the phe-

nomenon seems to be of very transient character, and requires

watching in order to catch its most striking aspect. In the
first observation, part of the ring of the neighbouring crater,

Plinius (No. 13), was just visible beyond the terminator in
faint light; in the second, I have noted that the foot of the
ring of the same cavity touched the terminator when the

shadow was shortening. In either case Theophilus (85) was
on the terminator, and the entrance of that grand crater into
sunshine will serve as a convenient signal for the observer who
wishes to secure a view of this remarkable shadow. I have
once seen the mountain under the opposite illumination in the
wane, but the effect was not at all striking; it was, however,
too far in sunshine.

The representation of this chain by Lohrmann differs some-
what from the figures of Schr. and B. and M., but those best
acquainted with the lunar surface and its delineation will not
be the most perplexed by such deviations. It does not appear
why B. and M. have not affixed to its apex one of those letters of
reference which they have, in many instances, so liberally
bestowed on objects of much less magnitude and interest ; but
as it is without any designation in their map I have begged
permission to distinguish it by the name of Mount Argceus,*
from some kind of analogy which may be traced between its
position as an outlier of the lunar Taurus, with that of the
Cappadocian summit bearing that name, which is somewhat
similarly related to the Taurus range in Asia Minor.+

On the W. side of Vitruvius, or S.H. of Maraldi, lie two
smaller craters side by side, the one (Vitruvius A.) as remark-
able for its steepness as its neighbour, which is not quite so
large, is for its soft contour. B. and M. observe that one
would be tempted by their aspect to consider the latter asa
sketch, the former a finished production.

To complete our survey of Mt. Taurus, we have yet to
examine the 8.W. plateau, containing the two large craters,
Macrobius (11) and Proclus (12). The former is 42 miles
in diameter, and at least 12,800 feet deep ; less, however, on the

* Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes, p. 72.

+ This grand summit, the culminating point of the ridge of Antitaurus which
divides Cappadocia into two parts, is now called Ardjish or Erjish Dagh. Itis
an extinct volcano of very noble form, rising about 13,000 feet above the sea, and
_capped with perpetual snow. The western and loftier of its two conical peaks is
described as “ bristling with needles and furrowed with cavities ;” at its foot lies
an immense crater of vast depth. Many years ago an unfortunate American
traveller was said to have lost his life from attempting a short cut in its descent.
The ancient geographer Strabo relates that both the Mediterranean and Euxine seas
were visible from its summit, but this seems highly improbable.

258 The Innar Taurus (S8.) and Argeus—Occultations.

E. side, where there is a small crater of 61°. Proclus, more
than 18 miles across, is of difficult measurement in depth from
its position. Schroter, from a rough attempt, considered it
about 11,000 feet; B. and M. thought it exceeded 8300 feet
on the W., which is the deeper side. The ring (using that
expression in its stricter sense) is, after Aristarchus, the most
luminous in the moon, having 8° of light in its S., and 9° in its
N. portion; the interior has only 4°. It is a remarkable fact
that, with so much brilliancy, it is barely to be distinguished |
on the night-side. From its position Schroter inferred that it
ought to be nearly as conspicuous after the fullas Aristarchus
before it—he found its site, however, either quite dark or very
feebly illuminated ; and much less conspicuous than the less
brilliant and worse situated Manilius and Menelaus; in total
eclipse, too, it disappeared while other spots retained their
visibility. B. and M., who agree with him as to the fact,
explain it from the narrowness of the ring, which renders it
imperceptible with such low powers as are alone suitable for
examining the details of the dark hemisphere.

The restricted breadth in this instance of the highly re-
flective portion is a curious and suggestive fact, though it is
difficult to assign any probable explanation of it. If the upper-
most ridge of the wall were of especial elevation, and exhibited
a graduated briliancy, we might be led to the idea of a sub-
sequent “‘ weathering” from the action of a low-lying atmo-
spheric stratum. But such is not the case, and the inference
would be totally at variance with appearances elsewhere. Nor
is it easy to see, in the face of many adverse instances, how
that particular part would be lable to a bleaching process from
more rapid cooling, or from the escape of vapour. If, on the
contrary, we should incline to the supposition of an original
difference in material, it is difficult to conceive how, amid the
violent disturbance of an eruption on so extended a scale, any
separate layer of matter could be so regularly deposited, and ©
on so limited a space. The last discharge, possibly of ashes,
might have a very distinct character, but would hardly exhibit
itself merely as the summit of a lofty rmg. We may, perhaps,
collect that if we see its pristine condition, it never could have
been one of great fluidity. But it must be admitted that the
subject of lunar eruption is at present enveloped in much
obscurity.

OCCULTATIONS.

May 2nd, x Cancri, 5 mag., 7h. 538m. to 8h. 87m.—4th, 86
Sextantis, 11h. Im. to 11h. 52m.

Sticklebacks and other Nest-making Fish. 239

STICKLEBACKS AND OTHER NEST-MAKING FISH.
BY THE REV. W. HOUGHTON, M.A., P-L.S.

So much has of late years been written on the subject of
Sticklebacks’ nests, that few people, who take any interest m
Natural History pursuits, can be ignorant of this extremely
interesting fact ; but, though the fact itself may be well known,
I will venture to say that very few naturalists, comparatively
speaking, can say they have ever found a fish’s nest, and
many would experience at first some litle difficulty im dis-
covering one. With a view, therefore, of facilitating the dis-
covery of sticklebacks’ nesis this season, lei me ask the
reader to accompany me, in thought, any day in the months of
May and June, io a pond or shallow stream. We will take with
us a hand-net, and a tim or zinc can, for the capture of spea-
mens, and a separate vessel for the nests and eggs. Let us
suppose that we are on the bank of a clear pond; now for
a stackleback’s nest. I lie flat down upon the grass, and
gently move away with my hand the floating leaves of the
pond-weed (Potamogeton natans) and the green conferva, and
look about me. Ah! do you see that ltile fish with crimson
breast, and eyes like emeralds sparkling ; see how wide awake he
looks ; depend upon it he has a nest not faraway. And here
it is, very plainly to be seen, partly covered with the sand and -
mud at the bottom of the water. Do younotice those roundish
holes in the nest ? Just touch it with the end of your walking-
stick. Bravo, litile stickles! he is at you lke a bull-dog.
How angry he is; if his power were equal to his will, he would
swallow us all up. Now we can easily catch him. So I put
my net near his nest, and over the net he swims, and out of
the water he comes, ‘and I put him im my collecting tin. Now,
let us watch the nest, and see what will happen. Here they
come, a hungry group of sticklebacks of all ages, and, alas!
for the depravity of piscine nature, they are attacking the
nest, and devouring the precious morsels inside. Let us
restore the father fish to his native element and his familiar
haunts. Quick, or the work of destruction will be complete.
Tn he goes, and fora moment seems to have lost all recollection
of past events. But no! he is “coming to himself,” and wit-
nesses that marauding crowd, and now he rushes boldly to the
rescue of his house and family, first tilting at one and then at an-
_ other of the enemy, until, mirabile dictu, he has driven every van-
quished foe far from the scene of carnage, a very Diomede in the
iray—
4 “So raged Tydides, boundless im his ire,
Drove armies back, and made all Troy retire.”

VOL. Vii.—wNO. IV. s

260 Sticklebacks and other Nest-making Fish.

But he has other work to do, he must repair the home of
his young family so ruthlessly attacked; and now he hastens
hither and thither, carrying in his mouth little bits of weed
and stick, and dubs them into his nest, till the work of repair
is completed. But we will try to find another nest, in order
to examine it somewhat minutely. Now that the eye is
familiar with the appearance of a nest, there will be no
difficulty in discovering many more. There, you may count
no less than four within a radius of a couple of yards! Let us
take this one for examination. _Bah! it has collapsed and lost
its form now that it is out of the water; but see, embedded in the
tangled mats of grass rootlets and decayed conferva filaments,
lies a cluster of eggs. Look closely at it. What are those
little black specs? Why, the eyes of the young ones to be
sure; and see how the embryos jerk themselves about within
the egg shell. We will catch the father fish if possible, and .
take the nest and eges home to watch the development in a
basin of water. Poor fellow! he evidently has a father’s
heart, and misses his loss. He will, however, soon make
himself at home in the aquarium, and you will have the op-
portunity of witnessing further instances of parental affection
ma small fish. You will see him frequently poised over the
nest and agitating the water briskly with his fins. This -
he does in order to bring fresh currents to the eges. Ina
few days, perhaps, the young ones will begin to appear—
strange looking creatures to be sure, each with an unde-
veloped mouth, and an attached yolk sac, the contents of
which become gradually absorbed by the body of the fish, and
which are its sole nutriment in the early stages of its exis-
tence. If you move away a little fellow from the nest by
means of a camel’s-hair pencil, you will see the father fish
start off in pursuit of the wanderer, seize him in his mouth,
and shoot him out into the nest. Having “no ticket of
leave,” he is not allowed to stir above an inch or two from the
precincts of the house.* Woe betide any other fish or small
animal that dares approach the home of the little family.
Quick as thought Paterfamilias rushes at him with dorsal and
pectoral spines bristling horribly, and pursues him “ tooth and
nail” with relentless fury. If you come to this same pond in
about three weeks’ time, you may see many little groups of small
fry disporting themselves close to the nest, into which they im-
mediately pop should an 1 enemy make an assault at an unguarded
moment.

Well, all this is extremely interesting, and “45 ask

* Mr.J. H. Horsfall has observed that the male fish, on some occasions, Eas
his own infants. See INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER, No. xxy., Feb. 1864, p. 5.

Sticklebacks and other Nest-making Fish. 261

whether this nest-making Te is shared by any other
fish besides sticklebacks.

Yes it is, and the fact was observed by Aristotle three
hundred years before the Christian era. Not that the father
of natural history, it is probable, had ever seen it him-
self. He simply gives the story as it had been re-
lated to him. Aristotle speaks of two kinds of fish which
protect their eggs, one the Glanis, of which he writes :—
“Of river fish the male Glanis mamifests great care for
its young; but the female, after having deposited her eggs
goes away, but the male continues to guard them, paying only
so much of attention to them as to drive away other fish, lest
they should carry the eggs away. He does this for the space
of forty or fifty days, till the fry have grown strong enough to
escape being devoured by other fish. The fishermen know
when it is guarding its eggs, for it drives off other fish, and
utters a murmur as it rushes at them. So affectionately does
it watch its egos, that when the fishermen attempt to bring
them out of deep into shallow water, the fish will not leave
them.” Aristotle also speaks of a fish called the Phycis, as
being the only marine species which manifests the same anxious
eare for its brood. The glanis of the Ancient, and glanidi of
the Modern Greeks, is found in the Achelous in Acarnania, and
is a not very distant cralabive of the Sheat fish, or Silwrus glanis,
of which we have recently heard so much. The Phycis is
probably a species of Goby, which Cuvier thought to be -
identical with the go of the Venetians. This fish is found in
the Adriatic, and the male makes a nest of the roots of the
grass-wrack (Zostera marina), that long, ribbon-shaped weed,
with its beautiful leaves of grass green, common on our own
shores. I suspect that this is the fish of which Ovid has sung
in his Halieuticon* as the fish “ which imitates under the waves
the pretty nests of the birds.”

The family of Silwride are especially noite for their nest-
building habits. I have already mentioned the case of the
Glamis. Agassiz speaks of another member of this same
family. ‘Who can see the cat-fish (Pimelodus catus),” he
asks, “move about with its young brood, or the sun-fish
(Pomotis vulgaris) hovering over its eggs, and protecting them
for weeks, without remaiming satisfied that the feeling which
prompts these actsis of the same kind with that which attaches
the cow to its calf’ The genus Doras, containing two species
of nest-making fish, belongs to, this same family of Silwride.
In these instances both the male and female fish take part in
the construction of the nest, and protection of the eggs and

* & Atque avium dulces nidos imitata sub undis,” (line 122.)

262 Sticklebacks and other Nest-making Fish.

young fry. The negroes of Demerara, where these Hassars,
as they are called, are found, very readily catch the fish by
putting their hands into the water near the nest, when the
parent fish rushes furiously at them, and is thus captured. Dr.
John Hancock, who has given an interesting account of these
Hassars, one of which he calls the Flat-headed, the other the
Round-headed Hassar, thus speaks of the nests:—~‘ The
Round-head forms its nest of grass, the Flat-head of leaves. -
Both at certain seasons burrow in the bank. They lay their
egos only in wet weather. I have been surprised to observe
the sudden appearance of numerous nests in a morning after
rain occurs, the spot being indicated by a bunch of froth,
which appears on the surface of the water over the nest.
Below this are the eggs, placed on a bunch of fallen leaves, or
grass, if it be the littoral species, which they cut and collect
together. By what means this is effected seems rather myste-
rious, aS the species are destitute of cutting teeth. It may
possibly be by the use of their serrator arms, which form the
first ray of the pectoral fins.” The Callichthys, another genus
of this family, manifests the same care for its young.

The stickleback, the especial subject of this paper, is the
three-spined species (Gasterosteus aculeatus, Lin.). Yarrell
enumerates several species of this fish, but Mr. Couch* regards ©
most of these as mere varieties, and recognizes only three .
species, viz., the one just named, the ten-spined (G. pungitius,
Lin.), and the fifteen-spined stickleback (G. Spinachia, Lin.),
a species entirely marme. All these, I believe, are nest-
builders. There is no doubt whatever’about two of them, for
the nests of both have been seen by several observers, but I
cannot call to mind at present any notice of the nest of G.
pungitius. This species 1s not uncommon in ditches, and I
have often found specimens, but hitherto have searched in vain
for their nests. The three-spined sticklebacks are inhabitants
of both salt water and fresh. Mr. Couch, one of our best
authorities on all that relates to the habits of fish, remarks
that “they do not in preference frequent the open sea, and
that a quiet union of the sea water with the fresh appears the
most congenial with their nature—as we may judge by the
abundance to be met with in such situations.” The same
author states that so numerous are they, that ‘in some places
they are employed for the purpose of feeding ducks and pigs ;
and sometimes they are drawn on shore in such heaps as to
serve for manure, for which purpose they are said to be of
considerable value—a fact not improbable, when, according to
Lacépéde, they are known to afford, by pressure, a good supply

* Fishes of the British Isles, i, pp. 167—184, Groombridge and Sons.

Sticklebacks and other Nest-making Fish. 263

of oil, which we suppose can come only [chiefly ?] from the
liver.” Iam able to mention another use to which our little
stickleback friends are applied. A friend of mine, whilst par- ~
taking of a dish of whitebait, was surprised to find the presence
of certain very sharp spines in that said much appreciated
dainty. Lo, there they were sticking in his tongue and
between his teeth! He brought a bottle of whitebait home,
in which three or four sticklebacks were readily recognized. .

264 Meteorological Observations ai the Kew Observatory.

RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE
KEW OBSERVATORY.

1865. Reduced to mean of day. irieereaatcte of Air, At 9°30
Calculated. l
3 # Se |i ;
Se | 3 oe sr ee : b
Day ES r) ; 2 s 22 3 s Se a
of Pet esis | a 4 Shes ge re ae
Month. Bea ee We || Eanes ey a2
: ee s Ay jen} aP 5 By oy
| #8 S/ele|s|da |#e/ 2] £8
oe o a= oe | ed °
| Bol Bale i
inches.| x inch. % ° ° 0—10
ee eM tl cas digs Wh seco OOsS | oda) oaeO| 2
» 2 | 29°724) 30-7) 29-2) +95) -190, 36-4 | 21-4) 15°0'10, 10, 10
» 8 | 29°648| 32-9 80:9] -93) -206, 34-8 | 23°9/ 20-9110, 8,10
» 4 | 29°907| 44:3) 38:9] -83/-307) 49-4 | 28°8/20°6| 8, 9, 0
» » |80:011) 43-4) 43-1; -99) -297| 49-1 | 36°5)12°6) 7, 10, 10)
» 6 |30:034) 40-1) 37-8} -92) +265] 42-5 | 38:9)13°6| 0, 7, 3
» 7 |80:318) 37-4 33:0) -85/-241) 44-0 | 31:2)12°8| 6, 0, 4
ee SS FO) Rl Tee CO BAA Oh ag
» 9 | 29818] 42-2) 36-1) -81) -285) 45-7 |37-7| 8:0) 0,10, 10
» 10 | 29°773| 47-9| 443) -88| 847) 49-7 | 89:4) 10°3) 9, 10, 10
2» 11 | 29°723) 43-2| 41-1] -93)-295| 46-8 | 41:2) 5°6 8, 8,10
»» 12 | 29110) 43-8| 39-4) -85|-301| 47-5 | 42°4) 51/10, 7, 6
3» 18 | 29-112) 366 31-9} -85|-234 46-2 | 32°0)14'2) 0, 8, 10
9 14 | 28°697| 42:9) 83-9] -73)-292) 46-1 | 34°7/11°4,10, 10, 4
BN scans oll whe ae af real men | SN eos
9 16 | 28-979) 37-7| 33-1] °85 24d, 40:6 | 34:0} 66] 6, 7, 4
» 17 | 29-189) 34-2 29-7) -85| 215) 38:0 | 32:0, 60 1, 5, 0
>», 18 | 29-335] 34-9/ 32-0] -90} -221) 37-7 | 30-0) 7°7| 8,10, 10
» 19 | 29°459| 34-9) 33-1) 94) +221) 36-4 | 33°0 34/10, 10, 10
» 20 | 29°591| 34:0) 30:0) -87| 214) 37-8 | 31:2] 66) 7, 4, 0
» 21 | 29-635] 29-0) 28-2). °97|-179 37-9 | 21:5|16°4! 8, 7,10
PG al vcd dee Ime | een] Gey eee ed ay ee
59 22 | 29°805| 32°3/ 28-8] -88|-201) 36-2 | 25:4/10°8] 1, 6, 8
9 24 | 29°613/ 34-2) 28-7| -83/-215) 35-9 | 28°6| 7°3/10,10, 10
5» 25 | 29°661] 32°8/ 28-1] -84/-205| 34-1 | 32-2} 1°9)/10, 10, 10
»» 26 | 29:301) 33-1| 32°8} -99|-207| 34-8 | 32°0| 2°8)10, 10, 10
9» 27 | 29°158/ 32-3) 31:0} -95|-201! 33:8 |32°5| 1°3/10, 10,10
y> 28 | 29:910| 30-7| 21-8) -73)-190| 35:4 | 25:8} 9°6] 0, 0, 0
ees are ee |e. He 2, eae a OA ee
»» 30 | 29:267 36'9 35°5 *95| -237/ 39°8 | 21-6) 18°2)10, 6,10
» 31 | 29-179 39°8/ 38°3| “95 262 43°7 |34°5| 9-2! 6,10,10
Moca || 29°36) 37° 0/335 89 ba, | | Oe

\

* To obtain the Barometric pressure at the sea-level these numbers must be increased by *037 inch. + Rain and me

LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w.

BY G. M. WHIPPLE.

snow,

A.M., 2°30 P.M., and 5 P.M.
respectively.

Rain—
read at
9°30
A.M.
Direction of Wind.

inches,

ee 0:000
aye) 2 yas “091.
N, NW by N, NW. } on
WS WwW, W, SW.
W by S, 8, SW.
Ww, WNW, W by 8.
SW, Wsw, SW.

SW, W by S, SW.
SW by 8, SW by 8S, SW.
SW by 8, SSW, 1S by W.
S by E, SW by §, SSW.
WSW, SW by 8S, S by W. ies
SW, W by N, W by N. “40.

Wsw, NW, SW.
SW by W, NW, NW by W.
2 SW.
W, NW by N.
a) by W, W.
aaa SS
SW by S, SE, E a 8.
NE, NE by E, ENE.
NE, ‘NE by E, E by N. “04s
E by N, NE by B, ENE. | +16
NNHE, N, NNW. +782
Wwiw, Ww by 8, WSW. | +-264
Sg “— “000
E, SE by E, —.
S by W, SSE, SSE.

m os 3-098

267

Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory.

HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THR WIND (IN MILES) AS RECORDED_BY ROBINSON'S ANEMOMETHR.—Janvary, 1865,

Day.
Tour.
12

A.M.
——
=
COON QAOnSFwWhNF

om
=
—

P.M.
CORAMIEFWONWRrK

1/2/;3|)4)5

8

_
=)
OOP RRrENONNEN WH

_
2
a

ee

ore

|
mOmonDovd

257|137

ATIADMOoep owe oo

144

280/313

6

7|8

11) 8
10) 10
9} 11

40) 10

216/336)

10 | 11) 12) 13 | 14] 15 | 16/17) 18} 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 28 | 24! 25 | 26 | 27 | 28| 29} 80/81

—!. —— i —
—_— — —w le) Re ee ee ee a a

20| 9] 17
221 8 20
20/ 7) 20
20| 5| 20
20) 5) 20
92) 4) 25
20| 2) 25
18} 6) 29
17| 5| 41
18] 7| 34
26| 7| 35
24| 11] 35
25] 14) 29
26| 10] 33
23| 12] 29
g2| 8] 24
27| 6] 22
25| 4) 22
26] 9] 12
24| 11) 19
12] 11] 15
10] 15] 14

8] 19] 5

8] 16] 11
483|212 556

348/603

m

oo

—_

S
FODMDAnDoFrwmanravvooonraewc

390) 248/138)126

AMNAAMAMNAWAATAOWE AOE ATE AHS

WOSNTONNN OB WERWORNDWONEAAOE

96

COABAMNWEAANOTONWOAAS OSs w oon
SEEN ENWNONH We ND OFrCH Nr Ob bb & &

123] 53

AAEWAWADOCWOILWOONAAAODAAD
SWOONOATOANNWNONEONWWOwWE WOON ES
e
on
—

_

—
bo
bo
(=)

a
i
co
—
ar
=
ce
i
us
_
on

130)120)372)252)/348) 443

Hourly

Means.
18} 38] 12) 7 103
15] 4) 14) 5] Lod
TE ri Le) 6 9'9
18 16} 8 108
13} 1) 18) 7 11:9
12} 1) 16) 4) 10:7
34) 1) 17). Bb) — 108
14) 1) 12) 4) 1210
TL) 41) 12) 4) TOS
8) 1) To a) Oe
10) 5} 5) 10) 11:7
11; 6) 5] 10) 12:4
10} 10} 3) 11) 131
6] 11) 4| 10) 126
9} 11) 56) 14) 127
6| 12) 4) 14; 11°9
5] 10] 4) 15) 117
5) 12} 4) 14) bd
6| 16) 8} 17) 122
7| 19) 4) 16) 125
6] 19} 2) 10) 115
GEL7 OS Tis
7) 21) -4) 12; wie
5] 16) 4) 11) 105

282)201|195/220| 11°38

266 Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory.

RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE
KEW OBSERVATORY.

LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w.

1865. Reduced to mean of day. Temperature of Air. At 9°30 a.m., 2.30 P.M., andd5P.M.,
—— po ee a respectively.
Calculated. Say
3 Hi Sayers
eral Pyle Wee als alge pee
Ho iS) ae i) a ‘ g
oe | lela lal les jfa/ 2) 3s
Month. Pao q | 8 | a Ha 5] ag Direction of Wind.
2 Ele al) | UEt Gal SS. Pi net al Tigo Re Sei
es 5 oO a 530 aie) 3 30
8 Sy a ieee pcr pe tas 4 A 2,
ee {a }ays |e | eee. :
fae) = 3 pa} Say = " Ay
inches, | - , 5 inch. a 5 ° 0—10
Feb. 1 | 28'861) 42:5) 39-3| -89|-288] 48:8 | 34-1/14°'710, 9,10| —, SW by 8, SW by S.
» 2 | 29°117/ 45-4) 42°3| -90)-319] 50°5 | 37-2/ 13°83] 810, 8 SW, SW, SW.
»5 8 | 29°186) 41°7| 39-7| -93/-280) 46°2 | 39:3! 6:9/10, 7,10 H, SE by E, —
» 4 | 29°558) 33-7 32-3) -95|-212| 36:3 | 35-8] 0°5/10,10,10| ENE, E by N, ESE.
OM Beet boca 0 l. Gacdl ae. | BLO PelO| Orel ee ses ns
» 6 |29°960| 36°7;36:4| -99)-235| 39-9 | 33-6] 6°3/10, 10, 10 W, SSW, SSE.
» 7 | 29°821) 45:9) 44°G| -96|-324] 49-4 | 36-2) 18°2/10, 10, 10 SSW, SW, SSE.
» 8 | 29°951| 35-6) 29-1) -80)-226| 39-7 |36-9| 2°8'10,10,10|_ __N, NE by N, NNE.
» 9 | 30°339| 83°8| 22-6] -67|-212) 38.0 |31-2| 68! 1, 5, 4,NNE, NE by N, NEbyN.| -

»» LO | 30571) 32°3) 25:2} 78-201] 36:0 |30:3) 57/10, 9, 8| NH, NNE, NNW.

15 11 |80°553) 24-5) 29-7} -$4/-152) 29°9 | 25-2) 4°7/10, 7 ESE, ESE.
RAM scctN| ed 2 coll Brae glnA MOT) al Rear I oo ee
2» 13 | 80-211) 25:0) 21-9] -89/-155| 28°7 |23°5) 52/10, 10,10 E, NE by E, NE.
2 14 | 30°205) 27-3] 22°9| -85)-168| 30:2 | 23°5| 6°7/10, 10, 10 NE by H, H, E.
»5 15 | 29-920) 27-1/ 21-0] -80]-167| 30°8 |16°3/14-5/10, 0, 7| —» ENE, W by N.

» 16 | 29°378) 30:5 28-6] °93)-189) 40-0 | 17-8] 22°2/10, 1G, 10 faa) Dy Pie
2 LT | 29°363) 34-0) 28:5] °82)-214) 38-4 | 28-9] .9°5| 0,10, 5 WNW, SSW, SW.
» 18 | 29:637| 39-0) 34:4) -85/-255| 45:4 |31-2| 142) 0,10, 9] SW, SW by 8, SW by W.

TM seen a oe Salon seule epee Aiieteeeal MOtGice meer oe ves
»5 20 | 30°128/ 32:3) 20:0 -64/-201] 36-4 |29°0| 7'4| 0, 0, ONWryW, NWiyW, NWisN,
» 21 | 30:254| 30:5) 28:3} -92)-189| 33-8 | 27-6) 5°2/10, 10,10 W, S by E, S.

3» 22 |30:273/ 38:3' 38-1| -99|-249| 42-6 | 30:9|11°7/10,10,10/___ SW, SW, SSW.

»3 23 | 30°300} 46:6) 43-3] -89) 332} 50-7 | 35°7|15°0) 9,10, 10} W by N, SW, SW by W.
15 24 | 29668) 42:3) 37-2) -83]}-286] 46°8 | 43-2} 3°6/19,10, 9) SW byS, N by W, NW.
» 25 | 30'192) 42:4 34-2) -75)-287| 47-1 |34'5|12°6| 0, 9,10) NW by W, NNW,—

PORE Bee | ics | cue | wel oe f BO Sb DIOS Ae. efi Re
» 27 | 30°122) 42-6) 35:7| -79|-289) 47-2 |38°6| 86] 8, 9,10 —, SW by§,S8.
»» 28 | 29°546|47-0/ 38-5] -75|-3387| 50:9 |41°1} 9°8/10, 9, 3 SW, W, W.
Manns, | | 29°880|36'5| 32-0| -85)-240| ... |... | 9:0) we ‘’ ‘*

* To obtain the Barometric pressure at the sea-level these numbers must be increased by ‘037 inch.
+ Rain and melted snow. ;

Ii
CO
A

Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory.

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DANOTODODOAONASO

300/223

6 | 7/8] 9 |10}11/12/18)14|15|16}17 18 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23) 24) 25 | 26 | 27 se sched

Means.

6) 18; 6) 5] 20) 7| 6) 17) 14) 4 1} 3 8 10
5| 16} 6) 4) 20) 7 7| 20) 12) 8 O| 5 ur 9
1} 15) 10) 9} 19} 6 8 19) 11) 1 Lies 8 19
2) 15) 12} 12) 15). 8) 10) 21) 13). 3 1) 6 Pl 12
1} 21) 11) 16) 12} 19) 9] 23) 12) 1 i 7 6 9
2) 16) 13) 12) 14) 18) 7} 19) 12) 2 8}; 2) 9 5 7
3] 15) 9] 12) 9] 15) 8] 16) 12) O 6} 2) 7 6 5
5| 14) 4| 13) 9) 14) 5) 12) 9) 21 6} 2) 9 6 2
3] 11; 9} 17/ 11) 7| 8] 16] 12) 2 6| 5) 8 4 1
4) 12} 10) 18) 9} 8] 10) 15) 10) 38 8| 4) 9 6 2
2| 11) 15) 23) 12) 12) 16] 13} 16} 3 2} 6) 11 A,
5] 13} 15) 12) 11) 6| 15) 12) 18) 2 9| 4| 10 4
6} 12} 18) 25] 14) 4] 14] 12} 19) 1 8} 6] 10 2
8] 13] 22) 20) 15) 9] 16] 16} 21) 3 8} 6 8 3
5] 11) 22) 23) 18) 2] 17] 18) 20) 5 tal =f 6 0
6| 10) 18} 20} 8) 4] 19) 21) 18) 5 9) 5) 12 2 2
7| 8} 19] 19} 7 4) 20) 15) 18] 38 A Fe 5 9
7| 5) 18} 15} 5] 4) 18} 15} 14) 7 4) 4 2 9
6} 6] 15} 13) 6) 4) 19) 15) 13) 4 2) 4 2
8] 5/17; 10) 4| 5] 19) 15) 9) 6 2) 5 3
7| 7 16} 9] 2) 6 12) 13) 9) 5 0; 2 4

10) 10) 15) 11) 5) 12) 19} 11) 9) 6 aE =3) 5

13} 9] 12) 12) 7| 11) 19) 12) 8] 3 I) 5 5

12} 9} 5) 15) 6} 11} 22) 12) 8] 4 1) 5 4

134)/277/317/345/253/196/323/378|317| 77|170/375|410'678. 587/170) 86 289/209 455) 11°8

a |

268 Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory.

RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE

LATITUDE 51° 28’ 6” N., LONGITUDE 0° 18’ 47” w.

1865.

Barometer, corrected
to Temp. 32°.*
Temperature of Air,

Dew Point,

|

inches.

29°650
29°71
30:296
30:061

36°7
346
30°2
344,

43°6
42-1
39°9
39°0
35'8
376
36:0
36:5
33°9
368

29°249
29 617
29°688
29°941
29°797
29°751

28:7
28°2
26:1
324:
342

CoONInanikwhdre

26'9
29°8
28°3
27:0
29°7
30°4:

36°9
34:5
341
35o'1
37:0
33°7

29°84.
29-884
30°035,
30:020,
29-923
29-993
18-1
22:0

28:6
317
38671
36:2
39'6
349

29°921
29:993
29°937
29°829
29°810
29°675

27°5
26°6
29°9

23°3
29°2
28°7
39'9| 28°5
45:0] 89°3

} | 29:897| 36-4| 29:2

34:7
35°9
33°1

30°023
30°058
30°040
30254,
30°164

Daily
Means.

* To obtain the Barometric pressure at the sea-level these numbers must be increased by ‘037 inck.

33°7| |

25°5| -

Relative Humidity.

J
ee)

“Lil

“78

KEW OBSERVATORY.

Reduced to mean of day.

Calculated.

| Tension of Vapour.

inch.

bo
ilo)
ie)

“284,
"263
"255
228
243
“229
234
213
‘236

237

85| ‘218

215
"222
*238
“212
"176
Lo7,
230
“231
226
221
“219
*229
207
2638
314

‘236

Temperature of Air,

4.m. on the following

Maximum, read at 9:30
day.

48°8
48°3
4!7°2
45'8
452
39°5
433
40°9
43°2
39°9
42°9
40°8
429
39°4
38:5
40°1
43°6
39°3
38°3
384°2
38°3
A2°7
Al‘7
41°8
42°8
38°9
40°6
42°5
37°6
45°9
53'3

Minimum, read at
9°30 A.M.

41-1
40°8
33'8
28°4
382°2
35'0
33°3
28°8
384-1
30°0
35'6

33'8
B44
32°9
33°1
303
29°5
34:2
26°2
23°3
28°5
30°4
28°0
26:0
340

27-2
26:0
29°5
30°0
30°0

39'8)

At 9°30 a.M., 2.30 P.m., and 5 P.m.,

+ Rain and melted snow.

respectively.
eo Rain
Sa read)
al wee Direction of Wind.
=| ads}
3 6°
A 5
ta
py
iB 0—10 inche
7-7| 8, 8, 2} WNW,W,WbyN. | 003
75|10, 4, 3:S9WbyW,WbyN,NWbyW] ‘1
134/10, 6, 3|W by N, W by 8, NW by W.
17-4/10, 9, 9| SW by 8, SW by 8, 8.
13°0 acc ‘ine vee
4°5'10, 10,10/ N by E, N by E, N.
|10:0| 7, 7, 8|NWbyW,NWbyN,NWbyW
12-1110, 9, 4) NW, N,N by W.
9:1] 3, 9, 3| N,N by W,N by W.
99110, 10,10 SW, SW, WSW.
7°3| 7, 10, 10 N by ©, N, N.
CS Na Hs =i
9:1] 6, 7, 8| NW by N, E, ESE.
5:0/10, 9,10 NH, NE, NNE.
5'6/10, 10, 10; NH by N, NNH, N by E.
7-010, 10, 8 NE by N, N, —.
133110, 7, 9| ENE, E by §, SE.
9°8/10, 10, 10 BE, E, E by N.
Acl oar noe 505
| SO} 0, 0; 2 ENE, ENE, ENE.
|15:0) 0, 1, 8 NE, NH, NE by E.
(142 2, 4, 3| WN by W, NNW, NW.
11:3| 6, 7, 9| NW by W,N, NW.
/13°8| 0, 2, 7/N by W, NW by N, NNW.
16°8} 2, 10, 10 SW by W, SW, SW.
Ae eisi, 506 vos
13:4) 2, 6, 5 NNE, N by £, NW.
16°5| 0, 10, 10 SSE, SSW, ESE.
8*1|10, 10, 10 ESE, SSH, SSE.
15:9] 0, 5, 6| W by N,N by W, —.
23°3| O, 10, 10 WSsw, W, WSW.
10°8

Meteorological Observations at the Kew Observatory.

A. M.
dl erll a a
NHOOMDNTAMNR WHE bd

—
e

398

380)220/405

24:3)214:

269/421/279

11) 12) 138) 14) 15
7 Oh Bea ery
16} 7| 2} 10) 13
17; 9} 3] 12) 15
16) 8) 2} 12) 13
LO) fie ye) EL 7
20) 10} 3} 12) 12
18} 9} 2) 13) 11
20} 10; 3} 14) 10
20) 10) 2) 17) 10
22) 12) 3] 18) 12
27; 14) 2) 20) 12
30) 13) 5) 18) 14
30} 13} 6] 21) 10
22) 12) 3] 21) 10
27| 11} 3) 17) 9
20} 9} 1 21) 8
22) 4) 3] 23) 8
21) 1) 7] 29| 6
16; 3/ 10) 20) 5
72) 19) 1G || 5
16; 2) 9) 18) 1
}2)"-3| aks) 3
11); 4) 7 16) 1
11) 2) 7 14) 1
467|184/106/396|223

NWR EE WHERE WKBWONDOHP RP REPRE NENEF EH

73

14

a)
5
<
6
2
3
6
7

194

18 | 19 | 20} 21 | 22 | 23 | 24
3| 2'7| 32] 28] 5] 8] 5
3] 27 35) 30] 6| 7 8
1] 28] 33] 23} 6| 6) 8
3] 29] 83] 19}. 9} 8| 8
2| 33) 37/20; 6| 6| 7
7| 83) 41) 20) 9} 7 5

10) 26] 38] 14/ 10} 8| 4

10) 29} 44) 17; 10} 6) 4
9] 25] 50] 22 18} 8] 8
7| 32) 47) 20] 21) 11} 14

16] 38] 37|-17] 24 i| 17

20| 42} 89] 17] 23] 12).16

20| 47) 44) 16] 22] 14) 14

22) 40) 52} 17] 22] lo| 8

25| 44) 46} 17| 22] 10] 17

20} 41) 47] 15) 19] 13] 15
26] 44) 50] 18] 17] lo} 8

26| 41) 387] 14] 17] 12] 8

27|° 42) 35] 15] 9] lo} 5

28] 43) 30] 8] 7| 9] 6

27| 35) 24, 8} 8] g| 8

25/36) 24) Oi Gl Sz a

24) 85} 20| 9} 6] 8] 5

27| 32; 27| 6] 9} 3] 7

888/849/902/399/3811/213)193

27/28} 29| 30) a1 frome
15, o| 4) 3] 4) 101
13| 2] 5| 3) 2) lod
15) €| 5) 2] a] 93
13| 3] 6| 1) 2] 90
11] 3] 5] 1) 1) 98
10} 4| 5) O| 1] 108
10 3] 6 2) 4) 9-7
13, 3] 5] 0] 5| 10-7
15} 5} 5| 4] 6| 11-9
15, 6| 9| 4| 5 13-7
19} s| 7 8| 7 158
16| 10} 11) 7] 9| 174
17} 12] 11] 7] 14} 18:3
15} | 8| 9/11) 194
15| 11] 6| 7| 10| 17-9
14| 10] 8} 7 10) 17:5
12/ 9| 5| 7| 6| 165
7| | 5] 2) 6] 147
2| 7] 6| 1) 9) 13°3
3) 4) 7 al 6| 12:3
a} 4) | 1) 7 11-4
1) 3/10] 2] 8| 11°3
1] 3] 10| -8| 7 11-0
3] 5) 8| 1) 8| 10-4
257|184|165| 84/146] 13:0

270 Secchi and Faye on the Sun.—Observations by Chacornac.

SECCHI AND FAYE ON THE SUN.—OBSERVATIONS
BY CHACORNAC. :

M. Faye communicates to the French Academy* a letter
received by him from Father Secchi of the Roman Observatory,
on the constitution of the sun, and we proceed to extract the
most important remarks in the epistle of the former, and the
comments of the latter.

Father Secchi considers that Carrington’s researches indicate
the sun to be either altogether fluid, or, at any rate, much more
so than might have been expected from the tenuity of his
photosphere, or luminous envelope; and from this state of things
he conceives a strong and permanent supply of heat may arise
through the caloric disengaged by matter passing from the
liquid to the crystalline or vesicular condition, and also from the
heat disengaged in processes of dissociation, such as we have
explained in former numbers detailing the experiments of St.
Claire Deville. He agrees with M. Faye that the sun’s layer
of transparent atmosphere may be regarded as of moderate
thickness, but of considerable refractive power. Such a view
would coincide with the observations of Mr. Carrington, who has
shown systematic deviations in spots moving towards the sun’s -
margin which might be due to solar refraction.

Father Secchi finds the bodies known as willow leaves or
rice grains all over the sun’s surface, but scattered and ranged
in a Convergent manner towards the centre of the nuclei of
spots, and also in the contour of the penumbre and in their
interior, giving rise to the well known serrated appearance.

Recently he observed a bright white line which divided a
nucleus, break itself up into willow leaves on the grey bed of
the penumbra. Viewed from any point in the sun the willow
leaves must have enormous dimensions, far exceeding those of
the cumulus clouds that float in our atmosphere. But our
cumuli have rounded forms, while the objects in the sun are
elongated. Can this, he asks, result from the movement of
transport towards the centre of the spots and from the ten-
dency to fillthem up? He thinks that inquiry into the consti-
tution of other bodies may elucidate the phenomena of the sun,
and he confirms Mr. Huggins’ discovery of the gaseous spectrum
afforded by the Orion nebula.

In commenting on Father Secchi’s letter, M. Faye alludes
to the labours of Dela Rue, Balfour Stewart, and Loewy, which
taken in conjunction with those of Carrington, confirm the
opinions of Wilson and Herschel and justify his (M. Faye’s)

_* See Comptes Rendus, 1865, No. 10.

Secchi and Faye on the Sun.—Observations by Chacornac. 271

objections to the theory of the solar photosphere and spots put
forth by Kirchhoff.

He cites an opinion of Secchi, that as in our atmosphere
we have a substance—water—capable of transforming itself
into a fine dust* and into a vesicular state, capable of suspension
in clouds, so there may be im the solar atmosphere a quantity
of material capable of assuming similar conditions at an elevated
temperature.

These corpuscles would act like solid particles suspended in
gases, and would exert, as Magnus has shown, a greater
radiating power, both calorific and luminous, than the vapour
in which they floated. This would explain why the spots, or
places in which the clouds were torn and interrupted, radiated
less light and heat, although their temperature might be the
same.

If Kirchhoff was right in assuming that invisible layers of
an immense atmosphere external to the photosphere absorbed
certain solar rays, and thus produced the dark lines of the
spectrum, we ought to obtain from that outer atmosphere, when
its action could be isolated, a spectrum the exact converse of
that afforded by the photosphere. In 1842, M. Fasinieri took
advantage of a total eclipse to obtain this spectrum, and found
it completely dark in the space usually occupied by the green.
It was a discontinuous gaseous spectrum, and by no means the
converse of a solar spectrum. Bearing in mind these facts, M.
Faye thinks the absorption of certain rays may take place in
the photosphere itself, a supposition which would require us to
regard solar light as emanating not only from the surface of
the photosphere, but as also coming from various depths. If
the existence of a photosphere was preceded by a gaseous con-
dition in which no solid matter existed, researches, like those
of Mr. Huggins, may trace in other bodies the history of changes
which the sun has undergone.

M. Faye observes that if the rice grains or willow leaves
owe their elongated form to currents in the sun’s atmosphere
careful photographs made in the approaching period of the
minimum spots and least disturbance may show a noticeable
regularity in their direction. The disappearance of the rice
grains from, and the appearance of willow leaves and straws in
spots may, he thinks, be explained by supposing that in such
places there are strong descending currents, which carry the
bodies downwards and cause us to see them in elongated
perspective.

He thinks the best photo-heliographs would be taken by
presenting the glass to the sun with the collodion surface behind

* It is not correct to regard steam as water dust or fine spray.

272 Secchi and Faye on the Sun.—Observations by Chacornac.

and notin front. He likewise recommends a blackened paper
to be placed behind the collodion film to absorb the light and
prevent reflection. ,

OBSERVATIONS BY M. CHACORNAC.

We are indebted to M. Chacornac for a copy of Bulletin
des Observations faites a Ville-Urbanne, on some groups of
sun spots seen on the 6th March, 1865, at 9h. Om. On this
occasion the regions of the penumbre exhibited a series of
layers superposed in echelon. This appearance, M. Chacornac
remarks, is not rare, but in this case it coincided with an
analogous disposition of the interior strata, plunging down into
the dark regions of the central body.

M. Chacornac observes that when spots close up it is nearly
always possible to perceive in their depths bridges, which take
the form of meshes of a net-work formed of a glutinous matter
(matiére glutineuse), the superficial layers corresponding with
others at greater depths. In the spots seen at the above date
“the meshes of the pasty matter (corps pdteux) lymg beneath |
the photosphere had a stretched-out appearance, evidently .
arising from traction movements operating in different direc-
tions, either by the expansive force of the gas visibly escapmg
from the orifices, or by the fall of strata, which seemed to
plunge towards the centre through the weakening of the
strata that supported them; or perhaps by reason of move-
ments of translation occurring in deep strata, and due to
currents in a direction opposite to those of the upper layers. -
These phenomena show an evident relation between the pasty —
shell (écorce) and the liquid medium of the centre.”

M. Chacornac refers the formation of spots to two sorts of
actions. In the one he says it is like the enlargement of an
originally-formed aperture by the escape of vapours from a
pasty mass in fermentation. In the other it is as if the surface
was engulphed at certain pomts in such a manner as to form
an elevated margin, with a slope or talus more or less inclined
to the solar surface. This configuration has the aspect of vent
holes (soupirauz), having their axes inclined to a normal to the
sun’s surface.

When a large spot suddenly appears, the engulphing action
takes place at all points of the circumference, and almost simul-
taneously. ‘“ The changes effected by the concurrence of the
two kinds of action cause a dispersion of incandescence chiefly
in a vertical direction, and the spot no longer exhibits a pe-
numbra.” When the engulphing action is rapid, it swallows
up small adjacent spots, and the size of the chief one becomes:
enlarged. From the vicinity of several centres of activity,

Secchi and Faye on the Sun.—Observations by Chacornac. 273

lateral tractions and currents in opposite directions arise.
“When we examine the structure of the body below the pho-
tosphere, we find that its appearance of being pierced with
orifices, through which vapours are discharged, will account
for the shapes usually taken by spots and by simple pores. If
we follow the changes of the photospheric crystals deposited
or situated on the sloping branches of bridges, like those of
the 6th March spot, which plunge down into the dark cavity,

we observe the following facts. When, by reason of the move- - -

ments which transport large bodies into the depths of the
crater, they (the photospheric crystals) are carried into the
dark cavity—into the region of dissociation, if we may employ
the term—they seem to evaporate and dissipate, after they have
passed a certain limit, just as dappled atmospheric clouds behave
under the influence of a warm current.”

From the preceding passages, which we have given as
literally as possible from M. Chacornac’s paper, the reader will
be prepared to learn that he regards the stratum below the
photosphere as pierced with innumerable little craters, or vent-
holes, through which vapours escape, and tear the lummous
envelope to a greater or less extent. He considers that the
region of most intense light does not extend beyond the
faculee ; that below them is a less luminous region—that of the
penumbree—in which the same actions take place, but with
less intensity.

Speaking of the appearance of “lines of dislocation,”
M. Chacornac observes, that at the beginning of the spots
which form the chief subject of his remarks, “all the vent-
holes (soupirauz) of the margin opened simultaneously, and
arranged themselves in an arc of a great circle. Some hours
later, some of these orifices were almost shut, and others con-
siderably enlarged; but all were displaced so that the chain
of them presented a sinuous line, as if the entire mass sup-
porting the pasty outer layer (écorce pdteux) was influenced
by currents varymg in velocity according to their heliocen-
tric latitude. Thus, in spite of relative displacement, the
eruptive centres sensibly preserved their forms. Is not this
a proof that the orifice of the crater is pierced through a
medium of a certain consistence, and that the entire mass is
displaced ?””

In another passage, M. Chacornac speaks of having con-
tinuously watched spots which joined to others of larger
dimensions by traversing a space of 17” in three hours, while
for three consecutive days he has seen a small spot remain
without change of form on the margin of a large opening.
There are thus periods during which the sun’s outer layer
(écorce) seems to be fused with a rapidity that manifests the

274, Star Colours.

activity of a solar volcano, while at other times a volcano of
large opening is comparatively quiescent.

During the last two months (preceding 6th March), M.

Chacornac has remarked that spots entering the visible hemi-
sphere remained quiet while in the margin of the disc, became
active as they progressed from the margin, and gradually
closed after passing a particular central region. This action
is, he observes, in conformity with the remarks of the President
.of our Astronomical Society concerning the action of the
planet Venus.*

With regard to facule, M. Chacornac observes, that not-
withstanding what he has recently written, “it is certain that
they arrange themselves in long trains converging towards an
active centre of eruption, like immense rivers suddenly formed
and proceeding directly or by branches from all directions. It
is no longer doubtful, from the nature of their configuration,
considered with reference to the solar volcanoes, that they are
currents of photospheric matter pouring themselves continually
into the cavity of a spot, whose intermittent eruptions con-
tinually disperse them.”? He adds, that they have a tendency

to form in the direction of meridians rather than of latitude -

parallels.

STAR COLOURS.

Few objects in the whole round of nature exercise a deeper
fascination on the mind than coloured stars. Analogy leads ©

us to regard each star as the centre of a system more or less
resembling that aggregation of planets around a central sun,
to which we belong. A single star of conspicuous colour
invites us to speculate upon the effects its richly-tinted
beams may have upon the animal and vegetable life that
we conjecture lives and thrives upon the worlds revolving
around it; and though astronomy, calling to her aid the
kindred sciences of chemistry, botany, and biology, can afford
but slender hints concerning the probable nature of the herbs
that may cover the surface of distant globes, of the form and
hue of the flowers that may adorn their changing seasons, of
the trees that may compose their forests, or of the creatures

that may luxuriate in their sunshine or their shade, stiil our.

fancy loves to picture the unknown scenes, and to cherish the
hope that our spirits may one day be able to traverse the

* The President of the Society was speaking of the evidence on this subject
obtained by the researches of Mr. Balfour Stewart.

a

Star Ootowrs. 275

fields of space, collecting knowledge as we wander from orb to
orb.

If single stars of bright colour so strongly appeal to the
imagination, binary, or more complex systems, in which the
colours are contrasted, suggest more beautiful pictures, and
prompt to more elaborate speculations. What, for example,
must be the aspect of the skies of planets that may cluster
round Albireo (@ Cygni) and rejoice in the commingling oz
alternation of the sapphire and topaz beams. Somewhat .
similar inquiries are suggested by stars remarkable for rapid
changes of hue; such, for example, as Capella, whose vivid
chromatic flashings attract the most careless eye; or the
strange portentous combinations and alternations of red and
green that gleam from Antares, in Scorpio, when that extra-
ordinary star is viewed through a telescope of moderate
size. ‘The first question that arises is, are the colours real
attributes of the bodies that seem to emit them, or results of
our terrestrial atmosphere, or of the tendency of the eye to be
affected by accidental tints? ‘The influence of our atmosphere,
though im one sense a shifting quantity, is yet constant in
another ; and as the same star is seen at different seasons, and at
different hours in different parts of the heavens, and at differ-
ent elevations above the horizon, we can, by collating a number
of observations, arrive at tolerably precise results; and we
find that if we eliminate changes obviously belonging to the
stars themselves, that the star colours retain a considerable
amount of fixity, whether seen near the zenith, or at moderate
heights above the horizon, and that weather changes of greater .
or less transparency only cause their appearances to differ, as
might be expected from the optical effects of air in different
states of dryness, moisture, motion, and homogeneity, or the
reverse. ‘Thus, whether Sirius was red or not to the ancients,
ib is a white star to us, though somewhat blueish, as M.
Babinet* states, in towns, through the impurities of their air.
Arcturus in hke manner belongs to the yellow series, and Vega
_ to those of pale sapphire tint. Star colours, then, are not
made by our atmosphere, but only modified more or less, ac-
cording to its condition at the time. Some portion of their
colour is the result of the law of simultaneous contrast, which
M. Chevreul has treated in his well-known work. Thus M.
Babinet states that a deep blue sky has been observed to
make Venus look of an orange complexion. ‘'T'wo stars of con-
trasted colours seen in the same telescopic field, and near
each other, will heighten or modify each, other’s tints according
to their relative intensities of the complimentary colours which

* Sce an interesting letter of M. Babinet to Admiral Smyth, in Astronomical

Register, for April.
» VOL. VII.——NO, IV. : T

276 Star Colours.

they induce our eyes to see. Thus, red and green will each
look brighter and more decided when in simultaneous view.
This source of colour would be sufficient to account for some
stars appearing different from their real hues; but it may be
eliminated by a bar or wire that keeps one star out of view
while the other is seen. By such means the position and real
character of star colours is assured, and we ask what do they
proceed from ?

This question will be better answered when we have made
out a little more concerning our own sun. At present it seems
as if the light of the sun and stars emanated from intensely
heated vapours holding solid particles, hot enough to be lumi-
nous, in suspension. The carbon particles in common gas, as
in the gaseous products of a oil lamp, have a yellowish tinge ;
molten silver is greenish, and the lime light tged with blue.
The atmosphere which probably surrounds the luminous matter
of our sun, or of other suns, obstruct certain rays, as the dark
lines of the spectrum show; but with this exception we pro-
bably see sunlight and starlight pretty much as it is emitted
by the luminous matter, that is, within the limits of our sight,
for we cannot perceive rays that exceed or fall short of a cer-
tain velocity in their vibration, or of a certain refrangibility.

An accumulation of facts, some of which have been recorded
in the papers of Mr. Webb, and others of the same kind, which
we leave for his abler pen to describe, have given a new interest
to coloured stars, by showing that they are liable to alterations
and changes, some of which appear periodical. The observa-
_ tion and due registration of these changes will afford a useful
and delightful occupation for amateurs, and with a view to
give precision to this class of inquirers, Admiral Smyth has
proposed, in a privately issued work, called Sidereal Chromatics,
a certain scale for comparison. He gives four tints, each
diminishing in intensity, of red, orange, yellow, green, blue,
and purple, leaving whites to be described, in the order of their
purity and brightness, by the terms—1, creamy white; 2,
silvery white; 3, pearl white; 4, pale white. A suggestion
from Admiral Smyth is sure to be of value in itself, and to be
well received by all astronomical observers, and we apprehend
the only doubt that will arise will concern the method of em-
ploying his chromatic scale, and in this matter, with great
deference for his opinion, we must profess a little disagree-
ment, as we think it will be necessary to employ qualifying
adjectives to a greater extent than he suggests. The more
most coloured stars are looked at, the more will most
observers be convinced that they are neither a simple tint of a
primary or of a secondary colour, and in many cases the hue is
of so much complexity as to render it difficult to say what it is.

Star Colours. OTT

Now in such cases a simple reference to tints, such as “ red
3, blue 4,” would, we think, be insufficient. If, for example,
a number of observers, with different telescopes, assign a
certain greenishness to the blue companion of Albireo, the fact
should be recorded, and “ blue 2” would require to be supple-
mented by an appropriate adjective. Admiral Smyth’s tints
appear to us admirably chosen for the purpose he has in view,
and we should like to see them imitated in coloured solutions,
or in coloured glass, which we think would. be more convenient
that flat tints on paper, as the light seen through transparent
bodies affords a nearer approach to the luminous effect of stars.

We are glad to see by citations, which Admiral Smyth
makes from Dawes, and other eminent authorities, that Horne
and Thornthwaite’s “‘aplanatic eye-pieces”” are appreciated
for these inquiries. We spoke highly of them on their first
appearance, and prolonged trials have confirmed our good
opinion.

There are many topics of importance in Admiral Smyth’s
work—which is a reprint, with additions, from his former publica-
tions—on which we abstain from commenting now, because we
know they are engaging the attention of Mr. Webb, who will
bring them forward in duetime. We shall now only record our
thanks to the Admiral for his new and important aid to the study
of double stars, and conclude by wishing our telescopic sub-
scribers to examine Cor. Caroli, and send us an account of the
colours of the component stars, statg the size of the object-
glass, sort of eye-piece, and power employed. Admiral Smyth
gives a number of estimates of these colours, as they seemed
to different of and finally describes them himself as, A, pale
reddish white; D, lilac: or in his scale, A, red 4, purple 3. We
confess we hou not have called it red, and shall be much
interested in knowing and publishing what other observers
see. ;

278 On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense. .

ON THE STRUCTURE, AFFINITIES, AND GEHOLOGI-
CAL POSITION OF EOZOON CANADENSE. |

BY WILLIAM B. CARPENTER, M.D., F.R.S.; F.LS., F.G.8.
(With Two Illustrations.)

Awmone the communications made to the British Association at
its recent meeting at Bath, there was certainly none of higher
scientific interest than the announcement by Sir William
Logan, the director of the Canadian Geological Survey, of the
discovery of large masses of a fossil organism referable to the
Horaminiferal type, near the base of the Laurentian series of
rocks in North America. The geological position of this fossil,
indicating the vast remoteness in time of its existence as a living
organism, is scarcely more remarkable than its zoological rela-
tions ; for, at what (so far as we at present know) was the dawn
of animal life upon our globe, it affords evidence of a most
extraordinary development of that Rhizopod type of animal life
which now presents itself only in forms of comparative insigni-
ficance,—a development which enabled it to separate carbonate
of lime from the ocean-waters, in quantity sufficient to produce —
masses rivalling in bulk and solidity those of the Stony Corals
of later epochs, and thus to furnish (as there seems good
reason to believe) the materials of those calcareous strata, of
whose occurrence in the Laurentian series it had previously
been impossible to give a satisfactory account.

Having been requested by Sir William Logan to verify the —
conclusions regarding the nature of this fossil which had
been arrived at by Dr. Dawson of Montreal, and having been -
kindly supplied by him with ample materials for the further
elucidation of its structure, | propose in the present paper to
direct attention to the points of most striking interest, Geo-
logical as well as Zoological, which this discovery brings into
view. And since the bare statement that the Hozoon occurs
near the base of the Laurentian series of rocks, will not convey,
save to such as have followed the most recent progress of
geological research, any definite idea of the extraordinary
interest that attaches to the marvellous glimpse which its pre-
sence there affords into the ancient life of our globe, I shall
in the first instance take back my readers to that stage in the
history of the science, which preceded the establishment of the
“ Silurian system” by Sir Roderick Murchison.

Geological Position of Hozoon.—Under the general designa-
tion “ Primary Rocks’ was formerly ranked an immense series
of formations, some evidently stratified, others presumed to be
non-stratified, chiefly originating in the disintegration of the

On the Structwre and Position of Hozoon Canadense. 279

granite on which they rested, and consisting of gneiss, mica-
schist, clay-slate, quartz, alum-shale, grauwacke, with occa-
sional limestone beds. The older of these rocks were not
supposed to contain any fossil remains; and from the indica-
tions they presented of changes in their condition subsequent
to their original deposition, they were distinguished as meta-
morphic. Inthe newer strata, on the other hand, the presence
of fossils had been recognized; but no such comparison had
been made between these and the fossils of the Old Red Sand- |
stone and Carboniferous Limestone (which were the oldest strata
that had then been systematically studied), as threw any light
on their mutual relations.

It was a little more than thirty years ago that Sir Roderick
(then Mr.) Murchison was enabled, by the careful study of the
order of superposition of the newer of these rocks in South
Wales and along the Welsh border, to establish the existence
ofaregular series of strata, graduating downwards continuously
from the lower beds of the Old Red Sandstone, and ‘charac-
terized by a distinct and peculiar assemblage of organic
remains; and this series he designated the Silurian system,
the region which had first revealed its existence bemg that
once inhabited by the ancient Silures. The base of this series
(which was marked out into Upper and Lower Silurian, both by
a want of geological conformity and by differences in the
fauna of the two divisions) was supposed to be formed by the
hard beds of fissile sandstone largely developed near the town
of Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire, and known as the “ Llandeilo
flags.” These rest unconformably upon what was then
designated the “ Clay-slate” system; and it seems to have
been at first assumed by the investigator of the Silurian system,
that organic life had no existence on the globe previously to
the epoch thus marked out.

But whilst Sir Roderick Murchison was thus working out
in South Wales the later portion of the series of “ primary
rocks,” Professor Sedgwick was applying himself with equal
zeal and energy to the study of the older, as displayed in
Cumberland and North Wales; and he succeeded in proving
that whilst a regular order of superposition, broken however
by many disturbances, may be traced through that massive
series of slaty rocks of which a large proportion of the moun-
tain ranges of Cumberland and North Wales are composed,
the newer of these rocks present fossil remains in sufficient
numbers to show that it was incorrect to assume the absence
of life in those ancient seas. Thus a thick stratum of fissile
sandstone underlying the “‘ Tremadoc slates,’ which, again,
lie beneath the Llandeilo flags, contams such a vast abundance
of shells of the still existing genus Lingula, that this stratum

280 On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense. —

is known by the designation “ Lingula-flags.” For the whole
series of stratified rocks underlying the original Silurian
system of Sir R. Murchison, the names of Cambrian or
Cumbrian, indicative of its special development in North
Wales and Cumberland, were proposed by Professor Sedg-

wick ; but geologists for some time hesitated in admitting it

as a distinctly characterized group. The fossil types which

it contained did not seem to differ so much from those of the
Lower Silurian strata, as to justify the separation of the Cam-

brian from the Silurian fauna; and it was argued by Sir

Roderick Murchison that there was more reason for carrying

downwards the base of his Silurian system, so as to make it.
include the Lingula flags and the slates which intervene

between it and the Llandeilo flags, than for admitting the

existence of any pre-Silurian life. Hven as late as 1851 we

find so impartial and highly-qualified a judge as Sir Charles

Lyell thus expressing himself on this point (Manual of Hle-
mentary Geology, 3rd ed., p. 361) :—‘‘ Below the Silurian

strata in North Wales, and in the region of the Cumberland

Lakes, there are some slaty rocks devoid of organic remains,

or in which afew obscure traces only of fossils have been

detected, for which the names of Cambrian and Cumbrian

have been proposed. Whether these will ever be entitled, by

the specific distinctness of their fossils, to rank as independent

groups, we have not yet sufficient data to determine.”

The required data had been already furnished, however, by
the labours of M. Barrande in Bohemia; in which country
the older stratified rocks are developed even more remarkably
than in Britain. Although scarcely more than twenty species
of fossils had been previously obtained from this locality, M.
Barrande had already acquired im 1850 no fewer than 1100
Species ; namely, 250 crustaceans (chiefly trilobites), 250 cepha-
lopods, 160 gasteropods and pteropods, 130 acephalous mol-
lusks, 210 brachiopods, and 110 corals and other fossils. This
vast assemblage he found to comprise not merely the equiva-
lents of the Upper and Lower Silurian fauna, but also a fauna
clearly distinguishable from the latter, and designated by him
“primordial,” under the belief that it afforded evidence of the
first appearance of life on this planet, and that consequently
no fossiliferous strata of older date would or could ever be
discovered ;—an anticipation as vain as that which the founder
of the Silurian system had entertained respecting the strata
which he originally adopted as its base.

The peculiarity of the so-called ‘‘ primordial fauna” specially
consisted in the distinctness of its Trilobites from those of the
Lower Silurian strata; not only the species, but even many of
the genera, discovered by M. Barrande having been previously

On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense. 281

unknown. And the occurrence of these generic types in
strata very remote geographically, has served to identify them
geologically ; so that no doubt any longer remains that the
Upper Cambrian rocks of North Wales, the alum-schists of
Sweden, and the Potsdam sandstone of the United States (for-
merly ranking as the lowest member of the North American
Silurians) with an underlying series of slaty rocks extending
from New York to Newfoundland, belong to the same epoch
as the Bohemian strata supposed by M. Barrande to present
the earliest forms of organic life.

But below the Tremadoc slates and Lingula flags which con-
stitute the Upper Cambrian, there is a vast series of sandstones
and slates, known as “ Harlech grits”? and ‘ Llanberis slates”
(sometimes designated the ‘‘ Longmynd” group, from being the
components of the hills of that name in Shropshire), which
constitute the Lower Cambrian series. The organic remains
hitherto discovered in these are extremely scanty as regards
number of types; consisting only of five species of Annelids
and one obscure Crustacean form in the Harlech grits, and two
species of the Zoophyte Oldhamia in the Irish equivalent of
the Llanberis slates. But the number of indiwidual Annelids
whose remains are preserved is enormous; they are stated to
occur in countless myriads through a mile in thickness in the
Longmynd.

Of the immense lapse of time that must have been occu-
pied in the deposit of the Cambrian strata, both the nature of
their materials, which must have been derived from the dis-
integration of rocks of exceeding hardness, and their vast
thickness afford ample evidence. The Tremadoc slates are
estimated at 2000 feet, and the Lingula flags at 6000, making
8000 feet for the Upper Cambrian. Again, the Harlech grits
present a thickness of from 6000 to 7000 feet, and the
Llanberis slates about 3000, thus giving 10,000 feet as the
thickness of the Lower Cambrian.* The labours of our Ca-
nadian geologists have brought to light a’series of strata im
the neighbourhood of Lake Huron, and thence designated.
Huronian, which are believed to be the equivalents of our
Lower Cambrian, and which attain a thickness of not less than
18,000 feet. These consist chiefly of quartz-rock, with great
masses of greenish chloritic slate, which sometimes include
pebbles of crystalline rocks belonging to the still older Lanren-
tian formation to be presently described. No organic remains
have yet been discovered in this series, but beds of Limestone
occur in it, one of them 300 feet in thickness; and as the

* The above figures are those given by Sir ©. Lyell. By Professor Phillips
the Longmynd strata ave spoken of as “supposed to be 20,000 feet thick or
more.”

282 On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense.

belief has been gradually gainmg ground among geologists,
that all lmestones have been originally formed by the agency
of Coral-polypes, Echinoderms, Mollusks, etc., which fix carbon-
ate of lime from sea-water, just as plants fix carbon from the
atmosphere, the mere fact of the occurrence of a limestone
bed in strata otherwise non-fossiliferous, raises a presumption
that organic life had not been wanting, even at that very early
period. And it is to this epoch, represented m our own
country by the Lower Cambrian strata, that one of our ablest
and most experienced geologists, Professor Phillips, has re-
cently assigned the origin of life on the earth.* He points
out that im passing downwards through the Lower Paleozoic
strata, the forms of life grow fewer and fewer, until in the
lowest Cambrian rocks they vanish entirely, though these
strata are of a kind such as might be expected to yield them.
And the deficiency is not confined to the British types of the
series ; it is equally noticeable in their equivalents in North
America, in Norway, and in Bohemia—countries well searched
for this very purpose. ‘The absence is general; it seems due
to a general cause. Is it not probable that during these very
early periods the ocean and its sediments were nearly devoid
of plants and animals, and in the earliest time of all, which is
represented by sediments, quite deprived of such?” ‘The fol-
lowing table is given by him as showing the marked reduction
in number of types as we descend to the lowest beds of the
Lower Silurian, and thence to the Upper Cambrian ; this last
reduction involving the entire loss of the representatives of a
large proportion of the higher groups of mollusca. To com- _

plete the table we add a line, in which are noted all the types -

yet discovered in the Lower Cambrian.

8 | Cephalopoda ;

2
3
glel_|8 eta liie ale
Olea | 3] 21 a ate/.8/ | ols
Sele) Sis S@).olgl#|o | S19
Ses ve hes siia/s|/si/a/2] &
e\e lela | s ml slaleleisils
3 |e o/Si/S 8) s/e/s
S/S N/A lq j/Sia lala alo la la
Upper ees seal Vee 17/18 1 4) 4
Silurian Wenlock Salis 384] 6 25 3
epecle: } Tiandovery Pdi vege 6| 8 5 6
Lower Caradoc See 20) 8 7
Silurian § Llandeilo |...]... ah Me 2
Upper V tine
Cambrian §imgula |... |... 2
Lower
Cambrian } Longmy nd|...] ... 5

* Life on the Earth ; its Origin and Succession. Cambridge, 1860. —

|: i
“i eas

pe

Structure of Fozoon.

On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense, 283

If Professor Phillips had introduced into this table the far
richer fauna of the Upper Cambrian strata in Bohemia, the
comparative poverty of organic life in that epoch would have
seemed less striking ; but, on the other hand, the diminution
in the number of types as we pass from the Upper to the
Lower Cambrian, would have been still more obvious. ‘‘ No
doubt,” he remarks, “it is open to any one to compare this
approach to a Hypozoic zero with the reductions of life to a
minimum above the Paleozoic, and above the Mesozoic de-
posits ; and to suppose that below the Paleeozoics were other
earlier strata, and earlier systems of life, though they are now
all lost in the general metamorphism which has produced the
gneiss and mica schist. No one is likely to believe this,
however, who attends seriously to the facts regarding the suc-
cessive appearance of the classes, orders, families, genera, and
Species, as we search the records of geological time.”? More
philosophical in its appreciation of what Mr. Darwin calls “‘ the
imperfection of the geological record,’ and more true as the
event has proved, was the remark of Sir C. Lyell upon the
“primordial? assumption of M. Barrande—‘‘I have been
opposed from the first to a nomenclature the adoption of
which would seem to imply the acceptance of such a theory ;
for I always felt sure, on contemplating the past history of
geology, that we had not yet pushed our inquiries into the
past so far as to lead us to despair of extending our discoveries
at some future day, when vast portions of the globe hitherto
unexplored should have been thoroughly surveyed.”

This sagacious anticipation has been marvellously verified
by the discoveries which the excellent geologists of our Canadian
survey, under the able direction of Sir William Logan, have .
recently made in the region of which the exploration was com-
mitted to them: for they have shown that the rocks which
compose the Laurentian mountains in Canada, and the Adiron-
dacks in New York, spreading over an area of about 200,000
square miles, belong to a system distinct from and antece-
dent to the Cambrian, just as the Cambrian form a system
distinct from and antecedent to the Silurian.* These Laurentian
strata consist chielly of quartzose, aluminous, and argillaceous
rocks, like the sedimentary deposits of less ancient times ; but
for the most part in a condition of metamorphism which has
given them a crystalline character. By a break in the con-
tinuity of the strata they are marked out into two distinct
groups, the Upper or Labrador series resting unconformably
on the Lower; and the united thickness of these groups in
Canada is certainly not less than 30,000 feet, and probably

* See the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, February, 1865,
pp. 45—50.

~

284 On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense.

much exceeds that vast amount.—The Lower part of the Lau-
rentian series is represented in Scotland by the “ fundamental
gneiss”? of Sir Roderick Murchison, which forms the whole of
the island of Lewis, and on which, in various parts of the
western highlands, the Lower Cambrian and various meta-
morphic rocks rest unconformably. The Upper, or Labrador
group, seems to be represented by the Labradorite and Hypers-
thene rocks of Skye; which, though formerly supposed to be
unstratified, correspond so closely with those of the Labrador
series in Canada and New York as to leave no doubt that they
belong, like the latter, to a regularly stratified system.—The
‘primitive gneiss” formation, again, which attains at least an
equal thickness in Norway, has been shown to correspond
with the Laurentian series of Canada; and the “ primitive slate”
formation which rests upon it is no less remarkably similar at
once to the Huronian of Canada and to the Lower Cambrian
of our own island.—The labours of Sir Roderick Murchison in
Central Hurope have shown that the ancient gneissic series of
Bavaria and Bohemia, which underlies the “ primordial zone”
of Barrande, with a vast thickness of intervening clay-slate,
corresponding to the Lower Cambrian, is the equivalent in
position of the Laurentians of Canada and Scotland; and that,
like them, it is divisible into an older and a newer series, the
two together attaining the colossal thickness of 90,000 feet.

The following Table represents the general results of the
inquiries whose history has been thus briefly sketched;
showing the present state of our probable knowledge of the
two vast series of stratified rocks; the Cambrian and the
Laurentian, which underlie the Lower Silurian :—

GREAT NORTH . CENTRAL

BRITAIN. AMERICA. iene EUROPE.
Upper Cambrian. | Potsdam Sandstone.| Alum-schists. Primordial zone.
Lower Cambrian. | Huronian. - | Primitive Slates. | Primitive Slates.

h :
Be ae rot ‘et apie = ee a

| Primitive Gneiss. | Primitive Gneiss.
Fundamental Gneiss.| Lower Laurentian

“The united thickness of these three great series” (the
Huronian and the Upper and Lower Laurentian), says Sir
William Logan, “may possibly far surpass that of all the
succeeding rocks, from the base of the Paleozoic series to the

On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense. 285

present time. We are thus carried back to a period so far
remote, that the appearance of the so-called Primordial Fauna
may be considered a comparatively modern event.”

Clear evidence had been found in the constitution of the
Laurentian and Huronian rocks, that the same chemical and
mechanical processes which have ever since been at work in
disintegrating and reconstructing the earth’s crust, were then
in operation ; the great question remaining for determination
was, whether vital activity had any place in those ancient seas,
or whether they were altogether untenanted by living beings.

3 This question might be presumptively answered in the

affirmative by two important sets of facts. In both the
Upper and the Lower Laurentian series there are several.
zones of Limestone, each of sufficient volume to constitute an
independent formation. The aggregate thickness of these is
said by Dr. Bigsby to be not less than 5000 feet thick.
Similar limestones occur in Scotland, and also in Norway and
Finland, where they form beds of 1000 feet or more in
thickness. Since these limestones are in a highly crystalline
condition, the apparent absence of fossils in them could not
be considered as in any way negativing the probability that
they had been originally formed by the agency of animal life,
and subsequently altered by metamorphic action—such being
now universally admitted to have been the history of many
newer limestones in which there is a like absence of any
distinguishable organic remains. So, again, the occurrence
of carbon—which, in the form of graphite, both constitutes
distinct beds, and is dissemimated through the calcareous or
siliceous strata of the Laurentian series, as well in Norway as
in Canada—might be taken as an evidence of the existence of
vegetation during that epoch, since no one disputes the
organic origin of this mineral in more recent rocks. Further,
Sir William Logan had observed that certain of the Laurentian
marbles, on being struck, gave forth the same overpowering
smell of carburetted hydrogen, as is well known to be given
off from many beds of carboniferous limestone, whose organic
origin is most distinct. And Mr. Sterry Hunt, the accom-
plished mineralogist of the Canadian survey, had argued for
the existence of organic matters on the earth’s surface during
‘the Laurentian period, from the presence of great beds of iron-
ore, and from the occurrence of metallic sulphurets.

But however strong might be these presumptions, con-
sidered either separately or collectively, they could not be
regarded as in themselves by any means sufficient to
establish so important a conclusion, as the dating-back the
commencement of organic life from the Lower Cambrian
epoch, to the immeasurably more remote period durmg which

286 On the Structure and Position of Hozoon OCanadense.

the Lower Laurentian strata were in process of formation.
The needed proof has been supplied, however, by the discovery
of the very remarkable fossil which it is my special object to
describe ; the Hozoon Canadense thus taking rank as by far the
earliest form of animal life yet known, its development
having been antecedent to the deposition of the greater part
of the Laurentian series, nearly the whole thickness of which,
with the Huronian in addition—amounting, as we have seen,
in Canada to nearly 50,000 feet, and in Central Hurope to
90,000—had been superimposed upon the lowest beds in which
it occurs, before the epoch of the Lingula flags, which once, in
the opinion of many geological authorities, marked the first
appearance of life on our planet.

The history of this discovery is in itself not a litle
curious. Certain bodies presenting forms apparently organic
were brought by Mr. J. McCulloch to Sir Wm. Logan, in 1858,
from the Grand Calumet limestone on the river Ottawa; and these
were found to be composed of alternating parallel or some-
what concentric layers of crystallized pyroxene and carbonate
of lime. This alternation called to mind other specimens
exhibiting a similar structure, which had some years pre-
viously been obtained, by Dr. Wilson, of Perth, from the
Burgess limestone, but which had been regarded merely as
minerals; their forms were the same as those of the Grand
Calumet specimens, but their composition ‘was different, the
alternating layers being formed of Loganite (dark green
silicate of magnesia) and Dolomite (magnesian limestone).
Thus in both cases the alternation, though formed by different
minerals, always consisted of siliceous and calcareous layers; and
hence Sir William Logan, thinking it strange that identical
forms should be derived from minerals of such different
composition, was led to look upon them as fossils. As such
they were exhibited by him at the meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science in 1859; and
they were shown to some of his geological friends on this
side of the Atlantic in 1862. One of the specimens had been
sliced and submitted to microscopic examination; but
unfortunately it was one of those composed of Loganite and
Dolomite, in which minute structure rarely occurs; and in
‘the absence of any evidence from this source, few except Pro-
fessor Ramsay seemed disposed to believe in their organic nature.

The true character of these bodies thus remained in
suspense until a little more than twelve months ago, when Sir
Wm. Logan observed indications of similar forms in blocks of
the Laurentian limestone from the Grenville bed, which is the
highest of the three zones of limestone occurring in the Lower
Laurentian series, aud which attains, im some places, a

On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense. 287

thickness of 1500 feet. These blocks had been brought to
the Museum to be sawn into marble; and on being cut
through, they were found to be composed of serpentine alter-
nating with calc-spar. Thin slices of them having been
prepared, distinct evidence of organic structure was observed
in the very first specimen submitted to microscopic examina-
tion. The prosecution of the inquiry was confided to that
experienced observer, Dr. Dawson, the accomplished Principal
of M‘Gill College, Montreal; and under the: guidance of the
figures and descriptions which I had given of the minute
structure of various types of Foraminifera, in the series of
Memoirs which had found a place in the Philosophical Trans-
actions, and inmy general Introduction to the Study of the
Foraminifera, published by the Ray Society, he was led to
the conclusion that this organism, notwithstanding its com-
paratively gigantic dimensions, belongs to the group of Fora-
minifera ; being especially related to Polytrema in its zoophytic
_ mode of growth, to Carpenteria in the imperfect separation of

the cavity of its shell into distinct chambers, and to Calcarina
in its canal-system. By Dr. Dawson and by Dr. Sterry Hunt
it was further shown that the calcareous layers represent the
original shell, which in the best preserved Grenville specimens
has undergone very little change, but which in the Grand
Calumet specimens has become crystalline, whilst in the Bur-
gess specimens it has been completely metamorphosed by mag-
nesian infiltration. On the other hand, they showed that
the siliceous layers represent the original sarcode-body of the
animal, which has been replaced by the infiltration of various
silicates, as serpentine, pyroxene, and loganite—just as the
sarcode-bodies of Foraminifera of various subsequent deposits,
from the Silurian to the present time, have been replaced by
the infiltration of glauconite and other siliceous minerals ;
enabling us to obtain, by the dissolution of their calcareous
shells in dilute acids, most perfect models of the soft parts,
exhibiting the forms and connections which they possessed in
life, with far more truth and completeness than they could be
determined by any other method of study.*)

* The existence of such “internal casts” of the shells of Foraminifera—the
models of the bodies which occupied them during life—in the Greensands of
various Geological epochs, was first made known by Prof. Ehrenberg. Not
long afterwards it was shown by Prof. Bailey, that the Foraminiferal shells of
our existing seas are sometimes infiltrated in like manner; and many beautiful
examples of this modelling process have been obtained by Messrs. Parker and
Rupert Jones, to whose kindness I owe the “internal cast’ of a recent Poly-
stomella, of which I have given a figure in my description of that genus (op. cit.),
and which was well designated by my friend Prof. Blanchard as a bijou zoologique.
I certainly would not exchange it for a diamond of the same size, since it demon-
strated the correctness of my account of the very complex arrangement which I
had worked-out, before obtaining it, in the canal-system of the shell of that re-
markable genus. .

288 On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Oanadense.

Such models were shown by the specimens recently brought
over by Sir William Logan to be obtainable by submitting
portions of Hozoon to the action of acid, so as to remove the
calcareous shell; the siliceous infiltration having not merely
filled the chambers, so as to give us the precise forms of the
sarcodic segments which occupied them, but having also pene-
trated into the “ canal system,”? which extends itself from
these into the most solid and massive portions of the shell;
and, as I shall presently show in addition, having actually
taken the place of those wonderfully minute threads of sar-
code which traversed the porous walls of the chambers, so as
to stereotype (so to speak) their exquisitely beautiful brush-
like arrangement, which is thus exhibited, in by far the oldest
known fossil, with a perfection that could not be imitated by
any means we possess of preparing and displaying the existing
animals of the same type.

Heternal Configuration and Internal Structure of Hozoon—
Owing to the indefinite mode of growth of this gigantic
Foraminifer, and the manner in which its fossilized masses are
connected with the matrix in which they are imbedded, it is
impossible to say with certainty either what was its character-
istic shape, or what were the limits to the size of its mdividual
growths. There is no doubt, however, that these often
spread over the area of a square foot, or even more, and
attained a thickness of several inches; thus forming blocks
which bear a general resemblance to those of the massive
Stony Corals, such as Meandrina. The aggregation of such
blocks, whose continuous extension at their margins would.
bring them into contact, so that those which originally be-
gan from distinct centres would become grafted, as it were,
together, seems to have formed Foraminiferal reefs, similar in
their general characters to coral reefs; save that while the
coral reefs of subsequent epochs, like those of the present time,,
usually had shells, echinoderms, etc., associated with them (as
we know from their remains), in these most ancient reefs the
only organic remains yet found are those of the animals which,
built them. In some of these reefs, from the description given
by Sir William Logan, the older portions appear to have under-
gone fossilization before the newer were built-up on the base
which they furnished. Thus, in the Grenville limestone,
the lower stratum is composed of large and small masses of
white crystalline Pyroxene, some of them twenty yards in
length by four or five wide; these appear to be confusedly
placed one above another, with many ragged interstices, and
many smooth-worn, rounded, large and small pits. In these
masses of pyroxene, compact as they appear, are a multitude of

On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Oanadense. 289

small spaces filled with carbonate of lime ; and these show the
characteristic structure of the fossil. The spaces between them,
moreover, are filled with a mixture of serpentine and carbonate
of lime. The whole thickness formed by the aggregation of these
masses is not less than two hundred feet; and over their sur-
face is spread a sheet of dark-green serpentine, varying from
one-sixteenth of an inch to six inches in thickness. This
forms the base of a set of newer growths, composed of alter-
nating plates of carbonate of lime and serpentine ; the upper
surface of which, again, appears to have been worn and broken
up by currents and eddies, so as to modify whatever may have
been the original surface given by the natural growth of the
animal. The difference that presents itself between the
deeper and the more superficial parts of the reef, in the fossilizing
mineral which has filled up the cavities im the shell that were
occupied during life by the sarcodic body of the animal, seems
to mark a considerable difference in the conditions under
which this substitution took place; while the fragmentary
character of the older pyroxenic portion, and the wear of its
surface into cavities and deep recesses, indicate a long period
of suspension, during which disintegrating changes were going
on, before that renewed growth took place which is represented
by the superposed masses wherein the pyroxene is replaced by
serpeytine.

A vertical section of a well-preserved mass of Hozoon
exhibits in its basal portion a more or less regular alternation
of calcareous and siliceous lamelle; the former beimg dis-
tinguished by their whiteness, the latter by their light-green
hue. This alternation, however, frequently gives place i in the
more superficial parts to a mutual interpenetration of these
minerals ; the green spots of the serpentine being scattered
over the surface of the section, instead of beg collected in
continuous bands, so as to give it a granular instead of a striated
aspect. This difference depends on a departure from what
may be considered the typical plan of growth, which often
occurs (as in other Foraminifera) in the later stages; the
minute chambers being no longer arranged in continuous tiers,
but bemg piled together irregularly, or in an acervuline
manner. The contrast between the two modes of growth is
well shown by the siliceous model of the animal body which
occupied the chambers, represented in the Coloured Plate; the
lower portion being that which shows in vertical section a recu-
lar series of lamellze of serpentine, the spaces between which were
occupied by lamellze of calcareous shell; while in the upper is
seen the acervuline arrangement of the segments which gives
rise to the scattered disposition of the serpentine granules,
the calcareous shell having occupied the eae ‘spaces
between these.

‘

290 On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense.

The minute structure of Hozoon may be determined by the
microscopic examination either- of thin transparent sections,
or of portions which have been subjected to the action of
dilute acid, so as to remove the calcareous shell, leaving only
the internal casts, or models, in silex, of the chambers and
other cavities originally occupied by the substance of the
animal.. Hach of these modes of examination, as I have else-
where shown,* has its peculiar advantages ; and the combina-
tion of both, here permitted by the peculiar manner in which
the Mozoon has been fossilized, enables us to attain a complete-
ness of knowledge of its structure, such as is afforded by no
other fossil with which I am acquainted. For in well-pre-
served specimens, the shelly substance often retains its
characters so distinctly, that the details of its structure can be
even more satisfactorily made out, than can those of most of
the comparatively modern Nummulites. This arises from the
fact, that whilst the latter, when imbedded (as they: usually
are) in a matrix of the same material, have been subjected to
calcareous infiltration, which has filled-up alike their minute
tubules and their larger canals, and has thus rendered the
shell-substance nearly homogeneous, these tubules and canals
have been filled up in Hozoon by a siliceous infiltration, which
does not coalesce with the substance of the shell, so that the
boundaries of the tubules and canals can be distinctly defined.
But what renders the condition of Hozoon so peculiarly
favourable for the investigation of its organic structure, is the
marvellous completeness with which the minutest extensions
of the sarcode-body of the animal are represented in decalci-
fied specimens by their siliceous models ; even the most delicate
pseudopodial threads, consisting of the softest and most transi-
tory form of living substance, which were put forth through pores
in the shell-wall of less than —,1,;th of an inch in diameter,
being thus, as it were, perpetuated to all time; and the
varieties of their course being exhibited, by what appear
under the microscope as most perfect models, in asbestiform
fibre, having this advantage over the most skilfully exe-
cuted works of human hands, that they are not imitations,
but the very threads themselves turned into stone by Nature’s
cunning. For there can, I think, be no doubt that the
siliceous mineral found its way into the cavities of the shell,
not by mere mechanical infiltration occasioned by pressure
from without, but by a process of chemical substitution which
took place, particle by particle, between the sarcode-body of
the animal and certain constituents of the ocean-waiters, before
the destruction of the former by ordinary decomposition.

* Memoir on Polystomelia, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1860, pp.
538, 540; and Introduction to the Study of the Foraminifera, pp. 9, 10.

On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense. 291

Interpreting the copious information which we derive
from these two sources, by the knowledge we already possess
of the life-history of existing Foraminifera, we find ourselves
able to reconstruct our Hozoon with at least as much certainty
as the comparative anatomist can restore an Iguanodon or a
Plesiosaurus. And as the greater part of the details on which
this reconstruction rests have been already recorded in the
form and order in which they have actually presented them-
selves to Dr. Dawson and myself,* I prefer. that the present
description, and its accompanying figures, should place the
creature before my readers as it existed in life, whilst building
up in the ancient sea-beds those massive reefs which formed
the materials of the Laurentian limestones.

The calcareous skeleton or shell of Hozoon might be
likened to a building made up of successive tiers of chambers
(Uncoloured Plate, Fig. 1); the chambers A’, A’, A', and
A2, Az, of each tier, however, communicating very freely
with each other, so that the segments of the sarcodic layer
which occupied them were intimately connected, as is shown
by the continuity of their siliceous models (Coloured Plate).
In most existing Foraminifera, the successive chambers
communicate only by narrow orifices, so that the segments
of the body which occupies them are mutually connected
by slender bands or stolons: but in Carpenteria we have
an example of a communication nearly as free as that which
exists between the chambers of the same tier in Hozoon;
and I have occasionally met with chambers as completely
isolated from the rest as are those of Foraminifera generally,
the communication being established by several narrow pas-
sages (Unccloured Plate, Fig. 1, b,b), exactly corresponding
to those which I have described in Cycloclypeus. Moreover, I
not unfrequently find, projecting from the surfaces of the prin-
cipal layers, little groups of comparatively small segments,
which have budded-forth from the larger ones, and which
might almost be taken for internal casts of Globigerine or
other small separate Foraminifera.

The propé§ walls of the chambers are everywhere formed
of a pellucid, vitreous shell-substance, minutely perforated with
tubuli, so as exactly to correspond with those of Nummulites,
Operculine, etc. These tubuli, as in the existing representa-
tives of the Nummuline series, usually run parallel to each
other, passing directly from the imner to the outer surface of
the chamber-wall (Uncoloured Plate, Fig. 1, B, 8), without
coalescence or ramification; and the siliceous casts of the
cavities of these tubules often remain in situ after the removal

* See the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, February, 1865,
pp- 51—66.
VOL. VII.—NO. Iv. U

292 On the Structwre and Position of Eozoon Canadense.

of the calcareous shell, standing side by side, like the fila-
ments that form the “pile” of velvet, their lower ends
resting on the subjacent segment, whilst their upper form
a uniform surface so close in texture as to be with difficulty
resolvable into the points of its constituent aciculi (Uncoloured
Plate, Fig. 2, a). This residuary layer (when not thrown off,
as it often is, by the disengagement of gas m the process of
decalcification) is at once distinguished by its whiteness; as is
shown at the upper part of the Coloured Plate on the surface of
the segments, and at the lower in the section of the lamelle. If
a small portion of it be detached with the point of a needle, it is
easily shown to be composed of the most delicate asbestiform
fibres, each of them representing the original pseudopodium
of sarcode which passed through the tubule. But, as I have
shown to be often the case in Operculina,* the tubuli may depart
from their normal parallelism, separatimg from each other in
some parts, and becoming more closely crowded in others; so
that instead of the uniform punctation which the internal
surface of the chamber-wall exhibits, we may find great
diversities in the disposition of their external orifices, these
‘being often congregated in bands and clusters, with intervals
of non-tubular shell-substance between them. A yet greater
variety in their course presents itself in Hozoon. For the in-
‘tervals of non-tubular shell-substance left in some parts of the
-chamber-wall by the crowding: together of the tubules in others,
-are marked in the decalcified layer of asbestiform fibres by
fissures in the “ pile” (Fig. 2, 6), such as would be made in the
‘surface of a piece of velvet by doubling it back so as to
Separate the free ends of the filaments ; whilst the convergence
of the intervening fibres often unites them into minute flat-
‘tened leaf-ike tufts. A more marked degree of the same
-convergence, bringing the greater number of the pseudopodia
proceeding from each segment into one bundle (Fig. 2, c), 1s not
-unfrequently seen in parts in which there has been a great
development of the “intermediate skeleton’’ presently to be
described; and a portion of the asbestiform layer in which
this arrangement is well exhibited, constitutes, under the
Binocular Microscope, one of the most beautiful objects with
~vhich I am acquamted, every individual thread glistening
brightly under appropriate illumination, and holding its own
proper place, while an infinite variety of detail is shown in the
arrangement of the brush-like bundles, of which no two are
precisely similar. Another variety in ‘the disposition of the
tubuli is one to which I have seen no parallel in other Fora-
minifera. Retaining their separate parallelism, they some-

* Memoir on Operculina in the Philosophical Transactions for 1859, p. 24,
and Plate IV., figs. 2,4; also, Introduction to the Study of the Foraminifera, p. 256.

On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense. 293

times pass off very obliquely, or even tangentially, so as to
run for considerable distances in the chamber-walls; and their
asbestiform casts thus form elongated bundles lying on the
surfaces of the seemented layers of serpentine.

Between the proper walls of the successive tiers of
chambers, there usually intervene layers of very variable
thickness (Uncoloured Plate, Fig. 1, ©, c), composed of
homogeneous shell-substance ; these represent the “ inter-
mediate” or “ supplemental ”’ skeleton, which I have described
in several of the larger Foraminifera, and which attains a
peculiar development in Calcarina.* This is an exogenous
deposit on the surface of the proper wall of the chamber,
which seems to be formed by the sarcodic layer that origimates
in the coalescence of the pseudopodia after they have issued
from its tubuli, and which is traversed by a more or less
minutely distributed ‘“‘canal-system,” occupied during life
by prolongations of that sarcodic layer. This canal-system
is often brought mto view in thin transparent sections of the
shell (Uncoloured Plate, Fig. 1, 8, £) ; but as the plane of section
will seldom coincide with any considerable part of the course of
the passages, a much better idea of their distribution is gained
from the study of decalcified specimens, which present us
with siliceous models of the sarcodic extensions that occupied
those passages in the living animal. ‘These extensions cer-
tainly originate in some cases in the sarcodic segments oc-
cupying the cavities of the chambers; im other instances I
find them to proceed from the stems formed by the con-
vergence of the brush-like tufts of pseudopodia; but more
commonly they seem to have sprung (as I have shown to be >
probably the case in the recent Calcarina) from the sarcodic
layer, which is formed by the coalescence of the pseudopodia
on the outer surface of the proper wall of the chamber, this
layer being represented in the decalcified specimens by a thin
plate of serpentine thatis often found resting on the extremities
. of the asbestiform bundles. They differ very remarkably in size
and form : being sometimes slender cylindrical rods, which come
off from the subjacent layer at regular intervals, and pass straight
onwards into the shell-substance without either sub-division or
junction; sometimes presenting themselves as broad flattened
plates, which gradually thin out to a sharp edge ; but being com-
monly more or less arborescent, and often presenting either
beautiful denditric ramifications (lower part of Coloured Plate,
andUncoloured Plate, Fig. 3) or a sheaf-like divergence of their
component filaments. All these representatives of the sarcodic
prolongations that occupied the canal-system are distinguished

_ ™ Memoir on Calcarina, in the Philosophical Transactions, 1860, p. 553 ;
and Introduction to the Study of the Foraminifera, p. 220.

294 On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense.

in decalcified specimens—like the acicular layers occupying the
place of the proper walls of the chambers,—by their pure white-
ness, which contrasts strongly with the green of the serpentine
that has filled the cavities of the chambers; and though this’
might seem to indicate a difference in the infiltrating material,
no such difference really exists. I am informed by Sir William
Logan that Mr. Sterry Hunt has determined the chemical
identity of the two substances; and hence it is obvious that
the whiteness of the internal casts of the tubes and canals
is due (like that of pounded glass) to the reflection of light
occasioned by the fine division of their component particles.;
each rod, plate, stem, or branch, being composed of minute
asbestiform filaments, which represent, it would seem, so many
original threads of sarcode that partially coalesced to form
a bundle. Besides these definite shapes, however, we meet
in many decalcified specimens with large white amorphous
masses of like composition, occupying spaces which must have
been originally surrounded by the shell-substance of the inter-
mediate skeleton. The nature of these was for some time a
puzzle to me; but I fortunately succeeded in gaining a clue
to their character by the decalcification of very thin sections
which had traversed them; and I find that they consist in
some instances of parallel lamelle disposed like the leaves of a
book, and in others of solid bunches of rounded filaments re- |
minding one of a sailor’s “ swab;” thus bemg in each case
but a mere aggregation of the elementary forms of sarcodic
prolongation already described.

In those portions of the organism in which the chambers,
instead of bemg regularly arranged in floors, are piled together
in an “acervuline”? manner, there is little trace either of
‘‘intermediate skeleton,” or of “canal-system”; but the
characteristic structure of their proper walls is still unmistak-
ably exhibited, not only in transparent sections, but also in
- decalcified specimens, wherever the asbestiform layer has not
been detached by the disengagement of gas from the surface
of the segment on which it should rest.

The mode in which, in the regularly stratified portions of
the organism, each successive layer originated from the one
that preceded it, does not seem to have been always the same.
‘There is certamly no regular system of apertures for the
passage of stolons, giving origin to new segments, such as are
found in all ordinary many-chambered Foraminifera, whether
their type of growth be rectilineal, spiral, or cyclical; and
although, when one layer is separated from another by nothing
else than the proper walls of the chambers, the coalescence of
the pseudopodia emerging from the upper surface of the last
formed layer would suffice to lay the foundation of a new layer

On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense. 295

of sarcodic segments, it is obvious that where this surface has
been overgrown by a thick exogenous deposit of non-tubular
shell-substance, some more special provision must exist for
the origination ‘of a new tier of chambers above this. Such a
provision seems to have been occasionally made by the exten-
sion of riband-like prolongations of sarcode, through large
passages left in the intermediate skeleton, proceeding from
the chambers beneath, and opening on its upper surface; for I
have not only occasionally met with such flattened passages in
transparent sections of the shell (Uncoloured Plate, Fig. 1, p),
but have still more frequently found the void spaces in decal-
cified specimens, left by the removal of the thickest layers of
the intermediate skeleton, to be traversed by the internal
casts of such passages, which seem to represent the sarcodic
‘stolons of the living animal body.*

The origination of new layers, however, seems more fre-
quently to have taken place in a much larger extension of the
sarcode-body of the pre-formed layer ; which either folded back
its margin over the surface already consolidated (in a manner
somewhat like that in which the mantle of a Cyprea doubles
back to deposit the final surface-layer of its shell), or sent
upwards wall-like plates, sometimes of very limited extent,
but not unfrequently of considerable horizontal length, which,
after traversing the substance of the shell, spread themselves
out over its free surface. For it is frequently to be observed
in decalcified specimens, that two bands of serpentine (or other
infiltrating mineral), which represent two layers of the original
sarcode-body of the animal, approximate each other in some
part of their course, and come into complete continuity
(as on the left-hand side of the Coloured Plate), so that
the upper layer would here seem to have originated in a
folding-over of the lower. And even where these bands
are most widely separated, we find that they are commonly
held together by vertical dykes of the same material, which
traverse the intervening calcareous layers like trap-dykes
passing through a bed of sandstone. That such have not
been formed by mineral infiltration ito accidental fissures in
the shell, but represent extensions of the sarcode-body of the
living animal, is indicated not merely by their distinct con-
tinuity with the horizontal layers, but also by the fact that
portions of the canal-system ay frequently be traced into
connexion with them.

The only information which seems to me yet wanting to
bring up our knowledge of the life-history of this organism to
the highest level of that (still far from complete, especially as

* See the white bands passing from the middle of the lowest layer in the
Coloured Plate to the layer next above it.

296 On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense.

regards the generative process,) which we possess in respect
to the best-known existing representatives of the Foraminiferal
group, is that which concerns the early stage of its develop-
ment. At present we know Hozoon only m its massive forms;
and we have no clue, save that furnished by analogy, to the
mode in which these aré built up. In the Rotaline series,
which is characterized by the coarse perforation of the shell, we
find the original spire of Planorbulina overgrown by chambers
piled upon it in an irregular acervuline manner; in Tinoporus,
whose young state closely resembles the early form of Planor-
bulina, the chambers, successively superposed on the original
Spire and its marginal extension, are piled im layers of greater
regularity ; while in Polytrema similar rotaline chambers bud
forth one from another, in such a manner as to give to the _
organism the aspect of a minute branching Coral, for which it ©
was long mistaken. Now, in virtue of the fine tubulation of
the proper walls of its chambers, Hozoon belongs to the
Nummuline series, of which I have shown this structure to be
the special characteristic; and this series presents a remark-
able parallelism, as regards variations in mode of growth,
to the Rotaline. For we may pass from the typical Operculina
or Nummulina, through Heterostegina and Cycloclypeus, to
Orbitoides, in which, as in Tinoporus, the chambers multiply
both by horizontal and by vertical gemmation; and between
this and Hozoon the difference is not greater as regards plan
of growth than between Tinoporus and Polytrema.*
Notwithstanding the striking contrast which is presented
between the massive growths of Hozoon and those microscopic
Rotalice, Miliole, etc., which are the examples of the Foramini-
feral type most familiar to collectors on our own shores, there is
no more essential difference in plan of structure, than that
which exists between the most insignificant flowering plant
and the gigantic Wellingtonia or the wide-spreading Banyan.
In the one case, as in the other, the difference consists, not so |
much in the size of the individual parts, as in the extent to
which these parts are multiplied by the production of new
buds in continuity with the pre-existing fabric. A contrast
scarcely less remarkable exists among the Foraminifera of the
existing epoch. Thus the shells of the minute Gilobigerine,
which cover to an unknown thickness the sea-bottom of all
that portion of the Atlantic Ocean which is traversed by the
Gulf stream (the “ ooze,” of which specimens are brought up
by the sounding apparatus, containing not less than 95 per
cent. of them), consist of not more than eight or ten chambers,
showing that the continuous increase of the individual body by

* See the descriptions of the Structure of these Generic types in my
Introduction to the Study of the Foraminifera.

On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Camadense. 297

the gemmation of new segments ceased at that point; and
that if new segments be still budded-off, they detach them-
selves, so as to lay the foundation of new Gobigeri ime. On the
other hand, in the large discoidal Cycloclypeus of the coast of
Borneo, which attains a diameter of 24 inches, the number
of segments formed by continuous gemmation must be many
thousand.

Tt is a fact of no little interest, that we have another
example of the comparatively gigantic development of the
Foraminiferal type in what would have been formerly accounted
the earliest fossiliferous rocks. Some years since, Mr. Salter,
then the Palzontologist to the Geological Survey of Great
Britain, showed me some fossil remains which he had
received from the Silurians of Canada, and asked my opinion
respecting them. My reply, after a not very detailed exami-
nation of them, was to this effect :—“If it were not for their
gigantic size, I should say that they were internal casts of an
Orbitolite.” Having subsequently received additional speci-
mens of these fossils, and having carefully compared them
with my description of the genus Orbitolites in the Philoso-
plucal Transactions for 1855, Mr. Salter felt himself justified
in identifying them with that type; and published an account:
ef them (under the designation Meceptaculites) with excellent
illustrative figures, in the First Decade of Canadian Organic:
fiemains. Now the largest recent Orbitolite I have seen is.
about the size and thickness of a shilling; whilst the Canadian
Receptaculites attains a diameter of twelve inches and a.
thickness of a third of an inch; and if this had increased by
vertical as well as by horizontal gemmation, piling up its.
chambers in successive tiers like’ the recent Tinoporus or
the fossil Orbitoides, it would have formed a mass equalling
Hozoon in its ordinary dimensions.

Remains of Hozoon are not by any means confined to
Canada. The serpentime marble of Tyree, which forms part.
of the Laurentian system on the West of Scotland, and a
similar rock in Skye, when subjected to minute examination,
are found to present a structure clearly identical with that of the
Canadian Hozoon. And the like structure has been discovered
by Mr. Sanford in the serpentine marble of Connemara, well
known to ornamental builders under the name of “ Irish green.”
Ihave examined several pieces of this rock by placing them in
dilute acid, and have not the smallest hesitation in identifying
the residuum with the acervuline portion of the corresponding
residuum of the Canadian Hozoon, shown in the upper part
of the Uncoloured Plate: I have not, however, met with
anything corresponding to the lamellated structure shown in
the lower part of that plate. Moreover, I find, in place of a

298 On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense.

continuous asbestiform layer covering the segments, long
straight bundles of asbestiform filaments radiating from them.
What is the import of these—whether they represent a part of
the original structure of the animal, or are (as I am disposed
to suspect) a product of subsequent metamorphism—is a point
which must be reserved for further investigation. The age of
the Connemara rock, too, can scarcely be regarded as con-
clusively settled. Sir Roderick Murchison, by whom its
relations were carefully studied some years ago, seemed not
indisposed, when it was first found to contain LHozoon,
to belheve that it might belong to the Laurentian series;
but he has since withdrawn that admission, and has ex-
pressed the opinion that the Connemara marble is of
Silurian age.* If this be the case, it proves that Hozoon was
not confined to the Laurentian period, but that it had a vast
range in time, as well as in geographical distribution; im
this respect corresponding to many later forms of Foramini-
fera, which have been shown by Messrs. Parker and Rupert
Jones to range from the Triassic to the present epoch.

It is much to be desired that a careful examination should
be made of all Serpentine marbles that contain a Calcareous
admixture. Such admixture may be at once detected by their
effervescence when touched with dilute acid; and if, on the
removal of the lime by continuous maceration in acid, the
siliceous residuum should exhibit forms bearing any decided
resemblance to either portion of the Uncoloured Plate, the parti-
cipation of Hozoon in their original production may be con-
fidently inferred. It is specially to be desired that search
should be made for it in any limestone beds occurring in the
Laurentian rocks of Scandinavia, and in those of Bohemia
and Bavaria.

It is not only, however, in those rocks which exhibit well-
preserved representations of the original animal, that we may
trace the agency of Hozoon in extracting from the ocean-waters
the materials now forming the solid crust of the globe. There
can be no reasonable doubt that—as has occurred in many
subsequent epochs, and may be shown to be in progress at the
present time—there was a continual disintegration, by the
mechanical force of the ocean-waters, of those structures
which had been built-up by living agency; and that the
particles resulting from the progressive wearing-down of the
Foraminiferal reefs would be deposited as sediments elsewhere,
and, when subjected to subsequent metamorphic action (as by
the infiltration of heated water) would be converted into
highly crystalline limestones. Sir William Logan has shown
me thin sections of solid masses, which presented unmistakable

* See the Geological Magazine for April, 1865.

On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense. 299°

evidence, when microscopically examined, of having been made
up of an aggregation of fragments of the proper walls of the
chambers of Hozoon; these fragments presenting the most
beautifully preserved examples I have yet seen in transparent
section, of the characteristic Nummuline tubulation. And as
these sections presented no indication of such remains of a
canal-system as would have marked the presence of fragments
of the intermediate skeleton, I am disposed to think that the
breaking-up of the surface of the original Hozoon must have
taken place before the proper walls of its highest tiers of
chambers had been strengthened by exogenous deposit.
Further, in sections of Laurentian limestones, which did not
exhibit to the naked eye any evidence of organic structure,
Dr. Dawson was able, by microscopic examination, to recog-
nize minute fragments, of whose derivation from Hozoon there
could be no reasonable doubt.

Hence, it would appear that these gigantic Rhizopods per-
formed, in the seas of the Laurentian epoch, the same part in
the production of limestone rocks which was subsequently
taken by Coral polypes, Echinoderms, and Mollusks, as well as
by minuter forms of Foraminifera. And it is a fact not without
an important significance, that this, the lowest type of animal
life known to the Physiologist, should have thus culminated in
the very earliest period in the history of the life of our globe with
which the Paleeontologistis at present acquainted. If, as I con-
sider, that we are quite justified in doing, we refer the animal of
Hozoon to the type whose characteristic features we are able to
study in our existing Rotalic and Miliole, we may say of it,
as I have elsewhere stated of the Foraminifera generally,* that
its substance ‘‘ does not present any such differentiation as is
necessary to constitute what 1s commonly understood as ‘ or-
ganization,’ even of the lowest degree and simplest kind; so
that the physiologist has here a case in which those vital
operations which he is accustomed to see carried on by an
elaborate apparatus, are performed without any special instru-
ments whatever—a little particle of apparently homogeneous
jelly changing itself into a greater variety of forms than the
fabled Proteus, laying hold of its food without members,
swallowing it without a mouth, digesting it without a
stomach, appropriating its nutritious material without ab-
sorbent vessels or a circulating system, moving its parts with-
out muscles, feeling (if it has any power to do so) without
nerves, propagating itself without a genital apparatus, and
forming a shelly covering that possesses a symmetry and com-
plexity not surpassed by those of any testaceous animals.” It
is not possible to conceive any living being of greater simplicity

* Introduction to the Study of the Foraminifera, Preface, p. vii.

300 On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense.

than a Rhizopod of the Foraminiferal type; its homogeneous
jelly-like substance not being even invested by the semblance
of a membrane, so that its pseudopodial extensions, when they
meet each other, coalesce like the glutinous threads separately
proceeding from the spinnerets ofa Spider. But it is possible
to conceive of a system of rocks preceding the Laurentian, as
the Laurentian preceded the Cambrian, and the Cambrian pre-
ceded the Silurian ; and it would be a most rash assumption
to maintain that the first appearance of Hozoon above the Lau-
rentian horizon really marked the dawn of animal life on our
planet. As Dr. Dawson has justly remarked, “though the
abundance and wide distribution of Hozoon, and the important
part it seems to have acted in the accumulation of limestone,
indicate that it was one of the most prevalent forms of animal
existence in the seas of the Laurentian period, they do not
imply the non-existence of other beings. On the contrary,
independently of the indications afforded by the limestones
themselves, it is evident that in order to the existence and
growth of these large rhizopods, the water must have swarmed
with more minute animal and vegetable organisms on which
they could subsist.” .

It would be difficult, I think, to find a more “ pregnant
instance” of the value of Microscopical investigation than that
which is afforded by the discovery of which I have now given
an account ; a discovery which I am strongly disposed to regard
as only the first of many similar results, which will follow its
intelligent application to the study of the internal structure of
other fossils, hitherto known only by their external forms. The
organic structure and precise zoological affinities of a body which
was at first supposed to be a product of purely physical opera-
tions, have been shown to be determinable with certainty from the
examination of a particle which a pin’s head would cover; and
we are thus enabled to predicate the nature of the living action
by which it was produced, at a Geological epoch whose remoteness
in time carries us even beyond the range of the imagination, with
no less certainty than the Astronomer can now, by the aid of
spectrum-analysis, determine the chemical and physical con-
stitution of bodies whose remoteness in space alike transcends
our power to conceive.

EXPLANATION OF PLATES.

The Coloured Plate represents the various appearances
exhibited by a specimen of Hozoon Canadense, which has been
macerated in dilute acid, so as to dissolve away the calcareous
shell which originally contained the body of the animal, now
replaced by its model in green serpentine. In the lower part
of the plate the segments are seen to be united into continuous

On the Structure and Position of Hozoon Canadense. 301

horizontal lamelle, which are connected with each other at
intervals by vertical bands; in the upper part, the segments
preserve their distinctness ‘to a much greater degree, and are
piled one upon another without any regular plan. The exposed
surface of the segments, both in the lamellated and in the
acervuline portions, is seen to be whitened by the asbestiform
layer, also shown as a narrow edging in the sectional view of
the lamellated portion. This layer consists of the needle-like
siliceous filaments which take the place of the pseudopodia
originally, occupying the minute parallel tubuli of the proper
walls of the chambers, and which remain in situ after the
removal of the calcareous shell that was traversed by them.
Between the two lower lamellz of serpentine, in the broad
space originally occupied by a thick layer of the “‘ intermediate
skeleton,”” is seen on the right the siliceous model of a small
group of stolon-processes, which passed directly from the sar-
code body occupying the chambers of the lower tier to that of
the tier next above, whilst on the left is shown the internal
cast of a part of the canal system, forming a model in ser-
pentine of the arborescent clusters of sarcodic prolongations
which occupied it.

Tinted Plate—Structure or Hozoon.—Fig. 1. Portion of
the calcareous shell (restored), the contents of the chambers
having been removed. A!, A’, A’, chambers of a lower tier,
communicating with each other freely at a, a, and separated
from an adjacent chamber at b, b, by an intervening septum
traversed by passages. A’, A®, chambers of an upper tier.
B, B, B, B, proper walls of the ‘chambers, traversed, as in the
nummeline type, by fine tubules. These tubules are seen, in
the upper wall of the chambers, A’, A’, to pass with uniform
parallelism, from the inner to the outer surface, where they
open at regular distances from each other; but in the upper
wall of the chambers, A’, A’, A’, the tubules are seen to con-
verge in their passage outward, so as to open on the surface in
irregular bands and clusters. CC, C, C, intermediate skeleton,
composed of homogenous shell substance, traversed at D by a
stoloniferous passage connecting the chambers of two tiers,
and at H, H, HE by the canal system.

Fig. 2. Highly magnified portion of the asbestiform layer,
left after the decalcification of the shell-wall, showing varieties
in the arrangement ofthe siliceous internal casts of the tubules,
which represent the pseudopodia that occupied them in life..
At ais shown the uniform surface given by the ends of the
closely-packed parallel aciculi, which are seen standing side by
side in the sectional view beneath. At b, the uniformity of
surface is interrupted by the partial convergence of the aciculi,
leaving vacant spaces between. And at c is shown the more

302 Ten Years in Sweden.

complete convergence of the siliceous threads into brush-like
bundles.

Fig. 3. Internal cast of a portion of the canal system, in a
decalcified specimen, showing the arborescent distribution of
the sarcodic prolongations which occupied it during life.

TEN YEARS IN SWEDEN.*

THERE is a manifest tendency towards an increase of commu-
nication and connection between England and Sweden. Its vast
stores of the richest and purest varieties of iron ore, and the ample
supplies of serviceable timber abounding in its extensive forests,
attract the notice of the speculative capitalist, who sees in them
important sources of wealth hitherto imperfectly developed, and
offering splendid prospects of profit to enterprises carried out on a
sufficient scale, and with adequate skill. The naturalist and the
sportsman find their attention turned to Sweden from the interesting
character and variety of its wild animals ; while the manners of the
people, their Protestant faith, and free political system, tend to
render their country an agreeable residence for English families
during the milder portions of the year.

It is easy to understand why, notwithstanding the merits of the
people, Sweden has been somewhat slow in making the most of
her resources. Though a large country—nearly three times the
size of England and Wales—only a small part is fairly adapted to
agriculture, and much of the wealth in minerals and timber can
only become accessible through the construction of railways, the
improvement of river navigation, and other proceedings of a costly
kind. Out of 3868 Swedish square miles, which Agardth estimates
as the total area, lakes occupy one-eighth, or 498 Swedish square
miles, fells and barren plains take up 1500, forests 1623, leaving
only 247 for meadow and arable land. By degrees the cultivated
portion will, no doubt, be considerably increased, but the climate

_Opposes serious obstacles, and it is from her mines and her forests
that Sweden must expect to obtain the means of purchasing food
and comforts for her growing population.

A really good book upon this interesting and important country
has been much wanted, and such a work could only be written by a
shrewd observer, who had domesticated himself amongst the
people, and become familiar, through a lengthened residence, with
their language, customs, habits, and resources. Such a work the
‘Old Bushman” has produced, and we feel no hesitation in saying
that, for some years to come, his Ten Years in Sweden will be an
acknowledged authority, to which merchants, capitalists, naturalists,

* Ten Years in Sweden; being a Description of the Landscape, Climate,
Domestic Life, Forests, Mines, Agriculture, Field Sports, and Fauna of Scan-
dinavia. By “An Old Bushman,” author of “ Bush Wanderings in Australia,”
‘* A Spring and Summer in Lapland,” etc. Groombridge.

Ten Years in Sweden. 303

sportsmen, and tourists will refer, and find stores of well-digested
information, which bears evident marks of having been conscien-
ticusly collated and honestly given forth.

The season for visiting Sweden has now come. During the
winter, with its short days and long dark nights, few travellers
would wish themselves in a country not adapted to outdoor amuse-
ments, and whieh can only be tolerable to those who have oppor-
tunities of enjoying the hospitalities of its domestic life. In the
northern parts the allowance of daylight becomes microscopic, and
in the middle the ‘‘ Old Bushman” describes the winter as dull and
monotonous, “eighteen hours dark to six hours daylight, and it is
often impossible to get into the forest for weeks, on account of the
snow ; and if you can, there is scarcely anything to shoot.’’ Ifthe
weather is propitious, “the sledging is first-rate,” and country
houses are scenes of social gathering and festivity. In Maya
sudden change comes on. ‘‘ A few dull, misty days, with warm wind
and rain, and the whole face of the country changes, as if by magic.
The green rye appears as the snow rapidly melts away,” the wood
anemone puts forth its blossoms, and trees suddenly burst into leaf.
** Now ali again is activity and bustle out of doors; animal as well
as vegetable life, all at once wake up from their winter slumber, and
for six months the farmer, sportsman, and naturalist have not a day
to spare.”

Tt must not, however, be supposed that the winter is an idle time
for the natives. As soon as the ground becomes frozen in the
autumn, the men of a forest district are off to their work. Their
first proceeding is to dig a hole in the ground about ten feet deep,
which has a cover built over, leaving a smoke-hole. This is the
forester’s hut, m which he lives, dining on herrings, cheese, and
meal, which he brings with him. On Sundays he goes home, and on
other days he fells the trees, and when the snow is hardened, and
the ice on the lakes will bear weight, the timber is dragged along to
the nearest stream capable of floating it down when the warm weather
returns. The management of the forests is described as very waste-
fal, and in cutting the trees the woodman uses an axe, stands upright
as he works, and strikes about four feet from the ground, so that
much valuable timber is lost. The birch thrives well with the fir.
It makes its appearance when the fir woods are cut down, and in
young plantations it is valuable on account of its faster growth. At
the age of ten it is hard enough for firewood, and at fifty it attains full
growth. “ As the birch trees are cut cane the more valuable trees
are left. The birch thus pays for planting and pruning the better
trees, which fatten the land, while the birch when planted alone
impoverishes it.” The pine ‘takes a longer time to reach maturity,
varying, according to the district, from 180 to 300 years. The
“Old Bushman” supplies some curious facts and estimates concern-
ing the age and dimensions of these trees. Thus, up the Tornea
River—N. lat. 66° 40’—a pine with a diameter of 73 inches is
reckoned to be about 100 years old; 11 inches, 150; and 13%, 200.
“ So, according to these proportions, it appears that in this latitude
a pine grows one inch in diameter in every ten years during the first

804 Ten Years in Sweden.

century, but in the second century, only one inch in every twenty-two
years.” At Gefle, which is a few degrees more south (60° 4’ N. lat.),
the growth of pine is much quicker, reaching 14 inches diameter in
about 100 years, 184 inches in 150 years, and 234 inches in 200 years.
Tn the middle of Sweden—N. lat. 59° 2'—a pine tree of 20 inches
diameter at the root can be grown in 100 years, and it will be 100
feet high. At 20 feet from the ground, such a tree will have a dia-
meter of 15 or 16 inches; thus, we see how much alittle extra warmth
and light will do for the promotion of timber growth.

In the proposals which are made to English capitalists to embark
in Swedish enterprises, forest managing and timber cutting play
an important part; and in many cases great mining enterprises are
naturally and necessarily associated with these questions. On the
whole we entertain a favourable opinion of the capacities of Sweden
as a locality for investment, but to judge wisely of any particular
project a great deal of information is required of a class that is
usually suppressed in flourishing prospectuses; and we should
strongly advise no one to invest a sixpence in such undertakings,
without duly considering the various facts which the “ Old Bush-
man” has so industriously collected. We do not doubt, for example,
that the famous Gellivare district is one mass of possible wealth,
but without offering any opinion on the projects of those who have
undertaken to work it, a prudent speculator would require to know
a great deal about the peculiarities of the climate, and the probable
chances of inducing a sufficient population to settle in a district,
that without the application of much skill and capital can only
offer a partial subsistence to a miserable few. In considering these
and many other important points, the work before us offers in-
valuable aid; and without intending a left-handed compliment to its
author, we may say that his evidence is all the more trustworthy,
because he has collected his information without haying any specu-
lative object in view. The climate and soil of Sweden forbid the
gradual development that many other countries experience. Many
large districts must remain uninhabited and worthless until a
great change can be rapidly impressed upon them by associated
enterprise ; and provided judgment be exercised, a very great outlay
upon a comprehensive scheme would offer reasonable chances of
remuneration, while smailer though considerable disbursement on
less complete plans would be sure to fail.

Seven-eights of the Swedish people live in the country, and ib
has no cities that would be called large in comparison with our
own; Stockholm having only 116,496 inhabitants, according to the
census of 1861. Next comes Gothenburg, with 38,504 inhabitants ;
Norrkopping, with 20,228; Malmo with about as many, and no
other exceeding 10,000. Greater possibilities of living by agriculture
have caused the southern provinces to be ten times more populous
than the northern ones, which can never support any considerable
number except the mining and timber industries can be made to
furnish enough money to purchase necessaries and conveniences that
cannot be produced on the spot. ‘‘ The timber crop,” says our
author, “is the true harvest’of the north ;” and to make the most

Ten Years in Sweden. 805

of it means of communication must be created that have no existence
at present, and which could only pay by being carefully adapted to
the requirements of mining districts. Swedish agriculture is stated
to be improving, through the good practical education afforded in
the farm schools established by the government; but dairy produce
appears neglected, notwithstanding its ready sale.

The “Old Bushman” considers the present working of loan
societies as unfortunate for agriculture. He complains that men not
properly brought up to the business buy land with money borrowed
from these institutions, and have not sufficient capital to work it.
Such a state of things will probably cure itself, as there can be no
inducement for men to engage in enterprises that fail to be remune-
rative. The failure of injudicious speculations of this kind, and the
practical knowledge diffused by the farm schools, will cure the
delusion that agriculture is a process in which ignorance and insuf-
ficient capital can succeed.

Rye is the principal grain crop in Sweden, and “most of the
day-labourers are what they call torpare,” that is, servants at
will on the estate, who farm a bit of land, estimated ata high rental,
and who work when required by their landlord, at a fixed sum per
day. These men and their families are under what we should calla
“ truck system,” beimg obliged to buy what they require at the land-
lord’s shop, and until the country has made considerable progress,
it is not likely that this class of trade will fall into independent
hands, and be governed by the usual operation of commercial laws.
A good labourer earns one shilling a day in Wermland, and female
farm servants only receive £2 annual wages and their keep. For
this delightful pittance these poor women are kept at constant work.
“They never appear to know rest,” and “‘ifthere is an hour to spare,
there is always a spinning-jenny to sit down to.” Part of their
occupation is killing the calves and sheep!

The Swedish peasant has sturdy, sterling qualities, but, according
to the “Old Bushman,” “stingy past all belief,” and constantly
thinking of rix-dollars, of which, we apprehend, he does not see
too many with all his care. <A bad kind of brandy, called branvin,
is one key to his heart, and tobacco another. He is also
described as well-behaved and reliable, though not given to do things
in a hurry, or change his plans. Altogether he is an estimable per-
son, who deserves to share in the progress which we hope his country-
men are destined to make.

The arrangements for the relief of the poor in Sweden are very
peculiar, and are reported to work better than might be supposed.
No workhouse or Union receives the pauper class, and the poor rates
are levied in grain. ‘“ Harly in spring an auction is held, to which
all aged and helpless paupers are brought, in order to be let for the
year; each pauper is put up to a bidding, after the manner of a
Dutch auction, to see who will take and keep ‘him, or her, for a year at
the lowest price, and a good deal of speculation often goes on among
the assembled farmers. A helpless old pauper will be taken for
eight tunna* of oats a year, and one with a little work left in him

* A tunna is little less than five bushels.

306 Ten Years in Sweden.

for less. The person hiring one of these unfortunates has to pro-
vide clothes as well as food, and they are usually well treated, as the
Swede is naturally a kind master.”

The ecclesiastical arrangements of Sweden differ from our own.
The parishioners in certain cases choose their clergymen, and the
clergy of a district choose their bishop. A curate begins with a
stipend of about £10 and his keep, and his first living may be
worth about £40 a year, the income being generally derived from
a small farm, together with yearly payments of butter, etc., from
the parishioners. Bishops are obtained as economically as parish
clergymen, and even the Archbishop of Upsala, the Primate of the
Swedish church, has an income of only £1200 a year. This mode-
rate pay does not prevent the clergy from being held in high esti-
mation, and they exert a powerful influence over the domestic life
of all classes. Hducation is cheap in Sweden, and while the working
men are better taught than our own, the middle-class have two
good universities at Lund and Upsala, in which the total expendi-
ture is from £3 to £4 per month.

With regard to the cost of living in Sweden, the “ Old Bush-
man” remarks, that a man with a family, who cannot do without
English comforts, can live as cheap at home; but, he adds, a
sportsman can do well with £50 a year, if he hires a room and
buys his own provisions; enjoying considerable facilities for obtaining
various sorts of game. Ample details are given for those who con-
template a visit to the country, and it is evident that much enjoy-
ment may be obtained at a moderate cost. In 1864 mutton was
Ad. per lb., beef 3d., pork 4d., chickens 9d. each, eggs, 7d. per
dozen in summer, oatmeal, ls. for twenty pounds. The meat,
except the mutton, is not praised, and the ordinary bread of the
country would scarcely commend itself to English tastes. It is
“made of hard rye, in thin cakes as large as a plate. This is hung
up, and will keep any length of time. In some large houses they
bake only twice a year; but they can also make just as good light
wheat bread as in England.” The last announcement carries con-
solation for travellers, as we think most of them—from this country
at least—would be loth to interfere with the valuable keeping pro-

-perties the native article is said to possess.

With many points of resemblance, the Swedes and the English
have also marked differences in habit, partly, no doubt, resulting
from the peculiarities of the climate in which the two nations
live. Swedish boys are not fond of the athletic games that delight
our youth, and their young men have no substitutes for the
cricketing, boating, etc., that ours judiciously practise. With us
winter is a season of physical activity for the well-to-do classes.
In Sweden it is the reverse. The country gentleman has no hunting
or shooting at that season, he rarely walks a mile, and the houses
are made unwholesomely hot by stopping ventilation and heating
the stoves.

We have in the preceding remarks afforded our readers a general
outline of what a capital book the “ Old Bushman” has made, and,
as his matter is well arranged and condensed, he has contrived, in

Archoologia. 307

less than six hundred pages, to present a great store of information
on a variety of topics, and also to add what the naturalist will con-
sider very valuable—a list of the mammalia, birds, and reptiles of
Sweden, with descriptions of genera and species drawn from the best
sources, and supplemented by observations which his own experience
has supplied. The “Old Bushman” speaks very modestly of this
portion of his labours. He says, “ It is, in fact, a compilation from
beginning to end; but, nevertheless, a compilation prepared with
an immense deal of trouble, labour, and close attention. To take
Nillson’s Fauna in hand, and merely give a list of such animals as
are met with in Scandinavia would have been a very simple affair,
but to refer to the best authorities on the fauna of four large Northern
countries, as well as of Great Britain, to compare them with each
other, to see how far their observations tallied with my own experi-
ence, and then to pick out from all the best and shortest account of
the different species, with its easiest and most reliable specific dis-
tinctions, was a work of no little labour.”

We cannot doubt that naturalists will place a high estimate upon
the perseverance and skill with which this portion of the work is
carried out, and, in conclusion, we have only to commend the ‘‘ Old
Bushman’s” record of his Zen Years in Sweden to all who, from
whatever motive, or with whatever object, desire to obtain informa-
tion on which they can rely.

ARCH AZOLOGIA.

Tue Archeological Institute has recently had under discussion
a question of the greatest importance to every one who feels an
interest in Archeology—that of rREasuRE TROVE. It would not be
easy to overstate the quantity of valuable antiquities which have
been lost and destroyed through the operation of the law upon this
subject as it now stands. According to medieval principles, what-
ever was found without any clearly traced legal owner was held to
belong to the king. Generally speaking, antiquities found buried in
the ground had then very little acknowledged value ; but this was not
the case with money in times when it was scarce, and had avery
high value in comparison with the ordinary articles which were pur-
chased with it, or even with land itself. It has been from very early
times the usual method of preserving money to bury it in the ground.
A house, generally, was not a safe place, as it was liable to be
entered and plundered by the numerous strong bands of robbers
who infested every part of the land, town or country, and this was
the case dowh to a recent period. The reader will remember the
anxiety of Secretary Pepys, as he tells it in his diary, when, during
the great fire of London, he buried his money in his own garden,
and still more when, after the fire, he went to-dig it up. In the
same manner, the Romans, and the Saxons, and the Normans,
VOL. VII.—NO. Iv. ee

308 Archeeologia.

and, to a greater or less extent, all those who inhabited the land
before Pepys’ time, kept what they had of cash, more than enough
for ordinary use, not in a strong box in a room in the house, from
which it might be carried away, but by burying it either within the
house, or in the yard or garden: for it must not be supposed that
the hoards of ancient coins which are so frequently found in digging
in fields, or roadsides, were merely placed in the earth in the open
country. They lay no doubt origimally within some building or
inclosure, the traces of which have now disappeared. Life was then
very uncertain, and the owners of these treasures were often cut off
without leaving anybody acquainted with the place where their money
was concealed, and it remained undisturbed until accidentally dis-
covered in ages long subsequent. Jt is but natural for men who
possessed landed property to look upon whatever they found in it as
belonging rightly to themselves, and hence arose conflicting claims
between moral right, or supposed moral right, and legal right,
which, in times when people who were strong enough oftener
committed it to the decision of force than to law, led to disas-
trous feuds and even to wars. It was well known how Richard
Coeur de Lion met his death. Richard’s feudal vassal, the Vicomte
of Limoges, having found a treasure on his estates, sent a part of
it to the king in the hope of appeasing him; but the latter, having
been made acquainted with the circumstances of the case, claimed
the whole, and, on the vicomte’s refusal to surrender it, assembled
some troops, marched against him, and, in an attack upon his castle,
received his death-wound. In other instances, the law of treasure ~
trove was made the instrument of vexatious acts of oppression and
injustice. A curious case of this kind occurred in Ireland in the
earlier half of the fourteenth century. A married man in the town
of Kilkenny, who appears to have united the businesses of banker

and usurer, buried his ready money within his house—we may
‘suppose under the floor of his cellar. He was involved in a quarrel

with some of his relatives, who had learnt somehow or other the
circumstances of the burial of his money, and one day, during his
absence from home, they broke into his house, dug up the money,
and carried it away. Proceedings were, of course, commenced

- against them for the robbery, but, when the case appeared clearly

to be going against them, they turned round, and pleaded that the
money was treasure trove, because found buried in the earth, and
that they were ready to give it up to the king, to whom it belonged.
This brought an interruption to the original trial, and led to a new
course of proceedings, which, in the then slow process of law,
although the owner of the money could easily establish his right to
it, tormented him for several years before it was decided.

These anecdotes will be sufficient to show the great inconveniences
attending the law of treasure trove asa royalty. Like other royal-
ties, such as the right to mines of the precious metals, it remained
in the crown after the lands were given away, and could only be
alienated by a special grant. The feudal barons, therefore, and
especially the church and the ecclesiastical barons, laboured to obtain
this special grant with their estates, and gradually the right of

Archeologia. 309

treasure trove became very generally transferred from the crown to
the lords of the manors. These seized upon the treasures found
upon their estates, whenever they were worth the trouble, and
nothing further was said about it, unless the find presented some
remarkable characteristic. As lords of manors, even in recent times,
rarely possessed any knowledge of archeology, and therefore took
no interest in mere antiquities, and as stores of coins of any value for
the metal only turned up at rare intervals, they took no care about
the matter, and the law of treasure trove was allowed to remain a
dead letter, except on particular occasions, when the value of the
deposit, or the historical interest of the articles found, called their
especial attention to it. The advantage thus derived from the law
was merely nominal, while it was extensively injurious to the cause
of science. The agricultural or other labourer who found a deposit
of ancient coins or other antiquities, ignorant of their real value,
yet knowing they were worth something, believed that he had morally
a right to what he had found; at the same time, he knew that the
lord of the manor had the law on his side and could take them from
him, and that, moreover, he was liable to severe punishment for ap-
propriating them. He, accordingly, concealed. the discovery, sold
the objects, when he could, to dealers, who gave him but a small
part of their value, or to curiosity collectors, who gave him more ;
but, in either case, they were lost to science—the coins of gold or silver.
often went to the melting-pot, and the other objects were scattered,
and in a short time destroyed, and at all events they were deprived
of a great part of their historical value by being dissociated from the -
locality in which they were found. The loss which archeology has
sustained from this state of things, since it has been cultivated as a
Science, is incalculable, and greatly to be lamented.

The subject was brought before the Archeological Institute, in
a paper by Mr. Godfrey Faussett, who gave a sketch of the history
of the law relating to treasure trove from the earliest period at which
we have any information on the subject. The Roman law, he said,
varied much in regard to the appropriation of treasure found with-
out an owner. The Emperor Constantine adjudged it to the treasury,
but, if it were brought in voluntarily, one-half was restored to the
finder. Gratian vested the whole in the finder, but provided that,
ifthe finder were not the owner of the soil, the latter should be -
entitled to one-quarter. This was acknowledging some right to
treasure trove in what we should now call the lord of the manor.
Valentinian II. gave the whole to the finder. This was changed
again by Justinian, who ordered that treasure thus found should be -
divided equally between the landholder and the finder, and this.
appears to have remained afterwards the established Roman law..
It was adopted in the Code Napoleon, and is still the practice in.
some countries. When we do find any regulations relating to.
treasure trove among the Anglo-Saxons, which is not before the
reign of Kdward the Confessor, treasure found in the earth was
considered to belong entirely to the king, unless found in a church
or cemetery, in which case the gold belonged to the king, and half
the silyer to the church, the other half to the king. Under the

310 Archeeologia.

Normans, treasure trove was altogether a royalty. The crime of
concealing treasure thus found amounted to death, or loss of limb,
which was ata later period commuted for fine or imprisonment.
Mr. Faussett described the misapprehensions which had existed m
regard to the law on this subject in modern times, and the proposals
which had been made for amending it. In 1860, Sir George Corne-
wall Lewis, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, issued a well-known
“ circular” to the police, who were directed to claim all coins, gold
or silver ornaments, and other relics found in this manner, for the
crown, but to pay the finder their full value on his giving them up;
and the circular further directed that, in cases of concealment which
might come to the knowledge of the police, measures should be taken
for the recovery of the treasure. This measure, as antiquaries know,
has proved a complete failure, and only increased the difficulty 1t was
intended to remove. Mr. Faussett seems to ascribe this in a great

‘measure to the employment of the police, which he thinks was

calculated to raise suspicion and ill-feeling; while, by asserting a

claim to all ancient relics, and not to the precious metals only, the
question became perplexed, and no intention was expressed as to
‘the destination of the treasure which was to be delivered up. He
offered some suggestions for the future arrangement of this question,

which, at present, is certainly in a very unsatisfactory state. He

-is opposed to the opinions of those who wish the sovereign to waive

all claim to the treasure trove, and vest the property of such dis-

-coveries entirely in the finders, because he thinks that this would be

merely equivalent to an attempt to discourage pilfering, by giving

-the thief what he covets, and he thinks that this would benefit none

of the parties concerned. He proposes an amended “circular,” to
the same effect as that of Sir George Lewis, with this especial dif-
ference, that the future destination of objects secured by Govern-

‘ment should be distinctly set forth, accompanied with a well-defined

statement of what the crown may and will claim, and the offer to

‘purchase such objects as are not claimed, in addition to that of

‘liberal and prompt remuneration for what it does claim; and he
especially urges the elimination, as far as possible, of the police
element in the transaction. In regard to this latter difficulty, Mr.

' Faussett suggests that, in some way or other, which we do not very

clearly understand, the principal post-offices throughout the king-
dom might be used as an agency in place of the police. Mr.
Faussett’s paper led to a long and rather warm discussion of the
question, in which Mr. John Evans and some other speakers advo-
cated the expediency of abandoning all claim on the part of the
crown, or lords of manors, over treasure trove, as the best way
of ensuring the proper preservation of the objects found. We con-
fess ourselves much inclined to Mr. Hvans’s opinion. The real
difficulty in all such plans as the “ circular,”’ or the proposed amended
circular, arises from the circumstance that it necessarily implies a
transaction between two ignorant people. The finders of antiquities
in the country are usually agricultural labourers, who of course know
nothing about them, and it will be a long time before the members of
the police force or the men employed in country post-offices will have _

Archeologia. dll

become competent antiquaries. The only real effect of the law which
creates a different claimant from the finder is to enforce concealment,
which, of course, implies the loss of a great proportion of the objects
found. Itis generally a labourer who finds such object, while at
work in the fields, or perhaps digging his own garden; he can see
no reason why it should not be his own as much as the pebble he
picks up and puts in his pocket, but he has an imperfect conviction
that it has some value, and that he is liable to be deprived of it. He,
therefore, keeps it from the knowledge of the people of the neigh-
bourhood, until he meets with a stranger, who gives him perhaps a
few pence for it, or he takes it to a neighbouring town, and sells it
for an equally small sum. In either case, he conceals the place
where it was found, or probably makes a false statement about it.
This is the injury which archeological science sustains from the law
relating to treasure trove, and the only effective remedy to be found
for it is the spread of antiquarian tastes and antiquarian knowledge,
and free trade in antiquities. There is hardly any corner of Hngland
at the present day where there are not two or three intelligent
antiquaries in the neighbourhood who collect antiquities, or where
there is not within a moderate distance a local museum. If the
finders of antiquities felt assured that they were at full liberty to
sell what they found openly, they would soon be in communication
with these local antiquaries or with the curators of museums, and not
only would the antiquities be preserved, but also the particulars of
their discovery, in which, often, a great part of their value consists.
It only requires the power of doing openly that which is now done
in concealment.

Accounts of discoveries of cRANNOoGES, or lake habitations, have
been frequently reported of late in Scotland and Ireland. They
are new objects of research, which, as might be expected, is fruitful
in discoveries. They appear to belong not to an extremely remote
period, for the oldest of them are not probably older than the late
Roman period. One was lately traced in lowering the water of Grants-
town lake, in Queen’s County, Ireland; among the objects found
in which were iron nails, with large heads, and other articles in
metal, bone, and wood. ‘Traces of crannoges are also stated to have
been seen in Lough Neagh. Similar remains have been found in a
lake under the glebe-house, in the parish of Aghnamullen, in the
county of Monaghan, in connection with which a story is told,
which we can hardly help suspecting of a little Irish imagination.
The rector, sitting on the island, on the site of the crannoges, one
day saw what he thought to be a button on the leaf of a water-
plant, which had grown up from the bottom of the lake; but, on
examination, it proved to be an old coin, a half-groat of King
Hdward III., “some of the treasures of the lake being thus lifted to
the surface by the natural growth of the plant.” No doubt some
ingenious individual had picked up the coin and put it on the leaf,
probably shortly before it so curiously attracted the rector’s atten-
tion. ‘lo understand his more marvellous explanation of it, we
must suppose that the leaf of the water-plant was fully developed
in the bottom of the lake, beneath the surface where the coin lay,

312 Archeologia.

and that the stem grew up gradually to the surface of the water,
carrying with it the leaves thus developed from the bottom, which
is not the usual process of the natural growth of plants.

Within a few months past, antiquaries in Scotland have been
occupied in opening several early BARROWS and carRNS. In the
centre of one of the latter, known by the name of Cairngreg, at
Iinlathen, in Forfarshire, a cist formed of large slabs of stone was
found, from which, when this cairn was opened ona former occasion,
a small urn and bronze dagger were taken. Between the two great
slabs which covered the cist, one placed over the other, lay, what ap-
peared to be, a fragment of a larger pillar, on which was rudely sculp-
tured the figure of an elephant. This figure is said to be common on
stone monuments on the north-east coast of Scotland, which belong
to the Christian period; but, it was concluded, from the discovery
of the urn and the bronze dagger, that this particular monument
belongs to a much earlier date, and that, at the time when the cist
was raised, the sculptured upright stone, which had been broken, was
used in its construction, and that therefore the sculptures must be
assigned to a pre-Christian system. This inference is, however,
perhaps rather hasty, for if the sculptured elephant be characteristic
in that district of very early Christian monuments, we should be
inclined to look upon the sculptured fragment im the cairn to have
quite as good a claim to be considered as evidence of the age of the
latter as the urn and dagger.

At the last meeting of the Archeological Association, Mr. J. T.
Irvine exhibited fragments of Roman Titus, taken from the old
church at BrrKeLey, in Gloucestershire, where they had been used
as building materials. They afforded sufficient evidence that there
had existed Roman buildings of some kind at this place, and, more-
over, that it had been a military post, for these tiles were stamped
~with the inscription—

DECL.VI,

which was interpreted as standing for decima cohors legioms sexte.
If this interpretation be correct—for there appears to be some
obscurity about it—it would point to a very remarkable circum-
stance. The sixth legion was stationed at York, as a check upon
Scotland and the north, and is never, as far as we are aware, men-
tioned in any monuments in the middle or south of England; and
why a body of troops should be brought from the legion at York
into the remote district of Gloucestershire, where there was one
legion close at hand (the second, at Caerleon) and another between -
Berkeley and York, and much nearer and more accessible (the
twentieth, at Chester), is quite inexplicable. Is it possible that these
bricks may be memorials of the late period, when, according to the
Notitia, the twentieth legion was no longer in the island, and the
second had been removed from Caerleon to Richborough in Kent,
so that a portion of the only other legion then in Britain, the sixth,
might have been employed in repressing disturbances, or resisting
invasion in the south-west ? T.

Proceedings of Learned Societies. 313

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

BY W. B. TEGETMEIER.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

Inrropuction oF A Livine Peneurn, etc.—At the recent meetings
of this society, the addition of several new and very valuable animals
to the collection has been announced by the secretary. Among
these may be mentioned the three-banded armadillo, Tolypeutes
prelatus, described by Burmeister. This species is remarkable, as
progressing on the tips of the very long and sharp-pointed claws of
the fore feet.

The introduction of a living penguin into the menagerie is to be
regarded asa circumstance of still higher importance, as it will
enable naturalists to observe the habits and mode of life of this
most singular group of fish-hke birds. Hitherto all attempts to
import these birds have failed, the animals always dying on the
passage. The individual now living in the gardens is not the
common species, the Apferodytes demersa of naturalists, the jackass
penguin of the sailors, but the king penguin, Apterodytes pennantit.
This more ornamented species is at once distinguished by the
orange tint of the breast, and of the occipital feathers. In the
penguin, every organ is modified so as to suit its aquatic habits; the
sickle-shaped wings are perfectly useless in the air, hanging pendant
by the sides of the upright body of the animal; in the water they
become powerful paddles or fins, urging the progress of the bird
with a sufficient degree of rapidity to enable it to hunt down and
capture the fish on which it feeds. The legs and tarsi are
extremely short, and are situated so far backward that the body
of the bird is supported in a perfectly perpendicular attitude,
the animal, when at rest, supporting itself on the two feet and the
tail, as on a flattened tripod. The common penguin is described by
Mr, Darwin and other naturalists as progressing on land on its
breast, using its paddles or modified wings as fore legs. The
specimen in the gardens does not seem to move in this manner, but
walks or rather waddles on its webbed feet with very short and
toddling steps. The specimen, which is placed in the pelican en-
closure, to the left of the chief entrance to the gardens, is very tame,
following the keeper for its food; the general appearance is that of
considerable intelligence.

As very many years may elapse before another specimen of these
birds is introduced into this country, the opportunity of examining
this specimen should not be allowed to pass away unimproved by
all who claim the title of Intellectual Observers.

MANCHESTER PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.—Warch 7.

Tae Action or Sea Waren on Merats.—Dr. Crace Calvert
read an account of a very valuable series of experiments undertaken

olA Proceedings of Learned Societies.

to investigate the action of sea water on metals and alloys. It was
found that when placed in a limited portion of water, iron, the
metal now used so largely for ship-building, was attacked with the
greatest rapidity, but that the action of the sea water upon it is
materially lessened when it is coated with zinc, and that, therefore,
it would repay ship-builders to have the iron galvanized—particularly
as iron and oak timber, in contact, are prevented from exerting their
mutually destructive action if the metal has been previously coated
with zinc. As lead appears almost entirely unacted on by sea water
at rest, it appears possible that it might be rendered available,
although pure lead is far too soft to withstand the wear and tear
to which ships’ bottoms are subjected. In investigating the action
of sea water on brasses of various compositions, Dr. Calvert spoke
very favourably of the Muntz metal, which seems to owe its dura-
bility to the small proportion of lead and iron thatit contains. In the
discussion which ensued, Mr. Robinson stated that he had found an
alloy of lead, tin, and antimony resisted the action of sea water
better than any other alloy, or any pure metal that he had experi-
mented with.

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—April 2.

OccuRRENCE or Insects 1n Snow.—Mr. Pascoe, the president,
stated, that when passing over the snowfield of Monte Moro, at an
elevation of 8000 feet, during last July, he discovered several sharply
defined cylindrical holes about an inch in depth, at the bottom of
which was either a small mass of matter resembling peat in appear-
ance, or, what was still more frequent, a dipterous or ichneu-
monideous insect. Mr. Pascoe explained their occurrence by sup-
posing that the insects had alighted on the snow, and having become
torpid, owing to the cold, had gradually sank into the snow, from
the radiation of heat from their own bodies.

Recalling to mind the simple experiments of Franklin, to prove
the varying amount cf absorption of solar heat by patches of different
coloured cloths placed on snow, as measured by the depth to which
the cloth melted the snow below it, it appears much more probable
that the sinking of the insect into the snow was due to its becoming
warm by the absorption of heat, and the consequent melting of the
snow. On the other hand, the loss of heat by radiation would
cause the snow to become more solid and firm.

ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH.—4pril 3.

Economic Vatve or Foop or Sonprrs.—Dr. Lyon Playfair read
@ paper on the food of-soldiers in war and peace. In this country,
three quarters of a pound of meat and one pound of bread are issued
daily to the troops, the rest of their food being furnished from their
own pay. On investigating the total diet of nearly five hundred
men, in garrison at Chatham, for twelve days, Dr. Playfair found
that, stated in ounces and tenths, the returns were as follows :—

Proceedings of Learned Societies. 315

Flesh formers 2 3 : 7 51
Fat - F ; ‘ é 4 2°9
Starch, etc. ne QF

This dietary closely coal the war dietary of the continental
armies, except that as potatces are largely used in garrison, and
not on active service, the starch and consequently the total carbon
is increased. Dr. Playfair concludes that a war diet for soldiers
should have at the very least a daily supply of five and a half ounces
of flesh formers in the food, as this quantity is absolutely necessary
to enable men to march fourteen miles daily, with a weight of sixty
pounds of arms and accoutrements, without exhausting their own
tissues to obtain the necessary amount of muscular force.

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—April 5.

On THE Cuatx Districts or Enonanp.—Mr. Whitaker made
several interesting valuable communications on the arrangements of
the beds in the chalk districts. In the Isle of Thanet, a bed of
comparatively flintless chalk overlies one with many flints. The
higher division, or Margate chalk, contains but few scattered flint-
nodules, and shows well-marked N.W. and 8.H. joints. The lower
division, or Broadstairs chalk, on the other hand, is less jointed, and
has many continuous layers of flint. The beds form a very flat arch,
as may be seen along the coast from Kingsgate to Peewell, between
which places the flinty chalk rises up from below that with few flints.
It is remarkable that in this neighbourhood the Thanet beds are
conformable to the chalk, the green coated nodular flints at the
bottom of the former resting on a peculiar bed of tabular flint at the
top of the latter. In carrymg on the geological survey of Bucking-
hamshire, the Totternhoe stone (with its underlying chalky marl),
which had been sometimes thought to be the representative of the
Upper Greensand, was traced south-westwards into a part where
that formation was fairly developed, and was then found to overlie
it. ‘The divisions of the chalk in Buckinghamshire are, in ascending
order—

(1.) Chalk-marl, with stony layers here and there, and at top.

(2.) The Totternhoe stone, generally two layers of rather
brownish sandy chalk, hard, with dark grains of small
brown nodules.

(3.) Marly white chalk, without flints.

(4.) Hard-bedded white chalk without flints, forming generally
a low ridge at the foot of the great escarpment.

(5.) The thick mass of white chalk without flints, or with a
very few flints in the uppermost part, and at top.

(6.) The “ chalk-rock,” a thin hard bed. or beds, with green-
coated nodules.

(7.) The chalk with flint, the lowermost part only coming on
near the top of the escarpment, the rest bed by bed over
the tableland southwards, the angle of dip being rather
more than that of the slope of the ground. .

316 Proceedings of Learned Societies.

In the Isle of Wight, as in Oxfordshire, etc., the division between
the chalk with flmts and chalk without flints, is marked by a pecu-
liar bed (“ chalk-rock’’), hard, of a cream-colour, and with irregular-
shaped green-coated nodules, which may be seen in many of the
pits on the southern flank of the chalk-ridge, where, however, it is
very thin. Mr. Whitaker disagreed with the inference that the
chalk was eroded before the deposition of the Tertiary beds, which
has been drawn from the irregular junction of the two in the cliff-
sections, and thought that the irregularity had been caused rather
by the formation of “pipes” after the deposition of the latter,
although he did not deny that there was other evidence of denuda-
tion of the chalk before the deposition of the Tertiaries upon it.

.

MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY.

The annual soirée of this society was held on Wednesday, the
19th of April, and was very numerously attended. Messrs. Powell
and Lealand exhibited one of their 4ths, which attracted a great’
deal of attention, though the merits of such a remarkable objective
cannot be adequately appreciated im a crowded assembly, in which
the instrument is never free from vibrations. Mr. Ross and Messrs.
Smith and Beck exhibited some fine objects, as did Messrs. Baker,
How, Steward, Robbins, and a variety of other makers. Dr. Car-
penter showed some remarkable specimens of Hozoon Canadense.
Mr. Browning exhibited some spectroscopes, including the new
direct vision pattern devised by Mr. Herschel. In the course of the
evening Mr. How showed with a gas microscope a series of photo-
graphs of diatoms, etc., by Dr. Maddox. Many of them possessed
great merit, but we think a better definition would have been
obtained by lower magnification. He also exhibited im a similar
way photographs of various animals.

The members of the society did not exhibit much, and we think
on future occasions more pains should be taken to display a series
of objects representing the principal novel microscopic facts of
the year.

ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY.—April 12th.

Colonel Strange read a paper, ‘‘On an Aluminium Bronze
Axis, and on certain new methods of Adjusting Transits.” The
author remarked that in November, 1862, he had before this society
advocated the use of the new metallic alloy referred to, in the con-
struction of astronomical instruments, and now some having been
made, he could practically confirm the good opinion previously
formed. One exception had been found to complete success, viz.,
that it did not answer for the graduated part of circles, as it
tarnished rather rapidly ; but other difficulties had yielded to scien-
tific treatment, and the transit axis now exhibited and made by
Messrs. Cooke was, notwithstanding its lightmess and thinness of
metal, probably the stiffest axis in existence. The axis was intended

Proceedings of Learned Societies. 317

for a 5-foot telescope, it was 33} inches between the bearings,
the central tube was 9 inches in diameter and 0°15 ich thick,
but strengthened by internal webs, and weighed only 56 pounds.
The modifications in the adjustments related to three pomts: 1.
The adjustments for azimuth and horizontality. 2. The application
of the level. 3. The mode of collimation. 1. As to the raising
and lowering the axis, and moving it in azimuth. These opera-
tions are generally effected by sliding parts, which are objection-
able as they must be clamped, and this especially in the vertical
slide produces great strain. Itis proposed that a massive three-rayed
piece of cast iron shall rest on each pier not fixed to it, but stand-
ing on three feet, with a central bolt to prevent accidental displace-
ment, This will admit of expansion in all directions. The bearings
in which the axis revolves rest on other three-armed pieces made of
gun metal, and standing on the iron ones. The gun metal piece
on one pier is acted on by screws having antagonistic motions,
whic shift the bearings in azimuth as required. The other gun
metal three-armed piece has foot screws like a theodolite, for levelling
the axis. It has a circular level which is first adjusted, and the
serews are then moved as necessary, one of them having a lever
apparatus, by which great delicacy of motion is obtained. No
strain can exist under these arrangements, gravity being the only
force called into action. An improvement has also been made in
the bearings, the under surfaces of which constitute parts of
spheres ; and these work in cups, so that no amount of tilting will
interfere with the points resting securely in their bearings. 2. As
to the mode of applying the level to the axis. This is usually
effected by a levei striding from one point to the other, but such
levellmg cannot be performed with the telescope directed to the
zenith where error of level is most injurious; and Mr. Cooke there-
fore proposes to have several levels attached to the telescope
instead. There will be two near the central tube, and one at each
end, all parallel to the axis. It is usually assumed that if the
points are horizontal the telescope will describe a vertical curve;
but this is not a certain inference; and it will be better to watch
the centre, where any unsymmetrical flexure of the axis will be
apparent, or any lateral deviation of the tube be made evident by the
end levels. 3. As to testing the collimation error. Itis intended in
this instrument, which is a portable one made for the great Indian
survey, to employ Benzenberg’s method of observing the reflection
of a wire cross in the eye-piece from a trough of mercury; and in
order to avoid the vibrations of that fluid a plate of glass is to float
on the metal, the under surface of which will form a brilliant
mirror. Such plate ought to have two plane surfaces, parallel to
each other, and the glass should be of uniform density. The first
condition of a plane surface can be ensured by careful grinding;
and should the other two not be obtained the reversal of the trough
in azimuth, and observations in that position, would neutralise the
error.
In an interesting discussion which followed the reading of the
paper, Colonel Strange said the antagonistic screws of the azimuth

318 Progress of Invention.

bearing were only used as a motive power and then released ; that
the levels being always attached would not run the risk of any jar
in handling and placing on the pivots; and that he thought if the
telescope described a true vertical curve the form of the joimts was
not so important as generally supposed, although he could still test
them if necessary. The principal use of the instrument would be
for obtaining the longitudes of the different stations of the survey
(of which an arc of 10 degrees was now waiting for their deter-
mination) by electric telegraph signals, and the transit would remain
one or two months at each station.

PROGRESS OF INVENTION.

New Meruop or Cementation.—In certain experiments made
by M. L. Cailletet he found that cast iron, by long exposure to a
temperature less than that which causes fusion, loses an amount of
carbon which renders it very similar in constitution to steel. It
differs, however, considerably from the latter, since it is forged
with difficulty, and the bars obtained from it are incapable of bemg
tempered. It is very brittle, and when broken resembles some ~
kinds of oxide of manganese. Pursuing these researches further,
he discovered that when bars of iron are heated for about twenty
hours to a temperature somewhat under that at which gold melts, in
contact with granulated grey cast iron, which has been carefully freed
from all fatty matters and any adhering carbonaceous substances,
in boxes from which the air is excluded, they are converted into
steel of very good quality. They must be im contact with the cast
‘Iron, since, as was proved by experiment, their conversion is not

due to the gases of the furnace having entered the boxes, those not
in contact with the cast iron not being converted. This discovery
is capable of being applied to avery practical purpose, since, if
engraved and polished plates of wrought iron are used instead of

the bars, they are cemented without suffering the least distortion,
- or even having their surface tarnished. Neither are blisters or
other imperfections, so usual when steel is cemented with carbon,
produced upon them.

Move or Renprring Woop Purastic.—A new and very simple
method of effecting this has been lately discovered. It consists in
forcing dilute hydrochloric acid through the cells of the wood, at a
pressure of about two atmospheres. This impregnation must be
continued for a length of time, dependent on the nature of the
wood. The bark is not previously removed, and by a very
simple arrangement the fluid is introduced at one end of the
log, and passes out at the other. If while the wood is
still wet it is exposed to pressure, the cells having been
first washed out with water, its volume may be reduced to a tenth
of what it was originally ; the fibres being brought into the closest
contact, without being fractured or torn; and when dry they have
no tendency to separate again, If it is pressed in dies, their details

Progress of Invention. 319

are brought out with the greatest sharpness, and the most perfect
accuracy. Impregnation in this way can be used for a variety of
purposes. After the action of the hydrochloric acid, washing out with
water, and drying, the wood may be cut with remarkable facility,
and it answers admirably for the purposes of the carver. The
drying is effected by forcing air, at a temperature of about 100°
Fahr., through the cells. The moisture is thus carried off with
great rapidity ; and, as the contraction is uniform through the whole
mass, no cracks are produced. Dyes also may be introduced in the
same manner into the entire substance of the wood, or matters cal-
culated to preserve it from decay. Soluble glass, or recently pre-
cipitated silex, renders it both very durable and thoroughly
incombustible. _

New SELE-REGISTERING THERMOMETER. — This new maximum
thermometer, which is of great simplicity, resembles the ordinary
spirit thermometer, except that a small enlargement is blown on the
stem, at about one-third of its length from the bulb. In this
enlargement is placed a small globule of mercury, which, as long as
the spirit continues to ascend in the stem, remains in its place, but
when the spirit falls, descends along with it, dividing it into two
portions, the upper one of which will continue nearly equal to the
greatest distance to which the spirit reached above the enlarge-
ment. As that distance is easily measured on a scale, placed for
the purpose, the maximum height which the temperature attained
during a given interval, is easily found, no matter how low the
temperature may have subsequently become. Heating the instru-
ment until the globule of mercury reaches the enlargement, and
then laying it on its side until it cools, prepares it for a new
observation.

Utitization or Sours American Brur.—Sixteen years ago
Liebig obtained the pure essence of meat, and demonstrated that
it contains all the nutritive matter of the animal substance ; but as,
on the score of economy, there was no inducement to prepare it, its
use has been nearly confined to invalids, to whom it is of the greatest
benefit. It is exceedingly nutritious and very digestible, it hastens
the recovery of strength in an astonishing way, and may be given
in gastric fever and other diseases in which ordinary food cannot
be digested. It is so agreeable that after their recovery patients
continue to use it with pleasure, which is not the case with pre-
parations of gelatine. The latter contain very little nutriment,
and they soon become disagreeable to the palate. Highty per
cent. of the extract of meat is nutritive matter, but only four or
five per cent. of the gelatine. According to the calculations of
Liebig, one pound of the former, with bread, potatoes, and salt,
would afford a meal to 128 persons. It may be kept for a very
long time: Liebig found some he had prepared fifteen years before,
perfectly fresh. In fact, it seems to possess antiseptic properties.
A quantity of it, in pots, merely covered with paper, was stored in
a damp cellar. Hven the inside of the pots became mouldy, but
there was no mould whatever on any part of them which was in
contact with the extract. The latter is extremely portable, since
one pound of it contains the nutritious matter of thirty-two pounds

320 Notes and Memoranda.

of meat. If it is made poorer than this, or if it is attempted to
adulterate it,it will not keep. All these excellent properties have
not been able to bring it into general use, on account of its unayvoid-
able dearness when made in Hurope. But it seems likely that the
preparation of it will very soon become the means of saving a vast
amount of valuable meat, hitherto allowed to go almost entirely to
waste, and thus add greatly to our supply of nutritious and agree-
able food. Giebert, a German engineer, like thousands of others,
was struck with the vast herds of cattle slaughtered in La Plata
merely for their hides and tallow, the meat bemg abandoned from
the impossibility of preserving it by the ordinary methods. But
being, as it happened, aware of Liebig’s experiments, the thought
luckily occurred to him of extracting the nutriment from this meat
on the large scale; and the undertaking is already so far advanced,
that we may hope soon to derive advantage from it. The process
required for obtaining the extract is very simple. The fresh beef is
carefully separated from all fat, bone, and tendon—fat or gelatine
would cause it soon to become rancid and mouldy; it is then
chopped up, and placed with a small quantity of water in a water
bath. According as any fatty matter or albuminous coagulation
makes its appearance, it is removed. After some time the extract
thus produced is poured off from the fibre, which now contains so
little nutriment that it is quite incapable of supporting animal life,
and is placed in earthen or other vessels. The latter do not
require to be hermetically sealed in any way, and may indeed be
closed in the manner usually adopted with preserves.

NOTES AND MEMORANDA.

THERMO-ELECTRICS.—M. Biinsen finds that pyrolusite exceeds bismuth in
thermo-electric power, and copper pyrites possess the same quality in a still
higher degree.—Pogg. Ai.

Tue Lua oF THE Ostricu.—The Rey. Samuel Haughton, M.D., E.R.S.,
has a paper in the Annals of Natural History on the leg of the ostrich, founded
upon the examination of a bird recently defunct in the Dublin Zoological Gardens.
After giving a variety of important anatomical details, he observes, “in the act
of running, the leg of the ostrich is to be regarded as a jointed lever, having four
joints, the hip, the knee, the heel, and the metatarsal jomts. As the animal
springs from foot to foot, the whole limb on reaching the ground is bent as far as
possible at each of these articulations; and, as the spring is made, the muscles
proper to each joint increase the angle made by the bones uniting at the joint,
so that the effect of the whole is to unbend the limb, and give it a maximum of
extension at the moment of leaving the ground. During the spring the anta-
gonist muscles again bend the joints, so that on next touching the ground it is at
its maximum of flexion, again waiting to be unbent by the muscles that open the
angles of the jot, and so on; as long as the animal runs, it is thrown alter- .
nately from each foot in contact with the ground as from a catapult, and advances
by successive leaps or springs from foot to foot.” Dr. Haughton also gives the
calculations by which he arrives at the conclusion that “the force expended in
propelling the body of the ostrich forward is ten times the force employed in
restoring the legs of the animal preparatory to its next spring.”

Supposep Composition or Nirrogen.—We have received a pamphlet by
Mr. Henry Kilgour, in which he endeavours to establish the proposition that
nitrogen is an allotropic form of carbonic oxide. He arrives at this conclusion

Notes and Memoranda. 321

from some similarity of properties, from identity of atomic weights and combining
volumes, and from their being approximately of the same specific gravity. Such
facts as Mr. Kilgour adduces are well worth consideration ; but they do no more
than raise a presumption, to be confuted or confirmed by other considerations.

RESUSCITATION OF SNaILs.— Cosmos states that M. le Baron Aucapitaine has
recently informed the Société de Climatologie Algerienne, that in 1858 he gathered
specimens of Helix lactea apparently dead, and lying on the route between
Touggourt and El Oued, exposed to a temperature of 50° to 55° C., or 122° to 131°
F. It was said that no rain had fallen in this district for five years. In 1862
the baron discovered some of the snails at the bottom of a box, in a paper bag
which had contained tobacco, and which was buried amongst books. He threw
the snails into water, intending to clean them and present them to Commandant
Lache, and was much surprised at finding them alive the next morning.

Aquzovs Soxnurion or AnrniIne Conours.—M. Gauthier de Claurry has a
paper in Comptes Rendus on the substitution of other substances for alcohol in
the solution of dyes obtained from aniline and its congeners. He finds that
gums, mucilages, soaps, especially almond, starches, including those from seaweed
and lichens, particularly fucus crispus, glycerine, gelatine, etc., impart to water
the property of dissolving these colours. The most advantageous substances are
decoctions of the root of an Heyptian soapwort (Gypsophila strutiwm), or of a
bark known in commerce as Panaina (Quillaia saponaria).

PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA.—The Minister of Marine has transmitted
tothe French Academy a report from the commander of the “ Augustin,” which
left Marseilles on the 7th March, 1864, for Pondicherry, and returned to the
former place on Feb. 14, 1865, He says that on Ist Jan., 1865, being from
13° 30’ N. lat. and 30° 50’* W. long., to 17° 20’ N. lat., 33° 20’ W. long., a dis-
tance of about 275 miles, the sea was so phosphorescent that at night he could
not distinguish the horizon. The light was bright blue, but in daytime the sea
looked yellowish. The water contained a great number of little white threads,
4 or 5 millimetres long (about 15 to 19 hundredths of an inch), which assumed.
an ovoid form, after remaining for some hours in a glass, 3 millimetres long, and
half a millimetre thick, “in the midst of which a ring was formed, which dimi-
nished their thickness by half.” Gradually these objects soldered themselves
together in groups of 12 to 15, “making a kind of worm” of a bright grey tint.
Some hours later a yellow spot and some bright orange spots were seen at the
ring, and the creatures then looked like some he had seen at various places, and
particularly at St. Helena, and which were known as frai de poisson, or frai de
baleine.

NaTURE oF YEast.—M. Hoffmann, of Giessen, has sent a paper to the
French Academy on this subject. He says that wort, after a sufficiently prolonged
ebullition, neither ferments or gives rise to any organisms by mere contact with
air, provided no atmospheric dust is admitted. Beer yeast gives rise to the Peni-
cillium glaucum, or blue mould, while baker’s yeast, from brandy distilleries,
either produces that plant alone, or the Mucor racemosus in conjunction with it.
By sowing the spores of these plants in sugar solution, he obtains a fresh crop of
yeast.

Tur PENGUIN AT THE ZooLogicaL GaRDENS.—This bird is a most inte<
resting addition to the collection of the Zoological Society. Its colours are much
handsomer than are shown in stuffed specimens, and its attitude and upright
mode of walking, or rather waddling, are remarkably grotesque. Although in its
natural condition it passes a great portion of its life in the water, it manifests no
disposition to swim in the little pond provided for it, but much enjoys a shower=
bath, frequently administered with a garden syringe, terminating in a fine rose. It
is very tame and good-natured. The wings are reduced to mere flappers, covered
with extremely short, close-set feathers, and the pupil of the eye is often seen
contracted to a minute spot. It feeds freely upon fish, taking several meals a-day,
judiciously regulated as to quantity.

EXPERIMENTAL PROOF OF THE IDENTITY OF HEAT AND Liaut.—Whatever
conviction may have been entertained hitherto a3 to heat and light being merely

* According to French reckoning, our first meridian at Greenwich is+- 0h. {m, 21s,

322 Notes and Memoranda.

modifications of the same thing, itcould scarcely be considered as demonstrable
by experiment. Professor Tyndall has, however, now succeeded in doing this.
He was led to the important results he has attained by the discovery, a few years
since, of a medium perfectly pervious to radiant heat, but at the same time per-
fectly opaque to light. To effect the change of heat into light he obtains a cone
of convergent rays by concentrating the rays of the electric light with a small
mirror, and then intercepts all those which are luminous by an opaque solution of
iodine in bisulphide of carbon, which allows all the calorific rays to pass on to a
focus. The latter, even in a darkened room, is completely invisible; but any
combustible substance placed within it is immediately inflamed, as described in
our number for March, p. 161. If this combustible is zinc, or magnesium, for
example, the light produced is intensely brilliant. To render it impossible that
its luminous character should be due to the process of combustion, platinum was
thus heated in vacuo, and the light emitted produced a perfect spectrum. The
invisible picture of the charcoal points, so to speak, was changed into a visible by
decreasing the refrangibility of the rays—that is, by transformation of the heat
into light ; and every change made in the position of these points was distinctly
perceptible on the platinum. This may be looked upon as the completion of
what was begun thirteen years ago by Professor Stokes. The latter rendered the
ultra-violet rays visible by diminishing their refrangibility ; Professor Tyndall
has rendered the invisible rays belonging to the opposite extremity of the
spectrum visible by increasing theirs. A similar proof of the identity of light
and heat was, indeed, suggested by Aikin at the meeting of the British Associa-
tion in 1863; but he proposed to use sun light, and has not as yet been suc-
cessful, though he employs a mirror three feet in diameter. Professor Tyndall,
by using the electric light, attained his object, and with the use of a mirror only
four inches in diameter.

Tur MicroscoPpE AND SPECTROSCOPE CoMBINED.—Mr. Sorby places a small
prism beneath an achromatic condenser, and allows light to fall upon it through a
slit placed at a certain distance in front of a lamp. LExceedingly dilute solutions
of blood and certain other substances being interposed, produce the dark
bands discovered by Professor Stokes, and when the spectrum is viewed through
the microscope, with a low power, they are readily seen. Mr. Browning has
carried out Mr. Sorby’s idea ina very neat and convenient way; but we doubt
whether the intervention of a microscope will prove to be the most advantageous
mode of viewing very delicate absorption bands. We made some experiments at
Mr. Browning’s, which suggest the correctness of this view. First we reduced
by further dilution a very weak solution of blood in water, until the absorptive
action on the prismatic spectrum was very faintly seen under the microscope. The
solution was then examined by a large and fine single prism spectroscope, having
considerable dispersion, and no absorption band could be seen. Mr. Browning at
once suggested the true cause, viz., too much dispersion. A smaller spectroscope,
with less dispersive power, was then tried, and the absorptive action at once became
visible. It is evident that while the separation of closely adjacent lines in spectra
can only be affected by considerable dispersion, a large amount of that kind of
action thins out, and renders invisible, very delicate absorption bands. A spec-
troscope to show such bands should have such an angle as to produce little dis-
persion, and the spectrum should be viewed with slight magnification, or with
none at all.

Licut STREAKS IN THE Cristaw SEa.—Mr. Slack states that on the 2nd of
April, in the evening, when the moon was about 6 days 14 hours old, the
Crisian Sea presented an unusual appearance, being striped with delicate bands of
light radiating from the vicinity of a small mountain near Picard. Several ight
spots were also noticed in parts of the same sea, which are usually dark. Mr.
Slack inquires whether other observers noticed these appearances.

THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER.

JUNE, 1865.

EGYPTIAN VILLAGE LIFE.
BY F. W. FAIRHOLT, F.S.A._

(With a Coloured Plate.)

Persons who only know the Hast through the glowing pages
of the poet and romancist, and who consequently believe it to
be entirely composed of sunshine, birds, flowers, palm-trees,
and poetry, would be greatly surprised, on taking the prosaic
view of the realities of life, that would be forced upon their
notice wherever they went as travellers. Crabbe has for ever
destroyed the romance of English village life by his stern and
truthful pictures of its privations; but that of Egypt may be
said to resemble the worst phases our own would exhibit de-
prived of a poor-law, or the least honest government.

Few persons look beyond the surface of things, and very
many travellers delight in dressing up their narratives accord-
ing to their own notions, taking only such facts as please them-
selves, or prop their preconceived theories, and persistently
ignoring all others. In this way we obtain delightful books,
utterly untrue. Hqually blameable are others, belonging to-
the school of detraction, who have eyes only for evil. In both.
instances there is truth as a foundation for all; but bane and.
antidote are not together, hence the two travellers can scarcely
be believed as describing the same thing. While drifting
down the Nile, the author endeavoured to embody these two
styles of narrative, as ‘a written picture” of a village he had
just visited, and in the hope of amusing the reader they are
here transcribed :—

AN EVENING IN EGYPT.—(Couwlewr-de-rose.)

The evening closed in, and our excellent captain prepared
to make all snug for the night in a charming spot, near a
village sheltered by groves of date-palms. Here the playful
eddies of the ever-flowing Nile had formed a small bay, in
VOL. VII.—NO, V. Y

ee
Sa ee eee

324 Figyptian Village Life.

which our vessel rested peacefully. The high bank, broken
. into picturesque form by the fall of the rich earth of which it
was composed, testified its priceless agricultural value; it was
diversified by groups of villagers, who had come forth to greet
with smiles the boat of the stranger from afar. Their figures
were grand in their simplicity ; their slight clothing had never
impeded the free action of every limb; its coarse texture gave
breadth and boldness to every fold as the parting gleams of
sunlight fell full upon them. Young mothers modestly sat by
the doors of their picturesque mud-cabins, shrouding their
features with a native grace from the glance of the male
stranger, but unable to hide the clear and lustrous eye that
sparkled beneath the blue head-dress, and beamed with fond-
ness on the infant nestling in the folds of her ample robe, for
no clothing impeded the free movements of these children of
nature. ‘Thus were nurtured the muscular men who stood by
them, and such had been the healthy and venerable patriarchs
who sat and smoked their evening pipes im the shadow of their
native village. From the humble roofs of many cabms a
graceful curl of silvery smoke told of the frugal meal preparing
at the close of day. The sun was setting amid gorgeous hues,
and a light wind playing coquettishly with the tall and graceful
palm-trees, waved them grandly in the air, as if bidding fare- —
well to the sun, as he sank behind the western hills, and gilded

with his parting rays the solemn desert beyond.

THE sAME.—(Cowlewr-de-jawne.)

Night was approaching, and the captain of our boat, whose
obstinacy gave us frequent reason for just complamt, anchored
the vessel in the very centre of a dirty village, a position to be
carefully avoided by all travellers on the Nile. The current
chad washed a semicircular hole in the side of a steep
‘bank, and under pretence of its shelter we were doomed to
‘pass the night in a sort of mud puddle, where all the filthy
‘rags of the dirty people were washed, when ablution became a
‘necessity with them. A steep, broken bank of mud was all
‘that met the eye, on the summit of which crouched many of
the half-civilized inhabitants of the place, dressed in rags that
neither served for warmth or concealment. Wretched. women
crouched at. their doors, pretentiously hiding faces that are
squalid when young, and hideous when old; miserable naked
children nestled in their ragged robes; muscular men, of
sinister aspect, showed the effect of this early nurture; and
dirty elders, in whom age ceased to be venerable, sat in heaps
of congenial dirt, tellmg unpleasant truths to the observant of
what the romantic call “ pastoral simplicity.” A dense smoke

Egyptian Village Life. 325

ascended from the cabins, casting out an intolerable stench,
the fuel being cakes of dried camel’s dung, and added to the
abominations accumulated in every corner, as if traps for pesti-
lence had been purposely set by this degraded race. The sun
set behind with a lurid glare, as if in anger, and the palm-trees
waved like the feathers of a hearse over departed greatness, as _
the wind sighed hot and heavy amid their branches, and told au
of suffocating aridity in the bordering desert. .

It must be in a better spirit that we look upon the Egyp- —
tian villager. To invest his position with “ the poetry of the
East ” would be an absurd falsity, to dwell entirely on his dis-
comfort would be to complete a picture of wrong and hopeless
misery. The evil of many taskmasters and irresponsible tyrants
infesting every place of government, from lowest to highest, |
make his life one long struggle against evil influences, and
teach him craft and dishonesty as weapons of self-defence.
The chief man, or Sheikh, of a village, curries favour with the
local governor’of his district by aiding his extortion, or sup-
porting his tyranny. An appeal to a legal tribunal is useless
without a bribe to the judge; and should an opponent’s bribe
be heaviest, he wms as a matter of course. The Pasha of
Higypt himself is considered fair game for plunder by every
local pasha beneath him; nor is this to be wondered at, when
he is broadly accused of seizing, at his own will and pleasure,
land and other property, on any pretence. To covet his neigh-
bour’s goods is but the preliminary step to taking them, accord-
ing to the current report of his people, sometimes under the
colourable pretext of purchase or exchange. But such pretexts
deceive nobody, and go for nothing in the estimation of those
most immediately concerned in them, who hess listen to such
transparent fallacies.

The effect of such an evil system is everywhere visible in
Egypt. Ina land so wondrously blest by nature, whose soil is
the very perfection of fertility, the Huropean cannot but feel
how different its people would become under just laws, and a
government they could trust in, for due justice, or common
honesty. The germ of the glory and power of ancient Hgypt
lies still im its soil, dormant for many ages, butnot dead. The
people are energetic, nay, anxious to improve; the greed of
gain is as strong with them as with any people, but their
powers are restrained by their poverty, and they are still more
crippled by the rapacity of dishonest governors. Why should
they work, against nature, in a climate where rest is felicity,
where nature requires very little, and where industry is rewarded
by plundering it of its gains?

Wondrous is the soil of this grand old country:; scratch but

326 Egyptian Village Life.

its surface and the seed will grow. Nature’s bounty is in no

part of the world more visible than in the valley of the Nile.
A narrow strip of land on each side the river is bounded by the
arid desert, where nothing but the Bedouin can live. Where
the river overflows, and the mud settles, there vegetation
thrives ; and so clearly is the line marked that it is possible for
a man to place one foot on the rich and fertile soil, and the

other on the hot desert sand.

The plough used by the peasantry is a pointed beam of
wood, just dragged through the surface soil, deep enough to
give a bed to.the grain. The wildest weeds, with us, do not
grow more luxuriantly than the corn, the lentil, and the
tobacco-plant does with them. Everywhere nature laughs,
while man sighs over governmental maladministration.

The farmer suffers from extortionate tax-collectors, or
thieving pashas; the fellah, or husbandmen, and the poor
peasant, have deeper griefs; they are liable to be torn from
their homes at any hour, by conscription, for the army, and a
happy and prospering family may be suddenly reduced to beg-
gary and want by the loss of its necessary master. Cruel are
the consequences this has brought about ; poor women, with the
feeling that their weakness must make a strength out of their
necessities, have endeavoured to nullify a fate that hangs over
their offspring, and have not scrupled to put out one eye of an
infant, or cut away the joint from its forefinger, to prevent the
dreaded conscription in after life. This, and ophthalmia, have
made more one-eyed men in Egypt than could be found in the

Same space in any other part of the globe. A fair average of

the number of men maimed in the right hand may be gained —
by reckoning only such as formed the crew of the boat in
which the author travelled—it was six out of fourteen, but the
others not exempt in this way had but one eye, or had lost the
front teeth, of which they had been deprived to hinder them

from being able to bite cartridges.

The peasant is also lable to a conscription for labouring
purposes, ordered by the local government. He may be taken
from the necessary labour of his field or farm to construct
dykes, or other works thought necessary. For this he has no
pay, andis very hardly worked. When the late Pasha deter-
mined on the formation of the Mahmoudie canal, connecting
Cairo with the Nile, he formed it by this forced labour. Poor
men were torn from their homes, compelled to dig the basin of
the canal with any tools they had; the government helped
them in no way, not so much as a spade was given to any
one, no food provided for them, and no pay. With frantic
desperation, the starving creatures scratched at the earth
with their fingers, and died by thousands in the trenches.

Lgyptian Village Lnfe. BEY

. The world’s history can scarcely parallel that of the Mahmoudie
‘canal.

Let us turn to the brighter side, happily it is there in spite
of “man’s cruelty to: man.” Affection is the poor man’s
wealth, the love that can be so strong as to induce an Egyptian
mother to maim her child that she may keep him near her, is
above all evil governmental influence. Easily made happy in
a, climate where existence is a pleasure, having few wants to be
satisfied, with an eager desire to convert the simplest good into
a great benefit, a child-like enjoyment is felt, even by the aged,
who have had so much cruel worldly experience. This it is
that surprises the Huropean, and the Englishman especially,
who delights so thoroughly in depreciating “‘ the good the
gods provide him.” ‘The faces of these poor people lit up by
the gift of a loaf of bread, an orange, or afew halfpence, may
furnish a useful lesson to some of the London sybarites who
now travel on the Nile.

The cottages are constructed of clay, or built of clay bricks,
dried in the sun, and which, in this dry climate, will last for
centuries. The mud of the Nile is a very tenacious slime, and
the deposit laid every year by the overflow of the river, bakes
into thin layers under the hot sun, so that the age of the banks

‘may be reckoned as you may count the age of a tree by the
examination of the succeeding layers of bark. The houses are
comfortless hovels, devoid of ail furniture but that required for
cooking. The larger houses have their upper rooms furnished
with raised divans, or seats of palm-branch, upon which carpets
are spread. Windows are small, for ight brings heat, which
is to be especially guarded against. ‘The roof of the house is
the place where in the evening the family delight to congregate,
and often sleep during the night. Some of these houses are
made especially gay by rude painting, as shown in the engray-
‘ing which accompanies this paper. ‘The style of this decoration
is evidently traditional, remaining with the people from the
most ancient time. It resembles portions of the wall-painting
at Beni-Hassan, and other places, where we see the most
primitive forms. The houses thus especially decorated are
those of such persons as have performed the pilgrimage to
Mecca. When a hadji returns, his neighbours help in orna-
menting the surface of his dwelling with red, white, and blue
washes, in patterns bounded by broad black outlines. The
beam over the door has its wooden surface painted still more
delicately, but in the same taste, and a circular ornament is
usually painted above ; sometimes this ornament is a Moorish
tile in vitrified tints, but the author was once surprised at
finding a plate of the famed old English “ wallow pattern ”
inserted over a ae

328 Egyptian Village Life.

Two distinctive features obtrude themselves on the stranger’s
notice in an Egyptian village. One consists of the groups of
- savage wolf-dogs who combine to attack them, but who are
equally troublesome to the native who approaches a strange
house. The other is the vast flocks of pigeons, whose homes
are often in the upper floors of the houses, built high in conse-
quence, with square turrets that give a simple village the look
of a fortification. The birds fly far, and forage all day,
returning to their houses at sunset in such incredible numbers
that it seems wonderful how a farmer can rear a crop subject to
their depredations only, yet he has also to feed the wild birds,
who are equally abundant. The valley of the Nile literally
teems with ornithological life. Like the showman’s lions, it
“must be seen to be believed.”

What will be the future of this prolific Egypt? After
many centuries of neglect and decay, will it agai arise, and
assert its undoubted right to eminence? Is all this native
fertility to go for nothing ima world of enterprise? is Monsieur
Lesseps and his problematical canal to be the end of western
pressure ? or is France to point the way to Egyptian emancipa-
tion. Already England has made a railroad to Cairo, and
conquered the difficulties of the desert route to the Red Sea.
We have forced upon the people a knowledge of the mode of
making wealth. Our demand for cotton has met with a ready
response, the railway is besieged with camels heavily laden
therewith; on the banks of the Nile, cotton and sugar mills
everywhere appear. ‘The people are willing, if the government
‘can give a guarantee of its good faith; everything depends
on that. With Huropean rule, and honest taxation, all would go
well; the Nile would agai flow through a superabundant
garden, inhabited by a prosperous and happy people. When
will “the sick man”’ die, and who is to take his place? Upon
-the solution of that question depends the greatness of the
future.

North Polar Exploration. 329

NORTH POLAR EXPLORATION.
BY CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM.

Voyaczs of discovery have been, since the dawn of modern

times, one of the chief causes of the rise of Hngland’s

power and greatness. The material wealth .which they have

been the means of pouring into her lap is incalculable. For

this alone they will ever be a leading feature in the history of

a mighty commercial nation; for this alone they have been

fitted out by many a merchant adventurer; and for this they
have been incessantly urged upon the attention of many

successive Governments. But it is not on account of the
commercial advantages that have been derived from the

labours of the explorer that those labours are to be most:
prized, seeing that it is not to wealth alone that England owes.

her greatness. Hxplormg expeditions by sea and land have
done as much to increase the store of human knowledge as.
any other kind of research. They have led the way to the
creation of that colonial empire, which has spread the Anglo-

Saxon dominion far and wide over the earth. They have
fostered the spirit of enterprise, and formed a nursery for the

pick of our seamen. They have been a school for our best:

officers, educating them in that calm self-reliance which the

presence of danger alone can give. They have been most

important agents of civilization, creating a brotherly feeling of
sympathy between the nations in times of peace, and giving

one bright side even to the horrors of war, for, by the courtesy

of international law, a scientific expedition is respected by all
civilized nations.

Seeing, then, that expeditions of discovery have helped so
largely to make England what she is, it is no less a matter of
surprise than of regret that any proposal to continue them,
and to complete work which it is the glory of this country to
have commenced, should meet with unreasoning opposition
from any influential quarter. Surely it cannot be desirable
to close the brightest page of our history for ever, for the
purpose of saving a little money, or in order not to risk the
lives of men whose value to their country arises from the
education they acquire by that very process. The grand say-
ing of good Sir Humphrey Gilbert, when advocating an expe-
dition to the Arctic regions, can. never be too often repeated :—
“ He is not worthy to live at all, who, for fear or danger of
death, shunneth his country’s service or his own honour,
since death is inevitable, and the fame of virtue immortal.”

Let it once be shown that an expedition of discovery will

330 North Polar Exploration.

add to the sum of human knowledge, that it will lead to
valuable scientific results, and that there is no chance of the men
who compose it being overtaken by a catastrophe such as that
which befel Sir John Franklin’s people, and it ought to receive
cordial support from public opinion. The collateral advantages
that are derived from such expeditions in times of peace are
so great that they will be felt by every thinking man. All
men may not fully appreciate the value of scientific researches,
but no true Englishman can under-estimate the importance of
fostering the spirit of enterprise in his countrymen, or fail
to desire that-the race of men, from Cabot to M‘Clinntock,
which has been formed by expeditions of discovery, should be
continued.

What would the glorious reign of Hlizabeth be if the
stories of Raleigh and Drake, of Frobisher and Fenton, of
Richard Hawkins and Grenville, and Gilbert were blotted out ?
The very name of James I. would fill us with shame, if those of
Hudson, Davis, and Baffin were not written im the same page
of history. Hven the disgrace of having been ruled by his
grandsons is slightly mitigated when we find them sending
Captain Wood to seek for the North Pole. The readiness
with which the statesmen of the last century complied with
the suggestions of the Royal Society to send out exploring
expeditions wipes away a multitude of sins, and we may
condone many acts of misgovernment in consideration of the
voyages of Carteret, Byron, Cook, Phipps, and Vancouver.
It must never be forgotten that Nelson received no unim-
portant part of his naval education in the Arctic regions; and
that, in the present century, the surveyors and explorers of our
navy have been among its brightest ornaments.

The naval enterprise of Great Britain has assuredly been
one of the chief sources of her greatness, and it is for the
advantage of the country that the spirit which gives rise to it
should be fostered and encouraged. Never has this spirit been
so systematically ignored, in any period of our history, as at
the present moment. Not only is there no exploring expedi-
tion engaged in any part of the world, but the most
necessary surveys have been starved and neglected. The
important proposal to explore the North Polar region, which
has recently been made by Captain Sherard Osborn, therefore,
‘comes before us at the very time when its discussion is likely
to produce much good, and it certainly deserves most serious
and attentive consideration.

I propose, after giving a very brief sketch of the history
of the subject, to examine the question whether Captain
Osborn’s proposal combines those conditions which would
justify its favourable consideration by the Government—

North Polar Hzploration. 331

namely, sufficiently important results, and the absencé of any
chance of such a disaster as overwhelmed the Franklin expe-
dition. The great advantages that are invariably derived from
enterprises of this nature, mdependently of their more obvious
_ results, have already been pointed out.

It has been the ambition of British explorers to reach the
North Pole ever since “ Master Robert Thorn exhorted King
Henry VIII., with very weighty and substantial reasons, to
set forth a discovery” for that purpose; and as knowledge
has accumulated, these reasons have become more weighty
and more substantial. Bluff King Hal did not haggle at the
expense, nor did he discourage the spirit of enterprise among
his sailors. He did the right thing, cordially acceded to the
proposal, and sent “ two faire ships well manned and vic-
tualled, having in them divers cunning men to seek strange
regions.* Subsequent voyages to the northern seas in the
Tudor age, opened a profitable trade with the then scarcely
known duchy of Muscovy; but the most notable expedition of
the sixteenth century was that which was led by gallant
William Barenton, and his stout crew of Dutchmen. He
discovered Spitzbergen in 1596, rounded the northern extreme
of Nova Zembla, and performed one of the most remarkable
Arctic voyages on record.

In England the merchants of the Muscovy Company were
the great promoters of voyages towards the Pole, and as the
introducers of the system of keeping log-books, they ensured
the preservation of a record of the results of those voyages.t
In 1607 ‘they sent bold Henry Hudson, in an eighty-ton
vessel, with ten men and a boy, to sail across the North Pole.
He discovered the point.on the coast of Greenland which
still bears his name of “‘ Hold with Hope,” traced the ice
barrier extending right across from Greenland to Spitzbergen
in June; and the name of Hakluyt Head, the extreme
N.W. point of Spitzbergen, was also given by Hudson.
‘Having thus satisfied himself of the impossibility of pene-
trating through the Polar pack to the westward of Spitz-
bergen, this intrepid explorer next sailed up to its northern
end, and examined the condition of the ice in that direction
during the month of July. He attained a latitude of 80° 23’;
and having ascertained that the pack was as impenetrable
in the end of July as it was in June, he returned to
England. In 1608 Hudson again sailed with the intention
of attempting to effect a passage between Spitzbergen and
Nova Zembla, and thus completing the examination of

* Hakluyt, iii, p. 129.
+ Sebastian Cabot, in his instructions to Willoughby and Chancellor, was the
real originator of the ‘log: book. |

302 North Polar Hzxploration.

this, the widest opening into the Polar region. He had
with him a crew of fourteen men. On the 9th of June he
came to the edge of the pack, in latitude 75° 29’ N., and
gallantly attempted to push through it, “loosmg for one
piece, and bearmg roome for another.” But he soon disco-
vered that this sailing ice only existed at the outer edge, and
in four hours he found the pack to be so thick and firm
ahead, as to present an impenetrable barrier. He therefore
began to coast along the pack edge, with the ice always
“* trending on his larboard” from the 9th until the 26th, when
he sighted the coast of Nova Zembla.* During this voyage
Hudson discovered the Gulf-stream flowmg northwards, with
divers pieces of drift wood floating on it. This intrepid
seaman had now completed the examination of the space
between Greenland and Nova Zembla, in two very small
yachts; and he had ascertained beyond a doubt, by careful
inspection, that an impenetrable barrier of ice stretched alone
the whole distance, barring the passage to the Pole. He
found that on the Greenland coast this barrier came down as
low as 75°, that it thence trended to tHe N.E., until in the
meridian of Spitzbergen its outer edge was north of 80°; and
that further east it extended south again to about 75°, and
stretched away to the coast of Nova Zembla. Thus, “ by the
means of the great plenty of ice, the hope of passage between
Newland (Spitzbergen) and Nova Zembla was taken away.”
In 1611, Jonas Poole, and in 1614-15, Baffin and Fotherby,
made similar unsuccessful attempts in the direction of Spitz-
bergen, and in 1676, the Admiralty of Charles II. sent Cap-
tain Wood to attempt a passage to the North Pole, but he lost
his ship on the Nova Zembla coast. This important and in-
teresting subject was then lost sight of m England for nearly
a century, from the time of Wood (1676) to that of Phipps
(1774). It was quite clear that for Hudson’s cock-boat, and
such like craft, the portals of the unknown region were firmly
closed. It remains to be seen whether a sharp-bowed screw-
steamer will be able to force them open.
The Spitzbergen Seas, however, were a favourite Dutch and
English whaling station during the whole of that time, and
vessels frequently reached a latitude of 80°, and sometimes of

* On the 15th of June two of his company, named Thomas Hilles and Robert
Rayner, saw a mermaid close to the ship’s side, and looking earnestly upon
them ; but a little after, a sea came and overturned her. From the navel upwards
her back and breasts were like a woman’ s, her body as big as one of us, her skin
very white, and long hair hanging down behind, of colour black. In her going
down they saw her tail, which was like the tail ‘ofa porpoise, and speckled like a
mackerel. Hudson's editor suggests that this was a seal, and adds the testimony
of Dr. Kane, that there is something in the appearance ‘and movements ot this
animal strongly akin to those of human beings.

North Polar Exploration. 330

81° or 82°, or even 83°,* as the position of the Polar pack
varied in the different seasons. When the idea of an expedi-
tion to the North Pole was again mooted in the dast century,
Mr. Daines Barrington, a Fellow of the Royal Society, with
great industry and perseverance, collected a number of stories
of whalers having frequently attained incredibly high latitudes,
and as these fables have since been brought forward as argu-
ments in. favour of a Spitzbergen route to the Pole, it will be
as well to examine what they are really worth.

The most marvellous of all is that told by Master Joseph
Moxon, hydrographer to the King’s most excellent Majesty,
in 1697. He got most outrageously chaffed by some merry
Dutch sailors in a beer-shop at Amsterdam, and gravely pub-
lished what he had been told,+ expecting every “sober, mgeni-
ous man’ to believe it. Scoresby has pomted out that the
instances of voyages having been performed beyond 84°, are
In no case given from the direct communications of the
voyagers themselves, and he therefore infers that no reliance
whatever is to be placed upon these extraordinary instances. f
Moreover, he finds that nearly all the cases of ships having
sailed as far as 82° and 83°, were either given from memory,
at a distance of eighteen to thirty years from the time when
the alleged voyages were made, or at second-hand. But the
strongest proof of the small reliance to be placed on the
observations of these whaling captains is to be found in the
statements of Captains Robinson, Clarke, and Bateson, who
declared they reached 81° 16’, 81° 30’, and 82° 15’, with open
water before them, in the very year, and in the same longitude
that Captain Phipps was stopped in 80° 48’ N., by a continued
smooth, unbroken plain of ice extending to the horizon.

* Parry thought that a vessel might have reached to 83° N. in 1827.

t A Brief Discourse of a Passage by the North Pole to Japan and China.
By Joseph Moxon, F.R.S., Hydrographer to the King’s most excellent Majesty
(2nd edition). London, printed by J. Moxon, and sold at his shop at the Atlas
in Warwick Lane, 1697.

He says, “‘ About 22 years ago, being in Amsterdam, I went into a drinking
house to drink a cup of beer for my thirst, and sitting by the public fire among
several people, there happened a seaman to come ‘in, who, seeing a friend of his
there who he knew went in the Greenland voyage, wondered to see him, because it
was not yet time for the Greenland fleet to come home. His friend, who was a
steersman, said that his ship sailed into the North Pole and came back again. I
entered into discourse with him, and he did assure me it was true; and told me,
moreover, that they sailed two degrees beyond the Pole. I asked him if he found
no islands or lands about the Pole, and he told me no, there was a free and open
sea. I asked him if they did not meet with a great deal of ice. He told me no,
they saw no ice. I asked him what weather they had there. He told me fine
warm weather, such as was at Amsterdam in the summer time, and as hot. I
should have asked him more questions, but he was engaged in discourse with his
friend, and I could not in modesty interrupt them further. T believe he spoke
truth, "for he seemed a plain, honest, and unaffectatious panos”

fom "Scoresby’ s Arctic Regions, i. p. 42.

‘

3034 North Polar Exploration.

When Mr. Barrington asked the Dutch skippers themselves,
he got the simple truth from them ; they said, ‘‘ We can seldom
proceed much higher than 804°, but almost always to that lati-
tude.”* Captain Jansen, of the Dutch Navy, also says, ‘<I do
not think our Polar navigators have been further north than
82°.”+ There is not, in reality, a shadow of evidence that any
vessel has ever passed through the Polar pack, and the latitudes
attained by whalers have depended on the position of this
pack in the different seasons. If it has drifted south late in
the year, they have been able to go further north, and Captain
Scoresby certainly, in 1806, reached 81° 30’, and found the
navigation quite open for many leagues to the H.N.H. If, on
the contrary, it has come down early, then they have been
stopped in lower latitudes. So much for the whaling fables.

Attempts to reach the Pole were first renewed by the
Russian Government, and Vassili Tschitschagoff, in two suc-
cessive expeditions (1765 and 1766), perseveringly, but vainly
attempted to find a way through the ice between Spitzbergen
and Greenland. He only reached 80° 30’ N. At that period
the President and Council of the Royal Society of England
were ever foremost in urging the Government to under-
take scientific expeditions. Would that their successors of the
present day more closely followed their noble example. In
1773, a memorial was addressed by the Royal Society to the
King, to obtain his sanction for an expedition to see how far
navigation was practicable towards the North Pole.t Two
vessels were forthwith fitted out and despatched, under the
command of Captain Phipps, who had orders to proceed as
near the North Pole as the ice would permit, but to return
before the winter should set in. He made the attempt be-

* The Commissioners of Longitude, in 1821, reported that there was no well-
_anthenticated account of any vessel having gone so far as 81° N. -

_ + Captain Jansen (the learned author of that charming chapter on land and
sea breezes in Maury’s Physical Geography of the Sea) has undertaken to investi-
gate this subject, and to examine such ancient journals of Dutch explorers as are
still extant in Holland. He tells me that the learned Pontanus, in 1646, said in a
speech :—“ There are some persons who think the best route to the East is to go
to 82° N. of Nova Zembla, or thereabout, because there the days and summers are
longer, there is not so much ice, and it does not drift from the shore. Also because
the climate is more mild than in 76° and lower down. Although I am convinced
that this opinion is true, and that there will be no difficulty in navigating the sea
when once in 82°, yet the difficulty is to come there and return.” With this
learned conviction for his starting-point, Captain Jansen will search for the data.
whence Pontanus derived his knowledge.

t By the Act 16 Geo. III. cap. 6, Parliament offered a reward of £5000 to
the person who should first sail beyond 89° N. A new Act on the same subject
was passed in 1814 (58 Geo. III. cap. 20). To the first ship that should sail to
83° N., £1000 was granted; to 85°, £2000; to 87°, £3000; to 88°, £4000; and
to 89°, £5000. Iam glad to see that, in the recent Acts of Parliament sweeping
away a great number of Statutes (24 and 25 Victoria, cap. 101} and 25 and 26
Victoria, cap. 125), these rewards for Polar discovery have not been repealed. _

North Polar Exploration. — 339

tween Spitzbergen and Greenland, but was stopped, like
Hudson, and so many others before him, by the Polar pack.
He examined the pack edge very carefully, from longitude 2°
to 20° H., but never got beyond 80° 48’ N. ‘The expedition
of Captain Buchan, in 1818, made the attempt in the same
direction, but never got farther north than 80° 34’ N. This
expedition, however, made a more extensive examination of
the pack edge than the preceding one, having traced it from
longitude 10° to 40°, both in the months of June and Septem-
ber, without finding a single lane or opening by which to
enter it. Then followed a Russian expedition in 1824, when
Admiral Luthe traced the edge of the ice, between Spitz-
bergen and Nova Zembla, from longitude 62° to 44° H., but
he never got further north than 77°.*

These unsuccessful endeavours to find a passage for vessels
through the Polar pack between Greenland and Nova Zembla,
led Sir Edward Parry to conceive the bold idea of travelling
over the ice in sledges and boats during the summer, and thus
reaching the Pole.t His scheme was approved by the Ad-
miralty of that day. He sailed in April, 1827, and leaving his
vessel in Hecla Cove (lat. 79° 57 N.), in Spitzbergen, he set
off in two boats, with four sledges, and seventy-one days’ pro-
visions, on June 21st, goimg due north. He was stopped by
the ice in latitude 81° 12’ 51” N., and commenced the labori-
ous work of dragging the boats over it on the 23rd.t But he
had started too late in the season, the pack was much broken
up and intersected with lanes of water, and it was drifting
rapidly to the southward. After travelling over 192 miles
of ice, Parry had only reached a latitude of 82° 45’ N. on
July 27th, when he determined to cease his fruitless labours
and return. From his extreme northern point a strong
ice blink always overspread the northern horizon. Parry
certainly met with an unusually open season, and the quan-
tity of ram which fell and rapidly rotted the ice, is proved
by the observations of Scoresby, during several years in the
same region, to be quite exceptional. He returned to the ship
after an absence of forty-eight days, having travelled over
569 miles. The failure of Parry was due to his having

* To complete the story of these vain attempts to penetrate through the Polar
pack between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, it must be mentioned that a Russian
expedition, commanded by Lieutenant Wrangel, started in 1863. That officer
lost both his vessels in the ice off Nova Zembla, and escaped in his boats.

+ Sir John Franklin had previously drawn up a plan for making this attempt,
and yolunteered to conduct it.

{ Parry’s weight per man was 260 lbs., a weight which subsequent experience
has proved to be too great. 220 lbs. per man is the greatest weight that a party
should start with in Arctic travelling. His allowance of food per man was not
sufficiently liberal (biscuit 10 oz., pemmican 9 oz., cocoa powder 1 oz., rum 1 gill,
tobacco 3 oz. per week).

306. North Polar Exploration.

started too late m the season. There can be no doubt that
had he set out in February, when the ice is fixed, instead
of the middle of summer, he would have been far more
successful. As it is, no Huropean has ever yet reached so
high a northern latitude as Sir Edward Parry.

One more expedition requires notice, although it was in a
totally different direction. After Hudson had ascertained the
ice barrier between Greenland and Nova Zembla to be impene-
trable, that worthy old pilot Baffin, in his little vessel, the
“‘Discovery,” of fifty-five tons, made an attempt further to the
west, entered the bay which bears his name, pushed through
the middle pack in twenty-two days, and discovered the en-
trance of Smith Sound in 1616. This, and not the Polar
pack, is the true portal for future North Polar Exploration ;
but hitherto, only one expedition has attempted to explore
it. Dr. Kane, in the little schooner “ Advance,’ wintered
there, from 1853 to 1855, and one of his travelling parties,
pushing north along the Greenland coast, reached the lati-
tude of 80° 40° N., came to an open iceless sea, and saw
land trending away to the northward, as far as the eye could
reach. These Americans were undoubtedly the discoverers of.
the most northerly known land in the world. Dr. Hayes, a
companion of Dr. Kane, has since wintered in Smith Sound,
but no account of his proceedings has yet been published.

This completes the enumeration of expeditions which have
attempted to penetrate into the North Polar region. The
English Government has sent three expeditions to the edge of
the ice between Greenland and Nova Zembla, those of Wood, -
Phipps, and Buchan, during as many centuries, and Parry’s
boat journey took place in 1827. No attempt has been made
since the latter date.

Let us now consider what this vast unknown region is, and
what results may be derived from its exploration. If we look
at a North Polar chart, we shall see a blank space from 80° to
the Pole, only very slightly nibbled at its circumference by
Dr. Kane’s party, who got forty miles beyond the 80th parallel
in Smith Sound, and by Parry, who travelled over the ice inte
this unknown region for a distance of 165 miles. Here, then,
is a vast circular tract of land, and sea, and ice, which is abso-
lutely unknown, with a diameter of 1200 miles, and an area of
1,131,000 square miles.

Our complete ignorance of this large portion of our planet —
is in itself a strong reason for exploring it. Hven if men of
science were unable to specify any positive result beforehand,
it might fairly be urged that the examimation of this vast
region must inevitably increase the store of human knowledge,
and thus bear rich fruit. But, in truth, we have the highest

North Polar Hzploration. 337

scientific authority for asserting that there are many questions
of the greatest importance which call for investigation in the
North Polar region.

Foremost among them is the subject of geographical dis-
covery—the exploration of the northern side of that wonderful
glacier-bearing continent of Greenland, and the completion of
our knowledge of any other land that may exist within the un-
known area. A very noble and unmistakeably English work is
this. To use the words of one who has himself taken no small
share in such work in former days, and who is now President of
the Royal Society, “ It is the greatest geographical achievement
which can be attempted, and will be the crowning enterprise
of those Arctic researches in which our country has hitherto
had the pre-eminence.” Phenomena never yet seen by mortal
eye will be observed by the bold explorer who reaches the
Pole. He will see the sun revolving with a uniform altitude
from the day it comes north of the equator in March until it
returns in September, its altitude being equal to its declination.
He will ascertain new facts connected with terrestrial mag-
netism, and a series of valuable observations on variation and
dip over this unknown area, will be of real practical utility.

One of the greatest scientific desiderata of the age is the
accurate measurement of an arc of the meridian near the
Pole, and this object alone would justify the despatch of a
scientific expedition. By the measurement of these arcs in °
different latitudes, the length of a degree has been found to
increase in regular proportion from the equator towards the
Pole. The most northern measurement hitherto made is in
latitude 66°°20 N. No measurement has been made sufficiently
near the Pole, and it is of the utmost importance that this
should be done, in order to ascertain the shape of our planet
with scientific accuracy. It is not asubject to be touched upon
lightly, for few people are fully aware of its difficulties, and
of the extreme accuracy which is absolutely necessary in the
observations. Still it is to be done, and the western coast of
Smith Sound, between latitudes 78° and 82°, is the place to
do it.*

The science of hydrography will be advanced, and some of
its chief problems connected with equatorial and polar currents
will be solved by a Polar expedition. The Polar region may be
covered with ice, or considerable seas may be produced by the
action of these currents during the summer. General Sabine
believes it to be far from improbable that the equatorial stream
may produce abnormal effects in the far north, and be the

* On Spitzbergen, which only extends from 76° to 80°, the measurement of an
arc will not be so valuable; but it is, however, about to be undertaken by a
Swedish scientific expedition.

338 North Polar Exploration.

cause of iceless seas during the summer, teeming with animal
life. It is surely a matter of deep imterest to discover the
actual condition of this secluded ocean, which has never yet
been cut by keel of mortal ship.

But although no vessel has ever entered those silent seas,
there is every reason to believe that scattered tribes of men
will be found on their shores, even up to the Pole itself,
wherever the current keeps lanes and water-holes open during
the winter. A study of the probable origin and migrations
of the Greenland Hsquimaux enables us to trace hardy tribes
of wanderers from the northern shores of Siberia, where their
ruined yourts and stone fox-traps were seen by Wrangell,
along the whole length of the Parry Islands, which are strewn
with exactly the same traces; and thus we follow their long
wanderings, until their descendants age found at the head of
Baffin’s Bay. There the “Arctic Highlanders” at length
found a land suited for a permanent abode of human beings,
and thence parties may be supposed to have wandered south
along the coast of Greenland, and north into the unknown
Polar region, wherever there was land and open water. We
know that they must have travelled round the northern end of
Greenland, for Clavering found two families of Esquimaux on
the east coast, to the northward of Hudson’s Hold-with-Hope.
Scoresby gives instances of stone darts, such as are used by
no known people on this earth, having been found imbedded
in the blubber of captured whales. These whales had escaped
from the mysterious hunters of the Pole, only to yield up
their stores of oil to the men of Hull and Aberdeen. The
supposed inhabitants of the Polar region must depend on
open lanes and water-holes, during the winter, for their
existence, for without them there are no walrus, seals, or bears,
and therefore no fuel for melting ice. Unacquainted with the
use of metals, their implements must be exclusively of bone,
stone, or driftwood. Now the discoveries of geologists have
recently brought to light the existence of a race of people who
lived soon after the remote glacial epoch of Europe, and who
were also unacquainted with the use of metals. Their history
is that of the earliest family of man of which we yet have any
trace, while here, in the far north, there may be tribes living
under exactly similar conditions, in a glacial country and in a
stone age. A close and careful study of this race, and espe-
cially of any part of it which may be met with in hitherto
unexplored regions, therefore assumes great importance, and
forms a field of research which is well worthy of the attention
of future Polar explorers.

The grounds for supposing that human beings have
extended their wanderings towards the Pole also justify the

North Polar Hzploration. . 339

conclusion that the same region teems with animal life. It is
peculiarly important that such a region should be examined in
the interests of natural history. Not only may there be oppor-
tunities for studying the habits of animals as yet little known,
and. of discovermg the long-concealed haunts of those right
whales which have deserted Baffin’s Bay, but it is also more
than probable that new species may be found in the unknown
north. Here may be the last hiding-place of that curious
manatee (Rhytina), which was last seen by Steller in 1741, off
Behring’s Island, and which is conjectured by Professor Owen
to have been separated from its natural habitat in the Indian
Ocean, at some remote period, by the rising of the Asiatic
continent. The seas which support whales and seals must be
tenanted by myriads of fish, and of those minute organisms
which are disclosed by the dredging-machine, while the pre-
sence of walrus tells us of submarine forests of sea-weed. The
Arctic flora, too, is as yet very imperfectly known, as regards
either the land or the sea; and Dr. Kane’s expedition alone
discovered twenty-seven new species of plants. The recent
paper by Dr. Hooker, pointing out the geographical distribu--
tion of plants in the Arctic regions, suggests the light that
may be thrown upon the interesting problems connected with
it, and the incalculable value of researches into the- botany of
the unknown Polar region.*

The investigation of the geological character of the Polar
region will throw a flood of light on the world’s early history,
and will be of incalculable value to science. It must be
remembered that no professional geologist has ever been in
the Arctic regions, and that the action of the vast glaciers of
Greenland, with their mighty icebergs, has never been
examined by a trained eye. Yet it is here alone that the
condition of that remote period when all Europe was similarly
situated, can be satisfactorily studied. The formations hitherto
discovered in the Arctic regions, the tertiary lignite of Disco,
the carboniferous sandstone of Melville Island, and the Silurian
corals, trilobites, and cephalopods of other parts of the Parry
group, all indicate a much warmer climate than now exists
even in Hurope. If similar formations are met with in close
proximity to the Pole, we shall learn that there must once
have existed conditions of life and heat there which are very
different from those now prevailing. We shall receive addi-
tional proofs of that great internal heat which appears once to
have warmed the earth’s crust, and to have produced a rich
vegetation in the Arctic zone. The geologists certainly have

* See Outlines of the Distribution of Arctic Plants, by cal Hooker. Zrans-
actions of the Linnean Society, vol. xxiii., p. 251.

VOL. VII.—NO. VY. Z

340: North Polar Exploration.

excellent reasons for the interest with which they regard the’
proposal to explore these regions.

There are many strange anomalies, too, connected with the
meteorology of the North, as hitherto observed. The data
already obtained are altogether sufficient to enable men of
science to acquire a sound knowledge of the laws which
regulate the climate of the Arctic regions. Captam Osborn
has well said that nothing could be more deeply interesting
than a careful series of meteorological observations within
the Polar area.

These are some of the leading results thatwill be derived from
a scientific expedition to explore the North Polar region, and
most assuredly they would amply justify its despatch. There
are probably many more additions to our knowledge to be
secured in that vast area, of which we cannot form a con-
jecture now; but we know enough to convince all lovers of
science that there is great and important work to be done,
and that a naval expedition should do it.

It remains to consider the direction from which a Polar
expedition might be undertaken with the greatest probability
of success.

There are two accessible approaches to the Polar region,
one by the Spitzbergen Sea, between Greenland and Nova
Zembla, and the other through Smith Sound, at the head of
Baffin’s Bay. Looking round the circle formed by the 80th
parallel, we see no other suitable opening. Behring’s Strait
appears to be one, it is true, but beyond it there is the most
stupendous accumulation of ice that has ever been met with in
the Arctic regions, and the northern openings between the
Parry Islands are out of the question. The only routes, then,
are those of Spitzbergen and Smith Sound.

The Spitzbergen route was originally proposed by General
Sabine, the President of the Royal Society, who developed a
plan for attempting it, and it is recommended by four other
officers of Arctic experience, Sir Edward Belcher, Admiral
Ommanney, Captain Richards, and Captain Inglefield, and also
by Admiral Fitz-Roy. The idea appears to be that a base or
depdt should be established im Spitzbergen, whence well-found
screw steamers may do battle with the pack to the northward
for two or three years, if need be, until success is achieved.

The argument in favour of this route is founded on the
following considerations :—It is known that the Gulf-stream
flows up between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, and that it
issues south again as an Arctic current. This warm indraught
is supposed to cause a navigable ocean, free from ice during
the summer; and one theorist maintains that even in the
depth of an Arctic winter a vessel may sail without obstruction

North Polar Exploration. 341

across the North Pole. But the facts upon which the theory of
a Polar basin rests are that Wrangell met with thin and broken
ice at a distance of about twenty miles from the Siberian coast,
in February, denoting open water ; and that Anjou saw the same
water-holes off the islands of Kotelnoi and New Siberia.* When
Barents wintered in Nova Zembla, in 1596, he also saw open
water to the northward, in March, after a strong 8.H. gale;
but as soon as it began to blow from the N.W., the ice returned
from that quarter. He naturally concluded, from this move-
ment of the ice, that there must have been open water to the
north, into which the ice was blown. The Russians call these
water-holes Polymias, and they are occasionally seen in all
parts of the Arctic regions, even in the depth of winter.
They are caused by currents, and in Baffin’s Bay also by
movements of icebergs. It is obviously absurd for a man
standing on the ice, and finding open water before him, to call
it an “immeasurable ocean,” when he can only see a distance of
a few miles. An argument in favour of a warm Polar climate
has also been derived from the supposed influence of unceasing
sun-li¢ht during six months. Scoresby long ago calculated that,
at the summer solstice, the influence of the sun is greater at the
Pole than at the Equator by nearly one-fourth. But he points
out that, on the same principle, the influence of the sun at
78° N. is only ;4th less than at the Pole, and also greater than
at the Equator. + Now at 78° N., the mean temperature of
the year is 17° Fahr., and ice is formed during nine months
in the Spitzbergen seas, neither calm weather nor the proxi-
mity of land being essential to its formation. How, then, can
the temperature further north be entirely different? It may
readily be admitted that those parts of the Arctic zone where
there is much land, such as Greenland and the vicinity of the-
Magnetic Pole, are colder than portions where there is a wide
expanse of ocean; but to suppose that this difference is so.
great as to affect the existence or non-existence of ice is.
wholly inadmissible, even if the Polar pack did not yield a
tangible proof that ice 7s formed round the Pole. Scoresby, by
a careful calculation, finds the probable mean annual tempera-.
ture of the Pole to be + 10° Fahr.

The only sound conclusion that can be arrived at from the
above considerations is that the Polar region is frozen over:
during the winter, with occasional lanes and. water-holes kept
open by the currents; that this ice drifts south in the summer:
and autumn, and is gradually loosened and melted at its.
southern edge by the action of the Gulf-stream, the swell of

% The open water of Middendorf, off Cape Tainiyr, was seen in August, —
it equally exists in all parts of the Aretic regions.
{ Solar influence is proportional to the sines of the sun’s altitude.

349 North Polar Exploration.

the ocean, and, in some seasons, by heavy falls of rain ; and
that young ice forms again, so as to impede and eventually to
stop navigation, in September. An expedition taking the
Spitzbergen route must therefore force its way through the
Polar pack drifting south, before this young ice begins to form,
otherwise the season for exploration is lost.
The vital question now arises—what is the width and con-
dition of this pack? Parry, in 1827, ascertained that it was
at least 192 miles broad, by walking over it, and at his extreme
northern point in 82° 45%, a strong ice blink was seen on the
northern horizon. This was in the end of July. We may,
therefore, take its average width at that time of the year to be
about 250 miles. It is hoped that an expedition may enter
the pack between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla towards the
end of July, under favourable circumstances, notwithstanding
the failure of all former attempts. This hope is based on the
great advantage that steamers have over sailing vessels, and
-on the presumed action of the Gulf-stream in melting and
loosening the pack. All then depends on the time that it will
“take for vessels to force their way through it.* Let us see
“upon what grounds we may calculate the probable length of this
«detention. The width of the Polar pack in the end of July is
not less than 250 miles; that of the middle pack in Baffin’s
Bay is generally about 172. Now the average detention in
Baffin’s Bay, calculating from the time taken by the six expe-
‘ditions, assisted by steam power (for we may now leave sailing
vessels out of the question) has been twenty-two days. But
by holding on to the land ice very little ground is ever lost in
Baffin’s Bay, and the existence of the land floe makes eventual
success almost a certainty; while between Spitzbergen and
Nova Zembia there is a drifting pack with no land ice to
assist navigation, and progress is dependent on the chance of
Janes opening in the right direction. With extraordinary luck,
however, steamers might bore their way through this 250

* The analogy which has been attempted to be drawn between the pack in
the Southern hemisphere, through which Sir James Ross forced his way (Southern
Seas, ii. p. 183), and the Polar pack, between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, is
entirely delusive. On December 18th, 1841, Sir James entered the pack, in
latitude 60° 50’ S., and, after being beset in it for fifty-six days, at last emerged
into open water, on February 2nd. This pack was 800 miles wide. On the 24th
he was obliged to relinquish all further exploration, on account of the formation
of young ice, which threatened to freeze the ships up for the winter in a most
dangerous position, but fortunately they were saved by a strong breeze (ii. p. 203).
Thus he only had three weeks of navigable season left, after getting through the
pack. This pack in the Southern hemisphere was met with in the temperate
zone, after having drifted through hundreds of miles in a boundless ocean, and
become loose and broken. ‘The North Polar pack, on the contrary, is but a short
distance from the place of its formation, and is ina confined sea Sonos on all
sides by continents.

North Polar Exploration. 343

miles of pack in forty days, and reach open water beyond,
towards the end of August. If an attempt is made to take
the pack earlier in the year, it will of course he found to be
much wider and closer, and the detention will be proportion-
ally longer. Under fortunate circumstances, steamers may,
perhaps, get through the pack in August, so as to have about
a fortnight left for North Polar exploration in the supposed
open water to the northward, before the young ice begins
to form. It must be remembered that dense fogs prevail
in summer wherever there is a large surface of open water,
in the Arctic regions. If a navigable sea exists, however,
some interesting discoveries may be made in its hydro-
graphy and fauna, and a series of useful magnetic observa-
tions may be taken. But the generally admitted absence of
land* on that meridian precludes the idea of wintering in
safety, and destroys all chance of obtainmg many of the
important scientific results which have been enumerated as
attamable from North Polar exploration, when undertaken in
the right direction. The objections to the Spitzbergen route
are that the chances are against a successful passage through
the Polar pack; that, even should this obstacle be overcome,
there would be so little of the navigable season left that
scarcely anything would be done; and that none of the objects
of North Polar exploration would be attained in the event of
failure, very few in the less probable event of success; while,
if the vessels are prevented from returning before the winter
sets in, they will be in extreme peril.

We now come to the consideration of the Smith Sound
route. This route is recommended by a great weight of
authority—by Sir George Back, the Nestor of Arctic explora-
tion; by Admiral Wrangell,t the discoverer of the northern
shores of Siberia; by Admiral Collinson; by Sir Leopold
M‘Clintock, the highest living Arctic authority; by Sherard
Osborn, whose admirable paper first brought North Polar

* Some of the advocates of the Spitzbergen route speculate on the existence
of land ; but the whole argument in favour of that route is based on its supposed
absence. This supposition is founded on the absence of icebergs and of any mud
or débris on the ice, of which the Polar pack is composed. The argument is
perfectly sound so far as it goes.

t+ Open lanes and water-holes, no doubt, exist throughout the winter in the
Polar region, caused by currents, and the ice is thus kept in occasional motion by
gales of wind. It is this condition of the ice which would cause the extreme
danger of wintering in the Polar pack north of 80°, at a distance from any land.
The ships would be kept in motion, and perhaps dashed about amongst heaving
blocks of ice in a gale of wind, ata time of year when the incessant night and the
intense cold render navigation out of the question. The men would find it im-
possible to work aloft, and the running rigging would be frozen too hard to reeve
through the blocks.

t See Royal Geographical Society's Journal, vol. xviii., p. 19 (1848).

—

344 North Polar Exploration.

exploration mto notice; by Vesey Hamilton, whose Arctic
experience is only second to that of M‘Clintock; and by
Captain Maury, the great American hydrographer.

Smith Sound is ascertained to bea broad strait leadimg
into the unknown Polar region, and its shores are the most
northern known land in the world. ‘They are, therefore, the
best pomt of departure whence sledge parties may push
onwards over the Polar region, and the best wintering station
for vessels forming a scientific expedition. It is proposed that
two well-fortified gun-boats, of 60-horse power, should pro-
ceed up Baffin’s Bay to Smith Sound; that one should winter
near Cape Isabella, at its entrance, and that the other should
go further north, so as to winter at a distance of about
300 miles from her consort. There is no doubt about
vessels being able to reach the entrance of Smith Sound, at the
head of Baffin’s Bay, every summer. The ice drifting from the

‘seas, whose portals are Smith, Jones, and Lancaster Sounds,

forms what is called the middle pack during the summer,
‘stretching across the centre of Baffin’s Bay; while the head
of the bay, upon which the above sounds open, is always free
of ice in the summer, and is called the “ North Water.” The
middle pack is about 170 miles wide, and the reason why it
may always be passed, while the Polar pack cannot, is that
on the eastern side of Baffin’s Bay there is an indentation
called Melville Bay, filled with ice firmly attached to the land,
and known as the land jfloe. Vessels make fast to this land
jloe, while the middle pack drifts past, and thus creep up
through a lane of water which is occasionally left between the
fixed and drifting ice, sooner or later reaching the “ North
Water.” Out of thirty-eight exploring vessels that have gone
up Baffin’s Bay since its discovery in 1616 not one has been
lost, and not one has failed to reach the “‘ North Water” when
the necessary conditions of success have been observed—
namely, arrival at the edge of the ice early in the season, and
sticking to the land floe. ‘Two only* out of thirty-eight have
failed, and neither adhered to these conditions. The whalers
do not persevere in the attempt, unless they can pass through
early in the season, yet, in twenty-seven out of thirty-two
years, from 1817 to 1849, they succeeded in reaching the
“ North Water.’ In 1849 a whaler reached the “ North Water”
by the 12th of June, and in the years 1825, 28, 32, 33, and 34

* One of these was the “ North Star,” in 1849. She took the pack, and was
drifted across Melville Bay, not getting clear of the ice until the navigable season
was over. She started very late in the summer. In the very same year a whaler
(the “St. Andrew”) reached the “ North Water” on June 12th, a clear proof
that if the “North Star” had started early, she mans have got ee i,
successfully. —

North Polar Exploration. 345

the whole fleet of whalers got through early in July. It must
be remembered that the whalers do not persevere after the
middle of July, while there will be time for a discovery ship to
reach Smith Sound, even if she does not get through, before
the end of August. It may be counted upon with certainty
that two screw-steamers of 60-horse power will get through
the middle pack (on an average) in about twenty-two days,
if they start early in the season, and that they will reach
the “ North Water? The “ North Water’ means Smith —
Sound, for it always extends to the entrance of that great
opening whence Captain Inglefield im 1852 saw open. water to
the northern horizon, stretching through seven points of the
compass.

The two gun-boats would winter about 300 miles apart,
one near Cape Isabella and the other near Cape Parry, both
on the weather or western side of Smith Sound. The march
to explore the Polar region would commence in February,
along the coast which stretches to the northward. The ice is
always firm, and fit for travelling near the shore, from February
to May; and this circumstance led Wrangell to advocate the
Smith Sound route, for he well knew that his Polynias, or
open lanes of water, were not encountered until he advanced a
considerable distance from the coast. The distance from Cape
Parry to the Pole and back is under 1000 miles; so that a
party going to the North Pole, and travelling at the rate of
about ten miles a day, would be back by the middle of May.
Mr. Arrowsmith places Cape Parry in 81° 56’ N., or 484 miles
from the Pole; and Dr. Kane’s steward saw land stretching
away to the north as far as the eye could reach. Give us
only 184 miles of land north of Cape Parry, and a sledge
journey to the Pole is a matter of calculation* if performed
during the winter and early sprmg. The discovery of the
North Pole by this route does not depend upon a drifting,
treacherous pack, upon the opening or closing of leads through
the ice in the right direction, or upon a theoretical Polar
basin, as is the case in the Spitzbergen seas. By the Smith
Sound route the discovery is a certainty, so far as human
calculation can make it so. Sir Leopold M‘Clintock has
brought the art of sledge travelling to such perfection, that
this may be affirmed with perfect truth. Much has been said, by
objectors to this route, about the impossibility of dragging heavy
boats over the ice. All who are acquainted with M‘Clintock’s

* A sledge party, commanded by M‘Clintock, has walked 1220 miles in 105
days ; on another occasion, 1330 miles. Mecham did 1203 miles, Richards 1093,
Osborn the same. Allen Young 1150, and Hamilton 1150. Sir Leopold
M‘Clintock says that a single sledge may carry sixty days’ provisions, and go
over 600 miles of ground, without assistance from depots.

346 North Polar Exploration.

system of travelling, know well that such an idea would never
enter his head. He would probably supply each sledge with
a very light India-rubber boat, and narrow lanes of water would
never stop him. If he arrived on the shores of a great navi-
gable ocean in an Arctic winter, then, of course, his progress
would be arrested. But, at the same time, a marvellous dis-
covery will have been made, and his researches will be turned
in other directions, leading to results of equal value and inte-
rest. The northern side of the Greenland continent will be
carefully examined, as well as all the land to the westward.
We may rely upon it that immense results will be insured by
the exertions of scientific explorers wintering for two seasons
in Smith Sound, that every branch of science will be enriched
by their labours, and that, even if success is denied them in
their endeavours to reach the Pole, their achievements im other
directions will repay the expenses of the expedition a thousand-
fold.

The advantages of the two routes will not bear compa-
rison. The Spitzbergen route offers, in the event of success,
a chance of reaching the Pole, and the opportunity of exploring
the supposed Polar basin; but everythmg must be done very
hastily, and therefore inefficiently, during the brief navigable
season. In the probable event of failure the vessels will have
accomplished nothing. They will have been a month or two
struggling in the pack, and will at last be drifted out again,
either whole or in pieces.

The Smith Sound route, on the other hand, offers the
discovery of the North Pole, of the northern side of Green-
land, of the land to the westward, and all the numerous:
results in every branch of science, which are expected from a
North Polar expedition. Moreover, the explorations will be
made by sledges, and therefore carefully and thoroughly. In
the event of failure in securing the main object, all the other
results will be attamed; so that, under any ‘circumstances,
good and useful work will be done.

By the Spitzbergen route there is the bare chance of
doing little, by the Smith Sound route there is the certainty
of doing much.

Three objections have been raised to another Arctic expe-
dition: first, that it will be no use; secondly, that it will be
dangerous; and thirdly, that it will be expensive. After »
what has been said of the great and beneficial results, both
direct and collateral, which may be expected from North
Polar exploration, it is unnecessary to dwell upon the first
objection. There are many people who, with the Times, are
altogether incapable of comprehending that there can be any-
thing worth doing, which does not promise good interest om

North Polar Exploration. 347

outlay, in hard cash; and to speak to them of advantages
other than an actual money profit on goods delivered, would be
a mere waste of breath. Yet even they might be reminded
of the actual commercial profit that has been derived from
Arctic Expeditions. The voyages of Willoughby and Chan-
cellor opened the rich trade with Archangel. The discoveries
of Hudson led to the lucrative Spitzbergen whale fishery, those
of Davis and Ross to the equally remunerative fisheries im
Davis Strait and Baffin’s Bay. The discoveries of the Danes
in Greenland have yielded supplies in ivory, cryolite, and
graphite. The Russian and Arctic expeditions have opened a
rich trade in fossil ivory. Lastly, the voyages up Barrow’s
Straits have resulted in an extensive series of magnetic
observations of practical utility to navigation.

But the public have a right to inquire closely whether any
future expedition would incur even the remote possibility of
such a fate as befel the “ Erebus” and “ Terror,” and to this
objection a satisfactory reply may properly be demanded. There
is no analogy whatever between the ill-fated expedition led by
Franklin, and that which, it is hoped, will be despatched to
Smith Sound for North Polar exploration. No one feels this
more strongly than the noble-minded widow of that great ex-
plorer. In the latter case, a vessel will be stationed at a point
whence annual communication with England is easy and
certain, and whence a retreat to the Danish settlements in
Greenland is perfectly devoid of all risk; while Franklin
was sent into an unknown region, without a thought
of providing for his safe retreat im the event of disaster.
Had one of Franklin’s ships remained off Cape War-
render, at the entrance of Lancaster Sound, and the other
not gone beyond Cape Riley, they would have been quite as
safe as if they had never left Greenhithe. The Smith Sound
exploring vessels, stationed at Cape Isabella and Cape Parry,
will be in exactly similar positions, for Smith Sound, like
Lancaster Sound, opens on the “ North Water’ of Baffin’s
Bay. It is not, however, to be supposed that there willbe no
individual danger to those who gallantly come forward to serve
in a Polar expedition of discovery. On the contrary, it will
be a service requiring great powers of endurance, courage, and
self-reliance of a high order, and indomitable resolution. But
it is the desire to overcome difficulties and dangers, and to
emulate the deeds of former naval worthies, which induces
men to volunteer for such service. Suffice it to say that the
climate is the healthiest in the world, and that a retreat from
Smith Sound to the Danish settlement of Upernavik in
summer, if it should become necessary, is easy, and free from
danger. © . o

348 North Polar Exploration.

The objection on the score of expense will doubtless be
raised with more sincerity, at least, thanis this unworthy
attempt to discourage naval voyages of discovery on the
ground of danger. Butif the despatch of a scientific expedi-
tion, the results of which will be shown to be important by the
leaders of science, is to be refused owing to the trifling expendi-
ture it will occasion, let us be told so at once ; and let not those
who would advocate any iniquitous war with China or Japan, in
pursuit of the main chance, protest against the imaginary risk
of a scientific expedition. M‘Clintock’s voyage, and he was
absent two years and a half, cost £8400. Parry’s attempt to
reach the Pole cost £9900. The actual expense of a Polar ex-
pedition up Smith Sound, consisting of two of those numerous
60-horse power gunboats which are now lying idle, or beimg
sold to be broken up, would not exceed £30,000. Now if
the solution of the greatest geographical problem that remains
to be solved, and the attainment of those scientific results
which have already been enumerated, are not considered
worth the expenditure of so trifling a sum—an expenditure
which would be richly and abundantly repaid—the character of
the English people must be strangely altered. Certain it is
that our forefathers would have held that such a sum appro-
priated for such an end was money well spent; and there is
good reason for the belief that if the subject receives full
and fair consideration, the public opinion of the country will
now approve the despatch of a North Polar expedition.
During the last ten years the sum of £150,000,000 has been
spent upon the navy, out of which only a 230th part has gone
to the scientific department of the profession. Surely it is.
not much to ask that this infinitesimal proportion should be
imperceptibly augmented, in order that an important and
valuable service may be performed !

An expedition for North Polar discovery, by way of Smith
Sound, will yield most useful scientific results, will add largely
to the sum of human knowledge, while it will run no risk of a
catastrophe such as that which befel the crews of the “ Hrebus”
and ‘Terror.’ For these reasons it deserves such cordial sup-
port from the public opinion of the country as will induce the
Government to undertake it. When it is remembered how
beneficial are the indirect advantages invariably derived from
voyages of discovery, and how important it is that naval.
officers should have some nobler career opened to them, in
times of peace, than the ceaseless round of holystoning decks
and cleanig brass work, an interest will be felt in these
voyages, even by men who do not personally appreciate their
scientific results. The same enterprise, courage, endurance,
and presence of mind are required to conduct an Arctic

Notes on Fungi. 349

expedition as to face an enemy in the field; but in the former
-case those qualities are exercised in advancing civilization,
extending knowledge, and exciting friendly sympathy and
interest throughout the world; in the latter, they are wasted
in the deplorable operations of war.

NOTES ON FUNGI.—No. III.
BY THE REV, M. J. BERKELEY, M.A., F.LS.

WHITE-SPORED AGARICS—RINGLESS OR EXCENTRIC.
(With a Tinted Plate.)

Ir is not strictly correct to say that there are no ring-bearing
species in the remaining subdivisions of the white-spored
Agarics, but as the few which have rings belong to the division
which is characterized by the pileus being always more or less
excentric, there is no great difficulty about the exception.

The subdivisions or subgenera are Tvricholoma, Clitocybe,
Collybia, Omphalia, Mycena, and Pleurotus, in all of which the
-part which bears the fructifying surface is confluent with the
stem. Thefirst which requires notice is Tricholoma, whose
name is derived from @pié, a hair, and Adpa, a fringe or border;
but the name is deceptive, for if anything like a veil is ever
present it is quite rudimentary; at any rate, its threads
are never interwoven into anything like a membrane, so that no
permanent veil must be looked for. The grand point of distinc-
tion consists in the gills always being sinuated or emarginate
behind (Fig. 1),* while the stem has no distinct bark-like
coat of a different consistence from the rest. As observed before,
some Armillarie are distinguished only by their ring, while
Amanita and Lepiota have the hymenophorum quite distinct
from the stem. All the species grow on the ground, and most
of the large ones are esculent; indeed, no species which is con-
fessedly poisonous is contained in this subgenus. Where, how-
ever, experiments are made in doubtful species, great stress
should be laid on the absence of any disagreeable taste
or smell.

The primary sections of Tricholoma rest on the presence or
absence of any viscid coat. It must be remembered, however,
that a species may be perfectly dry in hot weather, which is
dripping with a viscid moisture when wet. Some of the viscid

* A vertical section of A. colossus, a magnificent Swedish species, which is
chosen for illustration as it is so very characteristic. 4

390 Notes on Fungi.

species have pure coloured gills, which do not change their tint as
they grow old, while others are more or less defaced with reddish-
brown spots. One or two in either group are abundant in our
woods, but they do not recommend themselves to notice as likely
to prove good articles of food. Amongst the species which are
not viscid, the cuticle of the pileus (2) may break up into more
or less delicate threads or downy fascicles; it may be rigid (3),
and present granules or smooth scales; it may be perfectly dry
(4), and though minutely silky at first, be quite smooth when
fuil grown, and neither floccose nor scaly; it may be moist,
though not viscid in damp weather, as 1s the case in the remain-
ing sections, and spotted (5), where drops of water have rested,
or minutely cracked; the substance may be spongy and absor-
bent (6), and greedy of water, though when saturated it does
not look semi-transparent, or when dry become opaque, or, in
other words, it is not hygrophanous ; while, finally (7), it may
be hygrophanous, a very important distinction.

The section which contains the most valuable esculents is
the fifth, where the species are mostly of early growth.
Agaricus gambosus, which is the true St. George’s agaric,
though a species nearly allied to the common mushroom has
been mistaken for it, is often extremely abundant in exposed
grassy pastures, after the first copious spring rains in April or
May, and is one of the best esculents in the subdivision. It is
much eaten on the Continent, though generally neglected in
this country, and one or two allied species are strung upon
threads and dried for winter use. The pileus, when fully
grown, if the weather is dry, has often a shining silky look,
and closely resembles a cracknel. Of this we give a reduced
figure, as it is highly characteristic of the subgenus (Fig. 2).
Agaricus personatus, commonly known under the name of
Blewits, belonging to the sixth section, is sometimes sold in
Covent Garden Market, and is occasionally eaten. It occurs
rather late in the year, remaining till the frost destroys, and is
often sodden with moisture, in which condition it is not worth
notice. It may be readily known from its very obtuse. smooth
pileus, and the stem being more or less rough with down or |
fibres, and prettily tinged with violet. Woodland forms are
sometimes of a brighter tint. It often forms large rings. In
the fourth section there are some interesting but disagreeable —
species. A. sulfurews, which is remarkable for its sulphur-yellow |
colour, has a decided scent of gas-tar, while A. inamenus is
scarcely less unpleasant, though it does not seem to attain the
same intensity of odour with us as it does in Sweden.

Agaricus carneus, a small species belonging to the fourth
section, which not unfrequently occurs in exposed pastures,
remarkable for its neat form and pretty pileus, of a tint between

S

SAN y

SAK
SY y

SSS
SS

S

SS

=<
a=

1.—Agaricus colossus.
‘)

GA

GZ

LZ

SZ

racemosus,
afincatus,
sSanguinolentus,
aryinus.
applicatus,

~~ a

Notes on Fungi. 301

red and flesh colour, may be cited because, in the character of
the stem, it approaches Collybia, though the pileus and gills
are quite those of the truest Tricholoma, as will be seen by the
subjoined figure (Fig. 3).

Clitocybe, a name derived from kXitos, a sloping, and KiPn,
a head, is the designation of the next subgenus. It is closely
allied to Tricholoma, but is distinguished by the gills not being
sinuated behind, but regularly attenuated and running down
the stem. Few of the species are eaten ; but Agaricus nebularis
and geotropus, or, at least, that form of the latter which is
figured by Batsch, under the name of A. subimvolutus, of which
we give a reduced figure, are excellent (Fig.4). We have par-
taken of the common form, under the auspices of Dr. Badham,
but did not consider it good, though, like several other species
of the subgenus, it is wholesome.

The species are often rather difficult of determination, as
the differences are less striking than in most other subgenera.
The main divisions consist of—(1), those with an obtuse pileus,
like A. nebularis, which at length becomes more or less plane ;
(2), species with an irregular, often sub-oblique pileus, with
unequally decurrent gills; (3), those which, though at first
umbonate, become at length entirely infundibuliform, with long
and equally decurrent gills. In all these the pileus is not
hygrophanous as in the three following—(4), species with a
thin, almost membranous, cup-shaped pileus; (5), those, on
the contrary, which are subcarnose, convex at first, then plane
or depressed, with the gills adnate, or only very shortly
decurrent; while (6) the last has again a thin pileus, which
is often scaly or perfuraceous.

In the first section, besides A. nebularis already mentioned,
which is conspicuous amongst leaves in woods for its pale
cinereous, somewhat pruinose pileus and elastic fibrillose
stem, and which is very highly esteemed as an esculent,
one of the most remarkable is the greenish A. odorus, not
uncommon in woods, which diffuses a strong scent of aniseed.
In the second, A. fwmosus, which sometimes forms dense tufts,
is one of our best known species. In the third, we have A.
giganteus and maximus, which acquire a diameter of a foot or
more, and the latter of which forms sometimes rings in woods
many feet across, besides which there are many allied British
species, some of which are extremely common. In the fourth
section, one of the most common towards the end of autumn
is A. cyathiformis, its brown, cup-shaped, hygrophanous pilei
being conspicuous both in woods and pastures; in the fifth,
A. fragrans will obtrude itself on notice by its fragrance,
resembling that of A. odorus, though its form and colour are
different ; while in the sixth, we have the commonest of all

352. Notes .on Fungi.

woodland species, A. laccatus, where it is sometimes of arufous
flesh colour, but sometimes of the most lovely amethyst, the
cuticle being always more or less mealy. Other varieties of
this common species occur ; one, which combines both colours,
which I have gathered in fir-woods in Scotland, and another
of a bright orange yellow. )

In Collybia (from xédrvBos, a piece of money) we enter upon
another series, in which the hymenophorum is of a different sub-
stance from the more or less cartilaginous stem. Fries even
seems inclined to separate this and the two following subgenera
from other agarics, under the name of Chendropus. Most of
the species are small, but there are one or two which are very
conspicuous. We have here four sections: 1st, those in which
the stem is rather stout and sulcate, or fibrilloso-striate ;
2ndly, species in which it is velvety, floccose, or pruinose;
ordly, those which have a slender nearly equal fistulose stem,
which is smooth, except at the base, and even; and 4thly,
species with dusky gills.

One of the most common agarics in our woods is A. radicatus,
which is remarkable not only for its deeply rooting stem, but also _
for its wrinkled, glutinous, but scarcely moist pileus.. A. pla-
typhyllus is one of our finest species, and easily known from
its long, thick, white strmg-like roots; while A. fusipes, which
grows in clusters at the foot of oaks, has the pileus frequently
deeply cracked, and springing from a stem swollen in, the
middle, and it should seem, from the observations of Léveillé,
throws up new individuals from the base of the old stem, as |
indeed is the case in the specimen figured (Fig. 5). This,
though unfit for stewing from its tough consistence, is one of the
best species for pickling. Under the second section we may
notice A. velutipes, a species conspicuous for its bright colours
and beautifully velvety stem, enduring a good deal of cold,
and occurring upon almost every kind of timber. It is one of
the commonest species, and must be known to almost every
one. <A host of smaller species occur, one or two of which are
parasitic on some of the larger gill-bearmg fungi, and are
remarkable for forming dense cellular masses which live
through the winter, and produce the perfect fruit im the fol-
lowing year.* One of these, A. racemosus (Fig. 6), 1s the most
remarkable perhaps of all the Agaricus, as it not only pro-
duces a pileus, but a quantity of heads on the stem, which have
quite a different structure, and have different spores. In the
third section we meet again with a small though esculent spe-
cies, A. esculentus, which, under the name of nagelschwamme,
frequently appears in the markets of Germany. Of the fourth

* An account of some of these has already been given in a former volume of
the INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER.

Notes on. Fungi. 308

little need be'said, as we have very few representatives, and
those of little interest.

Omphalia, as the name (from éupandas, a navel) implies, is
distinguished by its pileus being depressed, or umbilicate, from
the earliest stage of growth, while in Clitocybe this form is.
only assumed at a later period. Most of the species are small,
and the subgenus does: not seem to contain a single species
which is confessedly esculent. There are two principal groups,
in the first of which the margin is incurved and involute, while
the pileus is from the first dilated ; in the second the pileus is
at first campanulate, and the margin straight and pressed to
the stem.

Ti is not easy to point out any very conspicuous examples, —
but I figure as an illustration A. affricatus (Fig. 7), found
in Aberdeenshire in 1862, which, like some of the other
species, grows on Sphagnum in wet places. A. muralis,
as the name implies, often grows on the capping of stone
walls, and is of a reddish. brown colour; while A. wmbel-
liferws, with its broad, triangular, very distant gills, assumes
all sorts of colours, as grey, green, yellow, etc., and occurs
in as great a variety of climates. The second division consists
of small but often very pretty species, one of which, A.
campanella, may be often found on fir cones, where it is
remarkable for its abundant tawny mycelium.

Mycena, named from pins, a fungus, comprises a multitude
of extremely pretty species, which are generally small, and
sometimes almost minute, and is with difficulty distincuished
from the second section of Omphala, having like that the
margin of the pileus straight and never involute. The pileus,
moreover, is not as in that umbilicate ; nor are the gills truly
decurrent, though in a few instances there is a strongly deve-
loped decurrent tooth. The genus does not contain a single
economical species ; indeed, the small size renders them unim-
portant in this point of view, and some are probably poisonous,
as indicated by the strong alkaline odour.

The sections are numerous. 1. We have the edge of the
gills of a different colour from the hymenial surface—a circum-
stance which renders many of them extremely pretty. Several
examples occur in our woods, of which, perhaps, the most
common is Agaricus elegans, the gills of which have a yellow
edge. 2. The next section includes species of pure tints, un-
mixed with grey or brown, in which the stem is dry, and the
base not dilated. A. pwrus, which is remarkable for its strong
scent, resembling that of radishes, may be found in every wood,
where it attracts notice by its beautiful rosy or purplish tint.
The milk-white A. lactews. often occurs in profusion on fir-
leaves, looking at a distance like large snow flakes. 3. A

354 Notes on Fungi.

third section contains species with rigid juiceless stems, with
gills which are at first white, and then change colour. They
are inodorous, and often very difficult of determination.
A. galericulatus is extremely common on trunks of trees, and
assumes a variety of forms. A nearly allied species, A. poly-
grammus, which is far from uncommon, is known by the deep
strie of the shining stem, which run down for a great length.
4, The species of the fourth section differ from the last in being
mostly strong scented, and having a brittle or soft, and not
rigid, stem. <A. alcalinus may be found everywhere, and the
scent is very disagreeable. 5. In this section the stem ig
thread-shaped, and rather tough. The gills change colour,
and are paler at the edge; like the species of No. 3, they are
inodorous. One of the prettiest, which is not uncommon,
A. acicula, is scarcely larger than a common pin, and has a
scarlet pileus and bright yellow stem. 6. This section is dis-
tinguished by the gills and stem distilling a milky or coloured
juice. A. sanguinolentus (Fig. 8), in which the juice is of a
madder red, is a common example. In A. galopus the juice is
white and milky, and there are some other native examples.
7. The species of this section have a viscid stem. A. epiptery-
gius is common on dead fern and elsewhere, and is very pretty.
A. roridus, which occasionally occurs on twigs of bramble, in
wet weather, absolutely drips with mucus. <A. vulgaris occurs

sometimes in myriads in fir woods, but it is not common every- ~

where. 8. This is a pretty section, remarkable for the species
having the base more or less dilated. Few things are prettier
than the minute A. pterigenus, with its rosy pileus and broad
distant gills. It adheres to dead fronds of fern, by long radia-
ting strigose threads. 9. Finally, we have minute species
which grow on leaves and twigs, in which the stem springs at
once from the matrix without any dilated base, as if it were
grafted. A. corticola is abundant everywhere on the bark of
trees, drying up in hot weather, and reviving with the first
shower. It assumes various tints.

There remains only in this division of the genus Agaricus
the subgenus Plewropus, which, like Armillaria, contains species

which are not closely allied to each other. Some differ only

from Tricholomata in growing on wood and having an excen-
tric stem. Some have a distinct veil, as A. drymus (Fig. 9),
which is sometimes a very pretty species. These have more or
less decurrent gills. Others have no veil, but a distinct excen-
tric or somewhat lateral stem. Many of these are large and
important species. A. ulmarius attains a great size on the
trunks of elms, and with some others has the gills sinuated
behind, exactly asin Tricholoma. A. subpalmatus is remarkable
for its dry but gelatinous coat. A. lignatilis occurs abundantly

}
|
'
.
}
{

Notes on Fungi. 355

at Burnham Beeches, and, if Fries is correct, the esculent white-
seeded species, A. markii, which occurs in cellars at Vienna, on
wine casks and mouldering beams, is the same thing. Other
species have the gills very decurrent. Of these, A. ostreatus
is common on various trees, especially the laburaumy and is con-
sidered esculent, but it must be a very coarse, unpleasant food,
and care must nd taken not to confound it with A. Huosmos, a
poisonous kind, known by its scent, like that of tarragon, and
its pale pink spores. A fatal accident was nearly occurring
to a schoolmaster in Suffolk from confounding the two species.
Curious specimens of A. ostreatus sometimes occur in cellars,
bearing multitudes of minute, imperfectly formed pilei, and
packed into a large mass which looks like a cauliflower.

In a third section the stem entirely vanishes, or exists only in
a very early stage of growth, and the surface of the pileus rests’
on the matrix instead of the gills. In some of these the cuticle
consists of a thick gelatinous coat, or there is a similar stratum
in the substance. The species are many of them interesting
from their form, colour, and sculpture, and as exhibiting the
most degraded type which can be assumed by the genus. Ina
few the substance of the pileus is amere membrane, and almost
the whole plant consists of gills. Fig. 10 represents A. appli-
catus, which is a good example of the section.

Most of the species of this subgenus grow on wood, a few
only on the ground.. A. éremulus sometimes occurs on decayed.
fungi. The species do not dry up in decay, but become putres-
cent, which distinguishes them from the genus Panus. Most of
the large species appear to be esculent. A. corticatus, which has
occurred at Belvoir, is one of the most beautiful of British Bunge
The figures are all more or less reduced.

DESCRIPTION OF PLATE.

Fungi (white-spored mushrooms, ringless or excentric).

1.—Agaricus colossus. 6.—Agaricus racemosus.
2.—A., gambosus. 7.—A. affricatus.
J.—A. carneus. 8.—A. sanguinolentus.
4,.—A. geotropus. 9.—A. dryinus.

5.—A. fusipes. 10.—A. applicatus.

VOL. VIl.—»NO. V. AA

356 Objects Viewed through the Cornea of the Insect Bye.

OBJECTS VIEWED THROUGH THE CORNEA OF
THE INSECT EYE.

BY THOMAS PRINCE.

Microscorists are aware of the usual method of proving that
the compound cornea of the eyes of insects are composed of
numerous lenses, merely by placing beneath the stage, and
behind the mounted cornea, any strongly defined object, a
candle, a knife point, etc. A really interesting and beautiful
arrangement, adapted. for a soirée or public exhibition, may be
made as follows :— ;

a, Fig. 1, represents the lamp flame; .b, a three-inch
bull’s-eye condenser, so placed in relation to the lamp as to

a

Fig. 1.

produce parallel rays; c, a photograph on glass, known as a
“transparent positive,” this im my case represents a por-
trait of Shakspeare—it is three inches diameter, and placed
near the bull’s-eye; d, an achromatic condenser ; e, stage of
microscope, distant about ten imches from c, the photo-
graph ; f, an ordinary slide -of the cornea of an insect’s eye,
known among microscopists as one “mounted to show the
image”; g, shows the point where the image is formed, a
little in front of the cornea; as the picture will not be seen
when the facets of the eye are in focus; h represents a quarter-
inch objective, supposed to be in its ordinary position in the
body of the microscope.

In adjusting the focus to find the image, it is desirable to
work the rackworks of the body and the condenser at the same
time, as the slightest movement of one affects the focus of the
other. The apparatus described above, if carefully centred
with the body of the instrument, will produce a novel and
pleasing result, showing’ as many distinct portraits as there

Visit to Mount Hina—Age of a Ohestnut Tree. 357

are facets within the range of the objective. The same
result may be produced by placing the microscope in an
horizontal position, with the picture, etc., in their relative
places, supporting the photograph on a temporary stand;
but a slight difficulty occurs, in accurately centering the
light, the bull’s-eye, and the picture, so as to be in exact
coincidence with the axis of the achromatic condenser. This may
be got over by enclosing the whole by a tube temporarily fixed
to the lower bar of the instrument, as shown in the diagram.
By this plan, the whole may be at any time adjusted in a few
minutes with the greatest ease and cer-
tainty. Fig. 2 represents a portion of the
view as obtained by the above means.
The uniformity of the portraits show 4
these minute lenses to be of most aston- '
ishing accuracy and equality of form. |
And our admiration is excited at their ~
delicacy of construction when we recol-
lect that the picture is reduced by this
minute marvel of design from one inch
to the -1, of an inch in diameter, or,
in other words, it is reduced in size ee,
2100 times, occupying a surface so

small as to require 490,000 to cover one square inch.

VISIT TO MOUNT ETNA—AGE OF A CHESTNUT
TREE.

BY CAPT. R. SMITH, LATE H.M, 447H REGIMENT.

In June, 1811, being employed on the Quartermaster-General’s
staff in Sicily, and engaged in making surveys of various
localities, I visited Mount Etna, and of course did not neglect
to examine that vegetable wonder, the Castagno di cento
Cavalli, which seemed to me, as it had done to other travellers,
not what was expected—a single tree, but apparently a cluster
of five distinct trees, since reduced, I understand, to three.
A late traveller has remarked, and I think with good reason,
that a large tree may have existed on the spot, and that on
its destruction in some of the many convulsions that have so
often shook Htna to its very centre, the present cluster of trees
sprang from its root.

But it is not of the Castagno di cento Cavalli that I am
about to speak, it is of amore wonderful production of nature

358 Visit to Mount Hina—Age of a Chestnut Tree.

in my opinion, which stands within a few hundred yards of that
celebrated tree; it is the Castagno la Nave, a noble patriarch
of the forest. This tree rises in an unbroken stem for about
forty feet, then divides and throws out lateral branches to an
enormous extent. It appeared to me, as I viewed it, to be
comparatively a young tree, from the vigour of its growth and
absence of decayed branches. I was accompanied by a friend,
and after contemplating with admiration this splendid specimen
of the vegetable kingdom, we proceeded to measure it with a
surveying tape, and at four feet from the ground it measured
fifty-four feet in circumference. I need scarcely add that I
entered this measurement in my note-book. I took a drawing
of the Castagno di cento Cavalli, which shows almost beyond
a doubt, that this never was a single trunk, but a group ; but
from some cause, which I do not now remember, | neglected
to add its noble companion to my other sketches; but I after-
wards saw at Messina a very beautiful drawing of this tree,
in the portfolio of my friend Lieut. Wright, of the Royal
Staff Corps.

On reading Murray’s Handbook of Sicily, which has been:
recently published, it is there stated that this very tree was
carefully measured within the last year, and was found to be
fifty-seven feet in circumference at three feet from the ground,
nearly at the same height that I measured it, thus showing an
increase in girth of three feet in fifty-three years. If, there-
fore, we take for granted that the growth was the same every
fifty-three years, the calculation makes the tree now 1007 years
old; the following formula will show it more clearly :—

If 3 ft. 5d years, 57 ft.
53

171
285

8)3021

1007 years.

But if we presume that the tree increased in bulk somewhat
more than three feet in fifty-three years in the early period of its
growth, which by the by does not appear to be generally the
case, for I have examined the annual rings in the trunks of
many newly cut down trees, and found them on an average of
equal thickness throughout, except towards the south or sunny-
side, where they are generally thicker, on the same principle
that plants grown in a window will always imcrease more

Art Subjects and their Treatment. 309

towards the ight. But even allowing this, it would still make
the ‘tree nearly 1000 years old, no contemptible age; and
although it is now showing symptoms of decay, for it is
said to be partly hollow, yet 1t is not impossible but what it
may, if the lavas of Htna spare it as they have hitherto done,
live some five or six centuries more.

It is stated in the Handbook that there is another chestnut
tree, a little further up the mountain, seventy-six feet im cir-
cumference, but this I did not see, nor did the guide mention
it, and in those days handbooks were not as plentiful as they
are now. I therefore missed it, and indeed might probably have
missed also seeing the Castagno la Nave, if my attention had
not been directed to it before I left Messina, for the guides are
so taken up with the Castagno di cento Cavalli that they can
think of nothing else.

I may mention that I also measured an oak tree a little
lower down the mountain, and found it forty-six feet im girth ;
but it was much decayed in the branches, and probably con-
siderably older than the Castagno la Nave.

How these trees have escaped for so long a period the
devastating streams of lava and irruptions of fiery cinders
that have within that period destroyed innumerable towns and
villages, exterminated hundred of miles of vineyards and olive
groves, and buried thousands of human beings, is indeed a
wonder and almost a miracle.

ART SUBJECTS AND THEIR TREATMENT.

Tar Exhibition of Pictures at the Royal Academy for the year
1865 possesses, on the whole, a very considerable amount of
merit, but we cannot say that it leaves the mind of an “ intel-
lectual observer’ quite satisfied with the indications it affords
of the state of education, thought, and feeling in the artist-
world; although the choice of subjects is as varied as might
be expected in a collection of more than a thousand works,
produced at a time when no special books or circumstances
exercised a dominant influence over picture-makers or picture-
buyers.

The absence of works adapted to public buildings i is the
natural result of there being no demand for them. Our cities
and towns are not yet civilized enough to devote any portion
of their wealth to the gradual accumulation of works of art,
and the tastes and requirements of a few thousand wealthy
members of the middle class chiefly determine the nature of

360 Art Subjects and their Treatment.

the demand which the painter has to supply. The aristocracy
are, a8 we are informed, not in these days buyers of pictures
to anything like the extent of the merchants and manu-
facturers, whose splendid fortunes form so conspicuous a
feature in our social system. This will help to account for the
decline of pictures on classical subjects, which the one-sided.
education of the upper classes kept in vogue long after the
period of their natural death had arrived. This remark musi
mm nowise be understood as depreciating the grand merits of
classical literature; but the poetic thoughts of modern times
seldom take the forms of dead mythology, and it is surprising
how little of the spirit of Greek or Roman history is communi-
cated to the recipients of what is called “ classical education”
in old-fashioned schools. We are not surprised, therefore,
that classical subjects present no important feature on the
Royal Academy walls; and in examining what they do offer to
our contemplation, let us first consider what Biblical subjects
have done for our artists, and what the artists have done for
them in return.

Looking through the catalogue, we find that Hsau suggests

the subject of one picture; “ Jesus Christ, with the Disciples,
on the way to Emmaus ;” “The young Saviour observing the
Hypocrites ;” the miraculous restoration to life of the young
damsel, whose story is recorded in the fifth chapter of Mark ;
“ Hsther’s Banquet ;”” “ Esther dressed in her royal apparel ;”
“The Devil Sowing Tares ;” and “ Hlijah’s Sacrifice ;” a very

unsatisfactory David, and a pair of extraordinary angels,
forming the themes upon which, after divers fashions, other.

artists have pictorially discoursed. The two most remarkable
of these pictures are by Millais, to whom belong “‘ The Sowing
of the Tares,’” and “ Hsther in her Royal Robes.” The treat-
ment of the first subject is a mixture of the literal and the
grotesquely allegorical. An ugly, unpleasant-looking old man
is engaged in scattering seeds on a curious looking soil, and
beneath a coarsely-executed and impossible sky, which lights
him up with a flowing dab of yellow paint, in strong contrast

with some clouds that look like the leaden pigment with ~

which house-painters often commence their work. The agri-
cultural process in which the sinister-looking old gentleman is

occupied appears to give satisfaction to a couple of snakes, whose -

slimy presence is presumed to assist in the allegorical meaning of
the scene, and he is followed by a zoological curiosity, between
a dog and a hyena, with a shambling gait and phosphorescent
eyes. Some centuries ago, when the Father of Hvil was popularly
recognized in the delineations of medieval legends, the parable
of the tares might have presented itself to common imagina-
tions in some such guise ; but who is there in these days who

Art’ Subjects and their Treatment. 361

will be assisted by Mr. Millais’ queer, quaint, and powerful
caricature to form a higher or a deeper conception of the
moral truth embodied in the narrative, than he would have
done from simply reading it or hearing it read?

We are not impressed with the “Scenes from the Life of
Christ” that stand next in our list. After all that has been
done, it is, no doubt, amazingly difficult for any one to satisfy
us with delineations of these subjects. Novelty in conception,
dignity, and poetic truth in their treatment, are characteristics
we want and seldom find.

Queen Hsther is the theme of two pictures; one by
Mr. Armitage represents the “‘ Banquet of Wine,” at which
Haman makes supplication for his life, The treatment of this
story does not convey the impression that Mr. Armitage was
very deeply moved by it. It looks as if he regarded it as
affording opportunity for depicting a richly-draped oriental
group, and we look at it without any moral or intellectual
excitation being the result. Out of the thousands who will
look at it on the Academy walls, perhaps none will find that it
has induced them to refer to the Scripture narrative on their
return home. The second picture is by Millais, who brings
before us a brilliant yellow silk dress, ornamented with rich
and curious embroidery: The fashion may not be quite that of
high life in Pekin, but it has a Chinese aspect, and had we
seen it at the Crystal Palace, it would have seemed an appro-
priate companion of the rich and rare things from the Summer
Palace of the * Central Flowery Land.” But the features of
the inhabitant of this gorgeous robe are not Chinese, so no
such mistake ought to be made. True, after looking at the
dress, you can see the lady, who is the accessory in the scene
—the principal being undoubtedly the dress itself. . Now, it
will happen, even in the best society, that the tailor makes the
man, and the dressmaker the woman; but our own—unartistic
—recollection of the old story is that Queen Hsther was of a
different stamp, and we ask in an ideal portrait the charm of
womanhood that subdued the savage monarch, and some
evidence of the patriotic devotion that made her the bene-
factress of her race. Yellow silk, with the best embroidery,
did not do the work the narrative ascribes to her, and we
should not have associated the picture with any Jewish heroine
at all. It is a wonderful portrait of a yellow vee and
nothing more.

The grandest of the Scripture sh a treated in the
exhibition is “ Hljah’s Sacrifice,” by Mr. A. Moore. We
cannot in the least comprehend the theory he has formed of
this scene. In Mendelssohn’s sound painting it is sublime.
The barbaric rites of the idolaters, the fervid piety and stern

362 Art Subjects and their Treatment.

enthusiasm of the Jews, are facts recalled from the past, and
‘made parts of our actual and vital present in the strains of the
Oratorio, but the artist only puzzles our eyes with ineffective
grouping and monotonous tints.

Biblical subjects, then, are a failure in this exhibition. It
ought not to be so, because they have the immense advantage
of bemg known to all, and in their poetical ideal aspects are
perfectly independent of the critical discussions that agitate
and. perplex our times.

Let us next look at the historical and political subjects
upon which our artists’ pencils have been engaged. Latest in
the date of the scene, and foremost in attracting attention, is
Mr. Frith’s representation of the “‘ Marriage of the Prince of
Wales.” The artist did not exercise any choice in the selection
of this theme, and with all his skill he has only been able to
add to previous proofs of the fact, that Court ceremonials,
however interesting to spectators, have little to commend
them to the artistic mind. With regard to other historical
pictures, we may presume that their subjects were selected
because they possessed some qualities of incident or suggestion
which the painter desired. The list of pictures of this class is
not. long, and the mere recital of the titles suggests some
curious thoughts. Lucknow and Cawnpore furnish Mr. Jones
with themes from the Indian mutiny, which he proposes to
work out ona largerscale. ‘ The Battle of Edgehill,” selecting
the moment when Prince Rupert, aided by the desertion of Sir
Faithful Fortescue from the Parliamentary ranks, makes a

successful charge, supplies a text for Mr. Cooper. Mr.

Wynfield represents the “ Last Days of Elizabeth” when she
was “‘mopish and melancholy”; Mr. Millais has a “ Joan of
Arc” ; Mr. Ward tries the old story of “ Rizzio’s Murder,”
taking the time when Ruthven enters the little chamber at
Holyrood, and says to the Queen, “ Let your man come forth—
he has been here too long.”

Mr. Millais, in addition to the “ Joan of Arc,” gives us an
ideal scene of the Romans leaving Britain. Mr. O’Neile depicts,
after a fashion, the pretty incident of Canute stopping his boat
to hear the monks of Ely sing. Mr. Storey exhibits Henry VIII.
taking his part in public games; Mr. Clay shows Charles IX.

surrounded by his courtiers, and instigated by Catherine de

Medici to join in the massacre of the Protestants by firmg at
them out of the window; Mr. Lacy represents Garibaldi depo-
siting a wreath on the tomb of Ugo Foscolo, at Chiswick. Mr.
Prinsep takes his subject from the flight of Jane Shore ;
Madame Jerichau has a simple, pathetic picture of a wounded
Dane attended by his betrothed; Mr. W. J. Grant portrays
Marie Antoinette endeavouring to win one of the opposition

Art Subjects and their Treatment. 363

leaders by showing him her child asleep; Mr. Drummond gives an
incident in the life of Claverhouse; Mr. Hayllar is inspired with’
“Queen Elizabeth’s toothache ;” Mr. Faed takes an incident
from old border minstrelsy, and his picture—a very good one—
is historical in spirit, if not in fact; Mr. Leslie discourses in
pigments on the “ Defence of Latham House.”

Not one of these subjects indicate any particular research
amongst recent writings on the part of the artists. Their
pictures might have been painted at any time, from information
picked up anyhow, and no one has any special tendency to stir
up great thoughts, vindicate noble memories, or incite to lofty
deeds. Within the last few years, a very powerful, and in many
cases, novel light, has been thrown upon Hnglish and con-
tinental history by the labours of Froude, Mottley, Kirke, etc.
Mottley’s Rise of the Dutch Republic and History of the
Netherlands are grand works, exciting to read, and abound-
ing in vivid descriptions of scenes, not hackneyed, and full of
human interest. Do our artists peruse none of these things ?
If the historical pictures of the present exhibition were all put
together, who would be better for them, morally or intellec-
tually? The two most striking pictures are “The Night of
Rizzio’s Murder,” and “‘ The Romans leaving Britain.’’ In the
former case the worthlessness of the victim, the dubious cha-
racter of the Queen, the undoubted baseness of her husband,
and the brutality of Ruthven, are not the elements out of which
a picture intellectually or morally great could be made. The
story is melodramatic rather than genuinely tragic, and it has
long since become commonplace. Passing over the want of
high purpose in this picture, we do not think it merits much
praise upon esthetic grounds. The lurid fire-light overpower-
ing the numerous candles on the table is scarcely natural, and
certainly not beautiful. The spectral-looking Ruthven con-
forms pretty closely with the story, as it has come down to us.
Darnley looks mean enough for those who take the worst view of
his wretched character; and Mary shows a mixture of disgust
with her husband, anger at the intrusion, and alarm at its
aspect, which is highly probable.

But why represent these things on canvas? As a domestic
picture it is disagreeable, not redeemed by any pleasant har-
monies of colour. It makes us feel that a supper party of
loose people, intruded upon by a ruffian proposing to kill one of
them, is a very unpleasant affair. Beyond this we find no-
thing to recompense the horror which an incipient murder
excites.

Mr. Millais, in his work, has given us a very powerful, if
not very pleasing, delineation of human feeling. A Roman
soldier casts himself in a last embrace upon a British woman,

364, Art Subjects and their Treatment.

whom he has to leave behind, and her countenance is full of
sternly-suppressed emotion of the bitterest kind. The scene
is on the coast of Kent, the chalk cliffs stretch along the
shore, and they are painted neither according to nature, nor
after the pre-Raphaelite style of exaggerating detail. The
grass is little like grass, the chalk little like chalk; but there
is power in the figures and faces, so that with little of the
beauty that ought to belong to a work of art to attract the
eye, the visitor to the gallery is, nevertheless, a captive for the
time, and what the artist has painted remains fixed upon the
memory, even to the oyster-shell in the corner, that indicates
the last Roman meal.

Next to historical subjects, biographical ones are most
naturally considered, and the foremost of the few pictures
belonging to this class is ‘‘'The Harly Career of Murillo,” by
J. Phillip, R.A. In the youthful days of the great Spanish
artist, poverty compelled him to paint hasty pictures for sale
at the weekly fair, “held in a broad street branching from
the northern end of the old Alameda. This venerable mar-
ket presents every Thursday an aspect which has changed
but little since the days of Murillo. Fruit, vegetables, and
coarse pottery, old clothes, old iron, still cover the ground as
they did two centuries ago, when the unknown youth stood
among gipsies, muleteers, and mendicant friars, selling for a
few reals those productions of his early pencil for which royal
collectors are ever ready to contend.’? No one can say that
this is not a good subject fora picture. It stands out picto-
rially in the extract from Stirling’s Annals of Spanish Painters,
which we have given from the Academy catalogue. Human
sympathy strongly attaches itself to the early struggles of the
world’s great men; and Mr. Phillip shows us, in the fine face
and proud aspiration of the young artist, a promise of future
fame, which seems also to impress itself on the rough pictu-
resque critics who are laying down the law, as they contemplate
a little piece which Murillo offers forsale. The grouping and
accessories of this fine work are eminently picturesque ;. but

there is a want of harmony amongst the various hues and

shades of reds and greens in the middle and on the left of the
work, which it would be well to correct.

Comparatively few pictures have been suggested by the

writings of our poets, either ancient or modern. There is, of
course, an Hlaine, and there are two Mariana’s from Tenny-
son’s well-known lay. Southey’s Battle of Blenheim, with
‘its refrain, “T'was a glorious victory,” suggests another work.
Lord Derby’s Homer has caused Mr. Leighton to give us a
Helen, whom we cannot fancy the Greeks would have been so
unwise as to seek to regain through many a bitter fight and a

Art Subjects and their Treatment. 365

protracted siege. Milton’s Penseroso gives a title to one piece,
and Tennyson’s lines—

“O swallow flying from the golden woods,
Fly to her, and pipe, and woo her, and make her mine,
And tell her—tell her—that I follow thee,”

have caused Millais to paint one of the most truthful and
beautiful things he has yet achieved. A young girl in a black
dress, with a blue bodice, looks and listens eagerly to a
swallow who brings her lover’s message from the “ golden
woods.” For a pleasant wonder Mr, Millais did not choose an
ugly model for his lady, and the antique furniture of the room,
with the lights glinting on the carved and polished chair—all
are in exquisite taste. One or two Shakspeare pieces we did
not think successful. Browning—whose works are rich in
themes for true artists—has not received a single illustration ;
but Mrs. Browning, whose writings would well repay any
artist’s study, has found in Mrs. F. L. Bridell an elegant in-
terpreter for her pretty story of the “ Romance of the

_ Swan’s Nest.” “Tittle Ellie” is sitting musing on her dis-

covery, and indulging in childhood’s romantic dreams.

_ Thus our artists seem to have got as little from the poets
as they did from the historians. Let us now survey their
labours from another point of view.

Scenes of oriental life are conspicuous in this exhibition,
and in the first rank of these is a work which, for many rare
qualities, is the finest in the whole collection. That we mean
Mr. Goodall’s “ Rising of the Nile” will be obvious to all
readers who have seen the pictures of this year. When the
fertilizing floods of the Egyptian river exceed, by a few feet,
their average rise, many villages are submerged, and desolation
and ruin await their surviving inhabitants. Mr. Goodall
represents the waters reaching such a village, and a family
making its escape. An old man with a green turban, seated
on a refractory camel, urges the affrighted beast to make the
last effort by which safety will be gained. A dark-skinned
servant gives his aid. In front is a little girl in a loose pearl-
yellow robe, with a green sheen upon it; she holds a lamb in
her arms. Near her is a woman carrying a baby; her outer
garment is of a rich and varied purple hue, the under one of a
singularly fine deep tone of crimson, mostly in shadow, but
flashing like a gem where its silken tassels catch the light.
An old, bedridden man is carried by picturesque figures, and
several other characters fill up the scene. This splendid work
is remarkable for several peculiarities. The time is early
morning, and the humid sky diffuses a cold, clear light,

' differmg widely from the gorgeous, sunset hues for which

366 Art Subjects and thew Treatment.

Heypt is famous, and which we lately endeavoured to portray.
All the figures are in comparative shadow with the bright light
behind the entire group. Such a treatment offers picturesque
advantages at the expense of great difficulties, which latter are
admirably surmounted. Under such circumstances, richness
of effect and briliancy must depend entirely on the skill with
which the colours are contrasted and harmonized. Only one
little touch of white is introduced, and a magical use is made
of greens, purples, crimsons, blues, and yellows. ‘Those who
fancy that the colourist has nothing to do but bring strikingly
opposed tints into juxtaposition, should study the immense
variety of tones and hues that are introduced into the
draperies of this piece. The dress, that at first sight would be
pronounced blue, is in reality of very complicated and varied
hue, and no part of the drapery is wanting in elaboration
of colour harmony. It is this, quite as much as the splendid
drawing, that makes the “ Rising of the Nile” a truly great
work—to our mind far exceeding anything Mr. Goodall has
hitherto accomplished. We do not wish to make unfair com-
parisons ; but let any one who has an eye for colour, go from
this picture to the fine painting representing Murillo’s boy-
hood, and he will then see how great an advantage the
** Rising of the Nile” possesses over the other important work,
because more pains have been taken to fill up the scale of
colour, and give that harmonious completeness which affords a
permanent sensation of delight.

Another striking oriental picture, but of a much lower grade
than the “ Rismg of the Nile,” is the “Turkish School at
Cairo,” by J. F. Lewis, R.A. elect. The colouring is brillant,
but scarcely harmonious, and the human interest is secondary—
the draperies and accessories constituting the artist’s real
theme. .

Domestic scenes in various ranks of life supply subjects for far
too many pieces for us to enumerate. In dealing with cottage
life, our artists, with scarcely an exception, commit the common
fault of treating their inmates as objects to be done into paint,
not as persons having joys, sorrows, temptations, and triumphs
like themselves. .The boards and tiles, the pots and pans may
be unexceptionable, but the sentiment is wanting. We might,
however, mention several delineations of domestic life that are
pleasing and meritorious as far as they go; one of the prettiest
in conception is the “‘ Old Maid”—two young girls, dressed
in old style, are playing at cards the game of “ Old Maid,” and
- the loser exclaims, “ Maggie, you’re cheating.” Mr. Archer is
the artist from whom this clever picture comes. Webster’s
“My Back Kitchen” is admirable for its truthfulness to fact
and to a conception void of the poetic, andif we may name Sir

Art Subjects and their Treatment. 367

H. Landseer’s ‘‘ Connoisseurs” in this series, it would be placed
at their head. The artist is making a sketch, and two dogs,
looking over his shoulders, are criticising the work, evidently
with more intelligence than human connoisseurs often display.

Landscapes form the last great category to which we shall
allude; and among the most elegant and pleasing is “‘ The
Village Smithy,’’ by Creswick, who has in this instance managed
to forget the mannerism which so sadly detracts from the
average merit of his works. A landscape ought to be beautiful
or it is not worth painting, and it ought especially to exhibit
those charms of light and colour which are evanescent in their
effects, which the true artist should be the first to recognize,
and which he only has the power toretain. Instead of content-
ing himself with somewhat tame green trees, over-polished
rocks, and soapy streams, Mr. Creswick has this year given us
a beautiful effect of contrasted light. A cool evening sky,
with a crescent moon, graceful trees, and a flowing river, con-
trast exquisitely with the red light from the village smithy.
The delineation is at once natural and poetic. All of us may
have seen something of the kind, and fancy clings fondly to
such pleasantly-tinted recollections. We should all like this
picture, and are half-vexed that, with so many other good
things, “ private property” should swallowit up. The thought
makes us exclaim with Proudhon, La propriété c’est le vol. The
- Linnells are of course in the landscape series ; and the “ Shep-
herd’s Mount,’ by W. Linnell, is very fine. What we regret
with them, and many other artists, is that they stereotype a
manner. You see fiery skies of a particular red tint, corn of
golden brown hue, and blue distances in certain combination,
and you are sure it isa Linnell—father orsons. Nature cannot
look so much alike to this clever family. She is infinitely
varied ; why cannot they avoid travelling on one path till they
have made a rut ?

We know not under what head to place the very mannered
and very popular productions of Mr. Hook. In the true artistic
sense of the term they are not landscapes, but Hookscapes. He
forms a theory of the sort of rock and water that will go with
his brown faced men and boys. It is not like nature, nor is it
an artist’s bettermg of that which he sees. Clever it un-
doubtedly is—sell it undoubtedly does ; but it has grave faults
in the eyes of those who love the actual as seen in an ideal light.

We have brought our examination to a conclusion. We
have made no attempt to note all the pictures in the several
series that might deserve comment. Our object has been to
arrive at some notion of the state of the artist-mind, from its
choice and treatment of subjects for pictorial work. We find, as
_ all honest critics must do, much to praise and be proud of, but

368 Dr. Draper’s Telescope.

we think we are not wrong in affirming that a want of literary
culture is on the whole noticeable and regrettable. It is mani-
fested in the little that our artists seem to learn from our poets
and our historians, in the poor view they so often take of life
and its realities, and in the tendency evinced in so many land-
scapes to avoid rather than to seek a comprehension of the
varied. effects which nature produces and exhibits, and to take
refuge in a mannerism as soon as any particular mode of treat-
ment has been discovered that conduces to immediate gain.
The artist ought to be one of the highest of the people’s
teachers. When more artists, take their true position, an
analysis of the subjects of a thousand pictures will give a very
different result.

DR. DRAPER’S THLESCOPH.

BY THE REV. T. W. WEBB, A.M., F.R.A.S.

It is gratifymg to observe that, amidst all the calamities
and distresses and confusion of a most unhappy civil war, the
studies of peace have not been wholly lost to sight. A re-
markable instance of this is afforded by the recent appearance,
among the publications of the American Smithsonian Insti-
tution, of a very interesting and valuable memoir, “On the
Construction of a Silvered Glass Telescope, 151 imches in
aperture, and its use in celestial photography, by Henry
Draper, M.D., Professor of Natural Science in the University
of New York.” A copy of this, through the courtesy of the
author, being now in my hands, I have thought that some
account of its contents might prove interesting, especially ata
time when silvered glass specula are attracting some attention
in England, and (unless we are much mistaken) are likely
to be more generally known and valued as most important
aids to the progress of observation.

The opening sentence of this memoir requires, however,
we venture to think, a little qualification. ‘The construction
of a reflecting telescope capable of showing every celestial
object now known,” Dr. Draper tells us, “‘is not a very diffi-
cult task.” We should have no hesitation in expunging the
negative here, unless it were permitted to add, “ when study,
and labour, and ingenuity, and perseverance have been brought
to bear upon it, equal to those displayed by Dr. Draper.”
His subsequent remarkis of more universal application. ‘The
cost of materials is but trifling compared with the result

——

ne

Dr. Draper's Telescope. 369

obtained ; and I can see no reason why silvered glass instru-
ments should not come into general use among amateurs.
The future hopes of astronomy lie in the multitude of observers,
and in the concentration of the action of many minds.” His
first idea was derived from an examination, in 1857, of Lord
Rosse’s great reflector, and of the machinery by which it was
perfected ; and on his return home in the following year, he re-
solved to construct a similar, though smaller imstrument, larger,
however, than any in America, and adapted to celestial photo-
graphy. A metal speculum was first completed, but was split
in two during the winter of 1860 by the expansion of afew drops
of water that became frozen in the supporting case, and his
attention was then, at Sir John Herschel’s suggestion, turned
to silvered glass mirrors, as reflecting more than 90 per cent. of
incident light, with only 1th of the weight of metal. The year
1861 was occupied in overcoming the difficulties of grinding
and polishing three 154-inch discs of glass, as well as a variety
of smaller pieces. Three similar mirrors were found almost
essential, as two would often be so much alike that a third
was necessary to gain a further step in advance. One was
made to acquire a parabolic figure (see INTELLECTUAL Ob-
SERVER, i. 213), and bore a power of 1000. The winter was
spent in perfecting the art of silvermg, and studying photo-
graphic processes. A large portion of 1862 was spent with
a regiment in a campaign in Virginia, but in the autumn sand-
clocks and clepsydras of various kinds were made, and the
driving mechanism attaimed great excellence. During the
winter the art of communicating the parabolic figure by Fou-
cault’s method was acquired, and two 15-inch mirrors, and
two of 9 inches, for enlarging photographs, were completed.
The greater part of 1863 was spent in lunar and planetary
photography, and the enlargement of negatives, some of which
were magnified to three feet in diameter. Two specula of 152
inches were also completed, ground to an oblique focus for
front view. “ This work,’ he adds—and any one with very
little experience may judge of the immense amount of toil
involved—“ has all been accomplished in the intervals of pro-
fessional labour.” Many of the expedients adopted in the
working, which are detailed at full length, are strikingly
characteristic of ingenuity as well as perseverance. To avoid
the tediousness of grinding out defects in a metal surface, they
were “stopped out,” after the manner of engravers, and the
uncovered space corroded away by the action of nitro-hydro-
chloric acid; by a similar mode, the strength of the acid being
graduated in separate zones towards the edge, an increase of
15 inches in focal length was gained. The grinder and mirror

were at another time included in a voltaic circuit to abridge

370 Dr. Draper’s Telescope.

the grinding process, and an idea was entertained of saving
much weight by electrotyping a brass mirror with speculum
metal. When he commenced operations with glass, he had to
polish with his own hands more than 100 mirrors of various
sizes, from 19 inches to + inch, and to experience very fre-
quent failures for three years before he was able to produce
large surfaces certainly and speedily. Huis labour would have
been much diminished, inasmuch as he would have been
spared the causeless condemnation of many fine mirrors, as
well as the working of some square ones, had he become
earlier aware of an important fact respecting the rigidity of
the material.* Generally speaking, a sheet of glass, even when
very thick, can hardly be set on edge without so much flexure
as to render it optically worthless ; but fortunately, im every
disc that he tried, there was one diameter on either end of
which it might stand without harm. On turning a disc of 154
inches, with a thickness of 14 inch, one quarter round, it could
hardly be realized that the surface was the same: 90° more
restored it to its original define power ; and this effect was
found to be independent of any irregularity on the edge of the
disc and of the mode of support. Dr. Draper refers it with great
probability to the structure of the glass, resulting from its
having been subjected to rolling pressure. A similar irregu-
larity of structure is known to obtain in many large object-
glasses, and Dr. Draper specifies the great achromatic by
Cauchoix, presented by the late Duke of Northumberland to the
University of Cambridge, as having had its lenses turned round
by Mr. Airy in mounting, for this reason. Short’s Gregorian
specula, too, were always marked on the same account. The
strange deformations of image produced by heat, even by the
warmth of the hand for a few seconds, are described and
represented. From such distortions the speculum would not
recover in ten minutes, and the error would be rendered per-
manent by repolishing in that condition; and so injurious may
such causes, even in a lesser degree, prove during the delicate
process of the final correction of the spherical error, that “a
current of cold or warm air, a gleam of sunlight, the close
approach of some person, an unguarded. touch, the application
of cold water injudiciously, will ruin the labour of days.” He
found it a matter of not unfrequent occurrence that a speculum
would perform much better with rays of a certain amount of
obliquity,+ deviating from 2° to 3° from the axis. It is obvious

* In examining and testing last year some fine 8-inch specula of Mr. With’s
workmanship, I had independently ascertained this peculiarity, so far as a best
position for each was concerned, but I stopped short of Dr. Draper’s RAseovery, fc)
a regular axis of rigidity.

I became acquainted with this fact many years ago, when working metals
for a small Newtonian reflector.

Dr. Draper’s Telescope. 371

that if this peculiar form could be produced at will, and to an
adequate degree, it would render the Lemairean, or front view
telescope, perfect. Dr. D., however, found that ‘the i image was
never quite as fine as in the usual kind of mirrors. A letter
of Maskelyne subsequently came under his notice, in which
he describes a very great improvement effected in a 6-foot
reflector by Short, by inclining the large speculum 21°, and
remarks very reasonably that ‘‘ probably it will be found that
this circumstance is by no means peculiar to this telescope ;”’
a hint which may be worthy of the consideration of the pos-
sessors of reflectors. Such surfaces require to be reground,
or ‘‘re-fined,” 7.¢., finished with the finest emery, to get rid of
this obliquity, as repolishing, though occasionally successful in
a few minutes, will not always effect it; the attempt failed in
one instance though continued for 134 hours.

The modes of formimg the requisite tools, of preparing
emery, of grinding, polishing, testing (by Foucault’s mode),
and silvering the surface, are somewhat too technical to find a
place here, but some interesting facts are worthy of being
referred to. Such is the effect produced by the removal from
a cast-iron tool, 153 imches in diameter, divided into 2? inch
squares, like a chessboard, of every alternate square by an
acid. Though the corrosion extended only to a very slight
depth, it flattened the curvature of the tool 72 inches. ‘ This
shows what a state of tension and compression there must be
in such a mass, when the removal of a film of metal, th of an
inch thick, here and there, from one surface, causes so great a
change.” Another important remark is, how injurious an
atmospheric disturbance is set up by the mtermixture of cur-
rents of warm air from the observer’s person with the rays
falling on or reflected from the mirror—an observation which
I made many years ago, and which any one may test by direct-
ing a Newtonian to any bright object, and placing one hand
beneath the aperture, while an eye-piece held in the other
* hand, and applied to the eye, is carried back a considerable
distance, so as to obtain a very long focus, and render the
ascending currents more visible. It has not, I believe, been
generally remarked how prejudicial an effect this must have
on definition in the front-view reflector, and it would be a
worthy object of attention to remove the evil by the inter-

osition of some non-conducting shield.

A full trial was given to no less than seven Bckines| on
the principles employed by Lord Rosse and ,Lassell, with
modifications of his own. ‘The prime mover, called the “< foot-
power,” was a very ingenious contrivance, in which very
little force is lost in overcoming friction, and which is fre-
quently employed in America for dairy use. Dr, D. himself

VOL. VII.—NO. V. BB

372 Dr, Draper's Telescope.

generally walked m his own, and has’ travelled some days,
during five hours, more than ten miles. It consists of an
endless band of short transverse boards or “ treads,’ inter-
locking so asto form a platform to tread upon, which will not
yield downwards on its upper side, but hangs loose in the
return half beneath, and passing over wheels and rollers at
either end. This succession of boards, having one end a hittle
higher than the other, runs downwards as soon as a weight is
placed upon it, and communicates motion to a large wheel on
_ the axle of the one over which it turns, and through it to any
connected machinery. Beimg placed between a handrail on
either side, it offers the appearance of a little narrow bridge,
as over a ditch, composed of transverse boards, on which the
mover may wall all day without getting a step forward. Itis,
in fact, a species of treadmill, of a much more pleasant con-
struction.

The mode of giving a parabolic figure finally preferred by
Dr. D., is that of “local retouches,’ in which the edge of a
spherical mirror is flattened, or, which he thinks preferable,
the centre is bored out deeper, by appropriate polishers of
curvatures differmeg slightly from that of the original tool on
which it was wrought. This method, as invented by M. Léon
Foucault, at Paris, was employed by hand, but has been prac-
tised by Dr. D. with suitable machinery, and with excellent
results; his great specula, thus finished, bearing a power of
1200, and dividing the celebrated test-pair y’ Addromede ;
while so great 1s the light-collecting power of 154 inches, that
the companion of Wega can be perceived even with the un-
silvered surface; some portions of the’ moon are even more
visible than after silvermg—a hint worth notice. When
silvered, the quantity of lunar light is so overpowering as to
impair for a long time the vision of an eye placed at the focus.
Several modes of silvermg were tried by Dr. D.—some
devised by himself. Foucault’s proved uncertain in its
results ; that of Cimeg, with tartrate of potash and soda, for
looking-glasses, modified so as to fit the silver for being

polished on the reverse side, he found superior to any, and in |

using it, “never on any occasion failed to secure bright, hard,
and in every respect perfect films.” Their thickness is about

sou cov Of an inch—nearly the same with that of gold-leaf of

equal transparency—the sun appearing through the silver of a
light blue tmt. Variations m its thickness are consequently
only small fractions of that fraction, and of no optical moment
whatever. It tarnishes quickly if exposed to sulphuretted
hydrogen—a defect which has been avoided in the English
process—and it may be split up into fissures by damp ; but heat
does not affect it, and it 1s generally very endurmg. “TI have

Dr. Draper’s Telescope. 373

some,” the doctor says, “which have been used ag diagonal
reflectors i the Newtonian, and have been exposed during a
large part of the day to the heat of the sun concentrated by
the 154 inch mirror. These small mirrors are never covered,
and yet the one now in the telescope has been there a year,
‘and has had the dusty film, like that which accumulates on
glass, polished off it a dozen times.”

Besides other interesting optical particulars, the memoir
contains many directions for the successful practice of celestial
photography, some of which might be found equally valuable
for terrestrial purposes; and to these we may advert on a
future occasion ; adopting for the present the author’s closng
remarks: “In concluding this account of a Silvered Glass
Telescope, I may answer an inquiry which, doubtless, will be
made by many of my readers, whether this kind of reflector
can ever rival in size and efficiency such great metallic specula
as those of Sir W. Herschel, the Karl of Rosse, and Mr. Lassell?
My experience in the matter, strengthened by the recent suc-
cessful attempt of M. Foucault to figure such a surface more
than thirty mches in diameter, assures me that not only can the
four and six feet telescopes of those astronomers be equalled,
but even excelled. It is merely an affair of expense and
patience. I hope that the minute details I have given | in this
paper may lead some one to make the effort.”

374 Hystero-Demonopathy im Savoy.

HYSTERO-DEMONOPATHY IN SAVOY.

Tue term Hystero-demonopathy has been invented by medical
writers to designate a form of hysteria in which the patients
conceive themselves subjects of demoniacal possession. For
the spread of disorders of this class it is necessary that the
victims of the malady should be ignorant persons, or, at any
rate, not haying received any practical scientific training ; that
the locality should be more or less isolated from the busy
world and that sharpening of the intellect and firmness of
moral character which results from the healthy exercise of
faculties under civilized conditions; and lastly, that there
should be a general belief in particular forms of superstition
favourable to the delusions of those whom the disease attacks.
Cases of this kind are very interesting in a scientific pomt of
view. ‘There must be a certain substratum of positive physical
disorder, and there must be a mental disorder co-operating
with the former, exaggerating its violence, and giving it a
special direction. During the middle ages such epidemics were
common, and they are probably much more frequent now than
is generally supposed; but the difference is, that whereas in
former times of greater ignorance, less security for life and
property, and less regular industry, they made their appear-
ance in important localities, they are now chiefly confined to
districts that have escaped the progressive influences of our
time, and it is only by accident that any person of adequate
knowledge studies the phenomena, and makes them the subject.
of a report.

We learn by an article in the Revue Moderne, that an
epidemic of the kind described is prevalent in a place called
Morzine, in Savoy. The superstitious folks declared that the
devil possessed many of the inhabitants of this place, and M.
J. Tissot, who writes the article from which our information is
derived, proceeded to the spot. It appears that in 1857, a
priest, born at Morzine, who tried to persuade the people that
the devil had nothing to do with their illness, was suspected .
of having cast a diabolical spell over some of the young women.
He was compelled to leave; but before departing they believed
he communicated the fatal secret to certain individuals who con-_
tinued the evil work. So the clergy and the laity fancied,
and the local medical science, instead of correcting the delusion,
became a convert to it. It was affirmed that exorcism had
succeeded in a similar case that had occurred in the neighbour-
hood of Morzine, and for a time other means were abandoned
in favour of a remedy that accorded with the state of the
village mind. Witnesses that would have been accepted as

Hystero-Demonopathy in Savoy. 375

trustworthy in ordinary affairs, declared that the devil enabled
the possessed to climb fir-trees like squirrels, and to stand on
their heads when they reached the topmost branches, which,
however delicate, were not bent under their weight. It was
also affirmed that they manifested prodigious strength and
remarkable eloquence, speaking Latin, German, and Arabic,
which they had never learnt, describing faithfully battles they
had never seen, and miraculously beholding from Morzine,
transactions that took place at Geneva. In utter contradiction
to their usual pious habits they blasphemed all holy things,
and had a horror of religious exercises. They spoke of them-
selves in the third person— he or she did so,” which was
explained to mean that the devil was speaking for them, and
they were believed to know the secret thoughts of individuals
whom they had never seen before.

These strange stories induced M. Tissot to visit the place,
which ke found occupied by a detachment of infantry and a
brigade of gensdarmerie, sent by the government to maintain
order, and with instructions to forward victims of the malady
who were attacked in church or in public, to Thonon, Nyon,
Cluny, and other places somewhat removed from the influences
operating at Morzine. Fortunately superstition decided that
the devil was not permitted to exercise his powers beyond
Morzine, and the patients soon got well under the care of the
government authorities.

M. Tissot visited a woman and her daughter who were >
said to be subject to possession. The latter, a girl of eighteen,
had been sent to Cluny, and since her return had not ex-
perienced a convulsive crisis. She seemed out of health, and
complained of pain in the epigastric region, and also of the
globus hystericus, which makes sufferers fancy their hearts are
coming up into their throats. Although better than she had
been, she was not able to go to church, nor to pray, and the
sound of the church bell was painful to her! She accom-
panied M. Tissot to her mother, and both spoke as if quite
certain that they were possessed. ‘The mother soon had an
attack. Her arms were thrown backwards and forwards, the
head thrown back on to the shoulders, and her body was
agitated as if by a series of violent electric shocks. The con-
vulsions were soon over, only lasting about a minute.

The following day, M. Tissot paid them a second visit,
taking with him some wine and some pastry, in which he had
put a little holy water taken by himself from the vessel in the
church. When he arrived at the cottage, the party consisted
of the hysterical mother and daughter, a little girl who
watched their cattle up the mountain, the grandfather—an
old soldier in the French armies—and his son, married to the

376 Hystero-Demonopathy in Savoy.

eldest of the women, and father of the two girls. They had
received a kind, but injudicious letter from a nun in the
establishment at Cluny, in which a good deal was said about
the demon. M.'Tissot read this aloud, till he came to passages
he thought undesirable, when he stopped and returned the
letter with an incredulous air. This, however, brought the
conversation back to the subject he desired to avoid, and the
mother had another attack like that of the previous day. The
other members of the family exclaimed that nothing but
exorcisms would suffice. M. Tissot reminded them that when
exorcisms had been general, until forbidden by the bishop,
the cases were more numerous. At first the suffering woman
made no reply; but her convulsions grew more violent, and
she began to declaim with great volubility. The devil seemed
to speak through her mouth; he spoke im his own name and in
that of the daughter, who would not leave her mother. After
heartily abusing Mr. Tissot, she experienced eructation, and
took some water, which seemed to calm her. During the
paroxysm of this fit, she struck the table with her fists as if
she would break it to pieces; but at its termination her hands:
were not particularly hot, nor was her pulse remarkably rapid
orstrong. M. Tissot then walked away with the old man, who
strongly believed in the alleged possession, which his visitor
attempted to counteract by telling of his trick with the holy
water, which he was bound to believe the devil would have
detected, and not allowed the woman to swallow.

M. Tissot states that this epidemic had at first a purely

hysterical character, from which it passed through stages of.

convulsion and ecstasy to that of demonopathy.

For a time the judicious measures adopted by the Minister
of the Interior were successful, and from a hundred and
twenty patients in the spring of 1862, the number fell in the
autumn to perhaps less than twenty. In 1563 the military
force left Morzine, as it was hoped that the disorder had
finally abated; but M. Tissot has recently recerved a letter
informing him that a fresh outbreak has occurred, commencing

at the announcement of a confirmation, and becoming so —

violent when the bishop arrived as to occasion alarming dis-
orders in the church. The poor people who thought them-

selves possessed uttered frightful cries and blasphemies, tried —

to spit upon the bishop and take from him his pastoral ring.
When the bishop pronounced his benediction the uproar be-
came frightful, and occasioned the utmost consternation.

It is remarkable that only two men have been attacked by
this epidemic, and that, with about ten exceptions, the patients
have been women from eighteen to twenty-five years old.

The authorities are endeavouring to divert the minds of

a a i a en

a}

{

i
q
f

Height of the Auroral Arch of March 20,1865. 377

the people, and it is hoped that when a road is finished
between Thonon and Morzine, they will have more useful
occupation, and come into greater contact with persons more
reasonable than themselves.

HEIGHT OF THE AURORAL ARCH OF MARCH 20,
1865.

BY A. S. HERSCHEL, B.A.

Sincz the laws of meteorology have become better known, and the
practice of recording meteorological observations more widely
extended, the appearance of the aurora has attracted attention,
more particularly in its connection with the local variations
of the magnetic needle. When the aurora is observed from
different points of view, it is important to note especially the
moments when individual phases of its principal features occur,
which may afterwards be connected with the motions of .the
magnetic needle. A connection should be established with
the daily telegraphic signals, to identify the time with Green-
wich, Edinburgh, or Dublin, at the first of which observa-
tories self-registered photographs of the movements of the
magnetic needles are recorded continuously, and are capable
of being compared afterwards with observations of auroras,
when these have been referred to standard Greenwich time.
On the 20th of March last, at 8h. 20m. p.m. G. M. T., an
auroral arch at Manchester was observed by Mr. Baxendell,
spanning the zenith from west to east, which about twenty
minutes later had changed its position very sensibly, the
western portion having moved in a southerly, and the eastern
portion in a northerly direction. At the same time an exten-
sive magnetic disturbance was observed, the index of a
delicate imstrument constructed by Dr. Joule for showing,
rapidly, minute changes of magnetic declination being driven
entirely out of the field of view. At Hawkhurst the luminous
arch was first observed at G.M. T. 7h. 50m. p.m. It dis-
appeared completely at 8h. 30m. p.m. Durimg this short
space of time the curves of the magnetometers at Greenwich
show that the needle moved eastwards, and back again,
through nearly half a degree of an arc of a circle. In a ver-
tical sense, the needles remained nearly unaffected or oscillated
in a less degree (see Fig. 1). Such an effect upon the mag- _
netometers would be produced by a galvanic current, at the
summit of the atmosphere, flowing from notth to south, over

Height of the Auroral Arch of March 20, 1865.

378

the needles, in the direction of the magnetic meridian.

It

An interchange of electricity

appears not improbable that the arch was one segment of a

luminous stratified discharge.

Fig. 1. REGISTER OF GREENWICH MAGNETOMETERS.

p-m.

1865, March 20th,

Hours of G. M. T.

5h

Thousandth Parts of Whole Vertical Force (increasing) V.F.

Ne)

9
0
“iL
2
4,
5

Seeees
aleieune
soalaae

De Ae A toe i pS PT) SH et | a bette) WES Stn (ace NE or IE eye teat tate |
ere ber or et et ee a par a eee nee ete Lee ae alte ee oe ee

ee

pppoe

<p a 2

qje<=
ehmeedan|
Euale

1 5
ameneunam z Se so ae es oe se ee
et 8) | Sane dt

ussbiwejem

Re
L}
=

vie e ae ae

Sree rer

i 5
ori Pe rr

“TH (Sursvesoar) oo10,7
[eJUOzZTAOF SOTO AA JO sjteq ypuesnoyy, pus !°q'AA (Sutsvoaour) uoryeurpay w1o9jsaA\ JO soynUTpy

Hours of G. M. T., 1865, March 20th, p.m.

y from the borders

es of the earth, in
of the icy regions, was an explanation of the aurora originally

pher

the form of an escape of galvanic electricit

between the north and south hemis

Height of the Auroral Arch of March 20, 1865. 379

proposed by Fisher and (many years later) by De la Rive.
Whether the principle of stratified discharges is adequate or
insufficient to explain these great “‘ semi-great-circles” that
pass in succession over our heads, must be left to magnetolo-
gists to decide ; for whenever there is aurora there is infallibly
large magnetic ‘disturbance.

Shortly after, or simultaneously with the disappearance of
the arch, a luminous glow appeared upon the north-west
horizon at Hawkhurst, Burton, Manchester, and other places ;
which continued from 8h. 40m. p.m. to 9h. 25m. p.m., and
then gave place to a display of auroral streamers, observed at
Burton-on-Trent and Windermere. This part of the display

1. Windermere.

2. Manchester.

3. Burton-on-Trent.
4. Hawkhurst.

Fig. 2. Change of Position in an Auroral Arch, March 20th, 1865.
appears to have been too distant to affect the magnetometers
at Greenwich.

It is important to note particularly the pesition in the
heavens occupied by the luminous arch (or other principal
portions) of an aurora at any time and place, as it is by a
comparison of these with other observations of a similar
nature recorded elsewhere that the distance of the meteor
from the earth can be calculated. The luminous arc observed
at Hawkhurst, from 7h. 50m. p.m., to 8h. 30m. p.m., on the
20th of March, appeared as a narrow, well defined ‘band of

380 Height of the Auroral Arch of March 20, 1865.

milky light, four degrees wide, and considerably wider and
brighter at last towards the western extremity. At that part
the upper margin descended abruptly to meet the lower mar-
gin at the horizon, the lower margin itself presenting an
unbroken and even curve from horizon to horizon. At 8h.
10m. p.m. the brightest or medial line of the arch (which was
very near the lower margin) passed across the stars « Cygni,
and A, 7 Andromedc, from a point in the east horizon below
Corona, to a point in the west horizon below the head of
Aries, where the lower margin was met by the upper margin
descending, from an altitude of five or six degrees, perpen-
dicularly to the horizon. The upper margin was diffuse at
-all parts excepting near the western extremity, where the
hight was most intense, contrasting strangely with the pale,
narrow riband of white light stretched out to the horizon in
the east. In this position the arch continued stationary from
7h. 50m. p.m., to 8h. 20m. p.m., or nearly so; but at 8h. 25m.
p-m. it was observed that the western extremity had risen
five or six degrees from the horizon, the eastern extremity at
the same time remaining unmoved, and gradually growing
fainter. The medial or brightest line of the arch now passed.
through the stars « Herculis, 5 Cephei, 8 Andromede, and a
point as far from (6 Arietis, as 8 from a Arietis.

By comparing these observations with observations of a
similar nature recorded elsewhere, some idea of the height of
the arch above the earth may be obtamed. At Burton-on-Trent
the luminous are was first perceived at 7h. 50m., at an altitude
of. 45° above the north horizon, and at the end of fifteen.
minutes the altitude had increased to 60°. This is an indica-
tion, which cannot be mistaken, of the drift of the phenomenon
(at one time of its appearance) bodily towards the south.
At one time of its visibility it was nearly vertical over Win-
dermere, and at another time nearly vertical over Manchester.
Between these places the southward drift must have taken
place. It. was succeeded. by an apparent elevation of the
western extremity of the arch at Hawkhurst, and by a revo-
lution of the arch, observed at all places, by which the western
extremity was brought nearer to Hawkhurst, but the eastern
extremity retreated towards the north. (See Figy.)

1 Between 8h. and 8h. 30m. p.m. the arch passed over Winder-
mere, and extended in length from the tail-stars of Ursa Major
in the east, to between the Pleiades and Venus in the west.
Comparing with this the first observation at Hawkhurst, where
for a long time the arch was nearly stationary, it appears that
at this time the light floated over Sca-fell at a height of 105
miles, and over Durham at a height of 110 miles, declining to
a height of 81 miles over the North Sea, at one extremity, and

Height of the Auroral Arch of March 20, 1865. 381

at the other extremity to a height of 77 miles over Ireland, a
short distance inland from Louth, upon the Irish coast. (See
Fig. 2.)

i 8h. 20m. p.m. the arch was nearly vertical at Man-
chester, extending from between e Z'awrt and the Pleiades,
across Capella, and across a Ursce Majoris, to ¢ Bootis. As,
soon after this time, the position of the arch underwent a
change, by revolution in a direction contrary to the sun or to .
the hands of a watch, it may be supposed that at the time of
the second observation at Hawkhurst (8h. 25m. p.m.) the
apparent position of the medial line at Manchester had ad-
vanced toe T’awri in one direction, and three or four degrees
north of ¢ Bootis in the other. The second observation at
Hawkhurst, compared with that at Manchester, gives nearly
the same height as before—namely, the height of the centre
108 miles over Preston, in Lancashire, and the height of the
two extremities, 75 miles over the North Sea, and 90 miles
over the Irish Channel between Milford Haven and Queens-
town. (See Vig. 2.)

The apparent flexure of the luminous arc at Hawkhurst,
where it was seen in profile, was greater than what would
arise from exact conformity of the arch to the curvature of the
earth. This circumstance of a greater distance from the earth
at the centre of the arch than at the two extremities, might
lead to a different view of the constitution of the arch from that
already advanced from the movement of the magnetic needle.
It might, for example, be inferred that the arch was occa-
sioned by a current of galvanic electricity flowing across
the magnetic meridian, from the atmosphere of Denmark to
the atmosphere of Ireland, or the reverse (see Fig. 2), and
seeking the line of least resistance by rismg to a summit in
the atmosphere; the small change of vertical force compared
with the great change of horizontal force, seen in the curves
of the magnetometers (Fig. 1), appears to favour this con-
clusion. To establish the result of a greater height at the
centre than at the two extremities as a general condition of
their form, would require repeated observations, and these
ares are, unfortunately, numbered among the rarer features of
the Aurora Borealis.

The following heights of three auroral arches, calculated
by Dr. Dalton, are taken from the Philosophical ‘l'ransactions
for 1828, where they were pointed out to me since writing
the above description.

(1). 1819, October 17th. Height between 100 and 102 miles,
observed at Keswick and Gosport.

(2). 1826, March 29th. Height between 100 and 110 miles,

observed at J edburgh and Warrington. i

382 The Auroral Arch of March 20,1865, as seen in Ireland.

(3). 1827, December 27th. Height nearly 100 miles, observed
at Kendal and Manchester.

Regarding the near agreement with one another of these
results, Dr. Dalton has the followmg remark :—“<JI am in-
duced to believe that these luminous arches of the aurora,
which occasionally appear stretching from east to west across
the magnetic meridian, are all of the same height, and that
height about one hundred miles.” The near agreement of this
conjecture with the height of the auroral arch observed on the
evening of the 20th of March confirms the general stability
of their appearance, and makes the uniformity of their effect,
as observed in the movements of the magnetic needle, a most
interesting subject of inquiry.

THE AURORAL ARCH OF MARCH 20, 1865, AS
SEEN IN IRELAND.

BY THE HON. MRS. WARD.

As I find that alate number of this magazine (that of April,
1865) contains some descriptions of an auroral arch seen in
Scotland on February 15th, I am tempted to send two accounts
of a similar phenomenon, seen on March 20th, together with
my own observations upon it, at Bellair, King’s county, lat.
58° 20’ 17” and long. 7° 44’ W.

I am constrained, however, to describe it in the tone of
the writer who, as stated in the article above referred to,
“‘ exclaimed,” concerning the aurora of February 15th, that its
wondrous beauty could hardly be described, and that it seemed
to lead ‘‘ onward to the golden gates of heaven.” Exclamation
must be employed in describing what I saw at ten minutes
before eight on the evening of March 20th.*

The afternoon had been clear, a light wind blowing from
the east. Several minutes before sunset I had detected
Venus as a glittermg point on the pale blue sky, and
had occasionally glanced at the brilliant planet during the
deepening twilight. About ten minutes before eight o’clock, _
I thought on looking towards the south, that the air had au
unusually luminous aspect. The moon had not risen—surely
the planet Venus could not throw such a light. I descended
the doorsteps, and stood astonished! The light was, in short,

% This denotes Dublin time, as kept at the neighbouring railway station; the
hour by Greenwich time was about 8h. 15m., and the aurora had probably been
visible several minutes before I observed it.

The Auroral Arch of March 20, 1865, as seen in Ireland. 383

caused by a magnificent auroral arch, commencing west of the
constellation Taurus, rising to a great height, though not
actually to the zenith, and terminating close to Arcturus, at a
few degrees over the eastern horizon.

Its shape was of an extraordinary regularity, like a broad
path of white light, and it was so intensely visible, and so
sharply defined, that it occurred to me to compare it to the
brazen meridian of a globe, realized as a luminous band. I
viewed it at first with feelings not unmixed with alarm, yet
more with deep admiration; then the thought, “It will soon
fade away,” led me to make the attempt to look at it with
calmness, and note some points to impress on the memory.

But “look at it” is scarcely the expression to use. It
was so large, the eye could not view it as a whole, but pro-
gressively, by following it along its sweep of a hundred and
forty degrees.

It remained visible during about half an hour from the time
when I first caught sight.of it. When it disappeared, I began
at once to write down what I had observed, and marked its
place with black paint on the celestial globe. ‘The notes made
were to the following effect :—

When I first saw it, its left margin (southern) was much
brighter than its right, especially at the western extremity, that
is, near Taurus. Its breadth there was greatest, viz., about 8°.
On turning round quickly and directing attention to the eastern
end, that is, near Arcturus, I could observe it was narrower
there, but could not trace any appearance of narrowing by
carrying the eye along the arch from the western to the eastern
end, as its sides then appeared to be parallel to each other.
The general stillness of the arch was remarkable ; there were,
however, slight exceptions. A distinctly-marked dark cleft
appeared in it, running up its centre lengthwise from the
western end, to about its highest poimt. This cleft soon be-
came less marked, seeming to close up abruptly. Another
movement was to be observed for a few moments along the
whole arch, its outline appearing waved, and again resuming
its straightness. My view of the western end was impeded
by the tops of trees; nevertheless, I have a distinct impres-
sion that it termimated very near the Hyades. The other
end was in full view. It just passed Arcturus, and re-
mained quite fixed there, the only change bemg that a
small faint streak extended from this extremity to the
horizon for a few moments, but quickly faded. This fixed-
ness of position was by no means the case with the western
extremity, for the arch, during its whole visibility, moved
bodily at that end from a position close to Aldebaran to one
close to Bellatrix in Orion. I mean that the right or north-

384 The Auroral Arch of March 20, 1865, as seen in Ireland.

ern edge was close to Aldebaran at the beginning of the
phenomenon, and that the left or southern edge was close to
Bellatrix at its ending. And if I remember rightly, it passed
over Pollux towards the end of the time, leaving Castor un-
covered; but as I have already said, the extremity close to
Arcturus showed no change of position. The gleaming of the
stars through the arch was very beautiful. They showed
through its delicate veil of light with undiminished bright-
ness, Just as they did through the tail of Donati’s comet. Tits
light was exceedingly white, and was for awhile Corton ae
brighter over Leo than elsewhere.

After making these notes mentally, I walked some way
down an avenue which commands a view of the northern
horizon, but saw no auroral appearances there. The arch
became much narrower at the end of twenty minutes; and at
the end of thirty minutes it was gone. About the manner of
its disappearance I cannot speak very confidently, as my
thoughts at the time were dwelling on the recollection of what
it had been at its brightest.

- Iwent out repeatedly during the evening to make sure of
the stars near which it should be marked on the ones and I
saw no further appearance of aurora.

The following account of the phenomenon of March 20th
appeared in the Irish Times, the writer (who signs. “J. B.”)
stating that his place of observation was in lat. 53° 37’ 45”,
and long. 8° 46’ 7” W., which denotes a position near Tuam :—

““T beg to inform you of a remarkable display of the Aurora
Borealis which I witnessed on the night of Monday, the 20th -
instant. Its principal feature was avery bright and well-defined
band that crossed south of the zenith from west to east, passing
under the planet Mars and over Orion, under Pollux, between
Leo and Coma Berenices, and under Arcturus.

- “The breadth of the band was about 8°, except toward
the east, where it narrowed, and ended in a pomt at the
confines of Bootes and Serpens; and it was divided through
its whole length by a black lme, which reminded me of the
usual dark space m the tail of a comet. It swept across the
sky with a beautiful double curve that faced the north in the
meridian, and bent in the opposite direction as it approached
Bootes. It had a slight motion towards the south until tts .
edge touched Beteleuese, at 7h. 50m., Dublin time, after
which it remained stationary until its disappearance.

“The zodiacal light was very apparent in the west, and,
though its limits could not be well defined on account of the
aurora and the great brilliancy of Venus, yet it could be traced
nearly to a pomt m the Milky Way, not far from where the
latter was traversed by the luminous band. The north-

Interary Notices. 385

western sky was spread over with a light that often broke mto
coruscations of white and red. There were no clouds, and a
freezing gale, which had been blowing all the day from the
north-east, was now subsiding. The thermometer marked 23°
on the grass, and the barometer, corrected to sea level, stood
at 30°25 inches.” :

A correspondent of the Times, dating ‘ Burton-on-Trent,
March 20,” and giving the initials “EH. B. K.,”? says :—

“A very fine aurora was visible here this evening. At
about 7.50 p.m., the sky being then perfectly clear and free from
cloud or mist, a brilliant arch of white light was formed, span-
ning the whole northern horizon, and extending to an altitude
of about 45°. This altitude rapidly increased to about 60° mm
a quarter of an hour. ‘The western extremity, which was the
brightest portion of the arch, tapered to a blunt point, ending
abruptly about 10° above the horizon. At 8.20 a luminous
mist appeared along the northern horizon. At 8.40 the arch
had quite disappeared. ;

““ At 8.45, anarch as perfect and as brilliant as the first,
formed at a much lower elevation, not more than 20°. The
sky imcluded in the arch was then quite black. I did not
observe any streaks to be thrown out till 9.25, when most
brilliant streamers of white light, tinged on the west side with
a faint roseate hue, shot up to a considerable altitude, forming
a most imposing sight. Clouds then coming over, rapidly
obscured. the phenomena.”’

LITERARY NOTICES.

A Dictionary or Scimncz, Lirerarure, anp Art, comprising the
Definitions and Derivations of the Scientific Terms in general use ;
together with the History and Description of nearly every branch
of Human Knowledge. LHdited by W. F. Branpz, D.C.L., F.R.S.,
L. and E. of Her Majesty’s Mint; and the Rev. Gnorcz W. Cox,
M.A., Late Scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, assisted. by Gentle-
men of eminent Scientifie and Literary Acquirements. (Longmans.)
Parts I. and Il.—We are very glad to see a new and enlarged
edition of Brande’s Dictionary, which bids fair to prove a very
‘valuable and welcome work. Most of the explanatory articles
appear to us very well written, but one of the gentlemen who does
the physiology is by no means up to the mark. The whole of the
explanation given under the title “ Animal,” is more or less open
to objection, and some of it decidedly wrong, as when the writer,
apparently knowing nothing of amcebe, tapeworms, or gregarina,
states that “animals are always provided with a mouth, and an
internal cavity, or canal.” Again, it is not correct to say that

386 Interary Notices.

“animals can convert into their own substance only matter which
has been already organized.” Surely they convert water into their
own substances, and every medical man who administers a preparation
of iron expects to find some of it assimilated by his patient. In
the endeavour to establish more differences than exist between
animals and vegetables, a want of care is exhibited, and we can
make nothing of such statements as that “muscular fibre reacts
when stimulated by an angular puckering called contraction,” while
in a sensitive plant there is ‘ only an angular plication of a con-
tiguous part.” The writer of the article “ Aberration” ought not
to have contented himself with saying that the “mirrors of optical
instruments are generally worked into a spherical form on account
of the difficulty of obtaining the parabolic curvature.” Mirrors
not intended for accurate performance are undoubtedly so made,
but those for reflecting telescopes are made parabolic, and an
amount of accuracy is attained by the best makers that deserves
more acknowledgment than the statement, “that attempts have
been made to adapt them to the purposes of accurate observation.”
We have no doubt the editors will take care that errors of the sort
we have indicated are avoided in future numbers, and our remarks
must not be understood to convey the impression that anything like
general carelessness has been shown.

A Year on tHE Sea Snore. By Purp Henry Gosss, F.R.S.
With Thirty-six Illustrations by the Author. Printed in colours by
Leighton Brothers. (Alexander Strahan.)—This is a very elegant
and interesting volume that will prove a delightful companion for
sea-side visits. There may not be in its pages so much for the
advanced student as in some former works by the same author, but
it is an admirable popular work, and contains vivid descriptions of
a great variety of marine objects, many of which can be easily.
found by any sojourner on our coasts, who will take the pains to
follow the instructions which are given. The plates are very good,
though not quite up to the mark of those in Tenby, or the Devon-
shire Ooast, and will render it easy to recognize many species of
beautiful fishes, worms, mollusks, etc., to be obtained by searching
amongst rock- ‘pools, and other modes of pleasantly spending
hours “by the sea. When we consider Mr. Gosse’s remarkable talent
as a naturalist, his admirable facilities for observation, his brilliant
powers of description, his skill as a microscopist, and. his capa-
cities as a draughtsman, we are extremely sorry to find his book
closing with an announcement that “it will probably be the last
occasion of his coming in literary guise before the public.”

A TREATISE ON THE ConstRuUCTION, Proper Usn, AND CAPA- ©
BILITIES OF SmirH, Beck, AnD Brecx’s AcHRomatic Microscorz. B
RicHarpD Becx. Printed for Smith, Beck, and Beck, 31, Cornhill.
Published by John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row. 1865.—This
handsome large octavo volume contains a description, illustrated
by numerous woodcuts and plates, of the various kinds of micro-
scopes manufactured by Messrs: Smith, Beck, and Beck, and of all the
principal pieces of apparatus employed i in microscopic research. It

Interary Notices. 387

also contains the finest plates we have seen of the appearance of
the Podura scale under various degrees of magnification, the Arach-
noidiscus Japenicus, some of the most beautiful Polycystina, the
so-called glands in deal, the Demodex folliculorum, and certain other
objects. Itis not generally known that a simple split fragment of
a lucifer match offers, as Mr. Beck explains, the best and readiest
mode of examining the structure of deal, which is beautifully dis-
played under a two-thirds object-glass. One of the plates givesthe _
appearance of Norbert’s lines as shown by an one-eighth, with the
third eye-piece of Messrs. Smith and Beck’s series, magnifying .
1300 linear. As very few microscopists have had an opportunity
of seeing Mr. Norbert’s wonderful ruling on glass, we may state
that his lines are arranged in twenty bands, varying in closeness
from a ratio of 13 to 70 in one thousandth of an inch. Mr. Beck
says that “an one-eighth of 120° aperture will show them all; but
when cut down to 110° it will not separate the 20th band; at 100°
the 17th (63 in 001”) is the limit; at 80°, the 14th (57 i in 001”);
and at 60°, the 10th (45 in 001”). Thus it will be seen that these
lines afford excellent illustrations of the effect of varying angles of
aperture, and they are more reliable than diatom lines, because there
is not the same doubt as to their real degree of proximity, which
varies in different specimens of the same diatom. For testing the
excellence of correction, the Podura scale is the best object for high
power, and with Mr. Beck’s plates and directions the merit of any
objective may be readily ascertained.

On tHE DisrripuTion OF Rain over THE British Istus DURING
THE YEAR 1864, as observed at about 900 Stations in Great Britain
and Ireland. With illustrations. By G. J. Symons, Member of the
British and Scottish Meteorological Societies. (Stanford.)—The
increasing body of persons interested in meteorological inquiries
will welcome this laborious compilation, and Mr. Symons deserves
great credit for the zeal with which he has extended observations
on the rainfall of these islands. From explanations given by Mr.
Symons, it appears that up to 1864 he defrayed the entire expense
incidental to the collection of- rainfall statistics, and that about
£100 was contributed towards the expenses of that year. We cer-
tainly hope that some arrangement may be made by which the
future collection of these important facts will not be permitted to
throw upon Mr. Symons a loss of money as well as a great expen-
diture of time.

Sea anD River-sip—e RaMBLEs IN VIcroRIA: being a handbook
for those seeking recreation during the summer months. (Geelong,
Heath and Cordell; London, Kirkland & Co.)—It is very pleasant
to find a cheap and prettily illustrated handbook of the popular
zoology and botany of Victoria. From the skill with which Mr.
Hannaford has performed his task, we cannot doubt that he will
induce many of our Australian friends to devote a little of their
leisure time to the pursuit of natural history, which will not only be
advantageous to themselves but useful to science, as their country is
rich in objects of great interest.

VOL. VII.—NO. V. cc

388 Interary Notices.

THe Oxrorp, CamBripcr, anD Dusiim Messencer or Marun-
matics, No. X.. (Macmillan.)—As the title page informs us, this
serial is ‘‘ supported by junior mathematical students of the three
Universities,” and edited by William Allen Whitworth, and five
other gentlemen well known im their respective circles. From the
contents of the part before us, we have no doubt mathematical
students will appreciate this publication, and find in it matter that
might not be otherwise accessible.

Tae Canapian Naturalist anp Geoxocist. (Montreal, Daw-
son; London, Bailliére.)—Successive numbers which reach us of
this publication show that it maintams a high character as a scien-
tific magazine ; and many of the papers on local subjects will have
a permanent value that naturalists and geologists will not fail to
appreciate.

A Few Worps on THE CuHoice or a Microscopz. By J. J.
Puumer, Hsq., M.A. With illustrations. (Churchill.)—This reprint
from the Quarterly Journal of Microscopie Science describes the
principal forms of microscope in use, and the author’s conclusion is
that if a purchaser can afford it, he had better obtain one of the
first-class instruments by one of the best makers.

Grotocy anp History: A popular exposition of all that is

known of the Harth and its Inhabitants m Prehistoric times. By
BeRNHARD von Corrs, Professor of Geology at the Academy of
Mining, Freiberg, in Saxony. (Tribner.)—Mr. R. R. Noel presents
the English public with a translation of the lecture by Professor
Cotta, on the evidences that man is an old inhabitant of this globe,
and on kindred subjects. It is more pretentious than explanatory

to call a single short essay an explanation of all that is known of the
earth and its inhabitants in prehistoric times; but Professor Cotta’s .

lecture contains a good sketch of some ofthe principal facts relating
to these questions, and forms a convenient little book for the general
reader.

Man Consiprrep Socratiy anp Moratiy. By Grorcu Sparkes,
Esq., Madras Civil Service. (Longmans.)—Mr. Sparkes tells us
that for many years he has been in the habit of jotting down the
most noteworthy opinions on social topics which he heard or read;
and the present neat little volume is a reswmé of his collections,

united together with original matter in a shape that will be accept- _

able to those who may have neither the knowledge nor the oppor-
tunity for the extended literary researches which the author carried
on for the gratification of his own mind.

PracticaL Cuemistry. By Srevenson M‘Apam, Ph. D., F.R.S.H.,
F.C.S., Lecturer on Chemistry in the Medical School, Sur-
geons’ "Hrall, and to the School of Arts, Edinburgh. Illustrated by
woodcuts. (Chambers.)—Although we fully appreciate elaborate
works, which must necessarily he expensive, we rejoice at the
valuable efforts made by Messrs. Chambers, and other excellent pub-
lishers, to bring scientific information within the reach of large

Se

Interary Notices. 389

classes, to whom a little money is a precious thing. This small,
but very compendious volume on Practical Chemistry will, we have
no doubt, assist students of medicine and arts, and advanced pupils
in educational institutions, for whom it is especially intended ; but
it is also well adapted to the much larger class who must either go
without knowledge, or be their own instructors. The title “‘ Prac-
tical Chemistry” is scarcely explicit enough. What Dr. M‘Adam
has done is to compile a clear step by step exposition of qualitative
analysis applied to the detection of substances most likely to occur ~
in medicine and the arts. The arrangements appear to us very
good for the double purpose of compression and easy reference. It
would be a useful work for persons engaged in teaching ordinary
school-classes, and we believe that before long no parent capable of
paying a respectable price will tolerate any school in which physics,
chemistry, and other practical sciences are entirely neglected. In
all cases that admit of experiment or direct observation, the theo-
retical parts of science which constitute its value as a mental dis-
cipline, become much more intelligible after a requisite body of
facts have been practically acquired, and it is absurd to consider
that boys and girls are properly educated when they are left in
total ignorance of the properties of substances and agencies upon
which their existence and comfort depends.

How to Ust tHe Baromprer: a Companion to the Weather-
Glass. (Bemrose and Sons.)—This little book consists of an
almanack, with spaces for recording the state of the weather from
day to day, prepared by explanations of barometers, thermometers,
meteorological terms, etc.

Lonpon MetzoroxtoetcaL Diacrams, showing the Daily Elements
throughout the Year 1864. By C. O. F. Caror, M.A. (Sanford.)—
By clever arrangement a very large amount of information is unde-
niably and strikingly arranged in this sheet. The daily fluctuations
of the barometer for 1864, daily maximum and minimum tempe-
ratures, the Greenwich mean for each day, taken on the average
of 43 years, direction of wind, weekly deaths from the Registrar-
General’s returns, age of moon, meridian altitude of sun, and other
particulars, are made obvious on simple inspection. We hope Mr.
Cator will receive adequate support in continuing this interesting
work.

Homes without Hanps. By the Rev. J.G. Woop. (Longmans.)
Both the text and the illustrations of this interesting work keep
up their character. Birds now occupy a considerable share of Mr.
Wood’s attention, and the portraits of the feathered builders and
their abodes evince taste and skill.

390 Archeologia.

ARCH AOLOGIA.

THe coast of Cheshire, extending from the mouth of the Dee to
that of the Mersey, especially the part of it adjacent to the village
of Horak, and forming part of the ancient hundred of Wirrall, has
long been an object of interest to the antiquary, in consequence of
the numerous antiquities, usually small objects, such as buckles,
rings, brooches, etc., which have been continually picked up on the
beach. These antiquities, which range from the Roman period until
comparatively recent times, form the subject of a volume of con-
siderable interest, by Dr. Hume, of Liverpool ; and they now begin to
assume increased interest in connection with geological questions,
and that all engrossing question, the Antiquity of Man. These
coasts, in fact, have no doubt undergone very great changes within
no very great space of time. At a meeting of the Ethnological
Society, last year, Professor Busk exhibited and described a skull,
with other human bones, found, as it was said, under a layer of
ancient peat, which itself lay under sandhills of very great elevation.
Some little excitement was created by the discovery of these re-
mains, which were at first believed to be those of a man of the pre-.
historic ages, but Professor Busk expressed the opinion that their
antiquity was not great, and such proves, from an examination
of the locality, to be the case. It shows how cautious we ought to
be in forming conclusions of the antiquity of objects from the mere
position in which they lie. As the antiquities alluded to, which are
washed up by the tide or by the waves of the sea, continue to be
picked up on the beach, without any apparent diminution of their
numbers, they are continually furnishing new objects of interest ;
and we read with pleasure in the new number of that excellent .
periodical, the Reliquary, an account of the discoveries made in this
neighbourhood during the last year, in an article by Mr. Hcroyd
Smith, who has carefully surveyed the ground, and has given
sections which explain much of the mystery in which these anti-
quities have been involved.
This coast, as just stated, is at present formed by great hills
of loose, shifting sand, which rest upon a layer of marshy deposit ,
of little depth, and of no very remote date. Jt was in or under this
bed, which was mistaken by the finder for ancient peat, that the
human remains were found, and they were probably those of a —
drowned man, whose body had been cast on the shore and hastily
buried, as Mr. Ecroyd Smith thinks, within three hundred years of
the present time. Next beneath this thin marshy deposit comes a _
much thicker bed of firm drift sand, in which are found medieval
articles, with occasionally a few remains of an earlier period at the
bottom of it. This is followed by a still deeper bed of artificial
arable soil, composed of bog and sand, mixed with a little marl.
The objects found in this bed are also medizval, including frag-
ments of pottery, and bones of domestic animals, and among these
was the Bos longifrons. As the antiquities fonnd in this bed
appear all to belong to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, this
discovery brings the continued existence of the Bos longifrons down

Archeologia. 391

to a much later period than has hitherto been supposed. Imme-
diately under this bed is another thinner stratum of blue marl or
silt, with numerous petrified roots of Equiseta and other fresh-water
plants, and among these have been found Saxon and Norman coins,
and other objects belonging to those periods. This rests upon a
thicker bed of forest bog soil, thickly filled with trees and shrubs,
with many stumps of large forest trees, and here and there pros-
trate stumps. The animal remains in this bed include the deer, ox,
horse, and wild boar, with land and fresh-water shells. The manu-
factured objects found in this bed are chiefly Roman, with a few
articles, such as a coin, which are undoubtedly Saxon, and in the
lower portions a few arrow-heads of flint, stone, and shell. Under
this bed we come to one of about the same thickness of blue marl,
containing remains of Bos Primigenius, and Megaceros Hiber-
nicus, and Cetaces, but no traces of man’s existence, except a few
“ primeval flints.”

These various successive beds bear evidence to great changes
which have taken place in this coast during a known period.
During the Roman period, this district, now buried in sand, was
covered by thick forests, which ran out far into what is now sea,
and corresponded no doubt to the forests of which similar remains
are found on the coast of North Wales. Opposite the Dove Point
there was a considerable and elevated promontory, on which was a
seaport in Roman and Saxon times, and upon Hilbre, or Helbre
island, which was then much more extensive than at present, there
was another Roman settlement, the site of which was occupied in the
middle ages by a small monastic establishment. The objects of
antiquity found during the past year on this coast, as enumerated
by Mr. Ecroyd Smith, are about half a dozen Roman coins, two of
which are of the Emperor Claudius Gothicus and Constantine the
Great, and one of the small coins which numismatists call MINIMI,
and which appear to belong to the close of the Roman period; a
Roman brooch of the common harp-shape, and two pins of brooches,
all in bronze, and the brooch enamelled. The medizval objects
are, a silver penny of Edward II., a pin with globular head, a
needle two inches long, with the eye in a pointed head, a portion of
a radiated thread-winder, part of a triangular needle, five plain and -
three ornamented studs of straps or belts, all of the mixed metal
called in old English latten ; a girdle-hasp of steel, and a portion of
a large buckle, a flat ring of iron, and a quantity of fragments of
pottery, ranging in date from the twelfth to the sixteenth century.
Of later date were a shilling of James I., and several heads of clay
pipes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Very interesting discoveries have been made of late years near
the village of Wxrron in Staffordshire, close on the limits of Derby-
shire, where numerous tumuli were formerly opened by Mr. Samuel
Carrington and the late Mr. Bateman; but more recently much
more extensive excavations made by the former gentleman have
brought to view the floors and other remains of an extensive assem-
blage of residences evidently belonging to the. Roman period and
to people of a low class in society, possibly families connected with
the Roman mining operations, as some lead ore were found. The

392 Archeeologia.

pavements were usually of rough limestones, or sometimes only of
the earth beaten down, and they were covered with ashes, and
with bones of animals, so that evidently the inhabitants, who must
have lived largely upon flesh meat, threw the bones and refuse on
the floor, and never troubled themselves to remove them. Pieces
of broken pottery, of different degrees of fineness, were also
scattered about the floors. An examination of these showed further
that there had been no fixed place for the fire, but that it had been
made capriciously anywhere on the floor. On one floor, which was
more extensive than the others, and appeared to have belonged to
a house of more lofty pretensions, were found, among other things,
a small knife-blade, a pike, and a plain fibula, all of iron, and a
beautiful bronze fibula, tastefully ornamented with yellow lozenges
down the front. Part of a human skull was found on this floor.
In others of these remains of ancient residences were found imple-
ments, or portions of implements, of various kinds, knives, a small
two-pronged fork, broken querns for grinding corn, mortaria, and
various other articles. In one instance the decayed remains of the
four corner posts of the house were found, showing that it must
have been surrounded by an area, probably of timber. Several coms
have been found, but all Roman. Mr. Carrington’s own account of his
discoveries is printed in the Reliquary, and enters into very minute
details, but we cannot agree with him in thinking that any of these
remains belong necessarily to an earlier date than the Roman period.

Roman remains of some interest have been found at a place
called Andoversford, in Gloucestershire, about fourteen miles from
Gloucester, on the Avon. The chief value of the discovery, however,
is that it seems to fix the site of a Roman station, called in the
Itinerary of Richard of Cirencester, Ad Antoriwm (on the Avon),
and lying between Glevwm (Gloucester), and Alawna (Alchester),
which has hitherto been a subject of considerable doubt.

Frequent -discoveries of Roman remains of more than usual
interest, both domestic and sepulchral, have been made along the
line of the Roman road from Venta (Winchester), through the
station of Ad Lapidem (site uncertain), to Clausentum (Bittern).
One of the last of these which has occurred within the present year,
is that of a Roman leaden coffin, near Bishopstoke, in Hampshire,
by some men digging for gravel. The leaden coffin had been in-
closed in a wooden one, which remained only in the shape of frag-
ments of decayed wood. The coffin was made, as usual with Roman
leaden coffins, out of one piece of cast lead, by cutting out the
corners, and turning up the sidesand ends. Inside was the skeleton
of a female, with the broken fragments of apparently four vessels
of pale green glass. One appeared to have had straight sides;
‘another had presented somewhat the form of a soda-water bottle ;
and a third was of a more globular form. The glass was very thin,
which is characteristic of a rather late date in the Roman period.
The leaden coffin measured, internally, five feet six inches in length,
’ by rather more than sixteen inches in breadth, and it was ten inches
-deep, so that the lady who was buried in it must have been oe

ee ee

Proceedings of Learned Societies. 393

PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES.

BY W. B. THGHTMEIER.

ETHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—April 11.

On tHe Arrican or Occipentat Negro.—Dr. Crawford gave a
very impartial account of the physical and mental qualities of the
true Negro race, as distinguished from the other dark races, with
which it is not unfrequently confounded. In the true African
Negro the hair is always black and woolly, the skin black, of various
shades, the eyes dark, face flat, nose depressed, jaws projecting, with
thick lips and large mouth, the incisor teeth being oblique. The
skin possesses a peculiar odour unknown in any other races of men.

The true Negro is of the average height of Huropeans, and is
the only dark race possessing the same average amount of strength.
From the Negroes must be distinguished the following African
races—namely, the yellow Hottentots, the Abyssinians, the Samouli,
and the Galli, all of whom have long hair and well-developed
features. The civilization of the Negroes cannot be compared with
that of the Huropean races; it is even far inferior to that of many
other races on their own continent. Their agriculture and manu-
factures are of the coarsest kind; they have no literature, and
have rarely ever adopted the writings of other races.

Naturally the Negroes are a home-keeping, unadventurous race,
neither war, commerce, or colonization ever having tempted them
voluntarily to pass their natural boundaries. In the American
States, where they are under restraint, the numbers keep pace with
that of the white population. In our own colonies, where they are
emancipated from slavery, their numbers decrease: thus, in Jamaica,
in 1833, the number of blacks emancipated was 310,000; in 1844,
the Negro population had fallen to 196,000. In Hayti, where the
Negroes have been their own masters for half a century, the popu-
lation is stationary.

April 25. ®

On THE Capacity or Anrmats ror Domestication.—In a paper ©
read before the society, ‘‘ On the Domestication of Animals in the
Middle Ages,” a very important,' but generally overlooked, distinc-
tion between the different degrees of capacity for domestication
was admirably stated. Animals may be classed as those capable of
complete domestication, those capable of imperfect domestication,
and those incapable of domestication. ‘1

The first class is very limited in number; it includes those
animals which, when once reared by man, will not willingly leave
him, and, if they do so accidentally, will endeavour to return.
Among these are cows; sheep, horses, camels, dogs, poultry, and
pigeons. ; '

The second group is also very limited in number, it includes

“many animals that breed freely in confinement, but which, if they

394 Proceedings of Learned Societies.

escape from man, will not return willingly: pheasants, partridges,
deer, hawks, etc., are samples of this group.

The third class, which comprises by far the greater number of
animals, are altogether incapable of domestication ; many will breed
in confinement, but all will escape to savage life immediately that
an opportunity offers.

These three classes are well marked, and it appears doubtful
whether it is possible to transfer an animal from one to the other.
Thus, notwithstanding the long series of years that pheasants have
been reared ina state of semi-domestication, it is impossible to
render them as perfectly domesticated as the common fowl. On the
other hand, wild jungle-fowl and the wild rock-dove may be reared
from the nest, and will become at once perfectly domesticated in their
habits, a result which it is impossible to obtain with even the most
closely allied species belonging to the same genera.

It is doubtless the want of attention to there psychical differences
that has rendered the efforts of the Huropean Acclimatization
Societies so abortive; in fact, itis very doubtful whether any animals
exist at present in a wild state, that are capable of being perfectly
domesticated so as to be useful in civilized communities.

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.—April 24.

On a New Passacz Across THE Istamus or Panama.—Mr-
Laurence Oliphant read a short narrative of a journey which he
had made from Panama to the Chepo, or Bayanos River, which
enters the Pacific about thirty miles to the westward of the former
place. Between this point and the Gulf of St. Blas, the Atlantic
and the Pacific approach nearer to each other than they do in any
other part, and the object of the paper was to call attention to the
fact that, during the many surveys which had been undertaken
with a view to discern the most practical line for a ship canal, this
part had been neglected. The neck of land which divides the
Atlantic from that poimt on the Bayanos River to which the tide of
the Pacific extends, is only fifteen miles across, and however in-
credible it might seemythe writer had not been able to learn that
this short distance had ever been crossed, much less explored by a
white man. In 1837, Mr. Wheelwright attempted it, but was
driven back by the Indians, and some years later Mr. Evan Hop-
kins started with a view of exploring this route, but was compelled
to abandon it for the same reason. ‘The object of the writer in his
visit was simply a reconnaissance, the persons in whose company
he made the trip having no idea of exploration, but merely visiting
the little settlement of Chepo, where they had bought an estate.
He was unable to reach so far as Terabla, where the influence of
the Pacific tides ends, and where an expedition to cross to the
Atlantic would have to start from; but he saw from Chepo a very —
remarkable depression in the mountain chain, about ten miles
distant. He was repeatedly assured, both at Panama and at
Chepo, that the Darien Indians were in the habit of hauling their
canoes on wooden slides across the Cordillera, from the Mandinga

Proceedings of Learned Societies. 399

River, and launching them in the Bayanos. Surely it was a dis-
credit to the civilization of the nineteenth century that the Indians
should be said to pass with boats from the Atlantic. to the Pacific,
and that we should never have had the curiosity to verify this fact
or explore the only section of the Isthmus of which it could be
stated with any appearance of truth.

General Mosquera (Minister of the United States of Columbia)
described the efforts which the Government of his country were
making to open a road across the Cordillera at the point mentioned
by Mr. Oliphant. This was one_out of many enterprises which
were now being pushed forward with a view to increase the com-
merce between New Granada and Great ERED in the abundant
produce of that part of Tropical America.

May 8.

On THE TEMPERATURE AND CURRENTS OF THE SEAS BETWEEN
ENGLAND AND Inp1a.—Capt. Toynbee recorded the principal ob-
servations which he had made with instruments supplied by the
Board of Trade, during five voyages to India, leaving England
early in July and returning about the middle of April. It was the
constant recurrence of certain phenomena in the condition of the
sea, in the same place and at the same time of the year, that had
led him to think they might be interesting as poimting to some
important conclusions regarding the Physical Geography of the
sea. He found, in the Atlantic, that the specific gravity of the sea
decreased on approaching the equator, a result due to the rains
falling between the North-east and South-east Trades; and in the
Southern Indian Ocean, in the rainy season (January and Feb-
ruary), the whole ocean was affected by the rains then falling
south of the Line. With regard to temperature, his numerous
observations during the five voyages threw some light on the cold
current which swept in August northward along the west coast of
Africa; this he found reason to conclude curved sharply to the
westward shortly after crossing the Line in about 17° W. long.: the
farther east of this the colder was the water ; once, between 1° 30°
to 0° 30’ N. lat., he found its temperature to descend as low as 70°
(Fahr.), making the air quite cool and damp. In March this current
is of a higher temperature, because it has then flowed from the
south after the southern summer. Capt. Toynbee confirmed the
views of Towson regarding the direction of the tracks of icebergs
in the South Atlantic, and showed that the very low temperature
of the sea in Table Bay, sinking to 51° in February, was due to the
current setting from the ice-bearing sea, and that this was also the
source of the great West African current. A few miles to the
south-east of the Cape the sea greatly increases in warmth, and
along the parallel of about 40°, running from the meridian of
Greenwich to 50° E., there was found in each voyage a succession

of Janes of hot and cold water, the hot as high as 67° (Fahr.), and

the cold sometimes as low as 40°. Were it not for the rush of
warm water down the Mozambique channel, the ice-streams travel-
ling north-eastward would not be deflected as now, to the south-

396 Proceedixgs of Learned Societies.

east, but would go forward and render the passage round the Cape
much more dangerous than it is. Capt. Toynbee recommended
outward-bound ships to delay crossing the fortieth parallel till the
longitude of 10° H. is reached, and stated that as the sea on the
Agulhas Bank is always several degrees colder than that to the
eastward of it, the thermometer is a good guide to tell a ship when
she.is coming near the land.

ROYAL INSTITUTION.—May 19.

The Friday evening discourse was delivered by Mr. W. Huggins,
on the CHEMICAL AND PuysicaL CONSTITUTION OF THE STARS AND
Nesutz. The heavenly bodies occupy a position of pre-eminence,
as they afford the only means of obtaining information as to objects
in the universe’external to the earth; but the experimentalist has
to cope with the difficulty that four out of the five senses fail him
in the investigation. Light is our only means of communication ;
but stillthe distances, magnitudes, and motions of many of these
bodies have been determined. As with sound, we can distinguish
not only the note, but the kind of material producing it, whether
wood, brass, or string; so light gives indications of the substance
from which it emanates. Newton first decomposed light by a prism,
and showed that some rays are spread out more than others.
Wollaston and Frauenhofer discovered the dark lines crossing the
spectrum, and these lines reveal the constitution of the body ; but
this was written in cipher till 1859, when Kirchhoff announced the
mode of interpreting it. Spectra are of three orders. First, a
continuous coloured band, which we know must be produced by an |
incandescent solid or liquid, but which gives no indication of the
nature of the luminous substance. Second, a spectrum, consisting of
a few bright lines, which is produced by a gas or vapour. Hach
substance has a spectrum of its own, and that of an unknown body ;
being compared with the known elements, we recognize certain
similar groups of lines, and find what it is. The spectra of the
electric light and the magnesium were shown, to illustrate these
orders. The third kind is a coloured spectrum crossed with dark
lines, and these lines are produced by the absorbing effect of vapours
surrounding the incandescent body, each substance in the state of
vapour being opaque to the light produced by the same substance
when iuminous. Itis, therefore, obvious that when we find what dark
lines correspond with the light lines produced by luminous vapours,
we are sure those substances exist around or at the surface of the
light giving body. Kirchhoff explained on this principle the con-
stitution of the sun, and the lecturer had extended this mode of
observation to the moon, planets, fixed stars, and nebule. Our
resumé of the researches of Mr. Huggins and Dr. Miller, contained
in the InreLLEcTuaL OxssERver for January, renders it unnecessary
to repeat in detail these beautiful discoveries by which some of the
elements in Aldebaran, Betelgeux, Sirius, and about fifty other
stars, were determined. The lecturer dwelt upon the extraordinary
absence of hydrogen from a Orionis, and speculated on the condition

Proceedings of Learned Societies. 397

of life in planets belonging to such a sun, and similarly deprived of
oceans, clouds, and verdure. £ Pegasi is the only other star con-
stituted in like manner. Photographs of drawings of the stellar
spectra having been shown by the electric lantern, the colours of
double stars were referred to, and the spectra of Albireo (8 Cygni)
shown, in which the one star had numerous lines in the red, and
then leaving the yellow predominant, and the other was full of lines
in the red and yellow, allowing the blue to remain in the ascendant.
Drawings of numerous nebule having been shown, Mr. Huggins
then narrated his important discovery that a number of these
extraordinary bodies, including the Planetary Nebule, the Ring and
Dumb-bell Nebulez, and the Great Nebulain Orion, had unexpectedly
shown that they consisted of gaseous matter in a luminous state
only, and that such gases were nitrogen, hydrogen, and an unknown
substance. Those bodies which were clusters gave continuous
spectra, and the nebuia in Andromeda, although irresolvable in the
telescope, gave the coloured band due to stars. The singular uni-
formity of composition, and the fact that only one line out of several:
nitrogen lines was visible, had given rise to much speculation. The
conclusions drawn by the lecturer were—that with respect
to the stars, they appear to consist, at least in part, of substances
identical with those composing the earth and sun, and that the
differences are those of adaptation and detail—not of plan or
structure. That as the majority of elements found in the stars
are those which are most connected with organic life here, it is
reasonable to suppose that these stars are suns surrounded with
planets like our central orb, and thus being, like it, the energizing
centres of systems analogous to that of which our globe forms a
part, and equally adapted to be the abode of living beings. On the
other hand, it would result from the constitution of the nebule thus
ascertained, that they are not necessarily at the enormous distance
which the theory of their being clusters of stars, the light of which
had blended into nebulosity, requires. The extreme simplicity of
their chemical constitution also negatives the notion that they are
examples of Sir W. Herschel’s nebulous or primordial fluid, from
which, by condensation, stars were formed, as, if so, we should find
as many light lines in their spectra as there are dark ones in the
fully formed stars; or if it be contended that they are in a more
elementary state, and that our so-called elements are perhaps com-
pounds, then, at least, some indications of progress would have
been met with by greater complexity in a few of these bodies.
On the whole, the lecturer believes that: these true nebulxe are
bodies possessing a structure and a purpose in relation to the
universe altogether distinct and of another order from the great
group of cosmical bodies to which our sun and the fixed stars ~
belong.

398 Colours of Cor Curoli.

COLOURS OF COR CAROLI.

On this subject we have received the following interesting
letter from Mr. George Knott.
May 18th, 1865.

Dear S1r,—In accordance with your invitation in the May number
of the InreLLEcTUAL OsseRver, I have much pleasure in sending you
the following estimate of the colours of the components of the
double star, Cor Caroli.

1865, May 16. Instrument employed, a 73 inch Alvan Clark
Refractor. Thornthwaite’s Aplanatic, powers 102, 173.

A. Very pale yellow, almost white.
B. Pale lilac.

Using Admiral Smyth’s chromatic scale the colours would be

A. Yellow’.
B. Reddish purple’.

I find in my Journal the following rather interesting observation
of the colour of B of Cor Caroli by daylight. I quote from my
Journal :—

“1862, Nov. 27, 10h. 15m. a.m. Had a fine view of the double
star, Cor Caroli. The small star was in colour a little more dusky
than the deep blue of the sky. I should call it deep dusky blue or
lilac. 74 inch achromatic.”

I think that it would be convenient in practice, particularly
where space is precious (as, for instance, on a form for the entry of
double star measures), to use a large letter to express the disk colour
from the scale, and a small letier for the qualifying adjective. Thus,
in the case of Cor Caroli, instead of writing the words, “ yellow*,”
“reddish-purple‘,” we might write “ Y‘,” ‘“rP*.” And in the same
way the colour estimates of other stars might be recorded, as in the
case of the following stars observed by.me also on the 16th inst. :—

a Herculis A — O*, B = bG*.
95 Herculis A = G‘, B = O°...
6 Cygenn Ase ls — pai

There may be cases, as you justly remark, in which a mere quali-
fying adjective will hardly suffice as indicative of tint; these it will
not be easy to deal with. Any one with an artistic taste, and
accustomed to mix colowrs, might perhaps indicate a tint by a combi-
nation of several disk colours. It is probable, however, that his
combination would convey but a very indistinct idea of hue to the
uninitiated.

Thornthwaite’s aplanatics are very pleasant eye-pieces to use in
colour estimations ; unfortunately they labour under the disadvan-
tage of a rather annoying ghost. It is necessary, too, to pay some
little attention to the proper cleansing of the field lens, and in those
I have the field is not perfect to the edge ; there isa band of distortion
which one would be glad to get rid of. In the “Monthly Notices,

Progress of Invention. 399

R.A.S., Nov., 1862,” Mr. Dawes remarks that Steinheil had for
some years made an eye-piece, which was apparonaly identical with
the “ Aplanatiec in construction.”

[We have three of the Aplanatics, and have in our speci-
mens very little fault to find with the field almost close to the
edge. The “ ghost’? is, we believe, a reflexion inseparable
from the construction. It causes a faint image of a bright
object to move one way while the object appears to move
in the other. By a little care the image and the ghost may be
made to coincide.—Ep. |

PROGRESS OF INVENTION.

New Appiications or THE SypHon.—It has been found, by Mr.
Galletly, that different fluids pass through the very same syphon
with different velocities—an observation made, indeed, by others;
and also, that the same fluid passes with different velocities through
syphons of the same length, but of different bores. Thus, while a
vessel of water was emptied by a given syphon in forty-nine seconds,
it required eighty-three to empty it of petroleum, and eighty-five to
empty it of whiskey. Nor does the result depend, in any way, on
specific gravity ; for while paraffin oil was emptied in two hundred
and eighty-six seconds, petroleum of the very same density re-
quired three hundred and seventy-five seconds. These, and similar
experiments, suggested the syphon as a convenient means of ascer-
taining the difference between fluids, or the different degrees of
purity of the same fluid, a standard vessel and syphon being em-
ployed for the purpose.

WATERPROOFING BY MEANS oF Pararrry.—The rendering of tex-
tile fabrics, leather, etc., waterproof, has long, and justly, been
looked upon as a matter of considerable importance. Many means
have, at various times, been employed for the purpose, but all, or
most of them, have been found open to objection. Wax and drying
oils were the substances first used, then caoutchouc, and afterwards
gutta percha, both by itself and along with drying oils; recently,
paraffin has been adopted, but, if used by itself, it crystallizes and
separates from the fibres of the cloth, an inconvenience which is pre-
vented by the addition of a small amount of drying oil. This
mixture possesses the great advantage of rendering a fabric repel-
lant of moisture, while at the same time it does not prevent the
passage of air through it; and it affects but little, or not at all, the
most delicate colours. It is particularly advantageous to leather:
which it not only renders waterproof, but more durable and sus-
ceptible of a higher polish.

New Move or PRESERVING Tron.—In this, which ‘may justly be
denominated the “ iron age,” any effective mode of preserving that
metal must be considered of great importance. Almost everything

400 Progress of Invention.

is now made of iron, and yet it is the most perishable of the ordi-
nary metals. This circumstance becomes a source of serious anxiety
when we reflect that the vast majority of our railway bridges are
made of it. They cannot, as usually constructed, last more than a
very few years; since, in a short time, the thin plates of which they
chiefly consist, will become so corroded as to be no longer capable
of supporting the weights they are required to bear. Various
modes of preserving the iron have been tried, but unfortunately
none of them have proved very effective; oxidation goes on under
the very coating which is intended to exclude the atmosphere.
There is, however, now reason to hope that ingenuity, which has
vanquished so many difficulties, will conquer this also; and one
step seems already to have been made towards the attainment of
the desired object. It has been found that the combination of phos-
phorus with the surface of the iron, at a high temperature, completely
preserves it; since the coating of phosphate of iron thus produced
is a very stable compound, and one that is not acted upon by those
agents which usually produce so mischievous an effect on iron.
Should this mode of protection be found, in practice, and especially
on the large scale, easy of application, economical, and effective,
one of the most perishable may become one of the most lasting of
metals, a circumstance that would add enormously to its value.

New APPLICATION OF CHLORIDE OF SILvER TO PHoTocRAPHY.—The
deterioration of photographs has been the source of great disappoint-
ment or anxiety. Various means have heen used for preventing it, but
few of them have inspired much confidence, and it is yet uncertain
if any of them will prove thoroughly effective. A recent application
of chloride of silver, however, by Mr. G. Wharton Simpson, seems
to exclude those conditions from which a change in photographs
may be supposed to arise. He found that, if nitrate of silver is dis-
solved in collodion, and is changed into chloride by the addition of
a few drops of a solution of chloride of sodium, the resulting chloride
of silver is not precipitated, as might be expected, but remains, at
least for a considerable time, suspended ; so that although, by trans-
mitted light, the collodion is perfectly transparent, by reflected light
it is white like opal glass; and that, provided sufficient nitrate has
been used, it gives a vigorous image on paper. It is extremely
sensitive, and affords very good pictures wath indifferent negatives,
while even the Wothlytype requires that they should have consider-
able density. The collodio-chloride paper has many advantages
over the albumenized. It is impossible that the latter can be of a
uniform quality, since every succeeding sheet immersed in the solu-
tion of sensitive salts exhausts it, and diminishes its efficiency with
regard to the next sheet. On the contrary, paper coated with the
collodio-chloride is, to the very last sheet, of exactly the same
strength. Perfect uniformity of effect is, therefore, easily attainable
with it. But the most important circumstance connected with this
preparation is the fact that, no soluble compound of silver being:
present, if the picture is properly fixed and washed, there is reason
to believe that it will be permanent.

Notes and Memoranda. 401

NOTES AND MEMORANDA.

Tue Dark Part oF Venus’ Disc.—Dr. Engelmann, of the Leipzig Obser-
vatory, speaking of successful trials made with a new 8-inch glass of Steinheil,
states that on the 20th of April the dark side of Venus was very strikingly seen.
It appeared of a clear greenish-grey tint.

New Sprectroscores.—The Herschel-Browning spectroscope, which has now
been some months before the public, is recognized as the best instrument of its
class, viz., that of direct vision spectroscopes having considerable dispersion, and
obtaining the direct vision with little loss of light. It is composed of two prisms, —
each possessing direct vision, in consequence of the light ray experiencing two
internal reflexions. As the principles involved in the construction of these
instruments are of considerable interest, and can only be made clear by elaborate
explanation and diagrams, Mr. Alexander Herschel has, at our request, supplied
a paper on the subject, which will shortly appear, and we shall now only exhibit
the form of the spectroscope devised by himself, and modified by Mr. Browning.
We have taken several opportunities of looking through these spectroscopes, and
have been much struck by the sharpness with which they exhibit, with a low
power, a great multitude of dark lines. For quick examination of atmospheric
lines, and for noting the changes that occur near the horizon, or in any particular
direction, this form of spectroscope is the best yet devised, as it can be instan-
taneously and accurately pointed at any cloud or in any direction. Its dispersion
and precision are so great as to divide the line D with a magnifying power of
only 5.

In the Herschel-Browning spectroscope considerable dispersion is one of the
objects sought and obtained ; but, as we explained im our Jast number, there are
occasions on which the dispersion should be comparatively small, and the instru-
ment adapted to work with a minimum of light. Mr. Browning exhibited at the
Royal Society’s soirée an instrument of this kind, made for Mr. Gassiot. It con-
sists of three prisms, united together by Canada balsam, to prevent loss of light
by reflection at the surfaces of contact. The centre prism is of dense glass, and
the two side ones of lighter glass, so adjusted as to counteract the refraction of
the centre prism, and leave two-thirds of its dispersive power. We tried this
instrument in various ways with much gratification. From its exquisite defi-
nition it exhibits the Frauenhofer lines in greater quantity and with more sepa-
ration* than would have been expected, and with a careful management of light
shows the blood absorption bands in extremely weak solutions. ‘he solution we
employed was obtained by macerating a very smal] morsel of raw meat in an ounce
of cold water. A few drops of this solution, in about an ounce of water, gave a
noticeable result, and we did not by any means arrive at the extreme limits of the
power of the instrument. We must postpone a description of two other new
spectroscopes exhibited by Mr. Browning at the Royal Society’s soirée ; one is the
“Rigid Spectroscope’ made for Mr. Gassiot, “to test whether any relationship
exists between refraction and gravitation,” and the other a striking optical instru-
ment of recreation, “ the Revolving Spectroscope, producing changing symmetrical
figures of gorgeous colours in endless variety.”

* The apparent separation depends partly on the amount of dispersion, and partly on per-
fection of definition. A good prism, like a good telescope, will show a division where a worse
instrument with the same power would show coalescence,

402 Notes and Memoranda.

Usz oF CorrEer IN Crérinism.—Dr. Chabrond states that during the last
twenty years crétinism has been on the decrease in the arrondissement of Briangon,
and, amongst other causes, he attributes the amelioration to the use of coffee. In
a Bohemian village, in which the people were very poor, lived chiefly on potatoes,
and exhibited a very low state of vitality, the medical men advised the use of
coffee, and it has been found highly beneficial.

Srccnt AND HERSCHEL ON THE “ WitLow Leaves” In THE Sun.—The
Monthly Notices of the Astronomical Society contain a letter from Father Secchi
to the effect that he observes on the solar surface a multitude of bodies “like
oblong filaments, or rather like bits of cotton wool of an elongated form.” He
thinks it very difficult to compare them with any terrestrial object, but considers
the term “leaves” not badly chosen, except that they do not possess the regu-
larity and uniformity of leaves. He observes likewise a great quantity of black
pores, which seem to show that the photosphere is not a continuous stratum.
He compares the sun’s photosphere to what he once saw from Monte Cassino,
when the valley beneath was full of clouds, and the sun darted his rays on an
ocean of mist, except that the shadows are deeper in the sun than they were in
the terrestrial clouds seen from above. He concludes that the luminous stratum
of the sun is really made up of clouds, the only difference being, that while ter-
restrial clouds are composed of water-drops, or crystals, the sun-clouds are of
some other substance. When a spot dissolves, he notices forms of cwmuli, cirri,
and strati, such as are seen in our skies. Sir J. Herschel, commenting on this
letter, expresses the opinion that the floating bodies are ‘permanently solid
matter, having that sort of fibrous or filamentous structure which fits them when
juxtaposed by drifting about and jostling against one another to collect in flocks,
as flue does ina room,” Sir John does not assign any reason for regarding them
as permanent solids. The non-luminosity of the medium they float in he ascribes
to its being colourless and transparent. He adds, “colourless gases or trans-
parent liquids give off no light from their interior. To convince yourself of this,
take a dish or crucible, and melt a quantity of nitre, and bring it to a full red
heat. You will see the whole surface of the nitre uniformly bright by the red
heat of the crucible seen through it, whereas if the liquid emitted light from its
interior, the deeper portions should appear the brightest.

New Hy@rometer.—M. Babinet lately exhibited to the French Academy a
new hygrometer contrived by MM. Engard and Philipon. It is made of a spiral
ribbon of ivory, cut perpendicular to the axis of the tooth. It is stated to be a
very sensitive instrument, and to contract and dilate in a circular way.

New Source or THEINE.—Dr. Attfield, F.C.S., Director of the Labora-
tories of the Pharmaceutical Society, has a paper on this subject in the Pharma-
ceutical Journal. He finds theine to the extent of two per cent. in dried Kola-
nuts, which form a favourite article of food and medicine in West Central Africa.
Coffee, he states, contains from ‘5 to 2:0 per cent. of theine, and tea from ‘5 to 3°5
per cent, Dr. Attfield remarks that the presence of theine shows an analogy
between the Kola-nut, and coffee, tea, Paraguay tea, and Guarana. “Infusions of
one or other of these beverages are used probably by three-fourths of the human
race, and each contains the same active principle—theine.”

AxoLorits In Paris.—These curious reptiles, belonging to the Batrachian, or
frog division, and remarkable, amongst’ other things, for having persistent gills,
have been successfully treated in the Muséum de Histoire Naturelle in Paris,
which possesses five malesand one female. The latter laid a quantity of eggs on
the 19th of January last; attaching them in parcels of twenty or thirty to solid
bodies in the tank. The eggs resembled those of other batrachians, and the first
hatching took place from twenty-eight to thirty days after the laying. The gills
were at first much simpler than in the adult. In a few days the mouth opened,
there being at first no aperture, and the little creatures eagerly devoured animal-
cules swimming in the water.

Set ee

TyUeUUad SoJAPO.o

NIQNDNHd DNIM Wd

THE INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER.

JULY, 1865.

THE KING PENGUIN (Apreropyres PENNANTII)..
BY W. B. TEGETMEIER.
(With a Colowred Plate.)

Frw events have occurred more interesting to European orni--
thologists, who have never visited the Southern Hemisphere,.
than the recent arrival of the King Penguin at the Zoological
Gardens, Regent’s Park.

From time to time various efforts have been made to bring”
to England specimens of different species of the extraordinary
group, constituting the family Spheniscine, but these have always.
hitherto proved failures. For the possession of the individual
whose portrait is so correctly given in the coloured plate, the:
Zoological Society were indebted to Commander William
Fenwick, of H.M.S. Harrier, who brought the bird from the
neighbourhood of the Falkland Islands.*

The family of the penguins (Spheniscine), which includes.
several distinct genera, comprises unquestionably the most.
aquatic of all birds. Flight, the usual means of progres--
sion of, the class to which they belong, is entirely denied.
them. On land their progress is slow and comparatively
awkward, but in the water their movements are rapid and!
easy to an extreme degree. In swimming and diving their
speed surpasses even that of the majority of fishes. They sport
and seek their food safely during the heaviest gales, and spring ~
from the water in play with such rapidity, that they cannot
be distinguished from leaping fish, and as they feed their
beloved young on the rocky islands of the southern seas,
they recal to mind the exquisite lines of Shelley, as—

* Notwithstanding the care taken of the penguin at the Zoological Gardens, it
unfortunately died. |

VOL. VII.—NO, VI. DD

x

404 The King Penguin.

* Outspeeding the shark
And the sword-fish dark,
Under the ccean foam ;
And up through the rifts
Of the rocky cliffs,
They pass to their Dorian home.”

In the water but little is known of their movements, as the
opportunities of observing them have necessarily been very
limited. On land, however, their movements and mode of life
are more open to investigation, and from the singularity alike
of their structure and habits, they have attracted much atten-
tion from all those naturalists who have visited high latitudes .
in the southern seas. Thus Mr. G. Bennett describes a colony of
one species of these birds as existing at Macquarie Island, in the
South Pacific, and covering an extent of thirty or forty acres.
Their number was immense, many thousand birds constantly
passing to and from the sea. He states: “ They are arranged
when on shore in as compact and in as regular ranks as a-
regiment of soldiers. The females hatch the eggs by keeping
them between their thighs, and if approached during the time
of incubation, move away, carrying the eggs with them. At
this time the male goes to sea and collects food for the female,
which becomes very fat. After the young is hatched, both
parents go to sea and bring home food for it, and it soon
becomes so fat as to be scarcely able to walk, the old birds
getting very thin. They sit upright on their roosting places,
and walk in the erect position till they arrive at the beach,
when they throw themselves on their breasts to encounter the
heavy seas met with at the landing place.”

Like almost all birds they are valiant in the defence of
their eggs and young. The late Admiral Fitzroy, who com-
manded the exploring expedition in H.M.S. Beagle, speaking
of the multitude of penguins in the thick rushy grass “ tussac”
of the shore of Noir Island, states “they were very valiant in
self defence, and ran open-mouthed by dozens at any one who
invaded their territory, little knowing how soon a stick would
scatter them on the ground. The young were good eating, but
the old were dark and tough when cooked. The manner in
which they feed their young is curious and amusing. The old
bird gets on a little eminence, and makes a great noise between
braying and quacking, holding its head up in the air as if it
were haranguing the penguinery, while the young one stands
close to it, but a little lower; the old bird having continued its
clatter for about a minute, puts its head down and opens its
mouth widely, into which the young one thrusts its beak, and
then appears to suck from the throat of its mother for a
minute or two, after which the clatter is repeated, and the

The Kin g Penguin. . 405

young one again feeds, and this continues for about ten
minutes.”

Mr. C. Darwin describes very graphically the behaviour of
one of these animals whose retreat to the sea was intercepted
by him :—“ One day, having placed myself between a penguin
(Spheniscus demersus) and the water, | was much amused at
watching its habits. It was a brave bird, and till reaching the
sea it regularly fought and drove me backwards. Nothing
less than heavy blows would have stopped him, every inch
gained he firmly kept, standing close before me, erect and

KING PENGUIN SWIMMING.

determined. When thus opposed, he continually rolled his
head from side to side in a very odd manner, as if the power
of vision lay only in the anterior and basal part of the eye.
This bird is commonly called the jackass penguin, from its
habit while on shore of throwing its head backwards, and
making a loud strange noise very like the braying of an ass.
While at sea and undisturbed, its note is very deep and
solemn, and is often heard in the night time. In diving,
its little plumeless wings are used for fins. .When at
sea and fishing, it comes to the surface for the purpose
of breathing with such a spring, and dives again so in-.
stantaneously, that I defy anys at first sight to be sure that it
is not a fish leaping for sport.”

406 The King Penguin.

The different species have very different modes of making
their nests and incubating. Of one species, the jackass
penguin, breeding in the Falkland Islands, situated in
51° south latitude, Captain C. C. Abbott writes: “Thou-
sands visit the land in October, to burrow in the soil and
deposit their two white eggs in the deep hole that they have
excayated.”” He observes that the habits of these animals are
affected by the proximity of man, as at places remote from set-
tlements the holes are comparatively shallow, but near to human
habitations they aze much deeper, so as to prevent the eggs:
being taken.

This species is described as walking upright, except when
frightened and hard pressed, when it loses its balance, and
falls forward, employing its wings as legs in escaping through
the tussacs, as described by Mr. C. Darwin.

Another species, Hudyptes papua, the gentoo penguin,
forms regular rookeries, or perhaps they may be more cor- *
rectly termed penguineries, sometimes situated even miles
from the shore, and far removed from salt water. Leading to
these are regular paths, along which detachments of twenty
or thirty birds may be seen marching at atime. No particular
nest is formed, but the eggs laid by each bird are placed as
closely together as the animals can stand.

_ A third species, common in the Falkland Islands, is
known as the rock-hopper. It lays during the first week in
November, on the cliffy slopes near the fresh-water streams.
although, like the gentoo, it is constantly passing to and from
the sea. The breeding-places are sometimes of as great an
extent as 500 yards by 50, the egos being placed so close
together that it is impossible to walk without treading on
them. Amid the multiplicity of nests and eggs, it is almost
impossible to imagine how the birds can find their own nests,
after having once been driven off. Yet they appear to do this
without difficulty, each walking straight back to its own nest,
and placing the eggs between its legs with the utmost care, so
as to bring them both in contact with a bare space in the
centre of the lower part of the body ; the male, when not fishing,
standing up alongside of the female. .

Cormorants are described as breeding close to the penguins,
both species associating in harmony.

Not so, however, the predaceous skua gull, that watches for
an unprotected nest, and destroys the eggs or young, in the
absence of the parents.

Having described the habits of these birds, as existing in a
state of nahure, I am desirous of saying a fow words as to
their extraordinary structure, and its correlation to their peculiar
mode of life.

~*K

The King Penguin. 407

The entire family of the Spheniscine are characterised by
their short fin-like wings, which are covered with dense scale-
like feathers. The tail in all the genera is composed of rigid.
narrow feathers. The tarsi, usually so long and leg-lke in
birds, is excessively short, the feet flat and webbed, the hind
toe being very small, attached to the inner toe, and directed
forwards.

The family imcludes four genera, Spheniscus, Eudyptes,
Pygoscelis, and Apterodytes. In the genus Spheniscus, to
which the common jackass penguin, S. demersus, belongs, the
upper mandible is hooked, and the lower truncated, so as to
give the beak somewhat the character of that of an albatross.
Hudyptes includes the crested penguin, or rock-hopper,
i. Chrysocome, the description of whose habits has been
already quoted from Captain Abbott, a species which is
found in all the seas of the Southern Hemisphere, sometimes
hundreds of miles away from land, M. Lesson having noticed
them in south latitude 43° 8’, and west longitude 56° 56’.

In Apterodytes, the most interesting genus to us at the
present time, the bill is nearly straight, slender, bent shghtly
at the tip, and longer than the head, both mandibles being
pointed.

This genus contains two species, that were formerly con-
founded under one name; but they were distinguished by Gray,
in his Genera of Birds, and named A. Fosterii, the emperor,
and A. Pennantit, the king penguin.

The outward form of the king penguin is admirably given
in the drawings of Mr. Wood. ‘The erect attitude, the mode
of progression, the peculiar form of the body, and the smgular
fin or tlapper-like character of the rudimentary wings are all
made evident ; but there are in the internal structure of these
singular birds many curious modifications which require a
passing notice.

The.skeleton, as may be readily imagined, is most pecu-
larly formed. ‘The bones composing it are hard, dense, and
compact. Unlike those of aérial voyagers, they do not contain
air, but their cavities are filled with oily marrow. ‘The air-
cells which in ordinary birds surround the different viscera,
and so aid in producing the extreme buoyancy required for

‘flight, are small and rudimentary in the penguin.

The bones of the upper extremity are peculiarly adapted
to the aquatic habits of the bird. ‘I'he scapula or blade-bone,
narrow in all birds as compared with its size in mammals, is
very straight and unusually large at its posterior or lower
extremity. The whole of the bones of the fore limb are thin
and flat, so as to constitute a thin paddle that can be passed
edgeways through the water; as it 1s brought forwards prepa-

408 The King Penguin.

ratory to making a propelling stroke. Two of the bones of
the carpus or wrist are remarkably large. Of the metacarpal
bones, or those corresponding to the palm of the hand in man,
two only are developed, supporting respectively the middle
and little finger. The thumb bone, which in most birds is
found supporting the little winglet, is entirely wanting.

In the feet the tarsus or portion of the limb usually covered
with scales, and generally but incorrectly termed the leg or
shank, is excessively short, and is placed on the ground in
walking, so that the animal moves with a plantigrade step.
The muscles constituting the flesh are peculiar, being exces-
sively firm and of a dark red colour. The pectorals—those on
the breast which move the wings—are singularly arranged.
In the greater number of birds, the outer muscle, which pulls
down the wing and causes it to strike the air in its flight, is
by far the larger, the one underneath, that serves to raise the
wing, being much weaker; but in the penguin, where the wing
has to be drawn forwards through so resisting a medium as
water, the muscle raising the paddle or bringing it forward
is greatly developed, and extends the entire length of the
sternum.

The feathers are very peculiar; but little more than the
mere shaft is developed, and this is so flattened, especially on
the paddles, as to form a series of overlapping scales, much
more closely resembling the coverimg of a fish than that of a
bird. The feathers on the body are bent in the middle of
their length, nearly at right angles, so that although the
basal portion rises erect from the skin, the terminal ends.
overlap so as to form a close layer impervious to water. This
arrangement, however, is not peculiar to the penguins, but may
be found in almost all aquatic birds, the breast feathers of the
common duck furnishing a good example.

The feathers of the tail are very peculiar, being stiff and
spiny, so as to support the body, and form with the two
legs the tripod on which the animal stands when in the erect
position. ye:

The bones of the tail, moreover, are strangely modified: in
birds in general the last caudal vertebra is expanded into a
share-shaped process, flattened from side to side. This is adapted
to the support of the quill feathers used in flight. ‘These are
absent in the penguin, consequently the last bone of the tail
isunexpanded; and as another remarkable peculiarity, the
absence of the oil gland, or uropygium, may be noticed. It
is strange that this gland, which is generally so very large in.
ducks and other water-birds, should be absent in the most
aquatic of all; the explanation most probably is that the
scale-like plumage of the penguin does not require oiling to

The Pigmy Ovl. 409

prevent the entrance of water, like the softer plumage. of
the duck.

As in all diving birds, the internal veins (vence cavee) of the
penguin are immense in size, and serve as reservoirs for the
impure venous blood, until the return of the animal to the sur-
face enables it to be purified by breathing.

One more point respecting the structure of these singular
animals, and J have done.

In almost every other bird that exists, the pupil of the eye
is circular; in the penguin it is an elongated slit, a variation
to which their singular mode of looking at an object, noticed
by Mr. C. Darwin, is most likely due, and which has probably
some direct reference to their subaqueous mode of life.

THE PIGMY OWL.

GLAUCIDIUM GNOMA, WAGLER.

Strix passerinoides, Tem.; Strix infuscata, Tem.; Glaucidium Californicum,,
Sclater.—The Medicine or Death Owl of the North-West American Indians.

BY J. K. LORD, F.Z.S.,

Late Naturalist to the British North American Boundary Commission.

Tis rare and beautiful little owl, the smallest of all the North
American species, I shot for the first time on Vancouver
Island. It has also been obtained, though rarely, in Oregon,
Washington territory, and California.

The habits of this tiny bird appear little known; its”
diminutive size, shy, solitary habits, always hiding amongst
the thick foliage of the oak or the pine, except when feeding,
renders the task of observing it, or obtaining a specimen, at
all times difficult; hence a few dried skins, from which its
generic and specific characters have been determined, are the
only records we possess. How the recluse lives, where he
lives, or what he does, are secrets only revealed to the
- wanderer or naturalist, who, on the sunlit prairies, and in the
gloomy forest, sees for himself how its denizens conduct them-
selves—in this manner the following notes were gleaned:
missing pages in the history of the Pigmy Owl, which I here
venture to supply.

Early in the spring, whilst collecting the migrants, which
arrive at Vancouver Island in great numbers and variety of
species—some to remain the summer through, and others only

410 The Pigmy Ovl.

to rest awhile, as they journey further north to their breeding
grounds. Dame Fortune, fickle though she generally be, deigned.
for once to smile, and afforded me an opportunity I had lone
desired, to watch the habits of the pigmy owl. Two of these
strangers selected as their home a gnarled and twisted oak
(Quercus garryana), that grew alone on an open patch of
gravelly ground near a small lake. Close by this lake was
the remains of an Indian lodge, that had been once used as a
fishing station, affording me a capital place of conceal-
ment, to watch the manners and customs of these—to the
aborigines—potent and much-dreaded spirits. My camp was
not far away, thus enabling me to reach my hiding-place at the
first blush of morning. No sooner did the rosy light creep
down the valley and spread over the plain, than the owls were
up and stirrmg—evidently hungry from a night’s fasting, for,
like a well-conducted couple, they retired early to rest.

Their flight, short, quick, and jerking, similar to the
movement of the sparrow-hawk, quite unlike the muffled,
noiseless flap of the night-owl, as it sails along over marsh
and meadow, in pursuit of mice and lizards, or any benighted
rodent that has incautiously strayed too far from its place of
safety. The food of this little owl is entirely insectivorous ;
its favourite morsel a fat grasshopper, or field cricket—not
that it by any means refuses or objects to breakfast on an
early riser, be it beetle or butterfly, that, like the proverbial
worm, is so devoid of prudence as to permit the early bird
to gather it.

‘When in pursuit of food, the owls perch on a small
branch, near the ground, sit bolt upright m an indolent and
drowsy manner, until their quick eye detects an insect moving
on the plain; they then pounce suddenly upon him, hold
him down with their small but powerful claws, and with their
sharp curve-pointed beaks tear the captive to pieces. The
hard wing-covers and thighs, if a cricket, or the wing-
shields, if a beetle, are rejected, only the soft abdominal parts
being eaten. Hunger satiated, they return to their tree,
and, cuddling lovingly together, sit and doze away their
time, protected from the blazing rays of the mid-day sun by
the leafage of the sturdy oak. Breakfast disposed of, and the ©
preparations completed for the diurnal siesta, I used to abandon
my post and, like the owls, eat, and indulge in a refreshing sleep
under some shady covert. Thus rested, the remainder of the
day was passed in collecting, or preserving what I had already
obtained, until the murmurs of the forest gradually dying ©
away, the softened light, hovering round each peak and
crag, warned me of the sun’s departure. Again betaking
myself to my lair, I awaited the owls’ reappearance.

The Pigmy Owl. : All

As near as possible to the mergence of twilight into night
—what the Scotch call the gloaming, and in our country is
known as cock-light—when the woodcock skims through the
grove, and the blackbird chink-chinks his vesper hymn—
exactly at this time the owls invariably came out, and, as if
for the purpose of stretching their limbs rather than feeding,
took erratic flights round the tree, and up and down the plain, ~
chasing one another and performing all kinds of inexplicable
manceuvres. Occasionally they settled on the ground, but
never remained long. I do not think they ever capture an
insect whilst on the wing, and a very small quantity of food
appears to satisfy their wants. As it became dark, having
supplied their evening necessities, again they returned to their
dormitory, and, as I imagine, slept away the night.

In their habits they appear to have nothing in common
with the typical owls (Strigine), and approximate, though
slightly, to the day owls (Nycteinine). Cassin, in his Birds
of California, calls this ow] Glaucidium infuseatum, regarding
it as the Striz infuscata of Temminck. Dr. Sclater, however,
proposes to call it Glaucidium Californicum (Proceedings
Zoological Society, 1857, page 4). There can be no doubt that
the two names, Siri infuscata and Strix passerinoides, were
used by Temminck to designate the same species, which is
strictly from South America, and quite distinct from our little
friend, though closely allied. The name Gil. gnoma, used by
Wagler, I adopt as having precedence.

Its specific characters need not be given here, being
readily, obtainable by referring to any of the list of works
quoted in the synonymes. I may mention, however, that the
grand and marked specific differences, as distinguishing this
from the South American species, are that in Gl. gnoma the
toes are naked, the colour generally lighter, and the size some-
what less. Total length of male, 7 inches; wings 33, tail 3.
The sexes are very nearly alike, but the female rather the
larger, and more thickly spotted with white.

Early in May, two small white eggs were laid—round, and
very rough on the surface—a large knot-hole in the branch
of the oak being selected as the nesting-place; not a particle
of anything was used as lining, the eggs being deposited on
the bare wood. The length of time occupied in incubation I
regret inability to state, having to shift my camp some distance
away soon after the female commenced sitting. When next I
visited the tree, both young and old were gone, much to my
disgust and annoyance. By the scattered feathers that lay
ominously beneath the tree, I imagine a prowling martin, or
fisher, had played havoc with my pet family, and devoured,
perhaps, both parents and children.

412 The Pigmy Owl.

The Indians, without exception, hold this little owl in
terrible dread ; to see one in the day, or to hear its feeble cry,
not unlike a stifled scream, is a fatal omen to brave or squaw—

the hearer or a near relative is sure to die ere the end of the .

moon. To kill one is an unpardonable heresy; I nearly got
into very serious trouble for shooting a specimen of this little
owl.. An Indian deputation, headed by their chief, waited on
me, protested against my risking theirs and my own inevitable
destruction. All reasoning was futile, and there was nothing
for it but to procure all mystic birds and mammals by stealth.

It is a curious fact that owls, in every part of the world,

have always been deemed birds of ill omen. The crumbling
ruins of an ancient monastery, the old tower im the ivy-
clad castle, and the ghost’s chamber im a haunted house,
are invariably associated with owls and goblins grim.

Pliny, in his Natural History, when speaking of birds of
evil, says: ‘ The owl is a dismal bird, and very much dreaded
in public auguries ; inhabits deserts, that are not only desolate,
but dreary and inaccessible ; it is a monster of night, nor does
it possess any voice, but a groan.”

Virgil alludes to it as foreboding the death of Dido:—

** Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo
Seepe queri et longas in fletum ducere voces.”

Shakspeare, too, saddles this poor bird with the guilt of
ominous predictions.
Casca, in alluding to the events preceding Cesar’s death,
says :—
“ And yesterday the bird of night did sit, '
Even at noonday, upon the market-place,
- Hooting and shrieking.”

In Egypt, in bygone years, if the Pacha presented a gentle-

man with a drawing, or any representation of an owl, it was

meant as a polite hint to the recipient of the gift, if he did
not dispose of his own life, the powers supreme would save
him the trouble. More modern poets rarely scandalise or ma-
lign the owl’s character: as knowledge of the physical sciences
has become diffused, so the mists of superstition have vanished,
and modern writers, even in poetic composition, truthfully
allude to its habits.
Coleridge, in Christabel :—

‘Tis the middle of the night by the castle clock,
And the owls have awakened the crowing cock.”

Again Longfellow, in Hyperion, speaks of the owl “as a
monk, that chaunts midnight mass, in the great temple of
nature.”

Sounds we cannot Hear. “413

With every Indian tribe I have ever met with, either east
or west, of the Rocky Mountains, the owls, whether large or
small, are always held sacred, their feathers being worn as charms
by the medicine men, or conjurors, of the tribes. It is perhaps
fortunate for the owls they are so dreaded. There are many
Indian traditions I could relate, where terrible calamities have
invariably followed the warnings of the pigmy owl, but space.
forbids.

Why such an exquisite type of Creative Wisdom—beautiful
in plumage, retirimg in habit, harmless, and gentle—should
inspire terror and aversion, are mysteries I must leave to wiser
heads than mine to solve.

SOUNDS WE CANNOT HEAR.
BY SAMUEL DREW, M.D.

Most persons, if asked whether insects possessed voice, would
either at once say that ‘they did not, or would consider the
humming, or buzzing, of the various winged insects as vocal,
which would be as erroneous as to confound the whir made by
a covey of partridges in rising, with their call to one another
after being scattered.

I, however, think that most probably the greater number
of insects have voices, and that we have certainly no proof to
the contrary. I do not imagine that insects possess any mode
of audible communication of a very complex character, still
less that they have anything like articulate speech, which their
anatomy almost forbids; yet that animals, which unmistake-
ably do communicate with one another, and some, if not all, of
which have auditory organs, should do so by determinate and
intelligible sounds 1s certainly likely. Of the fact that they do
communicate intelligence to one another no one who has ever
carefully watched an ant-hill, or bee-hive, can entertain a
doubt; indeed it is barely possible for the complicated
- arrangements of such communities to be carried on otherwise.

True we can hear no voices, for the ceaseless hum of the
bees can no more be considered vocal than the tramp of a
regiment of soldiers could be. Is, however, our hearing no
such sound any proof that no such sound is given out? I
think not.

Some years ago, when a student at the University of
Edinburgh, and attending the lectures of Professor Donaldson,

414, eet: oe seria sdiecre:

I witnessed the experiment of sounding a set of small organ
pipes of extreme acuteness of tone. The Professor slowly and
regularly opened the air-valve of one pipe after another,
beginning with the gravest, the sound of which we all heard,
not only distinctly but disagreeably in its shrillness. ‘ What
a squeal it is!’ whispered a fellow-student to me. “ Ah!
now it’s quiet, that’s a blessing,” said he, as a yet more acute
pipe was sounded. ‘Quiet!’ I replied, “why, it’s twice as
bad.” ‘I can believe my own ears, I imagine,” was the
rejoinder, “and I know the squealing has ceased.’ After two
or three other pipes of constantly increasing acuteness had
been sounded, I whispered to him rather loudly, supposing the
experiment to be concluded, ‘“ Now, it is really stopped.”
“Bosh !” muttered a Scotch lad, just by, “ If ye canna hear
yon skreigh your ears are no that good.”

To the utter amazement of all of us, we found that we could
not at all judge of one another’s powers of hearing for shrill
sounds. Several persons were unable to hear notes which to
me were perfectly clear and distinct; while what appeared to
me complete silence, was to others broken by an ear-piercing
shriek.

What appeared most singular was that the power of hearmg
more or fewer of these acute notes bore no relation to ability
to catch slight sounds, or to the loudness of the note
sounded.* It was not a matter of more or less distinctness of
sound, but absolutely of sound or no sound. A person
standing close to the instrument when a note too acute for his
hearing capacity was given forth, could no more hear it than
if he had been ten miles away, although it might seem to his
neighbours but little shriller than the note immediately pre-
ceding, which he had heard as well as they could do; yet to
him this was no sound at all.

Before the smallest pipe of the tiny organ had been reached,
all present had ceased to hear the sounds produced, and we
knew, merely from seeing the action of the bellows, or feeling
the rush of air through the little tube, that a note was bemg
sounded, although to us totally inaudible.

From various experiments with the “Siren,” it has been
shown that the human ear can, under favourable circum-
stances of intensity, distinguish as continuous sounds vibrations
ranging from fourteen to sixteen in the second of time up to

% The pitch of a sound depends upon the number of vibrations in a given
time. Its entensity depends on the amplitude of the oscillation. Loudness, or -
intensity, when carried to extremes, was found by Savart to have a material
influence in enabling persons to hear sounds to which they were deaf under
ordinary circumstances. The statement in the text is true within the usual limits
- of intensity.—ED. ;

Sounds we. cannot Hear. 415

quite forty-eight thousand vibrations in the same time.* As:

there is some reason to suppose that those persons who can
best distinguish very acute, are least able to hear very grave’
notes, we may probably assume that a range of about twelve
octaves, as expressed in musical notation, includes the hearing
capacity of human ears; to all vibrations of greater or less
rapidity, such ears are absolutely deaf. To produce this -
range of sound on an organ would require pipes varying in

length from 140 feet to about the third of an inch. P

No reason whatever can be assigned why vibrations not
included in such a scale should not, though quite inaudible to
us, be distinguished as sounds by earsadapted for the purpose,’
and whose range of hearing, though perhaps not more exten-
sive than our own, embraces a different series of notes. This
is rendered more probable by the fact that the ordinary voices
of many small animals do but just come within the range of
the human ear. .

To many persons the voice of the common shrew-mouse is
inaudible ; some cannot hear the sound of the cricket; and a
few are deaf to the chirp of the house-sparrow. Very few
persons are conscious of the scream of the common bat.
Though well enough acquainted with that animal, I can hear
no sound uttered by it. I have seen a bat scream when I have
held itm my hand—that is, I judged from its struggles, and
the action of the jaws and tongue that it was shrieking—but
I could hear no sound whatever. Yet a friend, who hears
more acute notes than I can, tells me that bats are very noisy
little creatures. . .

The average tone of the human voice is not far from holding
the middle place in the range of sound audible to the human
ear—being about six octaves above the lowest, and six octaves
below the most acute sounds distinguishable. Should the
range of hearing of the bat be as extensive as our own, and, as
is likely, hold about the same relative position with regard to
its voice as ours does to the human voice, it would follow that
sounds would be audible to the bat which were six octaves
higher in tone than the most acute audible to us. Such
sounds would require two and half millions of vibrations in the
second to produce them.

The voice of the bat is probably the shrillest sound audible
to human ears, consequently all animals whose voices are still
more acute are, as far as our senses are concerned, completely
mute. It does not, however, at all follow that their muteness

* M. Despretz gives thirty-two vibrations in a second as the limit of deep
sounds; and 73,700 for acute sounds.—See Ganot’s Physics, by Atkinson.
Savart gives seven to eight vibrations in the second as the lowest limit of
audibility when the sound is very loud —Vide Lardner's Handbook, “Acoustics.”

416: Sounds we cannot Hear.

is absolute. That we cannot hear them is no evidence what-
ever that they cannot hear one another. As a general rule,
the more minute animals have the more acute voices—as from
the laws of acoustics might be expected—and though there.
are exceptions, as in the case of the frog; yet the acuteness’
of voice, and probably the range of hearing, usually bear rela-
tion to the size of the animal. It is therefore almost certain,
judging from the size alone of insects, that we should be
unable to hear any voices which they may possess, except
perhaps in case of a few of the larger of them, as the death’s
head moth, the cicada, the grasshopper, and the cricket.

If it be once admitted that insects and other minute
animals may, and probably do, utter or make determinate
sounds or voices, which we cannot perceive, we may readily
imagine them to have, like birds, sounds expressive of alarm,
or of encouragement, of want, or affection, of pleasure, or dis-
tress, and to be well enough able to communicate with one
another. An ant-hill or a bee-hive may be to the inhabitants
ag noisy aS a rookery appears to us; the sound of a spider
may be to a fly as terrific as the roar of a lion is to an antelope ;
while the bat may distinguish the voice of the moths on which |
it preys, as readily as the wolf hears the bleating of the sheep.

A singular converse proposition is also probable, namely,
that imsects which can very well hear one another, do not
hear us at all; that to the house-fly, or cricket, men, women,
and children may appear utterly dumb. Certainly many
insects are quite unaffected by the human voice, and, at least,
appear insensible to any sound from it. Hven the exquisitely-
developed ears of the bat may be unable to hear all the notes
of human voices, just as the human ear often cannot hear the
bat’s voice.

It is stated by Scoresby and other arctic voyagers and
whale hunters, that whales have some mysterious mode of con-
verse with one another at a distance of some miles, so that an
alarm of danger is rapidly communicated, and this without any
sound audible to human beings being used. Some entirely
unknown mode of signaling through the medium of water has
been imagined to explain the fact, but it is more likely that the
whale simply bellows in a graver tone than ordinary—a tone
below the auditory range of the human ear, and therefore not
to be heard by it, although quite within the auditory range of
the whale itself. It will, of course, be understood that by
voice I merely mean any voluntary and determinate sound ~
given forth as a means of communication, whether the vocal
organs be internal, as in the higher animals; or external, as
they probably are in the lower.

The Genus Araucaria. 417.

THE GENUS ARAUCARIA.

BY JOHN R. JACKSON,
Curator, Museum, Royal Gardens, Kew.

(With a Tinted Plate.)

In the year 1774, the good ship “ Resolution,” commanded by
the great circumnavigator Captain Cook, was calmly sailingalong
through those glorious southern seas, when the cry of ‘* Land
a-head ” echoed through the vessel. All eyes were directed
towards the point indicated. The faint outline of an unknown
shore was visible. Gradually they neared the coast. The
pleasure of those upon the deck was equalled by their surprise
as by degrees the scene became more visible. They saw what
appeared to them to be tall pillars, or spires, or the masts
of a thousand ships, towering high over all else around
them. On they sped without being able to determine what
this unusual and unexpected sight could mean, till upon near-
ing Cape Coronation a few days after, the same objects pre-
sented themselves to view. What could they be? Could they
be nearing a land where civilization held sway ? or could these
be magnificent columns of basaltic formation? This latter was
the general opinion of the naturalists on board. Speculation
was rife, expectation was on tip-toe. The enlightened Com-
mander maintained from the first that they were trees. The
telescope was kept pointed towards them, and at last it became
evident that these strange pillars were, in fact, trees, but trees
of a new and wonderful species. A landing was proposed, all
hands being determined not to leave the place till they were
satisfied as to what kind of trees they were. Captain Cook with
the botanists on board now first set foot upon the island. The
hearts of the enthusiastic company bounded within them at the
sight, as they for the first time made the acquaintance of a
goodly number of Araucaria columnaris. Nor was this dis-
covery interesting alone to the botanists, here were trees the
trunks of which on this little isle were from sixty to seventy
feet high admirably adapted for ships’ spars. Captain Cook
says :—“ If I except New Zealand, I at this time knew of no
island in the South Pacific Ocean where a ship could supply
‘herself with a mast or a yard, were she ever so much distressed
for want of one. My carpenter, who was a mast-maker as well
as shipwright, was of opinion that these trees would make
exceedingly good masts. ‘The wood is white, close grained,
tough and light. ‘Turpentine had exuded from most of the
trunks, and the sun had inspissated it into a resin which was

418 The Genus Araucaria.

found sticking to them and lying about the roots. These trees
shoot out their branches like all other pines, with this differ-
ence, that the branches of these are much smaller and shorter,
so that the knots become nothing when the tree is wrought for
use. I took notice that the largest of them had the smallest
and shortest branches, and were crowned, as it were, at the
top by a spreading branch like a bush. This was what led
some on board into the extravagant notion of their being
basalts, indeed, no one could think of finding such trees here.”
This island was afterwards named by Captain Cook the Isle.
of Pines. We do not know whether at the time we write the
particular tree that first attracted Captain Cook’s attention
ninety years since is still standing, but in 1850 it was reported
to be “in a flourishing condition,” and was said to exactly
resemble “ a well-proportioned factory chimney of great height.’”
From the peculiarity of the foliage and general habit of Arau-
carias, and more especially of A. columnaris, it is certainly a
matter of no wonder that all on board the “‘ Resolution” were
surprised and astonished upon first beholding so novel and
beautifula scene. There is, perhaps, no one family of plants
more interesting than that to which the Araucarias belong
(the Conifer), and it is certain of all the timber trees none
have produced so much interest among botanists as the Arau-
carias. And there are many reasons for this, for if we except
the Mammoth tree of California, the Araucarias take a position
among the largest and most majestic forest trees.

To Captain Cook and his fellow-travellers, then, are we in-
debted for the first accurate general account of A. columnaris,
though it had been previously mentioned by several authors, but
under other names.

The Araucarias, which take their rank as the noblest of all
that noble family of trees, the Conifers, are now confined to
the Southern hemisphere; but there is evidence that would
lead us to suppose that at one time they held a footing even in
our own island. Geologists, and notably poor Hugh Miller,
speak with confidence of having found fossil Araucaria stems.
The microscopic structure of the wood corresponds very closely
with that of the recent Araucarias. The remains of one found
in the Lias of Dorsetshire have been figured and described
under the name of A. primeva. There are some seven or
eight species of the genus now known to botanists, and these
are natives of Brazil, Chili, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island,
Australia, etc. Some of them have been only recently intro-
duced to our gardens, others have been cultivated for many-
years. A few particulars concerning them may not be without
interest to the readers of this magazine. The name of the
genus is derived from that of a tribe of natives called Arau-

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The Genus Araucaria. 419

canians (the word signifying freedom), who inhabit the district
where A. imbricata abounds.

If A. columnaris holds good as a species, decidedly the
most similar to it is A. excelsa ; indeed, the difference seems to
be so shght that many authors have united them under one
specific name (A. eacelsa). In general habit and appearance
they so much resemble each other that to a casual observer
not the slightest difference could be detected, without it is in
the manner of branching, A. excelsa throwing out its branches
nearly horizontally and in regular whorls, while those of A.
columnaris are slightly inclined upwards, but this may not be
the case in old plants. Loudon considers them synonymous,
and says, ‘‘'The A. eacelsa is a native of New Caledonia, in
Queen Charlotte’s Foreland, and on a small neighbouring
island, which is a mere sandbank, only three-quarters of a mile
im circuit.” After being discovered by Captain Cook, as |
mentioned above, on the Isle of Pines, it was brought home
by Brown and Flinders, who found it growing abundantly on
the east coast of New Holland, and the tree was introduced
into this country about 1793. Of all the Araucarias the A.
excelsa is the most beautiful and graceful in habit. Its
naked, tapering trunk, with uniform branches clothed with
rich green foliage, makes it a very handsome object. The
leaves are not more than three-quarters of an inch long, awl-
shaped, and curved upwards. The plant is not hardy, but
grows well in a greenhouse, where it is fully protected from
the frost. There are several fine specimens of this beautiful
tree in the temperate house of the Royal Gardens, Kew, some
of them over twenty feet high. These trees would have been
much taller, but want of accommodation made it necessary to
cut them down repeatedly. The wood of Araucarva excelsa is
white, as indeed are most of the Coniferous woods ; the upper
part of the trunk is knotty, while the lower part is invariably
unsound: in old trees. It is, however, much used by the
_ natives in house-building and similar work. It forms a large
tree, averaging from 180 to 230 feet high. In the Sydney
Botanic Garden there are some remarkably fine specimens of
the Norfolk Island pine; in beauty and symmetry they are
said to have no equal; their perpendicular trunks, the regu-
larity of their branching, and being covered with the most.
beautiful dense foliage, give them a drooping feathery appear-
ance. ‘Their age is computed to be about fifty or sixty years.
The largest of these trees has attained a height of seventy-six
feet, and a circumference near the base of twelve feet. This
tree has occasionally born fruit, the first time in 1839. Dr.
Bennett, in his (fatherings of a Natwralist in Australasia,
tells us that the first instance of perfect seeds having been pro-

VOL. VII.—NO., VI. EE

420 ‘ The Genus Araneae:

duced in that colony was in 1857, when the trees at Ash Island,
Hunter’s River, bore female cones. The seeds, upon ripening,
scattered themselves, taking root and producing young plants
spontaneously, thus naturalizinge the plant as it were.

A. excelsa is of all the species the most majestic, and the
places of its growth perhaps the most picturesque. It loves
the mountain side, the overhanging precipice, the storm-torn
rocks; among these it firmly anchors itself with its twisting
roots. These roots descend many feet into the ground and
penetrate into every lateral crevice. They form wood of some
thickness and of great density, of a deep red colour, from
which the inhabitants make small articles of utility or orna-
ment, such as candlesticks and the like. From the tremendous
storms with which Norfolk Island is occasionally visited, the
Araucarias suffer considerably, but chiefly in their uppermost
branches; in the valleys where they are more sheltered, there-
fore, the best formed and most symmetrical trees are to be found.
They do not grow in very dense forests, other and smaller trees
coming in and filling up the spaces between them, thus tending
to give the forests a very ornamental appearance. The wood is
free from any resin, but a sort of white milky juice exudes from
the bark: this has been tried for various purposes as a substi-
tute for pitch, but found to be useless. A former governor
(Governor King) of Norfolk Island was so partial to this tree
that he adopted it as his family crest. Another species of this
group, and nearly allied to A. eacelsa, is A. Cunningham. This,
which is called the Moreton Bay pine, was named by Aiton im
honour of the indefatigable botanist and explorer Allan Cun-
ningham. It is found on the shores of Moreton Bay, in lat.
14° to 29° seuth, and on the alluvial banks of the Brisbane
River, lat. 27° to 30° south. It grows, however, in the greatest
profusion in the brush forests, on the Richmond River. The
trees seem to thrive best near the coast, attaining in such a
situation their greatest height, often from 100 to 130 feet, but
gradually diminishing in height the farther the trees are inland.
It would appear from this that the sea air has a great effect
upon it. Other large trees of different genera are found
growing amongst the Araucarias in dense woods. The Moreton
Bay pine was discovered in 1770, by Sir Joseph Banks and
Dr. Solander, and the first living plant did not arrive at Kew
till 1824.

From the time of the discovery of A. columnaris in 1774
up to 1824, the two trees were considered to be the same
species, but in the latter year Mr. Allan Cunningham revisited
Moreton Bay in company with Mr. Oxley, and, after a careful
examination, came to the conclusion that A. Cunninghami
“was a very distinct species, not simply in its habit of growth,

The Genus Araucaria. 421

which is very remarkable, but in the character of its leaves.”
The branches are much more drooping than those of A. excelsa,
and very lax as compared with that species. On the young
twigs the leaves are very minute, gradually developing them-
selves till they attain maturity, when they become slightly
imbricated. ‘The branches are given off in whorls of six or
eight, in the young plants slightly bent upwards, but in those
of greater age bending down in a very graceful manner.
It forms a very straight trunk, frequently rising to a height
of eighty feet before any branches are given off. The diameter
of the trunk averages from four to five feet, the cones are
ovate, from three to four inches long, and nearly as broad. The
scales are very closely set together, wedge-shaped, of a leathery
texture, each ending in a sharp recurved spine, about a third
the length of the scale. The seeds are small and flattened, in
form resembling the scale itself. The whole cone is of a deep
rich brown colour. Allan Cunningham says that this plant
bears young cones in the month of September. It has never
fruited in this country. The wood in appearance and colour
much resembles some of the lighter kinds of deal. It is of
@ very uniform grain, and works well. Some specimens are
very beautiful, on account of small knots interspersed
throughout, giving it somewhat the appearance of bird’s-eye
maple, though being of a lighter colour it has a more delicate
appearance. It is chiefly used in the colony for house car-
peutry and many kinds of furniture. For the masts of vessels
it is peculiarly adapted when green, as spars can be obtained
in any quantity, from eighty to a hundred feet in length ; but it
is said in drying, these masts cannot be depended on, as there
is little lateral cohesion between the fibres, and being entirely
devoid of resin, there is nothing to strengthen them. The
timber procured from the inland or mountain brushes is con-
sidered superior to that grown near the coast; from some trees
as much as ten thousand feet of saleable timber can be ob-
tained. From Sydney, and other parts, large quantities are
imported, giving employment to a large number of sawyers,
who receive pay at the rate of £2 10s. per thousand feet. In
Queensland, also, the timber is an article of great commercial
importance. Though there is no actual resin deposited in
these trees, there is an abundance of a clear, white, transparent
substance, which exudes from the trunks and adheres to them,
hanging in the form of icicles. Some fine specimens of the
wood of this tree were exhibited in the International Hxhi-
bition of 1862,in both the Sydney and Queensland collections.
These are now to be seen amongst the magnificent collection
of colonial and foreign woods in the Royal Gardens, Kew. ©
The Araucaria imbricata, Pay., or Chili pine, is, perhaps,

422 The Genus Araucaria.

the best known of all the species, having of late years been so
largely planted in this country. It was known to the Spanish
settlers nearly a century back. In 1780 Don Francisco Den-
dariarena was commissioned by these settlers to examine the
Araucarias, and report upon their suitability as timber for
ship-building. The result was that the wood of A. wmbricata
was considered good, and at once applied to the repairing of
the vessels of the squadron then lying in the port of Talca-
guano. In a work published by the Abbate Molina, two years
later (1782), the tree is described as Pinus Araucaria. In the
same year the botanist Pavon was sent by the Spanish Govern-
ment in search of this tree; having secured the flowers and
fruit (the most necessary parts for determination), he had no
hesitation in making it a distinct species of Araucaria (A. im-
bricata). The plant had, however, been gathered by Pavon in
a previous expedition to Chili, and transmitted by him to
France, where falling into the hands of Lamarck and Jussieu,
the former authority named it Dombeya Chilensis, but through
inaccuracies in the description of its botanical characters, this
name fell to the ground, and Pavon’s subsequent name was
generally used. ‘The tree was not known in Hurope ina living
state till Archibald Menzies, accompanying Captain Vancouver,
secured some fresh seeds.

Having been invited to dine at the house of one of the
officials, at Valparaiso, he begged a few of the seeds of this
tree, which formed part of the dessert. ‘These were planted,
and. carefully attended to by him on board ship; thus young
plants were brought home, and were presented by Menzies to
Sir J. Banks, who reared one in the garden adjoining his
house at Spring Grove, and the remainder were presented to
the Royal Gardens, Kew. One of these trees is now among the
finest in Europe, and stands our winter climate well. Previous
to 1806 it was kept in a greenhouse, but after being planted
out it was carefully covered, to protect it from frost. This
precaution has now been discontinued for many years, and
found to be quite unnecessary, as the abundance of these trees
in almost every well-kept garden testify. Plants can now be
obtained for a few shillings which about twenty years since
could only be had for as many pounds. The best description
of the Chilian Araucaria forestsis from Poeppig’s travels in the
Peruvian Andes. He says: ‘The Araucaria—a tree that
affords the Indians of the Patagonian Andes a great part of
their food—will not grow on the lowlands, and it also preserves
an accurately defined boundary with respect to its northern —
limits. When transplanted into many parts of the province of
Concepcion, it exhibits a sickly, deteriorated appearance, and
vegetates so reluctantly that from many fresh seeds which

The Genus Araucaria. 423

were sown in Talcahuano, only two sprung up, which shortly
afterwards died. An Alpine atmosphere and a severer climate
than can be expected in the lower tracts of the country, and
above all a stony soil, seem to be indispensable for its growth.
In the immediate neighbourhood of Antuco nota single tree
of Araucaria can be seen, and it requires a fatiguing excursion
to gratify the naturalist’s desire to behold a wood of these truly -
regal trees.” The writer then goes on to say: “Towards the
evening we had ascended the moderately high ridges that form
the background of the valley,” which runs between Antuco
and the fort of Trun Leuvu, ‘‘and the dense crown that was
seen above these, from afar, had indicated our near approach to
the desired aim, and added new vigour to our exertions.
When we arrived at the first Araucarias, the sun had just set,
still some time remained for their examination. What first
struck our attention were the thick roots of these trees, which
lie spread over the stony, and nearly naked soil, like gigantic
serpents, two or three feet in thickness; they are clothed with
a rough bark, similar to that which invests the lofty pillar-lke
trunks, of from fifty to one hundred feet inheight. The crown
of foliage occupies only about the upper quarter of the stem,
and resembles a large depressed cone. The lower branches,
eight or twelve in number, form a circle round the trunk ; they
diminish till they are but four or six in a ring, and are of most
regular formation, all spreading out horizontally, and bending
upwards only at their tips; they are thickly invested with
leaves, that cover them like scales, and are sharp-pointed,
above an inch broad, and of such a hard and wocdy texture
that it requires a sharp knife to sever them from the parent
branch. ‘The general aspect of the Araucaria is most striking
and peculiar, though it undeniably bears a distant family lke-
ness to the pines of our country; its fruits, placed at the ends of
the boughs, are of a ‘regularly globular form, as large as a man’s
head, -and consist of beautifully imbricated scales, that cover
the seeds, which are the most important part of this truly
noble tree, The Araucaria is the palm of those Indians who
inhabit the Chilian Andes, from lat. 37° to 48°, yielding to
these nomade nations a vegetable sustenance that is found in
the greater plenty the more they recede from the whites, and
the more difficult they find it to obtain corn by commerce.
““Such is the extent of the Araucaria forests and the
amazing quantity of nutritious seeds that each full-grown tree
produces, that the Indians are ever secure from want, and
even the discord that prevails frequently among the different
hordes does not prevent the quiet collection of this kind of
harvest. A single fruit (cabeza, ‘a head’) contains between 200:
-and.300 kernels, and there are frequently twenty or thirty fruits

424 The Genus Araucaria.

on one stem; and as even a hearty eater among the Indians,
except he should be wholly deprived of every other kind of
sustenance, cannot consume more than 200 nuts in a day, it
is easily seen that eighteen Araucarias will maintain a single
person for a whole year. The kernel, which is the shape of an
almond, but double the size, is eeonneied with a coriaceous
membrane that is easily removed. Though relishing when
prepared, it is not easily digestible, and contaiming but a small
quantity of oil, is apt to cause disorders in the stomach with
those who are not accustomed to this diet. When the scarcely
matured seeds are dried in the sun, a sugary substance exudes,
which appears to reside chiefly in the embryo. The Indians
eat them either fresh, boiled, or roasted, and the latter mode
of cooking gives them a flavour something like a chesnut.
For winter’s use they are dried, after being boiled, and the
women prepare a kind of flour and pastry from them.

* The collecting these fruits would be attended with great
labour if it were always necessary to climb the gigantic trunks ;
but as soon as the kernels are ripe, towards the end of March,
the cones drop off of themselves, and shedding their contents
on the ground, scatter liberally a boon which nothing but the
little parrot and a species of cherry-finch divide with the
Indians. In the vast forests, of a day’s journey in extent,
that are formed by these trees in the districts of Pehuenches
and Huilliches, the fruits le in such plenty on the ground,

hat but a very small part of them can be consumed. In
former times a great quantity came to Concepcion and Val-
divia by trading with the Indians, and thence they found their
way to Valparaiso and Lima; but now they are seldom seen
anywhere near the coast, or they are too old to be palatable.
The reason why all the seeds of Araucaria that hitherto were —
sent to Europe did not vegetate, is because the collectors did
not procure them from the Indian country, but bought them in
the market at Valparaiso, where they are offered for sale boiled
and dried. My excursion to Quillay-Leuvu obtamed for me
fresh seeds of the Araucaria, which reached Germany in Octo-
ber, 1829, being seven months after they were ripe, and being
sowed immediately, the period was just that of the Chilian
spring. Of some hundreds, about thirty came up; but igno-
rance of the true climate, which led to the error of placing the
young plants ma hothouse, killed the greater part during the
first year. To my great satisfaction, however, about six indi-
vidual plants have been preserved in different places, and they
are to the best of my belief the only ones in Europe. ‘The
wood of the Araucaria is red where it has been affected by
the forest fires, but otherwise it is wkite, and towards the
centre of the stem bright yellow. It yields to none in

The Genus Araucaria. 425

hardness and solidity, and might prove valuable for many
uses if the places of the growth of the tree were less inacces-
sible. For ship-building it would be useful, but is much too
heavy for masts. Ifa branch be scratched, or the scales of an
unripe fruit be broken, a thick milky juice immediately exudes,
that soon changes to a yellowish resin, of which the smell is
agreeable, and which is considered by the Chilians as possess-
ing such medicinal virtues that it cures the most violent rheu- ~
pate headaches when applied to the spot where the pain is
elt.”?

“The Araucaria forest of Antuco is the most northerly
that is known in Chili, so that the boundary of this king of
of all the extra- tropical American trees may be estimated at
36° south lat. The extreme southern limit is not so clearly
ascertained, which is not surprising when we consider how
little comparatively is known of Western Patagonia; it seems
probable, however, that it does not stretch far beyond lat. 46°.
Between Antuco and Valdivia this tree only grows among the
Andes, and, as the Indians assert, solely on their western de-
cliyities, and nowhere lower than from 1500 to 2000 feet
below the snow line, up to which they frequently reach. Fur-
ther to the south the Araucaria appears at a lower elevation,
and in the country of the Cuncos, and about Osorno, is said to
occur on mountains of a very moderate altitude near the sea.
The Corcovado, a mountain that rises opposite Childe, is said
to be studded from its foot to the snow line with large groups
of these beautiful trees. Of all other vegetation the Araucaria
forests are as bare as the pine woods, offering but few plants
which can interest the botanist. Steep rocky ridges, where
there is no water, are its favourite habitat.’

The Chilians eat the seeds either raw, reasted, or boiled,
and consider them very nutritious; they also procure a spirit
from them by distillation. The timber is easily worked, and
takes a high polish. Pavon mentions a peculiar fact connected
with the height of these trees. He asserts that the female is
by far the largest, frequently 150 feet, while the male seldom
exceeds 40 or 50 feet, The inner bark of the trunk is peculiar
from its ight porous nature; it is very thick. The outer bark
is also of a great thickness, and of a similar corky consistence,

The Bunya-Bunya, Araucaria PBidwilli, Hook., is a noble
tree, inhabiting the scrubs between the Brisbane and Burnett
Rivers, between the 26 and 28 parallels of latitude, and longitude
152° to 153°°30 east. On the east coast of Australia the trees
grow in dense forests over a tract of country ranging about
thirty miles long by twelve broad, where they form one of the
prineipal features.in the surroundin g vegetation, being strikingly
contrasted by their rigid growth and bright green colour. The

426 The Genus Araucaria.

tree is a magnificent one, growing from 100 to 200 feet
high, with a stout trunk, scarcely tapering, and covered with
a thick smooth bark, often unbranched for half the height,
with a conical loose head, overtopping all the other trees of the
forest. The branches are arranged in whorls, sometimes giving
off near the summit as many as sixteen in a whorl; these
branches average twelve feet in length, and about one and a-
half inches in diameter. The young branches are arranged
horizontally on the stem, but the older ones have a drooping
habit. The branchlets are disposed in pairs, opposite, about
eighteen inches long, very slender, sparsely covered with the
thin long leaves; in the younger and terminal branches the
leaves are more crowded. ‘The cones are very large, quite the
size of a man’s head, and sometimes nearly as broad as long,
the top often slightly depressed. The scales are large and
thick, with an acute ridge running across them, terminating in
a sharp- pointed recurved spine. The seeds, seated between
these scales, are also very large, frequently from one to two
inches long, and sometimes even longer, and quite three-
quarters of an inch wide, broad at one end and tapering at the
other. The cones are produced on the uppermost branches of
the tree, and one cone frequently contains as many as 150
seeds, which are freely scattered on the ground as the cone
ripens. The trees bear fruit plentifully once in three years,
usually between the months of January and March. At these
seasons the aborigines assemble from far and near to collect
the seeds, which are a favourite food with them. They roast
them in the shell, crack them between two stones, and eat
them while hot. In flavour they somewhat resemble roasted
chesnuts. So well does this food agree with them that they
are said “to grow sleek and fat” upon it. That part of
the district where these trees most abound is called the Bunya-
Bunya country.

The trees are protected by an act of the Colonial legislature,
forbidding their destruction under heavy penalties, as they
form one of the natural sources of food of the natives. One of
the most remarkable things connected with these trees is the
division of them as personal property among the various tribes,
each tribe owning a particular group, which passes from gene-
ration to generation as an hereditary right, and, with the
exception of these, they are not known to possess any property
in a similar manner. The wood is very fine and close-grained,
of a lightish yellow colour, sometimes beautifully veined ; itis _
very durable, is easily worked, and is susceptible of a ihe

olish.
q The Brazilian Araucaria, Araucaria Brasiliensis, Rich., is
found. growing at a great elevation, chiefly in the-province of

The Genus Araucaria. 427:

Minos Gerces, and to the north of Rio, at an altitude of 1000
feet above the sea-level. They are exposed to some of the most
violent storms, accompanied by the fiercest of lightning, from
the effects of which the trees suffer considerably—their beauty
and symmetry being greatly lessened by the stripping off of
their lower branches, or the shivering of the younger and more
tender parts. The height of the tree itself adds greatly to
the chances of injury, as it attains from 70 to 100 feet, having
a very straight trunk, which is covered for the most part with
e smooth bark, except near the summit, where the remains of
old leaves still persist, as on the trunk of A. imbricata. Inits
habit it is more loose and spreading than that species, but
more nearly resembles it than any of the other species. From
the date of its introduction in 1819 to 1822, A. Brasiliensis
and A. imbricata were considered as one species. In the latter
year, however, M. Richard, who had paid some attention to
the two plants, published a description of this species, sepa-
rating it from A. imbricata, and giving the plant its existing
name of A. Brasiliensis. He states in that account that the
chief botanical difference is, that in this species the seed is
entirely devoid of the winged appendage, which is a distinctive
mark of A. imbricata. The disposition of the branches also
was made a character for distinction, as well as the greater
softness and whiteness of the wood. The branches are
arranged in whorls round the stem, but much more numerous
than the other South American species. The form of the leaves
s linear-lanceolate, very sharp at the apex, from one to two
inches long, not so thickly disposed upon the stem as in A.
imbricata.

The cones are more close and compact than those of that
species; they are of a dingy yellow colour, about six inches
long. The scales are of a soft, corky nature, thick, and
wedge-shaped, very «closely packed together, each having a
long recurved spine. In general appearance, this tree is
much more spreading and loose than A. imbricata, and it
makes a more rapid growth. It is not hardy enough to bear
the frosts of our winters, but thrives well in a greenhouse.
The nuts, or seeds, are commonly sold in the markets of Rio
Janeiro, as an article of food. The resinous matter which
exudes from the trunk, mixed with wax, is much used by the
natives in the manufacture of candles. Two species similar to
this have been described: the first by M. Savin, under the
name of A. Itvidolfiana—this has been proved by Professor
Parlatore to be nothing more. than a form of A. Brasiliensis.
The second by Professor Parlatore,,who has given it the name
of A. Saviana, and considers ita very distinct species. This
plant is growing in the Botanic Garden of Pisa, where it was

498 The Genus Araucaria.

planted in the open air in 1846, and is now a flourishing tree.
lt may also be seen growing in the Botanic Garden of
Florence, in both of which it has borne cones. These, in
their young state, strongly resemble A. Brasiliensis, with the
exception that the spmes of the scales are much longer, very
uniformly recurved, and curling so far back as to completely
cover the junction of the two scales. So dense are the spines
on these young cones that the scales are completely hidden by
them, and the cone much more resembles a fine head of
Fuller’s teazel than the fruit of a Coniferous tree. In the
mature cone the scales are much more fully developed, and the
spines have the appearance of small recurved hooks.
The newest of all the Araucarias, and perhaps one of the
most remarkable, whether as to its place of growth or its habit,
is the A. Rulet, Muell. This was first known in England in
1861 or 1862, when small specimens of the foliage were received-
by Sir W. J. Hooker, at Kew. The native habitat of this
species is very limited; the whole of the trees as yet dis-
covered occupying a radius of only half a mile, and this on
the summit of an extinct volcano, where the changes of
season produce the greatest extremes of drought and heat, or
rain, and cold winds, and where no other vegetation exists for
hundreds of feet below. It grows on a parallel lat. with A.
Bidwilli, but situate at double the elevation of the habitat of
that tree. It was discovered and introduced from Port Molle,
by Mr. W. Duncan, collector to John Rule, Hsq., of Victoria,
in honour of whom Dr. Mueller has given it its specific name.
It is a tree rising some 50 or 60 feet high, branching in
hike manner to A. imbricata, bat the branches more thickly
arranged round the stem, and these of a more rigid and
tabular form, forking in all directions, at equidistances, in a
most symmetrical manner. ‘The leaves are very closely im-
bricated, of a dark shining green colour. Its nearest affinity
is with A. imbricata, which it resembles in a remarkable
degree in many points, but in others it is wholly distinct. Its
beauty is said far to surpass the last-named species, or even of
any other species known. The cones are nearly spherical, the
scales about an inch broad, terminating with a long projecting
narrow point, or scale, about an inch long. Of the economic
uses of this species nothing is yet known, though it is probable
the seeds are eaten like some of the other species. Mr. W.
Bull, the well-known nurseryman, of the King’s Road, Chelsea,
introduced this rare plant into this country.
The following, from an account of two Araucarias, one of
which is A. Rulet, isgiven by Dr. Mueller, in his report on Lievt.
Fitzalan’s expedition :— A. Ounninghumi, found on Cumber;
land Islands, occurs southward to the vicinity of the Hastings

Brown and Black Bears of the Himalayan Mountains. 429

River. The branches, with immature fruit, gathered during
the Burdekin expedition, accord fully with others from Moreton
Bay, Rockhampton, and the Hastings River. It remains as
yet unascertained whether more than one Araucaria belongs to
the Hast Australian flora. Mr. Fitzalan offers on this pine the
following notes: Very abundant from Percy’s Island upwards.
On Percy’s Island it differs but little from the Moreton Bay
pine, except in the invariable regularity of its branches—these
being in regular tiers, opposite. The Moreton Bay pine is
seldom so. As we go further north, this regularity creases,
and the foliage becomes more glaucous, until, at Port Molle
and on Whitsunday Island, the tree assumes the habit of the
New Caledonian species, the tree being conical, the tiers of
branches perfectly regular, and having a slight droop at their
tips. Wecut a spar of it on Magnetical Island, to make a
top-mast, and the wood was hard and close grained, paler than
that of the Moreton Bay pine, and would not swim. It pro-
duces a white resin abundantly.”

HABITS AND HAUNTS OF THE BROWN AND BLACK
BEARS OF THH HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS.

BY A. LEITH ADAMS, A.M., M.B., F.G.S.

Tas European brown bear (Ursus arctos), although at one
time common in many parts of Hurope, is now restricted to a
few secluded valleys in the Alps, Pyrenees, and mountains of
Norway and Lapland. ‘The dark-coloured race, long considered
a distinct species, under the name of the European black bear,
together with the barren-ground bear of North America, are
now included among the varieties of Ursus arctos. The distri-
bution of the brown bear is more extensive than any of the
family. In Asia it inhabits Siberia and the Altai as far west-
ward as Japan; when the Altai is crossed, and the great
Himalayan chain examined, there will be found another brown
bear, which has been named the Isabella bear, from the pre-
vailing light fulvous or Isabella colour of the fur. There is a
condition, common to all the above, and more or less apparent
at every stage of the animal’s growth, which is a hight or white
coloured collar; this is very distinct in the young or unborn
eub, and in particular during the shedding of the long winter
coat in midsummer; consequently it was from a spécimen pro-
eured at that -season that Cuvier described his ‘‘ Collared
bear.” It would seem, moreover, that the fur on the front of
the chest is lighter than on other parts of the body in almost

430 Brown and Black Bears of the Himalayan Mountains.

every member of the family, just as other markings—to wit,
spots and stripes—can be more or less traced throughout other-
wise very dissimilar species of the same group.

As to the distinction between the Ursus arctos and the
Isabella coloured pear of the Himalaya, it will be found that
the difference rests only in the colouring of the tips of the
hair, and that, we have frequently observed, is not always a
sure criterion, as we have procured many specimens of the
bear in which the fur was in every way similar to that of the
other. No doubt the majority of the Isabella bears have the
tips of the hairs brownish white, but brown is the fundamental
colour. Some individuals, especially old males, are almost
maroon, whilst others vary from brown to brownish yellow, and
are a dirty white; hence travellers speak of the ‘‘ White and
Brown bears of Cashmere” : it is evident, however, that neither
age nor sex determine the colour with any degree of accuracy.
We have frequently remarked, however, that the lighter coloured
individuals were mostly observed in spring, and at high
elevations, as if the long sojourn among the snow had brought
about the change in the tips of the hairs. In the Himalayan
brown bear the senses of sight and hearing are not nearly so
highly developed as smell, in which it would appear the
animal’s safety mainly depends. This peculiarity seems more
or less constant in every member of the family. There are
few quadrupeds supposed to be more inactive in habits than
the bear; but this is a great mistake, and has arisen doubtless
from observing the immates of menageries and zoological
gardens: when aroused to exertion in the wild state, it will
scamper along a mountain side at a pace equal to the sharp
gallop of a~horse, and in ascending heights would certainly
soon outstrip any of its plantigrade congeners. When the first
skin of this bear was brought to Europe, and described by Dr.
Horsefield, it was supposed from the curved and sharp claws
that the animal is an expert tree climber: this, however, we can
vouch for, is not the case; moreover, as a rule, the claws are
not very acute, but well adapted to maintain a sure footing on
the slippery mountain sides and glaciers.

The Isabella bear is found on the mountains of Armenia,
where it has long passed under the name of the “ Syrian bear,”
and is perhaps the animal referred to in the Bible; a few still
linger on the Lebanon, and from the continued intercourse
between Egypt and the East, it is highly probable that this is
the species mentioned by ancient historians as the “ Lybian
bear.” It is not rare on the Caucasus and high ranges of
Persia, Affghanistan, and Himalaya, at least as far eastward as
Nepaul, and probably much farther. _ i Hkne ‘nod

Its extreme northern limits have not been accurately de-

Brown and Black Bears of the Himalayan Mountains. 431

fined ; it abounds on all the high ranges forming the water-_
sheds of the great rivers of Hindoostan, and is essentially
Aipine in habits, whatever it may have been in bygone times ;
at present it is seldom found under 8000 to 10,000 feet above
the level of the sea. Like its Huropean congener it is fast dis-
appearing before the march of civilization. Nowhere was the
animal more abundant, until late years, than among the snow-
covered peaks and upland valleys of the Northern Cashmere
ranges. In the Vale of Wurdwun as many as thirty were
killed during the spring of 1851 by one hunter; and in the
same neighbourhood, two years subsequently, we procured
upwards of twenty in a few weeks. The native name of the
bear is Reech, not Ritch, as frequently written ; it is also called
the Harput, and Balu, names by which the black bear is
also known. ‘The Isabella bear swims with ease, and has been
known to cross many of the most rapid mountain streams. In
spring, after issuing from its winter retreat, its food consists
_ mainly of grass, green pine-cones, the tender shoots of divers
sorts of wild rhubarb, and umbelliferous plants then just
appearing above ground; but as the season advances, it grows
more dainty, feeding on the root of the wild strawberry, and a
small white carrot, which it digs up with its snout and paws.
At first, when food is scarce, it has been often known to attack
sheep, goats, even cattle and ponies; we have frequently
watched individuals prowling in the neighbourhood of a flock
of sheep, in spite of the loud clamours of the herdsmen,
who informed us that additional shepherds were necessary
to protect the herds in the spring season, in consequence
of the bears and wild dogs bemg then more predatory
than at other.times. It is fond of crunching whatever stray
bones may happen to come in the way; we have seen an
Isabella bear gnawing the tops of the cast antlers of a deer,
and often noticed antlers similarly mutilated lying about in the
forests of Cashmere. Major Young, 37th Regiment, an
indefatigable and experienced Himalayan hunter, informed us
that he killed an Isabella bear devouring a hind of the Cash-
mere deer (Cervus Wallichit), which in all probability it sur-
prised when bringing forth young, as a newly-born fawn was
lying by the mother’s side. It has been known to devour the
’ earcase of its own species, and the bodies of ibex, musk-deer,-
etc., engulphed in avalanches are greedily sought after when
the snow melts in spring, and the devastating epidemics among
cattle, brought on from starvation and severe winters, furnish
it with abundance of animal food at a time when ‘its system
requires support. The winter’s coat is shed about midsummer,
when the old hair and under wool, called peshmena, hane in
matted masses on its sides. The hear’s peshmena is not at-

432 Brown and Black Bears of the Himalayan Mountains.

tained until autumn, and after the new coat has gained con-
siderable length. It is analogous to that of the wild and
tame goats and sheep of Thibet, and more or less pervades
all the quadrupeds of the high and snowy ranges; moreover,
the pheasants, partridges, finches, and other birds have their
winter plumage remarkably soft and downy. We need scarcely
remark that it is this substance which forms the celebrated
Cashmere shawls. The peshmena of the ibex is softer than that
of the tame goat of Thibet. Although larger and more
powerful than the black bear of the Himalaya, the Isabella
bear readily turns tail when confronted by its rival. We have
often watched two individuals unconsciously approaching each
other even within a few yards, when, as soon as they became
aware of their proximity, with a grunt sable bruin rushed on
his foe, whilst the other beat a hasty retreat, and only dis-
tanced his pursuer among rocky and precipitous parts, where
the brown bear always finds himself the better cragsman; we
have often come accidentally upon Isabella bears asleep on
snowdrifts and in hollows of glaciers, where the animal is fond
of basking in the heat of the day, chiefly for coolness, but
also to escape annoyance from insects. In spring it feeds at
all hours, but when strength and vigour return, and supplies
are ample, it prefers the night and cool of the morning,
possibly for the same reasons. Its fur is infested by a large
flat parasite, which evidently occasions great discomfort and
irritation, driving the animal to seek ponds and rivers, where
it bathes frequently. The dimensions of the Isabella bear vary
considerably, old males sometimes measure 7} feet in length,
and stand as high as 34 feet at the shoulder. The average
length, however, is about 64 feet, and 4 to 44 for a she-bear.
It is generally distributed over the Alpine forests, and when it
regains its vigour in spring seldom remains long in one
locality ; there are, however, certain individuals (usually old
males) that select spots where they remain for years, most
commonly a steep ridge running up to a bed of snow, where
the animal’s den is situated, whilst below, a pool or spring in
a shady situation, serves its wants for drinking and bathing ;
such hermit bears seldom roam far from their retreats, and by
constantly treading in the same footprints, wear out hollows
on the softer soil, like “steps of stairs,” which may be seen ©
extending in unbroken succession for long distances.

Several killed by us were all very old he-bears, with their
teeth considerably worn, and not a few had the canines broken
or worn down to a level with the other teeth, whilst the molars
were perfectly smooth on the crown. It would appear that
the bears of other countries, and several other animals, such
as the lion, tiger, deer, etc., when old take themselves to

Brown and Black Bears of the Himalayan Mountains. 438

retired places. This is an important fact, to be kept in view
by geologists in connection with the cave remains of the large
extinct quadrupeds. As to the boldness and ferocity of this
bear, it may be remarked, that it seldom ever stands on the
defensive; we have often seen natives approach wounded indi-
viduals, and beat them with sticks, whilst all Bruin attempted
was to turn his hinder quarters towards his assailant, and moan
most lustily ; like its congeners, however, it is very tenacious
of life, and unless wounded in a vital spot, is almost certain to
make its escape. The power of vision of the bear is by no
means strong, especially in spring, after it has left its den; at
that season, provided the wind is favourable, an expert hunter
may get within a few yards; we have actually walked up to
a bear and stood before it as the animal continued to browse
upon the tender shoots of plants, quite unconscious of our
presence. This defect is not the result of stupidity, for when
the animal scents man, all its energies are instantly called into
play. On examining the eyes of several killed in spring, we
have often noticed a hazy condition of the cornea, which was
especially remarked in those reared by natives. This opacity
may be the result of disease of the organ during hybernation,
or perhaps the animal is subject to ophthalmia in the wild state,
‘as is frequently the case in domesticated bears. We have
been often astonished in witnessing the extreme acuteness of
its power of smell, even at the distance of a mile: when the
wind is favourable an individua! may be often observed to start
suddenly as if alarmed by some unfriendly sound or object,
and in a wild and excited manner rush about with its head
raised snuffiing the wind, until satisfied by repeated trials that
all was not right, when, turning tail, it scampers off at a rate
few observers would credit who have only seen the inmates of
a zoological garden.

The Thibet, Malayan, and Bornean bears represent the genus
Helarctos, or Sun bears. The first (Ursus Tibetanus) is a
native of the lower Himalayan ranges, decreasing as we
ascend, and disappearing entirely with the forest region. The
geographical distribution of this species has not been clearly
fixed, and it is unfortunate that Thibet should have been
selected as its habitat, inasmuch as neither that elevated
region, nor Ladakh, are frequented by the animal. The Thibet
bear is said to be found in Persia, Affghanistan, and Northern
China, but we are not aware that it has been traced with any
degree of accuracy eastward of Nepaul, or westward of the
Indus. The white mark on the front of the chest, more or less
apparent in almost every species, ‘but particularly so in that
under consideration, is shaped like the letter Y, the two legs
proceeding a short distance up the side of the shoulder. The

~

434 Brown and Black Bears of the Himalayan Mountains.

general colour is a fine and glossy black, with a white spot on
the lower lip, and large bushy whiskers. There is a variety
we have seen among the Sewalik hills, along the frontiers of
the Punjaub, having the latter spot rust coloured, with a
tinge of the same on the paws. All we examined of this
variety were relatively smaller than the others, a circumstance
which might be accounted for in some way by the warmer
climate and food in the sub-Himalayan valleys compared with
the same at higher elevations. The Thibet bear, when taken
young and reared, seldom attains the dimensions of wild indi-
viduals. The adult often measures 5} feet from the snout to
the root of the tail. The favourite haunts of the bear are the
thick forest jungles in the neighbourhood of cultivation, where
ib spends the day, and issues forth at dusk to feed on Indian
corn, fruits, etc. It climbs with ease, and is often seen perched
on the highest branches of walnut and other fruit-trees. On
making its descent, and in particular when alarmed, it will let
itself ‘go by the run.””? Among the dense jungles along the
sides of the Duchinpara and other great valleys leading from
the Vale of Cashmere, both this and the last species often
repair in the autumn to feed on walnuts and other fruits. It
is said by the native hunters that as the Isabella bear cannot
climb he waits until the other ascends, and then feeds on what-
ever black Bruin knocks down. It feeds mostly at night, re-
pairing to dense forests and jungles at daylight. The farmers
of the lowland valleys dread the destructive propensities of the
black bear more than any other of their four-footed foes; in
consequence, they erect platforms in the fields, where watch-
men are posted at night beating drums and making loud noises
to frighten the unwelcome intruders. Bruin, however, soon
gets accustomed to the sounds, and like the wild boar, pays
very little attention to such demonstrations. Like its brown
congener, certain individuals repair to secluded places, where
they spend their days much in the same manner, contenting
themselves with whatever wild plants are procurable in a short
circuit around their retreats, and invariably choosing the
_neighbourhood of some tank or spring, where the even tenour
of their ways becomes apparent from the deep impressions on
the ground leading to and from their dens.

The Thibet bear is decidedly herbivorous, and seldom, unless
when pressed by hunger, will eat flesh. Like the Isabella
bear, it delights to bask in the sun, but only during the colder
months ; the great heat of many of the valleys in midsummer
drives it to seek shelter in the jungles and forests. Its fur
is thick and long in winter, but does not contain much of the
under wool called ‘‘ peshmena.”” Like many other species, it
is partial to honey, and in eating ripe walnuts it crunches

Brown and Black Bears of the Himalayan Mountains. 435

them between the jaws, rejecting the shells with great
nicety. In districts where food is procurable in abundance
it may be seen in undiminished numbers throughout the
winter. We have been frequently assured, however, that
the she-bears repair to dens soon after the first fall of
snow in December, and are rarely seen until the end of Feb-
ruary, when generally accompanied by one, sometimes two,
and rarely three cubs. It would appear, therefore, doubtful
if this species does hybernate ; at all events it is not an universal
habit. When come on unawares, especially if accompanied by
its cubs, it has been known to attack man and inflict severe
injuries. Like other species, the mode of attack is by a rush
towards its opponent, then rearing on its hind legs fells him to
the ground with its paws. Sometimes it secures its victim,
and after a desperate hug or bite, scampers off into the nearest
jungle: We have frequently witnessed individuals when sud-
denly alarmed by the report of a gun, or otherwise, rush down
the steep, but as if not content with the rapidity of the stam-
pede, would coil themselves in the form of a ball, and bound
down the incline for several hundred yards; if brought to a
standstill by a projection or shelf, they would spring to their
feet, and hastening to the edge of the declivity, once more
gather themselves into a round mass and roll to the bottom.
Towards the end of October, after this bear has fed on fruits
and grain, like its congener, it becomes very fat. The native
hunters state that the kidney fat is useless as an article of
commerce on account of being tainted with the smell of the
animal’s urine. They accordingly preserve only the external
adipose on the loins and inside of the thighs.

The fossil remains of bears found in the Upper Tertiary
formations and caves of Hurope and America lead to the belief
that there at one time existed certain species either now
extinct or belonging to larger races than any now met with.
Moreover, the same may be said of several of their contem-
poraries belonging to such, as the hyena, tiger, elephant, deer,
etc.; for instance, the great cavern bear, the cave tiger, the
mammoth, and Irish elk. Comparing the dimensions of living
and extinct bears, it seems that the great cavern bear and the
species or race of the brown or fen bears, that infested Europe
even in the early historic times, approach nearest in size,
whereas there is a greater difference in respect to the relative
dimensions of the largest individuals of the existent brown
bear and the fen bear of England, showing that the large indi-
viduals have died out, or that the race has greatly deteriorated.
We believe, however, that among the present denizens of
northern Asia and the Isabella bear of the Himalayan, speci-
mens can be procured equal in size at least to the largest

VOL. VII.—NO. VI. FE

436 Brown and Black Bears of the Himalayan Mountains.

bears yet found in the bogs and superficial drifts. It must,
however, be remarked, with reference to this point, that the
very old and very large Isabella bears form a small proportion
in comparison with the lesser sized individuals, and compre-
hend for the most part the denizens of the caves we have
before alluded to, where, in all probability, many end their
days, and their remains are frequently enveloped in calcareous
drippings, or other deposits. |

Climate and modes of life doubtless play important parts
in producing the external appearances of individuals called
varieties ; for it is not unreasonable to believe that by curtail-
ing the liberty and changing the food of a wild animal, by
driving it to seek new haunts and’ subsistence, which in its
former condition it would probably have eschewed, we are
establishing a new order of things in its economy, which in
process of time is likely enough to affect its physical develop-
ments. On the other hand, it wonld seem fair to suppose
that when animals are unmolested in their native haunts, and
allowed to follow their own inclinations, with abundance of
food suited to their growth and calculated to maintain
them in full vigour, they occupy their natural position in
creation ; whilst by becoming restricted to narrower limits, and
associated with man, or other dominant races, by whom they >
are driven to modify their habits of life, and compelled to
submit for successive generations to degrading influences, it
is only im accordance with every-day experience to conclude
that a deterioration of race will result, but whether to the
extent of producing changes in the form of the skeleton as
well as in the dimensions and outward appearances of the
animal, hayve-not yet been clearly demonstrated. ©

Clovelly. 437

CLOVELLY.

BY HENRY J. SLACK, F.G.8.,
Member of the Council of the Microscopical Society of London.

Crovetty is without doubt one of the most remarkable places
in the terraqueous globe. It is to an extraordinary degree
queer, quaint, and beautiful. How it came to be at all is a
mystery, requiring a combination of all the sciences to explain.
When the visitor arrives within the precincts of its sunny
woods, unless a wrinkle of blue smoke happens to curl among
the trees, and the smoke suggests an unseen chimney, and the
invisible chimney suggests a possible house, and the possible
house suggests a possibility of lodgings, the prospect, though
zesthetically beautiful, is not quite consolatory after a ride of
eleven miles from Bideford to the edge of a precipitous hill, at
the base of which fringed waves are playing, while flapping
sea gulls and long-necked cormorants tly by. ‘Please, sir, I
can’t drive any further, but will show you the way to the
lodgings,”” was the unexpected exclamation of our Jehu, as he
pulled up in tke situation described. Our party of three burst
out laughing at this comical termination of a ride. In a moment
a call and whistle from the driver brought a man up from the
depths below, and to his care the vehicle and luggage were
consigned, while we followed our guide to find Clovelly town.
Where was it? Not down the green chasm immediately in
front of us, as we faced the sea; for through the branching
trees and thick waving ferns we could discern enough to
decide that no house more elaborate than a rabbit’s burrow lay
in that direction between us and the mermaids’ parlours that
might be found beneath the glittering wave. Our guide plunged
into a steep lane with -bright red marly banks, and .blocks of
protruding stone. Trees grew on both sides, and flowers
thick as in a garden. Down we went, jogeling over rough
stones, and after getting a hundred feet lower, between a walk
and a stumble, we came to abroad stone staircase, and this,
with its accompanying cottages, was Clovelly town. In days
of yore, before Improvement came this way for the benefit of
its health, the staircase was not in anything like its present.
state, but a breakneck mountain path, hke a wriggling stony
sheep track, occupied its place. Now, from the pretty white
cottage occupied by the carrier at the top of the glen, down to
the beach, 200 feet below, the stairs extend, beginning with
an imposing width and breadth, and narrowing as they twist
down to the coast. Clovelly houses are built on each side of
* this-staircase, on landings ; some have forecourts and some have

438: Clovelly: ;

not, while many of the poorest cottages display fuchsias growing
up their walls that would be highly honoured in less favoured
climes. The Clovelly stairs are puzzling formations for stran-
gers to walk up or down. They are much too broad to be taken
im single successive steps, one for each descent. Hach stair
measures some variable and unequable multiple of a pace, and is,
moreover, a steep inclined plane, diversified by gutter arrange-
ments, the stones of which stand up like snags, and trip up any
one who does not take heed unto his ways. Visitors stumble.
and boggle up and down Clovelly town, and feel disgusted
with themselves, and envious of the natives, who—the women
especially—glide skyward or seaward as though possessed of
some mode of motion unknown to mortals born upon the flats.

We lodge very comfortably at Mrs. Marshall’s, on stair num-
ber 33, and opposite us is a little opening called the “ Square,”
across which we see hanging woods and the richly varied coast:
on the eastern side of Bideford Bay, with the Exmoor range in.
the distance, about twenty-six miles off in a straight line. In.
another direction our view is over the sloping roofs and gable,
ends of cottages lower down the stairs, and then across the.
sea to Baggy Point, and Morte, the end of the latter promon-
tory with its “stone,” terrible in the annals of shipwreck, bemg
out of sight. Commencing above the village, and winding
across several hill sides and valleys, is the road called the
“ Hobby,”’ cut out of the rock, and traversing woods of remark-.
able luxuriance and beauty, composed of oak, beech, sycamore,
firs, etc. To the west le other woods, the park of Clovelly
Court, and fine headlands with precipitous or sloping cliffs, in-
which the stratification is well displayed.

Clovelly is a charming place for a landscape artist, as i
exhibits more colours than ‘‘ Iris purfled scarf can show, 4
and they vary magically under the changing influences of sun
and cloud. A few days’ residence in such a spot ought to
be sufficient to emancipate any one, who has eyes to see, from
the conventional prejudices and silly criticisms that hamper
and damage our landscape art. One very striking fact, equally.
noticeable in many other parts of Devon, is the distance at.
which local colour is distinctly seen. When the sun catches
the cliffs of crimson marl five or six miles off, they literally .
glow with the deeply-tinted light. Patches of spring corn
shine like strips of pale green velvet at twice that distance,
and fields on the slope of Exmoor, five and twenty miles away,
are frequently to be discerned of a dull green hue, varied by
dark lines of stone hedge-rows* and trees. In other and

* The fences are a mixture of hedge and stone wall. The latter is the funda- °

mental structure, but so taken possession of by vegetation as to give it a fn
like aspect. — Her iT

Clovelly: A389

hotter countries distant objects are much sharper in definition;
and, so to speak, harder in tint. In Devon the magical blending
of distinctness with softness is unsurpassed.
Geologically, Clovelly is situated on the millstone grit which
underlies the coal measures—very imperfectly developed in
Devon,—and under this general title of the formation rocks of
considerable lithological difference are comprehended. The stra-
tification has been subjected to powerful and complicated dis-
turbances. Itis plain, onthe most casual inspection, that when
the beds were last made they were remarkably well shaken. In
many instances the strata are nearly vertical, and numerous cases
occur—two remarkable ones a little west of the pier—in which
hard firm beds of siliceous and aluminous stone have been bent
hike twigs into round arches, both inverted and erect. Angular
arches are likewise common, and several adjacent cliffs have
their strata thrown into a series of V or W shapes, mostly
upside down. Further to the west, at Hartland Point and
Quay, the rocks are less varied in colour and the hills more
barren, but wilder and grander than at Clovelly. Near the
latter place a wreck recently occurred, and when the tide is
jow the skeleton fragments of a ship caught in the sharp-
toothed jaws of dark rocks, and surrounded by splashing foam,
tells—at the time this is written—a striking story of the perils
of the sea. ‘The strata vary in texture from hard compact stones
to easily splitting shales, with occasional marl. At Clovelly
the colours are purple, brown, yellow, red, and grey; the natural
tints are heightened and still further varied by the ironmould
action of trickling water, and by glorious patches of orange
lichen (Squamaria murorwm), bright enough to be seen : for
miles, when many square feet of rock are covered with this gor-
geous plant. The first artist who will do simple justice to these
coasts will have his reward, if he perseveres. Of course the
critics, whose eyes have never been purged of London smoke,
will declare the most faithful transcript of what exists, to be
“ wrong,” “impossible,” ‘‘ absurd,” etc.; but when they have
pest this song long enough, they will try another, laud Mr.
—s genius and insight to the skies, and claim to have been
the first to recognise his merits and proclaim how true to
nature was each stroke of his brush.
_ Clovelly is a splendid home for ferns. How many species
could be discovered in shady lanes, rocky clefts, and roads that
ranve from the sea level to nearly 600 feet above it, only a
very practised collector would venture to say. The most pre-
valent kinds are the lady fern, the broad fern, the male fern,
the Blechnum boreale, the hart’s tongue, and the black
spleenwort, and Polystichum aculeatum. Of these the “ ladies”
grow with wonderful luxuriance, and the broad ferns, with wide

440 Clovelly.

spreading fronds four and five feet long, are worth coming all
the way from anywhere to see. Wherever the ferns grow
flowers abound. At the end of May blue bells and rose lychnis
were the most conspicuous, and in quantity sufficient to be no-
ticeable half a mile off. With June foxgloves came in season,
richer in the colour of their crimson-purple bells than the
garden sorts, and commonly as high as a tall man. Near
the coast sea pinks swarm, together with shepherd’s purse.
Lichens abound, the hairy sorts (Usnea hirta, florida, etc.)
make a thick matting on the trees; the ‘oak lungs” (Sticta
pulmonaria) is frequently found in the woods both east and
west of the village, and is a very striking object, looking like
extensive patches of oak leaves, some green, some brown,
growing out of the bark. The cup lichens, which form beau-
tiful low-power objects for the microscope, are plentiful in the
Hobby, and rocks facing the sea are often covered with the
scaly species, white, drab, yellow, orange, and black. Mosses
vie with lichens in covering the banks and trees, the most
conspicuous being the feather sorts, and the Polytrichums,
with their flowers and long-stalked urns.

Fungi are no doubt found im considerable variety. We
saw several sorts, and had practical experiences of three kinds.
First, on the high ground near Hartland we gathered the
giant puff-ball in its young state, when certain botanical
writers pronounce it an epicurean luxury. We tried the ex-
periment, telling the presiding genius of the kitchen, who
was astonished at our desire to feed upon “ toad-stools,”’ to
take off the outer skin, cut the balls into slices and delicately
fry. The result was the appearance of a pretty-looking dish
on our breakfast-table, and a jury of three was empowered to
try the important case. The first decision was embodied in
unanimous exclamations of “‘ how nice, just like omelette, or
fine batter.” Second thoughts were less favourable, and a
sickly aftertaste induced the experimenting triad to give up
the “toad-stools,” and resort to other food.

Our second fungoid adventure was in the aaa woods
one evening, when the clouds gave us a respite after some
thirty-six hours of pelting ram. On arriving at a bend in the
road our noses were greeted, but not gratified, by a stream of
perfume not at all recalling gales from the ‘spicy shores of
Araby the blest.”” The abominable and peculiar character of
the stench suggested its probable origin, and a slight search
revealed the offender to whose agency is was due, for among
the more respectable but rank vegetation, up stood am im- -
pudent stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus) in the shape of a stout
drab coloured column, ornamented with honeycomb markings,
and surmounted by a nightcap of oval form. How “any

Clovelly. 441 —

mortal mixture of earth’s mould” can diffuse such a con-
centrated essence of abominations, vegetable chemistry may
try to tell; but if any one has smelt the sylvan beauty he
will easily comprehend Miss Plues’ story of the gentleman
who was driven from a favourite walk by an odour which he
conjectured came from the decomposing bodies of animals that
had died in the crevices of the rocks, but which really emanated —
from the un-Rimmel like laboratory which the stinkhorn had
set to work. .

Another day we brought in from the woods a small club-
shaped fungus about an inchand a half hich, and of a fine orange-
yellow colour. As soon as it was placed under a three-inch
object-glass it was seen to scatter a quantity of extremely fine
threads about a hundredth of an inchin length. Mr. Berkeley
was kind enough to give me the name of this fungus, Cordiceps
militaris, and from him I learn that the emitted objects were
threads of sporidia escaping from the asci, or bags, in which
they are situated in the Sporidiiferous division of fungi. Under
a magnification of 400 linear, the threads were seen to be very
delicate tubes, containing patches of a whitish substance, some
round, some oval, some square, and looking like a minute chain
of irregular cells. ‘The threads of sporidia did not appear to
tumble out of the asci, or to be blown out by the air currents
of the room. They escaped from all parts of the fungus and in
various directions, as if ejected by an infinitesimal force.

In lanes between Clovelly and Bleckbury the Osmunda
grows six feet high, and near Hartland Quay (eastward) is a
beautiful patch of splendid Asplenium marinum, provokingly
out. of reach. The hay-scented fern is found in the Hobby
woods, together with many interesting varieties of species
less rare.

The shores of Clovelly are not very good for collecting
specimens in marine zoology. The rocks and stones to the
left are more splendid in appearance than convenient as
dwelling-places for sea creatures. Some pools are prettily
fringed with green weeds, common coralline, polysiphonias
(good for the microscope), tangle weeds, etc.; but the com-
pound polyps and polyzoa do not take to them, and few of the
elegant tribe of sea slugs were found by us crawling on their
clefts, or under sides. Some magnificent anemones—crasst-
cornis and Anther cereus—were found at Clovelly and Hart-
land; the acorn barnacle was in millions on the rocks, together
with swarms of tops and lesser whelks. A purple spott.d top
(Trochus ziziphinus) began to lay eggs as soon as it was placed
in a washhand basin. They were discharged in ribbons of
jelly, each egg, a round white opaque body, having its own
separate envelope of a material transparent as the finest glass.

442 — Clovelly.

‘\ Near Hartland the dodder grass is plentiful on the furze,
giving it a crimson tint, seen a long way off; and at Milford is
a fine waterfall, making a descent of about 90 feet, and when
seen from the beach, with a grand black rock mass behind, it
is singularly picturesque. Rock plants of four or five kinds
are in abundance, and probably many more might be found.
At Clovelly the most noticeable is the pennywort, with its
well known thick, round, dimpled leaves, and tall racemes* of
wax-like flowers, not often seen in such perfection. London
pride grows in ‘wild profusion in the Hobby walks. Damp
rocks in the roads are sure to be covered with the common
liverwort, and the lycopodium shaped liverwort may be dis-
covered nestled amongst feather mosses in wet clefts.

No description of ‘Clovelly could be pardoned if it omitted
the peculiar and interesting inhabitants of the comical stone
stairs. Nobody seems to be rich in the little place ; the best
off are connected with the shipping that visits the bay, and
next come the owners of the fishing vessels, who have un-
fortunately not had a lucky season for many years. The
‘principal cottages let lodgings, and a few families fill the
‘picturesque crack in the rocks when its season begins. Little
favoured by fortune so far as her brilliant gifts are concerned,
the Clovelly people are yet a distinguished race. No one can
‘live a day on the stone staircase without perceiving that he is
in a village of ladies and gentlemen. The girls have graceful
ficures, walk elegantly, and carry their pitchers to and from
the fountains with unconscious but artistic skill. They all
dress well; tawdry finery, and its natural ally, dirtiness, are
both unknown, and many a London lady might advantageously
exchange dress, form, and gait for those of a Clovelly damsel
carrying a basket through the street. The men are manly-
looking fellows, with frank, brown faces; in old specimens
handsomely carved by sea and breeze. A bright, pleasant-
mannered schoolmistress is the instructress of the girls, who
seem to do credit to her care, and a big basket of beautiful
children could be collected in five minutes on the rocky stairs.

Why Clovelly people are thus distinguished from the chaw-
‘bacons and clodpoles to be found no great way off, could no
doubt be traced to several causes. In the first place, they are
evidently of a good race, and in the second place, their wits
have been sharpened for successive generations by the risks
‘and dangers of their amphibious life. Lastly, though few are
well off, the majority seem well fed, and in former years the
coast fishery was a profitable trade, as it may become again, —
whenever the fishes think proper to take excursion tickets for

* A form of inflorescence when the flowers are furnished with pedicels ar-
‘ranged at intervals upon a common axis.—Henslow’s Dict. Botanical Terms.
§ ip

* Clovelly 9D. BOE oO AB

the purpose of visiting these shores.’ All the villagers seem
industrious, aud they are very obliging, without a tinge of the
servility too often found elsewhere. Of the internal life of the
place a visitor can discern little, but the good folks seem
intimately bound together by their common staircase, and by
other ties.

Devonshire used to be famous for its superstitions; how
much of the popular faith in weird wonders lingers in Clovelly
we do not know, but one old woman who is lame with one leg
owes her calamity to the credulity of her youth. At that time
a girl of the village was declared to be possessed by the devil,
and under the management of a local preacher, a ceremony of
exorcism was performed in the presence of numerous witnesses.
Prayers and exhortations, together with the howlings and con-
tortions of the patient, brought the spectators to a high pitch
of excitement, when suddenly the chief operator declared that
the Evil One was skurrying through the bacon rack, making
fast for the door. The crowd rushed back, and the old woman,
who now goes lame, damaged her ankle by’an unlucky fall.

This brief and imperfect sketch of Clovelly may be wound
up with a few words on its climate and accommodation. Any
tourist or visitor who has pretty strong legs, and is given to
climbing, will be delighted with it. ‘The New Inn, though
small, is of good. répute, and has serviceable vehicles and
horses for hire. The lodging houses only number some half
dozen. One or two are nicely furnished, and the rest are sup-
plied with indispensables. Provisions of good quality are
easily obtained by a little management, and learning the ways
of the place; while any article not supplied by the village shops

‘—which strangers would not always discover without assist-
ance—can be had by ordering it through the carrier, who
makes frequent journeys to Bideford. A little stream, locally
and oddly termed a “lake,” runs down the right side of the
stone staircase. This tiny torrent, which is flushed once or
twice a day, carries off rubbish and helps to keep the village
healthy. East winds are pleasant companions, having some-
how lost their sting. W., and 8.W., and N.W. winds do not
get sufficiently into all parts of the cleft in which Clovelly is
built, but a good blow can nearly always be obtained on the
hills, or on the beach. Those who can stand a moderate amount
of fatioue, and like to be out of doors for hours together, need
have no difficulty in getting an appetite ; but the old or feeble
will find the stairs and hills too much for them. Those who
like fish must look sharp after it, as what is caught imme-
diately passes into the hands of dealers, or ‘‘ fish jowders,” as
they are termed, and dispersed through other towns by the
‘help of donkeys, provided with panniers, who se patents up
the stone stairs.

444 Direct Vision Spectroscopes by Double Internal Reflection.

DIRECT VISION SPECTROSCOPES BY DOUBLE
INTERNAL REFLECTION.

BY A. S. HERSCHEL, B.A.

In the manufacture of prisms for spectroscopic purposes the
principle of double reflection, adopted in the construction of
the ordinary pocket sextant, can be employed for correcting
the deviation of the ray, which usually takes place in its
passage through a prism. This discovery, as it appears to be
of some importance, as well as novelty, will be treated in the
following article with rather close attention to mathematical
detail; but it is hoped that it will not on this account be any
the less acceptable to readers of the InrELLEcTUAL OBSERVER.

In the common sextant a
ray of light from a distant ob-
ject (4), fallmg im succession
upon two plane mirrors B ¢
(Fig. 1), is deflected from its
course in such a manner as
to be brought to coincide with
the direction of a ray of light
arriving from another distant
object, d; when both objects
become visible together in the
field of a small telescope at pv.
The angular distance between
the two objects is then double
of the angle contained. between the
two mirrors ; and is read off on
the sextant upon a scale of equal
parts, by a vernier and index
revolving with the mirror 8. To apply this construction
to the removal of deviation from the refracted ray in spectro-
scopic prisms, two reflections of the ray must be made to take
the place of those of the pocket sextant, within the material
of the prism. These internal reflections are in general total,
and have the advantage over those of an ordinary sextant in
occasioning no loss of hight.

Suppose a prism of glass, a c D (Fig. 2), to be traversed, in
any manner, by aray of light sa pu, with a deviating angle
amounting to2 x a. This deviation will be completely removed.
by intersecting the prism by a plane, a B, making the angle A
equal to half the deviation. At the same time the refracting
angle at ¢ must be increased by the whole amount (2 4) of the
original deviation. The prism a c D is then replaced by a
prism of a new form, A c B, and the portion b D = of the
refracted ray is removed toc de. The two internal reflections
revolve the ray within the prism through twice the angle (a).

Fra. 1.

Direct Vision. Spectroscopes by Dowble Internal Reflection. 445

_At the same time the prism-face c p has been revolved an
equal amount. The ray is therefore refracted under the same
circumstances as before, at its emergence, but emerges parallel
to ats original direction, D B parallel to sa.

It is evident that if 2 e are the original angles of incidence
and emergence in the uncorrected prism, these will still remain
the angles of incidence and emergence when the deviation is
removed. In this case 1+ e—c ¢ being the principal refract-
ing angle of the corrected prism.*
It is essential for distinct spec-
troscopic vision that these angles 2
and e, of incidence and emergence,
should be equal to one another,
and the deviation of the ray (in the
uncorrected prism) a minimum ;
for otherwise the image of the
spectrum is blurred, and the dark
and bright lines are undistinguish-
able. In that case our last equa-
tion becomes ieee Jt will be
found on examination of the figure
that the angle of first internal re-
flection also becomes equal to either E
of the three angles named in this Fic, 2,
equation. The angle of first coer reflection is therefore

Tasre I.

Index of | Least angle} Least angle

refraction | (a) of the (c) of the Extreme forms of prisms with least

possible angles a and c.

of the glass,|_ prism. prism.
Melidgidadec, ack 3 Cc
; 72
T-4e.f 15°. Bf} 91° 16° ; >
1:5 15 26{ 83 36 B
Fia. 3

1:6 15 41} 77 20
Gy 15 46} 72 4
Ls 15 45] 67 30

Fia. 4.

Scale of angles for a direct vision prism, in which first interval reflection
takes place at the “critical” angle of the glass. The angles a and c have their
least possible values consistently with no loss of light.

* General formule of calculation are given by M. Radau in the number of the
Moniteur Scientifique for March 15th (Vol. vi. p. 259).

446 Direct Vision Spectroscopes by Double Internal Reflection.

equal to half the principal refracting angle of the corrected
prism, c. Jt is therefore evident that for spectroscopic pur-
poses the principal refracting angle, c, of a direct vision prism
camnot be made less. than twice the “ critical angle’ of the
glass employed in its construction (unless the glass be silvered)
without involving a loss of ight. The limiting form of such
prisms has a nearly constant angle a equal to 15$°, and an
angle ¢ varying from 67° to 90° for every kind of glass (see
Figs. 3, 4). In Table I. the angle of first internal shel
1s equal to the “ critical angle” of the glass.

For spectroscopic purposes no advantage is gained hy
diminishing the angles c and 4 in the manner now supposed.
The angles of incidence and emergence, as well as the original
uncorrected deviation, and the dispersive power of the prism
are all diminished at the same time. When on the contrary c
is increased A increases, and with it the dispersion of the
light. The angle of first internal reflection always remains
equal to the semi-vertical angle of the prism, or equal to
half c. When the latter angle, together with a, makes up 90
degrees the prism becomes isosceles, and the second, internal

reflection no longer takes place (see Fig. of A natural limit
is therefore placed to the 10: OB r

increase of the values of
these angles, however
desirable, and, therefore, to
the dispersive power of the.
prism.
‘Long before the na- ee

tural limit is reached the field of view becomes narrowed and
contracted, Table II. exhibits the greatest Bosse apne

TABLE II.

Index of | Greatest | Greatest angle
refraction langle (a) of| (c) of the _ Extreme forms of prisms with es

of the glass.| the prism. prism. possible angles A ante:

1:4 | 24°48] 130° 27’
1:5 26° 43° | 126 284
16 98 Fe" 1939 26

AT -29--B%-4-- 120, 46 ic
178 at807-48 | 118 84} tre
30°(
Fie. 7.

Scale of angles for a direct vision prism, in which the second internal refiec-
tion disappears. The angles Aand c have the greatest possible values for double
internal reflection,

Direct Vision Spectroscopes by Double Internal Reflection. 447

which prisms for direct vision spectroscopes can have, and
beyond: which the second reflection disappears.

With a glass of high refractive power, as, for example,
1:66, the right-angled
prism,and thecompound
spectroscope composed
of two such prisms (Figs. _
8,9) holds a mean place
between the extreme
forms of the two pre-
ceding tables—the an-
_ gle ain this prism being
equal to 20° (between
15° and 30°), and the
angle c is 90° (instead
of 75° or 120°),

This form of prism
is more simple of con-

C=90° struction, and may be

eels distinguished from the

Sai} other more complicated
foes we the name of the “ three-to-one right-angled prism,”
because for common glass, the longest side is to the shortest
side of the triangular section of the prism, in the ratio of very
nearly three to one. ‘The following are the values of the angle
Ain this prism, for every different kind of glass :—

TasLE ITT.

Index of Angle A,
refraction | for a 3:1
of the glass.| prism.

coil al

15 |16 52] 90 0|\® A

Angle c, of Forms of 3:1 prism for different
ditto. kinds of glass.

1:6 |.18..47.4. 90

(9)
7a oth 5.10. 0
iS | 995 521690 .0
e A

4

Fie. 11.

oi ee ee Se eee
Seale of angles for the three-to-one a angled (direct- vision) prism for
different kinds of glass. |

448 The Influence of Forests on Olimate.

THE INFLUENCE OF FORESTS ON CLIMATE.

M. Brcqueret has recently brought this interesting question
before the French Academy. The first portion of his paper
gives details respecting the extent of forest land in France at
various periods; the second discusses the climatic action of
forests, and in it he states that their influence will be found to
depend on their extent, the nature of the trees, whether having
deciduous or permanent leaves, on the power of evaporation
exerted by the leaves, and on their capacity of receiving or
radiating heat, and lastly on the character of the soil and
subsoil.

The effect of trees in giving shelter against winds is obvious
and important. Their leaves are a powerful and incessant
cause of moisture in the air, the least reduction of temperature
occasioning a precipitation of the moisture evaporating from
them, and which on falling penetrates the soil directly, when
it is permeable, and through the intervention of the roots
when it is not. ,

By means of the electric thermometer the temperature of
trees has been observed for many years, and it appears that
the trunk, branches, and leaves grow warm or cool in the air,
as is the case with inorganic bodies; but im the north the
mean temperature of trees is a little higher than that of the
air. When tree trunks reach three or four centimetres in
diameter they do not acquire their maximum temperature till
after sunset. In summer this occurs about nine o’clock, while
the air is warmest about two or three, according to the season.
Variations in temperature take place very slowly in trees, and
rapid changes of air temperature have no influence on them.
When the leaves cool themselves. by nocturnal radiation they
retake from the body of the tree the heat which they lose.
About six in the morning the temperature above a tree, and at
one metre below it, in soil situated N. or S., is equal. Hence
we may conceive how trees that have been warmed by solar
radiation may act on the temperature of the air, and not lower
it as much as has been supposed.

With regard.to the influence of destroying the trees* of a
country on its mean temperature, M. Boussaingault concluded
from his own and other observations in tropical America, that
abundance of forests and moisture tend to cool a climate, while
dryness and aridity favour heating of the soil. On the other
hand, Humboldt, discussing thermometrical observations made

* Our neighbours have the convenient word “ deboisement,” for which we
want an equivalent. Untreeing might not be thought elegant, but would be in-
telligible. Disforesting ” would do, but it has a legal signification.

The Influence of Forests on Climate. 449

over an area of 40° long. in N. America, found that the mean
temperature of a locality is not changed by the destruction of
its forests. But though the mean temperature may be un-
altered, the distribution of heat at given times may be affected
so as to produce a modification of climate, and Humboldt con-
sidered that the destruction of trees ought to occasion an aug-
mentation of mean temperature by removing several causes of
cooling action.*

Up to the present time sufficient attention has not been
paid to the influence of the soil exposed by tree destruction.
The temperature of a soil varies according to whether it is dry
or moist, calcareous, sandy, or clayey, and experiments show
that two soils, one wet and the other dry, exposed to solar
radiation, will differ 6° or 7° Cent. when the air temperature is
25° Cent. or 77° Fahr.; and for humus (vegetable mould) the
difference will sometimes be as much as 12°. The physical
character of the soil is likewise important; land covered with
flints does not cool so fast as sand, and flinty soils are on this
account found better for vines than chalky or clayey soils,
which cool quicker. , The destruction of trees im a region
having a siliceous or silico-calcareous soil produces a maximum
elevation of temperature. Thus, western Europe owes the
mildness of its climate to warm currents which arrive from the
deserts of Sahara, and if terrestrial changes should convert
these deserts into forests, its climate would be more severe.
In America we find the tropical regions occupied by vast
forests, immense savannahs, and great rivers, which cannot
produce hot air-currents like the Sahara desert, and soften
the climate of the north. Thus, at equal latitudes, North
America is colder than Europe, as we see from the direction
of isothermal lines, and from its agriculture.

The influence of forests on the quantity of running water
in a country is very important; but it is extremely difficult to
say @ priort whether the destruction of part of a forest will
augment this or that spring or river. We only know the
result after the forest has been cut down. Springs in general
are due to infiltrations of rain water, which traverse the soil
until they reach an impermeable layer, down which they run,
if it be inclined, until they escape as streams or fountains.
Such springs are usually found amongst mountains, but forests
contribute equally to their formation, not only by means of the
moisture which they produce and condense, but likewise on
account of the obstacles they impose to evaporation from
the soil, and by the action of their roots in rendering soils
permeable.

,

* In connexion with these inquiries, Professor Tyndall’y researches on the
action of atmospheric humidity in arresting radiation should be considered.

450 The Influence of Forests on Climate,

Strabo tells us that it was necessary to take great care lest
Babylon should be invaded by the waters. The Euphrates, he
says, became swollen in spring, when the snows melted on the
mountains of Armenia, overflowed its banks, and would have
submerged the cultivated lands if the superabundant water had
not been drawn off by canals like those of the Nile. This state
of things no longer exists. M. Oppert, who travelled through
Babylonia a few years ago, reports that the quantity of water
transported by the Euphrates is much less than it was in
former ages, that its banks do not overflow, that the canals
are dry, and the marshes become so during the summer heats.
The change, he assures us, has been produced by the destruc-
tion of forests on the mountains of Armenia. Choiseul Gouffier
could not find the river Scamander in the Troad; although it
was navigable in the days of Pliny, its bed is now dry, and the
cedars are gone that once covered Mount Ida, from whence it
arose.

M. Boussaingault informs us that the valley of Aragua, in the
province of Venezuela, situated at a little distance from the
coast, is closed on all sides. ‘The rivers which run into it do
not reach the sea, but give rise to the Lake of Tacarigua, which,
according to Humboldt, experienced at the beginning of the
century a gradual diminution. of which the cause was unknown.
The village of Nueva Valencia, founded in 1585, was then
only half a league from the lake, while im 1800 it was 2700
toises from it. In 1822, M. Boussaingault learnt from the in-
habitants that the waters of the lake had risen, and that land
formerly cultivated was then under water. For two and twenty
years the valley had been the scene of sanguinary struggles
during the war of independence, the population was deci-
mated, the ground uncultivated, and forests, which grow with
great rapidity in that climate, occupied a large portion of the
soil. These are the principal facts which M. Becquerel
brings into view.

Gesture Language and Word Language. 451

GESTURE LANGUAGE AND WORD LANGUAGE.

““Gusture lancuage and word language” are the titles of some
very interesting chapters in an important work by Mr. Edward
Burnett Tylor,* who brings before the public a class of facts,
not indeed new, but very little known, and not, we believe,
previously placed in a philosophical light. “ Gesture language”
—how little does the term convey, except to the few who are
acquainted with its remarkable character and development.
All nations use gesture more or less, as a means of communi-
cating their ideas. In infancy and childhood it forms a very
important part of the signs by which feelings are made known
and thoughts communicated; and while the adults of some
races—like the English —acquire the habit of repressing and
limiting its use under natural or conventional restraints, others
—like the French and Itahans—can scarcely recite a single
fact, or express the commonest emotion, without an amount of
gesticulation that indicates the real or supposed inefficiency of
mere words to gratify their desire of communicating to others
what they know or feel themselves. Nor does the quantity of
gesture employed by civilized races afford any indication of
the capacities of their various languages. The English, with
a copious and remarkably rich language, use little action ;
while the Germans, with a similar language, admitting of a
greater range of combination, use more oesture; and the Italians
exceed the French, notwithstanding that the former have one
of the richest and the latter the poorest language of the Latin
stock. The infant expresses itself by gesture and inarticulate
sounds. Infantile races have few articulate sounds and em-
ploy gesture, not as a mere adjunct to, but as an essential
portion of their speech. Hence the question arises in the
minds of those who believe that man has worked his way up
from humble beginnings to his present stage of civilization,
whether gesture language preceded word language in the order
of development, and whether, after all, the ultimate and uni-
versal speech should not be soughtin pantomimic action rather
than in set forms of words.

It is not to be supposed that any race of people ever
existed who did not make sounds the definite means of
indicating objects or expressing thoughts; but until some
progress is made in processes of inflection or agglutination,
articulate sounds are the materials out of which a language
may be compounded rather than language itself. Any one

* Researches into the Early History of Mankind, and the. Development of
Civilization. By Edward Burnett Tylor, Author of “ Mexico and the Mexicans.”
Murray.

VOL. VII.—NO. VI. G@

AD2 Gesture Language and Word Language.

who has trained a dog, or used the services of a trained
dog, understands the sounds he makes in reference to par-
ticular incidents and occasions, so that a particular bark or
growl gives information which, within certain limits, is definite
and precise. Analogous facts may be observed ‘by resting
quietly near a rookery, or at the base of cliffs where sea gulls
build. It soon becomes obvious to the observer that the birds
attach definite meanings to certain sounds, and thus, like the ~
dogs, they are in possession of some elements of language ; ;
but we should not expect, if we were gifted with the faculty. of
thoroughly comprehending their speech, that we should detect,
any grammar in it, and find verbs to conjugate or nouns to
decline. The civilized and educated dog acquires, from con. .
tact with man, ideas and thoughts that do. not belong to the
life of any wild animal. To a very considerable extent he.
learns human language, so far as it applied within his. hearing
to matters he can comprehend, and if he had the. faculty of,
imitating it like a parrot or a jackdaw there can be no doubt.
he would use it to express his acquired ideas. What he. really.
does is to improve his own voice language, and gesture language.
too, and there is a strongly marked difference between the...
power of expression professed by a well-bred, well-educated |
dog, and that which is at the disposal of another dog who, is |
badly bred and uncultivated. :
The capacity for forming a language is inseparably asso-
ciated with the faculty of generating thought. We need not |
inquire whether man can think without any sort of language,
of gesture, picture, or speech to assist his efforts; but no
people have ever been, discovered, and probahly none could.
exist, who have arrived at complex processes of thought, ine),
cluding the power of abstraction and generalization, eran
possessing a language capable of signifying what they meant.
A. very interesting branch of the mquiry into language,
relates to the modes of expression adopted by deaf-mutes, and .
Mr. Tylor points to the important distinction—generally oyer-.
looked by the public—between “the real deaf and dumb. lan-.,
guage of signs, im which objects and actions are expressed, by. (4
pantomimic gestures, and the deaf and dumb finger alphabet,
which is a, mere substitute for alphabetical writing,’ | Mr...
Tylor cites the following. authorities in order to show how, deaf
mutes naturally talk. Samuel Heinicke, the founder of. deaf.
and. dumb teaching in Germany, remarks: “he (the deaf-mute).
prefers keeping to his pantomime, which is simple and short, and...
Comes to him fluently as a mother-tongue.” Schmalz Says :
“‘not less comprehensible are many signs which we do not use. .
in ordinary life, but which the deaf and dumb child USeS,,
having no means of communicating with others but by: signe. .

Gesture Language and Word. Language. 453

These signs consist principally in drawing in the air the shape
of the objects to be suggested to the mind, indicating their
character, imitating the movement of the body in an action to
be described, or the use of a thing or its origin, or any other
of its notable peculiarities.” ‘With regard to signs,” says
Dr. Scott of Exeter, “the deaf and dumb child will most
likely have already fixed upon signs by which it means most of |
the objects given in the above lesson (pin, key, etc.), and which
it uses in its intercourse with its friends. These signs had
always better be retained by the child’s family, and if a word
has not received such a sign, endeavour to get the child to fix
upon one. It will do this most probably better than you? —
The Abbé Sicard is quoted to a similar effect. He did not
invent signs for his deaf and dumb pupil, of whom he said
that by a happy exchange he taught him the mimic signs of
his language, in return for the written signs of the French
tongue. Kruse, a deaf-mute,* is also cited: “Thus the deaf
and dumb must have a language, without which no thought
can be brought to pass. But his nature soon comes to his
help. What strikes him most, or what makes a distinction
between one thing and another, such distinctive signs of objects
are at once signs by which he knows these objects, and knows
them again ; ‘they become tokens of things. And whilst he
silently elaborates the signs he has found for single objects,
that is, while he describes their forms for himself in the air,
or imitates them in thought with hands, fingers, and gestures,
he developes for himself suitable signs to represent ideas.”

In the Deaf and Dumb Institution of Berlin, Mr. 'l'ylor tells
“us that 5000 signs are stated to be employed—far exceeding
the number of words used by the most ignorant classes in this
country—and of these he took down about 500 of the most
important. The sign for [is pushing the forefinger against
the pit of the stomach; for thou, it is pushed towards the
person addressed ; for he, the thumb is pointed over the right
shoulder. “ When I hold my right hand flat, with the palm
down, at the level of my waist, and raise it towards the level of
my shoulder, that signifies great, but if I depress it stead, it
means litile.”? The motion of taking off the hat indicates a —
man, a woman is denoted by laying the closed hand upon the —
breast, and a child is signified. by dandling the right elbow
upon the left hand. « The adverb lather, and the verb to come
have the same sign, beckoning with the finger towards oneself.
To hold the first two fingers ‘apart hke the letter V, and dart
the finger tips out from the eyes, is to see. To touch the ear
and tongue with the fore-finger is to hear, and to taste... .

* Mr. Tylor speaks of him as “a teacher of deaf-mutes, and author of several
works of no small ability.”

AA Gesture Language and Word Language.

The outline of the shape of roof and walls drawn in the air
with two hands isa house; with a flat roof it isaroom. To
smell at a flower, and then with two hands make a horizontal
circle before one, is a garden. ‘To pull up a pinch of flesh from
the back of one’s hand is flesh or meat; make the steam curling
up from it with the fore-finger, and it becomes roast meat.
Make a bird’s bill with two fingers in front of one’s lips, and
flap the arms, and that means goose; put the first sign and
these together, and we have roast qoose.”’

The gesture language has no inflections, and is so far like
the Chinese, but it has a system which Mr. Tylor explains.
He tells us that the deaf-mute arranges his words in a certain
order without reference to the spoken language custom of
the country to which he belongs. For black horse he says by

his signs horse black; for bring a black hat, black hat bring ;
for 1 am hungry, give me bread, hungry me bread give. The
general rule is that a deaf-mute begins with that which he
thinks most important, “for instance, to say my father gave
me an apple, he makes first the sign for apple, then for father,
and lastly that for himself, dispensing with the verb.”

There is no difficulty in perceiving that a good many ideas
may be communicated by means of this gesture speech, but it
is astonishing to what perfection it has been carried. Mr.
.Tylor cites from the Justice of the Peace for Oct. 1, 1864, a
remarkable will, of considerable complication, dictated by a
deaf-mute. He signified by gestures that he wished all his
property to go to his wife at his decease, and that if she
died during his daughter’s lifetime, it was to pass to the
daughter, and in the event of her death, to her husband, if he
was the survivor; and if both died, then to their children. To
make this last provision intelligible, he first repeated the signs
for his son-in-law and daughter, and made other signs to
signify their deaths. To indicate the children he placed his
right hand a short distance from the ground, and raised it by
degrees, and as if by steps, which were his usual signs for
pointing out their children, and then a Sires nus motion ex-
pressed the wish that all should come in.

Mr. Tylor informs us that, ‘in the Berlin Institution, the
simple Lutheran service, a prayer, the gospel for the day, and
a sermon, is acted every Sunday morning in the gesture lan-
guage for the children in the school and the deaf and dumb

inhabitants of the city, and it is a very remarkable sight. No
_ one could see the parable of the man who left the ninety and
nine sheep in the wilderness, and went after that which was
lost, or of the woman who lost the one piece of silver, performed
in expressive pantomime by a master in the art, without acknow-
ledging that, for telling a simple story, and making comments

Gesture Language and Word Language. 455

upon it, spoken language stands far behind acting. The spoken
narration must lose the sudden anxiety of the shepherd when
he counts his flock and finds a sheep wanting, his hurried
penning up the rest, his running up hill and down dale, and
spying backwards and forwards, his face lighting up when he
catches sight of the missing sheep in the distance, his carrying
it home in his arms, hugging it as he goes.’

Passing from gesture language as in use amongst cultivated
deaf-mutes, Mr. Tylor traces its employment by various wild
tribes, who come into contact with each other, but who do not
understand each other’s spoken language, and shows how they
have followed the same principles in devising appropriate signs
as are in use in the Berlin Institution, or in other gatherings
of deaf-mutes. He likewise refers to the gesture language
employed by the Cistercian monks to mitigate their absurd
rule of self-mortification, which interdicted speech except
upon religious matters, and shows, by reference to a dictionary
collated by Leibnitz, how closely their signs resemble those
made by the deaf and dumb.

The question of the extent to which spoken languages
bear traces of the same processes of thought and reasoning
that are shown in the construction of gesture language, is a
highly curious one, which, if carefully worked out, must have
an ethnological as well as a philological value. Mr. Tylor.
supplies some very interesting reflections on this subject. He
likewise enters into an inquiry concerning the existence of
tribes who cannot communicate with each other by words
only, but need to supplement their spoken language by that
of signs. It is very difficult to ascertain such facts beyond a
doubt. The use of gesture does not necessarily show that
ideas could not be conveyed to other persons without it, but
we think it highly probable that some savage tribes should
possess more ideas than they have invented articulate sounds
to express, and that when they have to be represented it must —
be in the gesture or pictorial form.

It must be remembered, that the deaf-mutes who have
gone so far in the construction of a gesture speech, have done
so under the constant stimulating influence of persons who
know how to observe, to think, and to speak. In dealing with
persons deficient in any one of the five senses, it is, as Mr.
Bird, the blind surgeon, has so well shown in reference-to
those afflicted with loss of sight, essential to their develop-
ment that they should come freely into contact with educated
persons in a normal state. Left alone, the deaf-mutes would
have had few signs, because they would have had little know-
ledge and few ideas. By showing them objects they would
not have noticed of their own accord, and imparting ideas

A456 The Roman Potteries at Durobrive.

they could not have possessed without external aid, a necessity '
has been created for them to extend their gesture laneuage ;
and we can only expect to find such a language highly de-

veloped under circumstances that favour an amount of intel-

lectual development considerably above that of the lowest

races of mankind, and which also render spoken language

impossible, as in the case of deaf-mutes; or inapplicable, as

where American Indians are in the habit of meeting with

tribes whose language they do not know, and have no facilities

for acquiring.

Thus, though gesture language may stand in order of
development befvre articulate speech, it could only reach its
point of culmination long after articulate spoken language had
made considerable advances. ‘

THE ROMAN POTTERIES AT DUROBRIV A.

BY THOMAS WRIGHT, F.S.A.
(With a Coloured Plate.)

In the flat low district, where the river Nen forms the bound-
ary line between the counties of Huntingdon and Northampton,
are found two adjacent parishes and villages, one on the North-
amptonshire side of the river, called Castor, the other, on the
Huntingdon side, known by the name of Chesterton.’ Castor
is distant about four miles and a-half west from Peterborough.
Both these names furnish, combimed with its position on
one of the most imposing of the Roman lines of road, the
Ermyn Street, undeniable evidence that this locality has
been the site of a Roman settlement of some importance; and
accordingly, accidental discoveries first, and afterwards exca-
vations carefully planned and executed, brought to light the
remains of a town of some extent, which, to judge by the foun-
dations, and by the occurrence of tesselated pavements, must
have consisted of large and handsome houses. But that which
gave still greater interest to this place was, that it was found
to have been once a great establishment of potteries—a sort of
Staffordshire of Roman Britain; and not only was abundance
of the pottery made here found scattered about, but the kilns
themselves im which it was baked. It was the first well-
ascertained discovery of manufactories of Roman pottery m -
this island. A comparison of the local circumstances with the
ancient itineraries has enabled us to identify this place with
the town which stands, in the itinerary of Antoninus, between

Durobrive;

trom

Roman Pottery

The Roman, Potteries at Durobrive. 457

Durolipons, which is represented by the modern Godman-
chester, and Causenne or Ancaster, and which there figures
under the name of Durobrive.

The man to whom we owe this discovery was Edmund
Tyrrell Artis, who resided on the spot as agent of the
Duke of Bedford, the modern lord of the soil. Mr. Artis was
an intelligent, but a self-educated man, and, unfortunately, after
publishing figures of the more interesting objects found in the
course of the excavations, in a very handsome folio volume of
plates,* he was never able to write the volume of descriptive
text intended to accompany it; and what he had learnt on
the subject has only been partly communicated to the public,
in two or three casual articles, from the pen of his friend, Mr.
Charles Roach Smith. Mr. Artis calculated that he had
found the remains of the kilns spread over a space of not less
than twenty square miles, so that no doubt can be entertaimed.
of the great extent to which this manufacture was carried at
Durobrive. By this discovery we first became acquainted
with certain kinds of pottery which were undoubtedly manu-
factured in Britain under the Romans, and, as no traces of the
manufacture of the same ware have been met with on the
Continent, and examples of it found there are not numerous,
and may therefore have been exported from Britain, we seem
justified in considering it as peculiar to this island. The
discovery of so many of the kilns, some of them nearly
perfect, discloses to us, moreover, the manner in which it was
-made. Mr. Artis investigated this part of the subject with
great practical intelligence. . .

There are some varieties of this Durobrivian ware, and
two especially have been remarked; the first blue or slate-
coloured, the other reddish-brown or of a dark copper colour.
The latter was coloured by a simple though curious process,
which Mr. Artis was enabled to investigate in a very satisfac-
tory manner. It will, perhaps, be best told in his own words.
“ During an examination of the pigments used by the Roman
potters of this place,”’ he says, “I was led to the conclusion
that the blue and slate-coloured vessels met with here in such
abundance, were coloured by suffocating the fire of the kiln,
at the time when its contents had acquired a degree of heat
sufficient to ensure uniformity of colour. J had so firmly
made up my mind upon the process of manufacturmg and
firme this peculiar kind of earthenware, that for some time
previous to the recent discovery [in 1844] I had denominated
the kilns in which it had been fired smother kilns. The mode

* The Durohrive of Antoninus Identified and Illustrated, large folio, 1828.
+ These will be found in the Journal of the British Archeological Association,
vol. i. p. 1; in Smith’s Collectanea Antiqua, vol. iv. p. 8U, etc.

458 The Roman Potteries at Durobrive.

of manufacturing the bricks of which these kilns are made is
worthy of notice. The clay was previously mixed with about
one-third of rye in the chaff, which, being consumed by the
fire, left cavities in the room of the grains. This might have
been intended to modify expansion and contraction, as well as
to assist the gradual distribution of the colouring vapour.
The mouth of the furnace and top of the kiln were, no doubt,
stopped; thus we find every part of the kiln, from the mside
wall to the earth on the outside, and every part of the clay
wrappers of the dome, penetrated with the colouring exhalation.
As further proof that the colouring of the ware was imparted
by firmg, I collected the clays. of the neighbourhood, including
specimens from the immediate vicinity of the smother kilns.
In colour some of these clays resembled the ware after firing,
and some were darker. I submitted them to a process similar
to that I have described. The clays dug near the kilns
whitened in firmg, probably from being bituminous. I also
put some fragments of the blue pottery into the kiln; they
came out precisely of the same colour as the clay fired with
them, which had been taken from the side of the kilns. The
experiment proved to me that the colour could not be attri-
buted to any metallic oxide, either existing in the clay or
applied externally; and this conclusion is confirmed by the
appearance of the clay wrappers of the dome of the kiln. It
should be remarked, that this colour is so volatile that it is
expelled by a second firmg im an open kiln.” Mr. Artis
proceeds to inform us that these kilns, so many of which were
discovered, were “all constructed on the same principle. A
circular hole was dug, from three to four feet deep, and four
im diameter, and walled round to the height of two feet. A
furnace, one-third of the diameter of the kiln in length, com-
municates with the side. In the centre of the circle so formed
was an oval pedestal, the height of the sides, with the end
pointing to the furnace mouth. Upon this pedestal and side-
wall the floor of the kiln rests. It is formed of perforated
angular bricks, meeting at one point in the centre. The
furnace with bricks moulded for the purpose. The side of the
kiln is constructed with curved bricks, set edgeways in a thick
slip (the same material made into a thin mortar) of the same
material, to the height of two feet.” Fortunately, some of
these kilns remained almost entire, and many had been left
with the pottery partly packed in them for firing, so that
there was no difficulty in understanding the nature of the
process here employed by the Roman potters. Mr. Artis goes
on to say, “I now proceed to describe the process of packing
the kiln, and securing uniform heat in firme the ware, which
was the same in the two different kinds of kilns. They were

The Roman Potteries at Durobrive. 459

first carefully loose-packed with the articles to be fired up to
. the height of the side walls. The circumference of the bulk
was then gradually diminished, and finished in the shape of a
dome. As this arrangement progressed, an attendant seems
to have followed the packer and thinly covered a layer of pots
with coarse hay or grass. He then took some thin clay, the
size of his hand, and laid it flat on the grass upon the vessels ;
he then placed more grass on the edge of the clay just laid on,
and then more clay, and so on until he had completed the
circle. By this time the packer would have raised another
tier of pots, the plasterer following as before, hanging the
grass over the top edge of the last layer of plasters, until he
had reached the top, in which a small aperture was left, and
the clay nipt round the edge; another coating would be laid
on as before described. Gravel or loam was then thrown up
against the side wall, where the clay wrappers were com-
menced, probably to secure the bricks and the clay coating.
The kiln was then fired with wood. In consequence of the
care taken to place grass between the edges of the wrappers,
they could be unpacked in the same size pieces as when laid
on in a plastic state, and thus the danger in breaking the
crust to obtain the contents of the kiln could be obviated.’’*
This Durobrivian pottery has an especial interest for us,
because it is covered with ornaments and figures, raised in
relief like those on the Samian ware, but not like it cast from
moulds. ‘‘The vessels,’ Mr. Artis remarks, “after bemg
thrown upon the wheel, would be allowed to become some-
what firm, but only sufficiently so for the purpose of the lathe.
In the indented ware, the indenting would have to be per-
formed with the vessel in as pliable a state as it could be taken
from the lathe.”” The ornamenter then took a slip of rather
liquid material, and with an implement made for the purpose,
formed all the ornaments and figures with the hand. The slip
used for this purpose was often white, which was laid on a
dark ground. ‘‘'The vessels, on which are displayed a variety
of hunting subjects, representations of fishes, scrolls, and
human figures, were all glazed after the figures were laid on;
where, however, the decorations are white, the vessels were
glazed before the ornaments were added. Ornamenting with
figures of animals was effected by means of sharp and blunt
skewery instruments, and a slip of suitable consistency. These
instruments seem to have been of two kinds: one thick enough
to carry sufficient slip for the nose, neck, body, and front thigh;
the other of a more delicate kind, fora thinner,slip for the
tongue, lower jaws, eye, fore and, hind legs, and tail. There

* Journal of the British Archeological Association, vol. i. pp. 3—5.

460 The Roman Potteries at Durobrive.

seems to have been no retouching after the slip trailed from.
the instrument.” hams
Of the forms of mere ornamentation of this ware, the
scroll ornaments appear to have been the most popular,
probably because it was the one most easily executed with
freedom by the process just described. The arrangement and
combination of the scrolls, which are sufficiently varied, are
often both tasteful and very effective. In our cut, Fig. 1, 1

hy oF is A,
FOS

Fie. 1.—Scroll Ornaments taken from Durobrivian Pottery.

have selected two examples, from among those given in Mr.
Artis’s plates ; and others are furnished by the two examples
of the slate-coloured ware, also taken from Artis, which form
the centre figure and the lower figure to the right of our
coloured plate. These, it may be remarked, are examples of
the most common forms and shades of colours of the Durobri-
vian pottery. —

It is, however, the figured Pottery of Durobrive, which
presents some of the characteristics of the Samian ware, that
possesses the greatest interest for the antiquary and the his-
torian. The variety of subjects m the Samian ware is far
greater, and they are treated ina more elaborate and more
highly finished style of art, yet similar classes of subjects
appear to have enjoyed greater popularity than others in the
Durobrivian and Samian pottery, and we can hardly help
suspecting that there was some design of imitating, or perhaps
a sentiment of rivalry. Considering that they were only
executed with the hand, and it would appear rapidly, the style
of drawing is remarkably good and spirited, and, as Mr. Artis
has remarked, the courage and energy of the hounds, and the
distress of the hunted animals, are expressed with great skill
and fidelity. But they have another and a peculiar value ;
when we consider that they were certainly executed in this

The Roman Potteries at Durobrive. 461

country, and by artists who could hardly have done otherwise
than copy what was constantly before their eyes, we can have
no doubt that these are all true pictures, pictures which we
could hardly in any other way have obtained, of life in Britain
under the Romans, and they show us, as well as could be
shown in subjects capable of being represented by such artists,
those occupations in which the enjoyment of life was then
believed to consist. The more common of these subjects are
hunting scenes, and scenes taken from the amphitheatre or
the racecourse.

We have abundant evidence, im a great variety of monu-
ments of different classes, of the love of the people of Roman
Britain for the pleasures and excitement of the chase. It is ©
sufficiently well known how, among the bones of animals which
had been eaten at the table, which are found on Roman sites in
England and Scotland, a large proportion testify to the pre-
sence in great abundance of the wild boar, of the wild deer (of
several varieties), and of almost every animal which comes
under the name of game. Britain, too, was celebrated for its
dogs, and it would not, I imagine, be impossible for the com-
parative anatomist to reproduce the forms of the varieties of
the dog known here during the Roman period from these
fioures on the pottery compared with bones of the dog still
found among Roman remains. The Roman writers speak not
unfrequently of the excellence of the British dogs, especially
of the dogs for huntmg, and they seem to have formed a
rather important article of export. In the figures on the Duro-
brivian pottery, the dogs are pictured, and evidently with
truthfulness, with distinct characteristics of different varieties.
For instance, the dog hunting the hare in our cut (Fig. 2),

Fie. 2.—Hunting the Hare.

taken from an example of Durobrivian ware engraved in Artis’s
plates, must be recognized at once as a greyhound, the same
variety of dog which is still used for the same purpose. It has
been suggested that this may be the dog to which the Romans
gave the name‘of vertagus, and which is said to have been a
British dog. Martial describes it in one of his epigrams as

462 The Roman Potteries at Durobrive.

hunting the hare spontaneously and alone, and bring it, when
killed, home carefully to its master, without damage to the body—

‘¢ Non sibi, sed domino, venatur vertagus acer,
Illesum leporem qui tibi dente feret.”

It is certain that the Romans valued especially the hunting
dogs which they obtaimed from Britain. Oppian (Cyneq. 1.,
468) calls them a noble race, speaks of them as slender in
form, and commemorates their other characteristics, in terms
some of which might apply to the greyhound—
‘Bort 5€ Tt okvAdKwy yévos &AKimov ixveuThpwy,
Baidy, arap weyaAns avTakiov Ener dordys-
Tovs Tpapev &ypia puda Bpetavav aiodovétwy.”
The Roman writers have not left us any very satisfactory descrip-
tion of the varieties of the dog, as they existed among them,
and they were probably far less numerous than at present.
The ancient writers, even those who treat especially on cyne-
getics, speak in general terms of this domestic animal, and of
his faithfulness and intelligence, but say less about the special
qualities of its different varieties. Nemesianus, another poet
who wrote on this subject, tells us, without any particular
description of them, of different breeds of dogs which came
from different countries, and expressly states that those brought
from Britain were remarkable for their swiftness, and for their
excellence for hunting.
“ Divisa Britannia mittit

Veloces, nostrique orbis venatibus aptos.”’
Nemesiani Cynegetica, 1. 123.

Fid. 3.—A Stag-hunt. .

This description accords with the greater number of the figures
of dogs represented 1 in the hunting scenes of our Durobrivian

The Roman Potteries at Durobrive. 463

pottery. Our cut, No. 3, taken from a sample of this pottery
given in one of Mr. Artis’s plates, no doubt represents the
British staghound of the Roman period. Though not dis-
similar in shape, it appears to be of a stronger and larger
make than the greyhound represented in the former cut. ‘The
draughtsman here appears to have intended to distinguish two
varieties of the stag, in the different forms he has given to their
antlers. We have
a different dog in
other examples, as
in the group given
in our next cut

BesodcodoerEoucss

(Fig. 4), where a 5
dog of apparently
a much fiercer cha- 0
racter (see our cut, 0
Fig. 4, which is 0
taken from a very / : :
remarkable vessel (; : g =))3
of this Durobrivian : a5) LD
ware, now known ee a i

as the Colchester
Vase), appears driv-
ing before him both :
stags and hares. The hunting of the boar is also introduced
in some examples of this pottery.

Gladiatorial combats are also favourite subjects on the
pottery made at Durobrive, as on the Samian ware, and they
leave no doubt that these cruel and degrading exhibitions were
cherished by the Romans in Britain as well as in Italy. We
have singular evidence of the prevalence of the taste for such
shows in the figures on the Colchester vase. This very re-
markable monument of the ceramic art in Roman Britain,
which is represented, of course, on a very diminished scale in
the first figure of our coloured plate, was found, in 1853, in
the Roman cemetery which occupied the site of West Lodge,
near Colchester. It had been used as a sepulchral urn, and,
when found, contained calcined bones, and was covered with
an inverted shallow vessel or dish. It may be right to state
that this interesting vase is nine inches in height by six in
diameter. The ornamentations consist of three groups, one of
which is the flight of stags and hares pursued by a dog given
in our cut (Fig. 4). The second and, perhaps we may say, the
principal group represents the combat of gladiators, which ap~
pears in our engraving of the vase. It represents, in perfectly
correct drawings, the two classes of gladiators, a Secutor and
a Retiarius, the latter of whom, vanquished, has dropped his

Fie. 4.—Hunting the Stag.

464 The Roman Potteries at Durobrive.

trident, and raises his hand to implore the mercy of the spec-
tators. The Secutor, with a close helmet over his head, and a
short sword in his hand, advances to strike the fatal blow,
unless arrested by the success of his adversary’s appeal. Over
the head of the Retiarius is the inscription, VALENTINV LEGIONIS
Xxx., meaning clearly, “‘ Valentinus, of the thirtieth legion,”
which was doubtless the name of the individual here repre-
sented. A similar inscription over the head of the Secutor is
read without difficulty—memn.n.sac. vi1I., which is explained
by Mr. Roach Smith, who considers the A in sA¢ as an error
for zr, as standing for Memnius (or Memnon) numeri secutorum
victor ter, t.e., “ Memnius, or Memnon, of the namerus (or
band) of secutors, conqueror thrice.” There is no reason for
supposing that this inscription has any reference to the indi-
vidual whose remains were buried in the vase, but it has pro-
bably reference to some remarkable gladiatorial combat which
had created a sensation in Roman Britain, hike some one of
the celebrated boxing matches of modern times, sufficiently so
to have become a popular subject of pictorial representation.
The drawing of the figures is so carefully mmute that even
the well-known nails of the shoes are not forgotten, and it is
curious that the shield contains the figure called in the middle
ages a filfot, which, as Mr. Smith remarks, is often found on
the monuments of the Atlan Dacians, whose quarters were at
Amboglanna, on the wall of Hadrian. Possibly Memnius may
have been one of them.*

The third group on the Colchester vase also represents a
performance which was very popular among the Romans and
among the Saxons, and indeed throughout the Middle Ages,
that of a bear-tamer and disciplined bear. The bear, in this case,
appears inclined to be rebellious, and his keeper, whose left
arm bears what appears to be a shield, and his legs and right
arm protected by bands or thongs, is menacing the animal
with a whip. An assistant is approaching with what appear
to be two staves in his hands, for the purpose also of intimi-
dating the ferocious animal. Over the head of the man holding

the whip are the letters szcvnpvs MARIO, the intended applica- .

tion of which is not very clear. It has been suggested that

it may mean simply that the cup was a gift from Secundus to
Marius ; or it may be that the bear was a pet animal, to which »

the name of Marius may have been given, and Marius and his

master, or controller, Secundinus, may have had a momentary

fame like that of Banks and his horse Morocco in the times

of our James 1. At all events, this remarkable vase shows -

what curious information relating to the condition and history

* See Mr. Roach Smith’s interesting account of this vase in the Collectanea
Antiqua, vol. iv., pp. 82—89.

The Roman Potteries at Durobrive. 465

of Roman Britain may be obtained from the collection and
study of the figures on the pottery made at Durobrive.

The upper figure to the right in our plate represents a
vessel in Durobrivian ware, which is preserved in the room of
British Antiquities m the British Museum. The figures upon
it represent a chariot-race in the Roman racecourse or stadium,
the traces of several of which have been met with in the neigh-
bourhood of our greater Roman stations. The chariot, or ©
quadriga, has the classical form, rather rudely designed, and
is drawn by four horses abreast. Other vessels of this pottery
were ornamented with encounters, and combats between men
and men, or between men and animals. One fragment, as far
as we can judge from the portion of the animal which is left,
represented a man fighting a wolf, an animal then no doubt
common in the forests of Britain. Sometimes the ornamenta-
tion consists of mere groups of animals, or of fishes, especially
the dolphin. Birds, which were perhaps more difficult to form
with the potter’s slip, are less frequent.

But I will not-attempt here to give anything like a list of
the various subjects represented on the Durobrivian pottery,
but will only allude to another class of subjects of extreme in-
terest as coming from a Romano-British pottery. These are
mythological subjects, which it must be confessed are not very
common, as they are on the foreign Samian ware, but they
all belong to the purely Roman mythology. A combination —
of deities which appears to have been most popular in the
western provinces of the Roman empire was that of the gods
who presided over the days of the week, which, under the
Romans, commenced with Saturday (dies Satwrni), and these
gods were arranged in the following order: Saturn, Sol (or
Apollo), Luna (or Diana), Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus.
Works of art of the Roman period representing these divinities
are found not uncommonly in Gaul, Germany, and Britain, and
they appear to have been rather a favourite ornament of the
Durobrivian pottery.* Fragments of several vessels with the
figures of the seven gods and goddesses have been met with,
from some of which Mr. Fairholt has restored the example
which forms the lower figure on the left-hand side of our plate.
This vessel presents also another characteristic of the Duro-
brivian ware, more especially employed in urns of this form.
It consists of indentations made in the side of the vessel, while
still soft, but after it had left the lathe, and continued with
regularity round it. Sometimes, where little ornament was
employed on the rest of the vase, these indentations were left
quite plain; sometimes an ornament was introduced in the

* See my book, The Celt, the Roman, and, the Saxon, Second Edition, pp.
269 to 271.

466 The Roman Potteries at Durobrive.

centre; and not unfrequently the indentation was formed into
a niche for the reception of a figure. This is the case with the
example before us, which is surrounded with ornamental niches
containing the figures of those deities who gave their names
to the days of the week. The one is recognized immediately
as Jupiter brandishing his thunderbolt; the other appears to
be intended to represent Mars. It is, perhaps, by a mere and
accidental error of the potter’s artist that Mars, in this in-
stance, occupies the place of Mercury. Two other fragments
of the same vessel contain the lower parts of the figures of
Mercury, with his caduceus, and Diana. Perhaps these vases
with mythological subjects were considered to possess more
importance than the others, for they present peculiarities of
colour. <A fragment, containing a figure of Minerva, rather
rudely executed, is straw colour, with a buff glaze. The most
curious of these fragments contained part of the scene repre-
senting the mythic story of Hercules and Hesione. The figure
of the sea-monster only is lost by the fracture. Hercules,
with the lion’s skin wrapped round his left arm, brandishes his
club in the act of attacking the monster. Hesione stands
naked between her deliverer and her persecutor, having ap-
parently her hands fettered behind her, with heavy weights
hanging by chains from her arms.*

It seems probable that these potteries at Durobrivee do not
belong to avery early period of the Roman occupation of the
island. The style of art, and their general character, perhaps
indicate a period not older than the latter part of the second
century, and we cannot help thinking that the peculiar style
of ornamentation originated in the desire to furnish a home-
made substitute for the imported and, therefore, we must
Suppose, expensive Samian ware. As I have already re-
marked, this pottery forms one of the most curious and
instructive monuments of the history of the internal condition
of our island during the Roman period. Its character is en-
tirely Roman, and in the mass of its remains, which has down
to the present moment been examined, we find not the slightest
trace of Celtic or Germanic sentiment.

* These fragments, which were collected by Mr. Artis, are engraved and
described in Mr. Roach Smith’s Collectanea Antiqua, vol. iv., pp. 90—93.

Colours of Sturs. 467

COLOURS OF STARS.—OCCULTATIONS.
BY THE REV. T. W. WEBB, A.M., PARALS.

Every inquiry relating to stellar light possesses addi-
tional interest since the extraordinary success which has
attended the investigations of Mr. Huggins. Now that he has
shown the possibility of a greater approximation than could
have been anticipated, to a knowledge of the constitution of
these distant suns, each additional fact concerning their aspect
acquires a relative value which it did not previously possess.
A great step has been taken, when in the prosecution of an
inquiry we have fixed a central fact to which others may be
referred—a nucleus, as it were, round which our floating
information may become crystallized, and settle into a definite
form. Such has been the discovery of metallic and gaseous
bands in the spectra of the stars. And it now becomes de-
sirable that future researches into stellar light, whether as to
_its variableness in intensity or in colour, should be conducted
with reference to this primary determination. A new and beau-
tiful lme of inquiry has thus been unexpectedly opened for
amateurs possessed of instruments of sufficient light; and it
is one which, it is to be hoped, will be carried on with the
more spirit and enterprise, since it has been, as it were, com-
mitted to their care by the Astronomer Royal. The great
Equatorial at Greenwich, with its 123 inches* of aperture, will
not, it appears, be employed in these investigations, Mr. Airy
having made known his opinion, that the scrutiny of the sun’s
surface and the observations of star-spectra have now been
taken up so well by amateur observers, that it appears to him
just to leave these subjects in great measure to the private
persons who have given to them such laudable attention. Mr.
Huggins’s extraordinary success, with considerably less than
half the light, fully proves that so large an aperture is not
requisite, and Mr. Browning’s indefatigable exertions in per-
fecting the spectroscope will, we may hope, be rewarded by
its more frequent employment. We must not suppose, how-
ever, that the extension of Mr. Huggins’s great discovery will
be found an easy undertaking. There may be little difficulty,
with a sufficient aperture and well-adjusted spectroscope, im
perceiving the bands already recognized, but it would be
found quite another matter to follow his steps, and those of Dr.

* Such, I am informed (that is, 12 Paris inches) is its real measure, notwith-
standing my supposed correction of an imaginary mistake in Int. OBs,, y. 55,
note. ‘

_ + Report of the Astronomer Royal, 1865, p. 11.

VOL. VII.—-NO. VI. e008 5

468 Colours of Stars.

Miller, in identifying them by patient and laborious measure-
ment. As Admiral Smyth has said, in his recent interest-
ing treatise on Sidereal Chromatics, “it is only on the finest
nights that the lines in the stellar spectra are steady enough
for measurement. Indeed, the difficulties of observation are
now so complex, that the complete scrutiny of the spectrum of
a sinole star may probably be the work of some years.”
Fortunately, however, for those interested in these delight-
ful studies, a subordinate, but very useful branch of the same
inquiry is open to the possessors of even moderate optical
means, who may do essential service by collecting data, to be
used as materials in its future prosecution. We are not now
referring to the phenomena of variable light, though these
well merit a close scrutiny, but to those of changes of colour.
This curious subject has been repeatedly brought before our
readers, and we may refer them especially to a paper at page
436 of Vol. v., as enumerating some of the cautions necessary
in the study of 1t.* But the additional interest which, as we
have said, it has received from recent discoveries, induces us
to revert to it; especially as the beautiful pair 95 Herculis
described in that paper is now coming into a convenient posi-
tion again. Since that time, some further remarks on these
stars have appeared in the Sidereal Chromatics of Admiral
Smyth, from the late deeply-regretted Captain Higgens, of
Bedford. Thirty-eight observations between May 21 and
August 8, 1864, led him to the inference that the colours were
less vivid than in the previous September, and that A (the
‘green star) showed more loss of colour than B (the red),
“though neither to the extent of justifying their beng
classed as anything but normal, though somewhat faintish:?”
Professor Piazzi Smyth, however, from an extended com-
‘parison of the observations of W. Struve, Admiral
Smyth, Sestini, Fletcher, Wrottesley, and himself, including
a@ series of ‘years from 1828°71 to 1862°:72, has come
‘to the more decided conclusion that A passes through
the successive tints of yellow, greyish, yellowish with blue
tinge, greenish, light green, light apple green, “ astonishing
yellow green,” and yellow again, in a period of probably twelve
years, while B im the same time passes from yellow, through
greyish, yellowish with reddish tinge, reddish, cherry red,
“ eoregious red,” to yellow again. Should this deduction be
confirmed by testimony so extensive and accumulated as to

* Further consideration and experience have led to the conclusion that the
superiority of silyered specula in such inquiries was there somewhat overrated.
Since brilliant objects seen through the imperfectly transparent film acquire a ~
blue tint, the reflected rays from which this has been abstracted cannot be per-
fectly white, but must be very slightly tinged with the complementary orange.
The great advantage, however, of the absence of any outstanding fringe remains.

Colours of Stars. 469

eliminate that most annoying element of uncertainty, “ per-
sonal chromatic, equation,” and establish the alleged periodi-
city, here will be a truly important field for spectrum analysis.
But though, in the present state of our, knowledge, the
Professor is fully justified m calling this “one of the most
remarkable cases in the heavens,” we cannot say, considering
the recent date of the inquiry, that mstances yet more decided
may not yet remain to be disclosed.

If such phenomena attain the rank of established facts,
there would seem no other way of accounting for them but by
supposing that a change takes place in either—I, The com-
' position or temperature of the luminous material, or—2, The
condition of an encompassing atmosphere, or—3, The acci-
dental interposition of unknown media in intervening space.
The latter hypothesis, however, which has been suggested by
Sir J. Herschel in the case of Sirius, is of course excluded. in
periodic variations; and the proof of any one such instance
would go far to displace it altogether. The two previous
suppositions would come strictly within the range of spectrum
analysis. Jt is much to be regretted that with the exception
of Arcturus, whose change of colour is very questionable, all
the suspected objects are possessed of an inferior degree of
light; and a material difficulty is thus introduced in the use of
the spectroscope ; but if this could be overcome, and if a clear
imstance of change could be brought under examination, it
would be most interesting to ascertain whether any correspond-
ing effect was produced upon the dark bands; and either an
affirmative or a negative result would advance our knowledge
of the composition of light. In the absence of any con-
spicuous instance, what we have now to do is to endeavour to
lay so firm a hold upon less obvious phenomena as to place
them beyond the reach of suspicion; and to exercise our
ingenuity in devising the best means of so grappling with
them. The beautifully executed diagram of tinted discs in
the Sidereal Chromatics, will give very valuable help in
training the eye to the discrimination of colour, though the
plan certainly involves, as has been suggested, some use of.
“qualifying adjectives,” since the colours of stars are fre-
quently incapable of being referred to tints of such a simple
character. Other modes of experimenting yet remain, and
ought to be tried if possible.

It follows from the comparisons of Professor P. Smyth at
Teneriffe, that in our latitudes no determination of colour can
be strictly relied upon beyond 10° of S. Decl.; but this
leaves abundant room for the inquiry; and with a view of
saving trouble to those who may be disposed to enter upon it,
the following suspicious instances have been selected from our

470 Occultations.

Double Star List, to which many might be added from other.

sources :—
6 Herculis (No. 25, Int. Opss., ii. 55.)
12 Canum (No. 29, A aS BBL)
44 Bodtis (No. 33, ii. 133.)
o Corone (No. 37, 3g ni. 134.)
95 Herculis (No. 40, § 1. 136.)

e'4 Lyre (No. 47, Wy u. 301.)
(No. 51, " ii. 303.)
(No. 62, 3) i, 373.)
y Delphini (No. 63, — i. 373.)
a Piscium (No. 80, Pyiimeade Veh 33)
y Leonis (No. 104, ,, ui. 219.)

The following observations of some of these stars with a
53-inch object-glass may be added as the result of the present
season: common epoch 1865-45.

6 Herculis. Pale lemon yellow and lilac, by a perfectly
independent judgment. The comes exhibited the curious
phenomenon of oscillation (see Int. Oxs. 1. 375) in a remarkable
degree. With a power of nearly 450, and an unsteadied
telescope, the vibrations were extraordinary.

12 Canum. Pale yellow and fawn colour.

44 Bootis. Ona general view, both pale yellow ; yet with
some not very definable difference : when more closely studied.
B sometimes seemed inclining to bluish, but on the whole I
believe it was tawny. This was my first observation of the
pair with my present achromatic, and the result a perfectly -
independent one.

95 Herculis. Apple green and light orange: very clearly
marked. |

OCCULTATIONS.

July 3rd.—8 Libre, 6 mag., 9h. 45m. to 10h. 48m.—
a Libree, 24 mag., 9h. 58m. to 10h. 52m —8th, p Sagittaru,
4, mag., 9h. 21m. to 10h. 1Im. The double occultation on the
ord will be a very interesting phenomenon, especially as one
of the stars is so large, and forms one of the members of an
opie pair, Number 10 of our Double Star List (In. Oss.,
1. 375).

Archeeologia, 471

ARCH AOLOGIA.

Tue church of Bosuam, near Chichester, has recently been the subject
of a number of paragraphs in the newspapers, on account of rather
extensive restorations which are beimg carried on init. Boshamis a
place well known in history. Itwasa manor belonging to Harl Harold,
the son of Godwin, who afterwards became the last of the Anglo-.
Saxon kings of England, and it was from hence that he sailed for
Normandy, on that eventful journey in which he was entrapped into
a fatal acknowledgment of the claims of Duke William to the suc-
' cession of the Anglo-Saxoncrown. The locality was connected with
Anglo-Saxon history by other circumstances belonging to still earlier
dates. It had a small monastic establishment as early as the latter
half of the seventh century, when Wilfred began here the conversion
of the South Saxons to Christianity. One of the daughters of King
Cnut is said to have been buried in the church of this monastery,
and he is supposed to have been so closely connected with it that
some writers have conjectured it to have been the scene of that
beautiful scene of the Anglo-Danish monarch attempting in vain to
dictate to the tides of the ocean. But there are reasons for suppos-
ing that, if the story have any foundation in truth, its scene was not
the sea shore, but the banks of the river Thames, at Westminster,
where the later kings of Anglo-Saxon England had their palace, and
that King Cnut merely went out of his palace to rebuke the flattery
of his courtiers by showing them his inability even to check the
advance of the tide in the river. The church of Bosham has
recently been restored, and the course of the work has brought to
. light many portions of the original Anglo-Saxon masonry which
were not previously known to exist. As many Roman tiles had
been used in the building, it is probable that the church, which must
have been one larger than it is at present, was raised on or near the
site of a Roman establishment of some kind or other. In this older
building one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon
masonry, the “ long-and-short work of the angles, is found in abun-
dance, as well as some herring-bone work. Silver coins of the reign
of Edward L., with an old knife, were found in the drain of an early
piscina.

The lead mine on Suetve Hitt, in Shropshire, known as the
Roman Gravels Mine, is remarkable for its bold remains of the
mining operations of the Romans on this site, which have been de-
scribed in a former volume of the INTELLECTUAL OBSERVER (see Vol. i.
p. 295). The modern mine is now worked by a company with great
success, especially since they have reached a depth beyond the
extent of the Roman workings. In their progress they continually
fall in with the shafts and galleries in which the Roman miners had
worked, and they found in them a few objects which those ancient
miners had left behind them. Some only of these have been pre-
served, and are now in the possession of the lord of the land, Mr.
More, at Linley Hall. They consist’of spades, formed by splitting
very sound oaken timber, and of miners’ canpLEs. The latter are

A72 Archeeologia.

extremely curious, and have not been noticed till recently. The
wicks are formed of hemp, and they have been made by dipping, but —
length of time has turned the tallow into a substance which is almost
as hard and brittle as marble. It has been asserted that the
ancients were not acquainted with the use of candles, and that their
only method of giving light was by means of lamps supplied with
oil, but these candles of “the Roman miners appear to overthrow
entirely this theory. And indeed, as we know that the Anglo-
Saxons used candles, and from end we derive the modern use of
them, and as the Anglo-Saxon condel or candel was undoubtedly
derived from the Latin candela, there is every reason for believing
that our forefathers derived the use of candles from the Romans as
well as the name. iii

A large sepulchral tumutus has been opened on Laneron WOLD,
in the Hast Ridge of Yorkshire, under the direction of the Rev.
W. Greenwell of Durham. It is situated hardly more than two
miles from Old Malton, which has every claim to be considered as
the Derwentio of the Romans. It is a large tumulus, though
low, which is rather a characteristic of the Hast Yor <eitiire neal
and is not, we think, a characteristic of an early date. The first
openings, according to the accounts published, brought to light
undoubted Anglo-Saxon interments, with fragments of, as we under-
stand, cinerary ware, indicating the mode of interment which
appears to have prevailed among the Anglo tribes who settled in
this island. In the centre was Rowe a rude chamber, in which a
skeleton was found laid on its left side, which is certainly not, as
appears to be assumed, a proof of its being an early British inter-
ment, for we have ourselves found in Hast Yorkshire undoubted
Anglo- Saxon interments, in which the body was placed in this
position, and in some cases doubled up. We are only speaking from
@ newspaper report, and are, therefore, unwilling to speak too
decidedly, but this report does not lead us at all to think with it
that the supposed non-Anglo-Saxon interments belong to a very
early British period, and that there were at least 2000 years
between the dates of the two different interments. It is contrary’
to the notions which history gives us on such a subject. We have
no doubt that the Anglo-Saxons mixed freely enough with the
Roman population they found here, and we find sufficient proofs of
their burying their dead in the same cemeteries; but it is not
merely improbable that an Anglo-Saxon would open the grave of a
people so utterly unknown to him as the prehistoric Britons to
bury a kinsman in it.’ We are inclined to believe, as the result of
many researches and investigations, that there was a period between
the perfectly Roman and the perfectly Anglo-Saxon to which a
large proportion of the tumuli which are commonly called British
belong ; but we abstain from further remarks on this case, until the
publication of the promised report of these excavations by the
gentleman who has ee them. TW.

eek sk) SE POS oT EER REE

Proceedings of Learned Societies. 473

PROCEEDINGS OF LHARNED SOCIETIES.

BY W. B. TEGETMEIER,

ROYAL SOCIETY.— Day 4.

On THE Propertizs or Liqueriep Hyprocutoric Acip Gas.—Pro-
fessor Stokes communicated a most important paper, by Mr. G.
Gore, on the properties of hydrochloric acid gas liquefied under
great pressure. The liquid is a very feeble conductor of electricity,
and has but a very limited solvent power for solids. Of five metal-
loids submitted to it only one was dissolved, namely, iodine; of
fifteen metals placed in it only one, aluminium, was dissolved; of
twenty-two oxides it dissolved only five, namely, titanic, arsenious
and arsenic acids, teroxide of antimony, and oxide of zinc; it had
no action on carbonates, and dissolved only one sulphide, that of
antimony, and two chlorides, those of phosphorus and tin. These
results show that liquid hydrochloric acid gas has much less action
on solid bodies than the same substance when combined with water ;
this is very remarkable in some cases, as that of lime, where a true
hydrogen acid and a powerful base, each in a pure state, and both
possessing, under ordinary circumstances, a most powerful mutual
affinity, do not react on one another, but remain perfectly uncom-
bined, although one is a liquid and the other a porous solid, and
they are brought into intimate contact by the enormous pressure
requisite to condense the gas, forcing the liquid into the porous
solid.

In consequence of the mode of experimenting, the substances
operated on by the liquefied hydrochloric acid were of necessity
exposed to the action of the same. substance, in the form of gas,
before it was condensed into a liquid; and it appears that, in many
cases, the action exerted during the experiment was due rather to
the influence of the gas than that of the liquid acid, which appears
to be remarkably inert. As a remarkable instance of the power of
glass to resist pressure, Mr. Gore mentioned that tubes charged
with liquid carbonic acid in 1860 had not suffered any loss by
leakage up to the present time.

GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.—WMay 24,

On tHe Dare or THE Formation oF THE EnGiisH CaanneL.—Mr.
J. Prestwich read a paper on this subject, in which he expressed
his opinion that the break in the land between France and Kngland
was not the result of the last geological change, but that the
channel existed at the period of the formation of the Low-level
gravels of the Somme and Thames Valleys, and probably at that of
the High-level gravels. During a recent visit to the Sangatte
raised beach, he recognized fragments of chert in the shingle and
associated sands, which he inferred were derived from the Lower
Cretaceous strata; associated with’them were fragments from the
Oolitic series of the Boulonnais and two pebbles of red granite,

474, Proceedings of Learned Societies.

probably from the Cotentin. These facts seem to prove that, before
the Low, and possibly even before the High-level Valley-gravel
period, there existed a channel open to the westward, and extending
between France and England. Above the Sangatte raised beach
occurs a mass of chalk and flint-rubble, with beds of loam, from
twenty to eighty feet thick, and containing land-shells. Mr. Prest-
wich considered this accumulation analogous to the loess, which it
resembles in general character, while the shells found in it belong
to species common in that deposit.

Tur Formation oF THE WEALD AND THE Deposits In THE Mepway
VauiEy.—A very interesting paper, by Messrs. Le Neve Foster and
Mr. Topley, on the denudation of the Weald, was read, describing
the superficial deposits of the valley of the Medway. They showed
that deposits of river-gravel and brick-earth (loess) occur at various
heights up to three hundred feet above the level of the river. They
also gave a detailed account of those singular formations known as
“‘pipes”’ at Maidstone, where brick-earth (loess), containing land
and freshwater shells and mammalian remains, have been let down
into deep cavities in the Kentish Rag, probably by the gradual
dissolving away of the limestone by the action of rain-water con-
taining carbonic acid.

The paper was intended mainly to show the light that is thrown
upon the theory of the denudation of the Weald by a study of the
superficial deposits. The authors stated their objections to the
theory of fracture and the marine theory, and endeavoured to
prove that the gravel and brick-earth (loess), occurring at a very
great height above the level of the Medway, are old alluvia of that
river. If this point be granted, it follows that the denudation has
been effected by atmospheric agencies, ¢.e., rain and rivers, and that
there will be little difficulty in supposing the present inequalities of
surface in the Weald to have been produced by these agents. The
escarpments of the chalk, which are, upon the marine theory of
the formation of the Weald, regarded as sea-cliffs, are considered
by the authors as being due entirely to the difference of waste of
the hard and soft formations under atmospheric denudation.

June 7.

On THE Former Occurrence or THE Musk Ox 1n Low Larirupss.
A short paper, by Monsieur Lartét and the late Mr. Christy, de-
scribing a phalange of the musk-ox (Ovibos moschatus), which was
discovered by them in the Gorge d’Enfer. With it were found
remains of Ursus spelceus, reindeer and aurochs, as well as worked
flints, differing from those found in any other of the Dordogne
caves. Monsieur Lartét remarked that the Gorge d’Enfer is the
most southern locality at which remains of Ovibos moschatus have
yet been found, and is fifteen degrees south of its most southern
limit at the present day; but reindeer remains have been found by
Mr. Christy and himself further south still, on the northera slope of
the Pyrenees.

Progress of Invention. 475

PROGRESS OF INVENTION.

A New Constant Barrery.—The improved constant battery
of M. Blane Filipo is deserving of attention, being well adapted
for the purposes of telegraphy. Itrequires but one fluid, which may
be a mere solution of common salt. This battery may be con-
structed by placing the saline solution in a tolerably tall glass jar, —
and adding to it powdered sulphur, so as to form a layer of
moderate thickness at the bottom. The positive metal consists of
-aring or-eylinder of zinc, which is immersed in the fluid, but not
so as to come in contact with the sulphur; and is suspended by a
wire, which passes up through a cork in the neck of the jar, and
forms the positive pole. The negative metal consists of a plate
of lead, or tin, which dips down into the layer of sulphur—
being slightly coated with sulphuret of copper, where it comes
in contact with the sulphur, and covered with an insulating
substance, when it approaches the zinc. A wire from this also
passes up through the cork, and forms the negative pole.
The mode of action of this battery is very simple. ‘The
hydrogen which is evolved at the negative pole unites with some
of the sulphur—though the latter is insoluble, and a non-conductor
—and forms sulphuretted hydrogen, the sulphuret of copper
taking a part in the process which is indispensable, though it is not
as yet understood. When the sulphuretted hydrogen comes in
contact with the chloride of sodium, there results a double decom-
position, sulphuret of sodium and hydrochloric acid being formed.
The latter dissolves the zinc, and the resulting chloride of zinc is
_changed into sulphuret, by the sulphuret of sodium, which again
becomes a chloride. During these changes, a small quantity of
sulphuretted hydrogen is evolved; and this appears to be the only
objection to which this battery is liable. In other respects, it
possesses some important advantages; it is very economical, both
as to the kind and amount of the substances required; it
occupies but little space, and it continues in action a long time.
Other metals may be substituted for the zinc; but in every case
the salt used in the solution must be incapable of decomposition by
sulphuretted hydrogen, or of precipitation by the metal which is
substituted.

PURIFICATION BY MEANS OF ExeEcrricity.—The fat obtained from
bones constitutes an important article of commerce ; it is, however,
obtained in a state of great impurity, and its purification is ex-
tremely difficult. The idea occurred to Dr. Dullo of using
electricity as a means of freeing it from the substances—chiefly
gelatine—which render even what is obtained from fresh bones
extremely nauseous, but which, fortunately, are decomposed by the
electric current, that, at the same time, exerts no action on the fat
itself. His process consists in gently heating the fat to about 40°
Cent., in a clean copper vessel, free from roughness in the interior.
Sulphuric acid, -diluted with ten times its volume of water, is added,
to an amount dependent on the degree of impurity which is to be

476 Progress of Invention.

removed, and is well stirredin. A plate of zinc is then introduced
into the mixture, and is made to come into contact with the copper
vessel, at as many points as possible—the surface of the zinc being
about equal to half that of the copper. The current of electricity
thus produced causes a foaming, which is great in proportion to the
amount of impurity; and the gelatinous constituents are dissipated
in the form of gas, or are retained in the water, and removed when
the action ceases. After the fat has been drawn off, it is allowed to
settle; and, having been separated from the matters which subside,
it is filtered, after which it is quite pure, and ready for sale or use.

New Move or Wurrentne Woo.r.—The beautiful white wool
produced in this country has long been the envy of continental
manufacturers, and many attempts have been made to rival it, not
altogether without success. A process recently invented. in
Germany seems to have left nothing further to be desired on the
subject. The wool to be bleached is steeped in a strong neutral
solution, containing sulphate of magnesia, amounting to “the one-
twentieth of the weight of the wool ; and. this solution is decom-
posed by the addition of bicarbonate of soda, equal to seven-tenths
of the weight of the sulphate of magnesia—the mixture being then
gently heated to about 90° Cent. Basic carbonate of magnesia
precipitates, and the larger portion of it attaches itself to the fibres
of the wool, rendering them extremely white, without impairing
their softness ; carbonic acid is evolved.

Nover Appricarion oF CApIDLARY Arrraction.— Capillary
attraction has been applied by M. Duclos to the reproduction of
drawings, etc., by means of processes which are founded on the
fact that, if a silvered plate of copper is written on with an unctuous
or resious substance, and afterwards subjected to the action of
mercury, that fluid will adhere to the uncoated portions and form
projections rising considerably above them; so that, even when
the excess of mercury is carefully removed, it will still remain in
relief, and a copy of the plate in this condition can be taken, from
which may be obtained an electrotype that, if printed from, will
afford a fac-simile of the drawing. M. Duclos, in practice, replaces
the mercury bya compound consisting of fusible metal and mercury.
When this is melted and poured over the silvered plate on which
the drawing has been made, it comports itself exactly like the
mercury ; but, being harder, when cold, an electrotype may be ob-
tained from it directly. When, however, this compound is used,
great care must be taken to prevent oxidation, which would be, at
a subsequent period, highly inconvenient ; hence the plate is im-
mersed in sufficiently heated oil, when the fased metal is being poured.
upon it. An amalgam of copper, applied to the silvered ‘plate by
means of a roller of silvered copper, is also used instead of the
mercury; and when it sets, an electrotype may be had from it.
Various modifications are employed when plates for surface printing,
etc., are required.

Puorocrarnic ENGRAVING. —Photography has been applied i in a
novel way to the production of engravings. A photograph is first
obtained. For this purpose some good fabric of silk is immersed

Progress of Invention. A77

im a solution of gum tragacanth and gluten, then dried and rolled ;
after which it is coated with a solution of caoutchouc in benzole.
It is next spread out on glass, and, having been inclosed in a
frame, is left to dry. It is then sensitized with perchloride of
iron and tartaric acid, and a picture is printed on it in the usual
way. The development is effected by a mixture consisting of two
parts double salt of goid and three parts gold in powder; a current
of hydrogen is next thrown upon it to reduce the metallic salt, .
after which the silk is separated from the glass. The side of the
silk containing the picture is now pressed against a plate of clean
- copper, which has been previously coated with a mixture consisting
of concentrated chloride of zinc, borax, carbonate of ammonia, and
gum, and has been allowed to dry until the coating becomes sticky ;
it is then rubbed with a damp sponge, after which the silk is
drawn away. The picture remains on the plate; and the flame
of a soldering lamp having been thrown upon it, it is exposed in
acamera. The design, damascened in gold, is thus obtained on
the copper plate; and when the latter is acted upon with a solution
containing ten per cent. nitrate of silver—which does not eat under
the protected portions—a film of copper is removed from the un-
covered portions. The silver thus reduced is taken away by wash- —
ing, and the plate is again exposed to the action of the nitrate ;
the same thing being repeated a’ number of times in succession,
until sufficiently deep hollows have been formed.

AppiicaTion oF Heat in Minina.—The use of heat, in the
crumbling down and removal of rocks, is of very ancient date; it
has been latterly applied in the mines of the Hartz mountains, very
advantageously, to the separation of considerable masses of ore.
For this purpose, a small furnace is placed against the face of the
rock containing the mineral, and the coke with which it has been
supplied is kept m a state of ignition for some hours; after which
the furnace is withdrawn, and the heated portion of the rock is
sprinkled with water. In a short time a large mass separates, and
an additional quantity not long after. On the whole, a mass several
inches in depth, and of considerable weight, is thus removed, and
at a cost fifty per cent. less than if gunpowder had been employed.

Hrastne.—Grease, etc., is readily dissolved by benzine; but
the latter has the disadvantage of an offensive odour. A new
substance has, however, lately been discovered which possesses the

useful properties of benzine, while, at the same time, any odour it
emits is agreeable. It has been called Hrasine, and is the product
of a species of pine, accidentally discovered by some persons who
were collecting turpentine, and remarked that none could be
obtained in the usual way from certain trees; but instead of it, a
juice possessing the power of dissolving all animal and vegetable
oils, without leaving any stains, or injuring the most delicate colours.
Erasine has already found its way into commerce, and it would
answer well for burning in lamps, but that it is too dear.

Newty-opstrved Source or Macnetism—A source of magnet-
ism has been discovered which, it is probable, has not been remarked

before; and it is the more deserving of attention since it seems to

478 Progress of Invention.

excite permanent polarity in soft iron, an effect which cannot be
produced either by touch or by the electric current. It was noticed,
at the central workshop of the Nassau Railway, that not only

shavings of steel, but even of soft iron, produced in the lathe, were -

sensibly magnetic, and that, whatever their lengths, they exhibited
two poles. It might be supposed that the nature of the polarity
would depend on whether the helix formed in this way turned to
the right or the left; but such was not found to be the fact—
though, at the same time, the effect seemed to be modified by that
circumstance, as, in all those instances in which the spires, looked
at from their south pole, were in a direction opposite to that in
which the hands of a watch move, the magnetism was stronger than
in the others. The relative position of the poles was, however,
found to depend on a totally different circumstance; since the
south pole was invariably situated at that extremity where the
cut had been commenced; and the north, at that at which it had
terminated.

New Lens ror PxotocrarpHy.—An achromatic lens, which
seems to be peculiarly suited to the purposes of the photographer,
is formed by the combination of two concave menisci of crown
glass, the focal lengths of which are as one to three, having between
them a flint glass lens. The contiguous surfaces are of exactly the
same curvature, and therefore are perfectly in contact. Such a
lens is found to produce a clean, undistorted picture. It will cover
an extent of about 92°; but it will define well, and illuminate uni-
formly an angle of 80°, with a stop one-thirtieth of its focal
length; and an angle of 60°, with a stop the one-fifteenth of its
focal length. Itis less bulky than the ordinary lenses, and must
be very durable, since both sides of the flint glass are protected by
hard crown glass.

Raits or STEEL anD Iron Compinep.—Soft iron is objectionable
in the rails of railways, on account of its inferior strength and
rapid wear; steel is, generally speaking, too expensive; but a
means has been devised in America, a short time since, of uniting
the strength and durability of the one with, to a great extent, the
economy of the other. The rail is made, lengthwise, in two por-
tions, which, when placed beside each other, and firmly bolted
together, leave at the upper edge a longitudinal groove, capable of
receiving and holding firmly a bar of steel. If the latter has been
inserted before the iron portions have been united, a rail will be
obtained in which the parts exposed to the action of the wheels is
of steel; and is not only very durable but, when worn, is capable,
with great ease, of being replaced, the remainder of the rail being
as available for use as ever. The bar of steel being made to tra-
verse the joints of two or more of the compound rails, it binds them
together, giving great firmness, and rendering the chances of dis-
placement of the rails almost nothing. The iron portions of each
rail are so formed, with hollows and corresponding projections, that
they cannot slide in any way upon or from each other; and when
all the parts are united, they present an appearance differing but
little from that of the ordinary rail.

a ita

Notes and Memoranda. A479

Tae REFLECTION OF LicHT EMPLOYED TO INDICATE CHANGES OF
TremperatuReE.—Dr. Boulon, of Paris, uses the reflection of light
very ingeniously, for the purpose of making very slight changes of
temperature distinctly visible, by their effects, to a large audience.
He employs a thermo-electric battery, which is so arranged that
the electric current produced by changes of temperature is trans-
mitted through the helix of a galvanometer, the needle of which
has, fixed upon its centre, a very small mirror. Opposite to this
mirror is a large screen, in the middle of which is a small aperture,
through which a ray of light from a bright lamp behind it passes to
the small mirror in front of it. When the plane of the mirror is
exactly perpendicular to the direction of the ray from the aperture
in the screen—that is, when there is no electric current to deflect the
needle of the galvanometer—the ray is reflected back again through
the aperture. But the smallest ‘current deflects the needle, and
therefore turns the mirror round in one direction or the other;
and the ray, instead of passing back through the aperture, is thrown
on the screen to the right or left of it. The most minute changes
of temperature are thus rendered distinctly and easily, cogni-
zable by any number of persons, in a large lecture-room.

NOTES AND MEMORANDA.

Mosicat FErogs.—The author of that excellent book, Zen Years in
Sweden, speaks of the Bombinator igneus, a little frog that has become naturalized
in that country, as emitting, during the pairing season, a note like the ringing of
bells. He says, “As this sound proceeds from the depth of the water, it appears
to come from a long distance, although the frog may be within a few fathoms.”
Linneeus spoke of the same reptiles making sounds as if large bells were ringing
in the distance. It would be very interesting to naturalize the little creature in
this country.

New Pranet.—M. de Gasparis has discovered another new planetoid on the
26th of April, which, in honour of Dante, has been named Beatrix.

THE OBLIQUITY OF THE FLOUNDER.—Professor Steanstrup has obtained
specimens which show that in its early stages the flounder is a symmetrical fish,
with one eye on each side of its body. As it grows, both eyes pass to one side, in
which they have a curious oblique arrangement. He says, “‘The symmetrical fish
by degrees squints its eye in and up through the head out to the other side, and
at last squints itself into a perfect flounder.’’ Professor Wyville Thompson, who
has recently examined Professor Steanstrup’s collection of flounders in various
stages, confirms the main fact, but suggests in the Annals of Natural History a
more probable mode of effecting the change than the passage of the eye through
the vault of the cranium, as conceived by Steanstrup, with whom he agrees in
rejecting Van Beneden’s hypothesis, that it is produced by a simple torsion of the
anterior portion of the head. From various considerations, he thinks that “the
eye of the blind side passes to the eye-side, not through the vault of the head,
but under its integument, displacing in its progress the frontal bone on its own
side. . . . The term ‘migration’ of the eye is of course used in a somewhat
metaphorical sense. The eye changes little in actual position. With the growth
of the fish the associated parts are, as it were, developed past it, producing this
singular obliquity.”

480 Notes and Memoranda.

PRESERVING Srar-FIsHEs, Crustacea, ETC.—Mr. Verrill, writing in Sill-
man’s Journal, recommends that these objects should be immersed in alcohol of
moderate strength for about a minute, and then dried rapidly by artificial heat,
taking care not to let the temperature come too near the boiling-point, at which
green shades change to red.

Aas at wuick New Moon ts srrn.—Mr. D, A. Freeman writes to us
from Menton (Alpes Maritimes), stating, in reply to the query of a correspondent,
which we published in a former number, that on the 28th of January he ob-
served the moon shortly after sunset, when it was but thirty-two hours old, and
he was informed by the bailiff of the property on which he is residing, that about
twelve years ago he saw the thin crescent of the old moon aboye the horizon
before sunrise, and on the same evening, at the same height above the sea-
level—from 100 to 150 feet—he saw the thin crescent of the mew moon after
sunset.

Gopparv’s Microscopr CaBineTs.—Mr. Goddard has devised, and Messrs.
Ford and Sharratt have made, a new pattern cabinet for microscopic objects, one
of which has been sent to us for examination. The outside of this cabinet is of
mahogany, and the trays which, according to size, hold twenty-four or forty-
eight slides lying flat, are of millboard, strengthened by mahogany edges. This
construction enables the cabinets to be offered considerably below the price of the
best mahogany patterns, and the Goddard cabinets come into competition with
those of varnished white deal, which were, we believe, first introduced by Messrs.
Crouch, and which were noticed in a former number. In point of workmanship,
those of Messrs. Crouch appear to us the best, but the outer case being of maho-
gany in Mr. Goddard’s pattern, is an advantage in point of ‘strength.

SrerinHEIL on Divipine Brieur Dovsie Srars.—In the Astronomische
Nachrichten, No. 1525, is a letter from Steinheil, in which he remarks that “it is
a known consequence of the diffraction of light that fixed’ stars appear as light
discs of measurable diameters. These diameters stand in relation to the intensity
of the light, and the proportion that exists between the aperture of an object-
glass and its focal length,” so that a telescope of eight inches aperture and twelve
feet focal length, with which Dr. Engelmann could not divide y* Andromede,
“would necessarily give to the component stars larger diameters than one of the
same aperture, and shorter focal length.” Dr. Steinheil gives a diagram :to show
the ratio in which the apparent discs of stars—as seen through telescopes—in-
erease in proportion to their brightness, and he states that by reducmg the
brightness, with the aid of a light moderator he has introduced, the-discs may be
diminished, and difficult stars divided. This light moderating glass is held in the
hand between the eye and the eye-piece. As an illustration of the fact that
dividing power increases with the ratio of aperture to focal length, Mr. Webb
mentions that he has this spring seen the close pair of ¢ Cancri distinctly sepa-
rated with a black interval, with one of Mr. With’s 8-inch silvered glass specula
of 6 feet focus (power about 300), which Dr. Engelmann’s achromatic of S$
(French) inches aperture and 12 feet focus would only elongate, and that not
very distinctly, in April, 1864. Dembowski gave its distance about that time
= 0'"'5, but this was probably too small, as it has been recently measured by Mr.
Dawes = 0°63, and seems to have been closing up for several years. In the
Astronomical Register for June, Mr. Dawes affirms that nothing can be easier than
to prove that the diameter of star discs dues not depend on the ratio of aperture
to focal length. As Dr. Steinheil is a mathematician as well as a famous maker of
telescopes, Mr. Dawes should furnish the disproof he mentions.

RESPIRATION OF Prants.—It has been found by recent experiments that
carbonic acid is not decomposed by plants, even in the light, unless it is diluted
with atmospheric air, oxygen, hydrogen, or nitrogen. Analogous conditions are
required in other cases; thus phosphorus is not oxidized nor rendered luminous
by oxygen, unless atmospheric air, nitrogen, or hydrogen also is present;
neither will oxygen support respiration, but, on the contrary, will cause asphyxia,
unless it is diluted.

Gerat Hain Storm, May 7, 1865.—In Comptes Rendus, No. 20, will be

Notes and Memoranda. 481

found an account of the great storm of the 7th of May, as it operated in the
valley of the Scheldt. The most remarkable feature was the enormous
quantity of hail. M. Lermoyer states that at Vendhuile the hailstones were
as large as musket-balls, at Catelet they reached the size of a pigeon’s egg, and
even of a fowl’s egg; these great ones being composed of agglutinations of those
of smaller dimensions. The storm of hail and rain began at 4h. 30m. p-m,, and
was accompanied by formidable whirling gusts of wind. A ditch attached to the
canal of St. Quentin, and which received the drainage of 500 hectares (about
1235 square acres) of land, was so overfilled by the hail and rain as to overflow -
the high bank of the canal, and sweep into it 800 hectolitres of firewood,
obstructing the navigation. The hail formed a congealed mass 462 metres long,
and 20 in mean breadth, or about 459 yards long, and nearly 22 broad. “ This
deposit constituted a veritable glacier on which it was safe to walk.” Whena
channel was cut through it, detached masses floated down like icebergs above the
bridge of Vendhuile, the meadows of Ossu were covered for a mile and a-half
with a mass of hailstones more than 200 yards wide. It was observed that
during this storm vanes placed on heights indicated north-east currents, while
- those in the plains showed south-west.

ON some ProprRties oF Nirric Acty.—M. Dietzenbacher informs the
French Academy that very remarkable oxydizing powers are exhibited by heating
a mixture of fuming nitric acid and Nordhausen sulphuric acid. Charcoal and
lamp-black burn energetically in such a mixture. The acids, mixed in equal
proportions, transform cotton in a few seconds into pyroxylin, insoluble in ether
or alcohol; thus prepared it burns instantly, leaving no residue. Cotton par-
tially submerged ignites and discharges thick vapour. Zinc, which is ener-
getically attacked by concentrated nitric acid, remains for days in the mixed acids
without alteration. The mixture is equally inactive towards iron, copper, and
tin; the iron does not become passive.

PRESERVATION OF WiINES.—M. Pasteur recommends that the disorders of
_ wine, which are occasioned by parasitic ferments, should be arrested by heat. He
bottles the wine, wires the cork, and exposes it in a hot-air stove to a temperature
of from 60° to 100°C., or 140° to 212°? Fahr. The cork, whichis partly driven out
by the heat, is replaced when the wine cools and sealing-wax applied. M. Pasteur
states that this process prevents the action of the ferments, and has not broken a
single bottle in his experiments. M. de Vergnette-Lamotte, who made inde-
pendent experiments, also recommends the application of heat. Of course some
years must elapse before the effect of the process can be fully known. According
to M. Lamotte, a temperature of 40°C., or 104° Fahr., rapidly causes wine to
assume the properties conferred by age. -

PHOSPHORESCENCE AT SEA.—On the 4th of September, at nine p.m., M. B.
Coste noticed in lat. 9 N., long. 50 (French), what the French sailors call a “sea
of milk”. (mer de lait). It approached the ship in the form of a great sheet of
white phosphorescent water, looking as if the sea were covered with snow as far
as the horizon. The appearance was occasioned by myriads of minute gelatinous
creatures, which he denominates noctiluca miliaris, though his description does not
indicate that animal, which is nearly spherical, while those he saw were like “ little
straws covered with silver.” Contrary to what is usual, and what he had noticed
before, the furrows made in the water by the passage of the ship were dark and
not luminous.

Monoceromatic Ligut ror tar Microscorz.—The Abbé Count Castracane
states that by employing M. Foucault’s heliostat and a prism of large dispersion,
he illuminates the Pleurosigma angulatwm, or other objects with any kind of mo-
nochromatie light. In the case of the P. angulatum he finds a bluish green exhibits
the markings with a much lower power than when white light is employed. ‘The
account of the experiments, which we find given to usin the Archives des Sciences,
is not intelligible to us as regards the powers employed. It says that with white
light the fifth and strongest objective of an Amici microscope was necessary to
resolve the markings of the diatom, while the third objective would do it with the.
monochromatic rays.

A82 Notes and Memoranda.

APPLICATION OF THE SPECTROSCOPE TO THE Mrcroscopz.—At the last
meeting of the Microscopical Society, Mr. Browning read a paper on this subject,
illustrated by numerous diagrams, showing the admirable arrangements he had
devised. In one form of his apparatus a prism of peculiar shape possesses a small
dispersive power in one direction, and a larger one in another, the rays having in
both cases the same angle of emergence. By changing the position of this prism, it
acts asa prism of smaller or greater angle, and is thus adapted to two classes of in-
vestigations, one needing less dispersion than the other. In Mr. Browning’s method
of mounting, the spectroscopecan be used under the condenseror as an eyepiece. Pro-
bably the best eyepiece arrangement will be a direct vision prism of the sort made
for Mr. Gassiot’s electrical experiments. This gives a small dispersion adapted to
show absorption bands in fluids, and when more dispersion is required, two
prisms can be employed. Mr. Browning exhibited a spot of blood upon a card,
about the size of a full stop in very small print, and stated that with one of his
spectroscopes applied to the microscope Mr. Sorby had obtained a characteristic
spectrum. In Mr. Browning’s arrangements the spectra of opaque objects are
easily seen, and blood globules or minute transparent cells observed more com-
modiously than is pessible in the adaptation of the star spectroscope to the
microscope, in the mode adopted in Mr. Huggins’ important experiments. Mr.
Glaisher, the President of the Microscopical Society, and Mr. Wenham spoke in
the highest terms of Mr. Browning’s arrangements.

New Livine Opsect Trap.—Mr. Richard Beck described and exhibited at
the last meeting of the Microscopical Society an ingenious contrivance for caging
small creatures such as mites, with a view to their convenient examination. He
drills a hole in a glass slide of the dimension required, and by a small piece of
mechanism presses a strip of thin glass above and below the hole, so as to form a
top and bottom to the little cell. The apparatus is reversible, so that the
entrapped creature can be examined either way up. A series of these live traps
fit into a small mahogany box, and will be found very convenient for processes of
research, in which it is necessary that a small live object should be confined to
a small space, but not injured. Water can easily be introduced into the little
cells when required.

New Lizrserkunn.—Mr. Richard Beck likewise described and exhibited a
new form of illuminator, consisting of a parabolic silver reflector, which slips on
to the brass work of an objective, and presents somewhat the appearance of half
a large lieberkuhn. It performs the function of the side silver reflector, and by
special arrangements, which Mr. Beck described, it allows an object to be illumi-
nated by nearly vertical rays. For some investigations Mr. Sorby found this
illumination essential to success. ;

PRODUCTION OF ORGANISMS IN CLOSED VESSELS.—No. 74 of the Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Society contains an account of a series of experiments
apparently made with due precaution by Dr. G. W. Child on the production of
organisms in vegetable infusions which had been boiled, which were closed after
receiving a supply of air that had passed through red hot porcelain tubes. Not-
withstanding these conditions, small bacterium bodies appeared, and Dr. Child
states that organisms such as occurred in his vessels could not have been detected
by the low powers employed by M. Pasteur. His conclusions are “either that
the germs of bacteriums are capable of resisting the boiling temperature in a
fluid, or they are spontaneously generated, or they are not organisms at all.” He
believes they are really minute vegetable forms, which is certainly the case in
some specimens, though it is possible mere physical aggregations of minute
globules may sometimes be taken for real bacteriums. He looks to Messrs.
Powell and Lealand’s 3th as likely to elucidate the structure of these objects.

PassaGE OF Dark Bopy across THE Sun.—M. Le Verrier communicated
to the French Academy a letter from M. Aristide Coumbary, stating he had
observed at Constantinople on the 8th of May, about 9°23 a.m., a small dark body
slowly passing across the solar disk.

SS

INDEX.

—»——

ABNORMAL memory, 241.

Accessible approaches to the Pole, 340.

Achromatic microscope, the Beck, 386.

Achromatic telescope, 179.

Acoustic telegraph, 79.

Actinia found at Clovelly, 441.

Action of sea-water on meta!s, 313.

Action of Venus on the Sun, 240.

Adjusting transits, new method of,
316.

Adaptation of photography to wood
engraving, 235.

AéGrolites, falls of, 210, 216.

African or occidenta! negro, 398.

Agaricus, genus of, 47.

Agarics, ringless or excentric, 349.

Age at which the moon can be seen,
240.

Aids to microscopic inquiry, No. 5,
198.

Alloxantine acid, 109.

Alteutha bopyroides, 24.

Altentha depressa, 23.

Aluminium bronze axis, 316.

Aluminium bronze, 148.

Amanita, dangerous fungi, 164.

Ammonia, production of a vacuum by
means of, 237.

Anatomy of the invertebrata, 96.

Anglo-Saxon antiquities, 70.

Aniline colours, aqueous solution of,

321. . ;
Animal life in other worlds, 91.
Animalcules, 201.
Animalcules in the winter, 118.
Anomalocera Patersonii, 19, 26.
Anthea cereus, 154,
Anthropological Review, 228.
Antipathies of dogs, 82.
Antiquities of Hoylake, 390.
Antozone, 239.
Aplodontia leporina, a rodent of North
America, 111.
Apparent diameter of Sirius, 81.
Appearance of new stars, 133.
Application of compressed air to weay-
ing, 75
Apterodytes Pennantii, 4038.
Aqueous solution of aniline colours,
321,

VOL. VII.—NO. VI.

Araucaria, species of, 417.

ArcHmoLocy.—Smith’s ‘“ Collectanea
Antiqua,” 69; Anglo-Saxon burial,
70; Roman potteries on the Medway,
70; excavations at Silchester, 71;
Roman salt works in Cheshire, 72;
the Deva of the Romans at Chester,
152; Roman coins found at Jublains,
153; Roman buildings in the Isle of
Wight, 230; tobacco pipes of seven-
teenth century, 232; kitchen-mid-
dens at Newhaven, 283 ; crannogs of
Scottish lakes, 233, 311; Roman
villa in the Isle of Wight, 233;
treasure trove, 3U7; Hoylake anti-
quities, 390; discoveries at Wetton,
Somersetshire, 391 ; Roman potteries
at Durobrive, 456; Anglo-Saxon
masorry at Bosham, 471; Roman
lead-mine at Shelve Hill, 471: tumu-
lus at Langton Wold, 472.

Arctic expeditions, 346.

Art subjects and their treatment, 359.

Artificial islands, or crannogs in Seot-
land, 283.

Artis, the labours of, in archeology,
457.

AsrronoMy.—Astronomical notes for
observers, 49, 133, 179, 255, 467;
Lunar arctic region, Mare Irigoris,
ete., 49; occultation of spectrum of
a fixed star, 74; diameter cf Sirius,
81 ; Biela’s comet, 81; life conditions
in other worlds, 87, 197; stool for
observations, 160; sun spots, 161;
Orion nebula, 161, 241; planet Mars,
162; auroral arches, 176, 377, 382;
achromatic telescope, 179 ; meteoric
astronomy, 208; age at which moon
can be seen, 240, 480; constitution
of the sun, 270; Dr. Draper’s tele-.
scope, 3868; disc of planet Venus,
401; colours of stars, 467; double
stars, 480; passage of dark body
across the sun, 482.

Astronomy, meteoric, 208.

Astronomical notes, 133.

Astronomical register, 228.

Atmospheres of the planets, 88,

Atomic weight of an element, 157.

It

484,

Auroral arch of March 20th, 1865, as
seen in Ireland, 377, 382.

Auroral arches, 176.

Australian satin bird, 102.

Austrajian lyre bird, 14.

Axolotls in Paris, 402.

Barrows and cairns in Scotland, 312.

Bears of the Himalaya, 429.

Biela’s comet, 81.

Birds of London, 167.

Blackbirds, 178.

Black partridge, 233.

Boiler explosions, 28.

Bond’s discovery in the Orion Nebula,
241.

Borany.—Vegetable hybrids, 11; ger-
mination of fern spores, 32; notes
on fungi, 45, 163, 349 ; fossil equise-
tum in gneiss, 242 ; age of chestnut
and oak trees, 357; ; the genus Arau-
earia, 417; influence of forests on
climate, 448.

Bower of the satin bird, 102.

Bradwell, its antiquities, 152.

Brief history of a river tank, 38.

British oceanic entomostraca, 18.

Browning’s spectroscope burner, 82.

Building in Chester, 152.

Bunsen battery improved, 238.

CmsiuM, the new metal, 80.

Calanide, 19.

Calanus Clausii, 25.

Calanus anglicus, 25.

Calcareous skeleton or shell of Eozoon,
291.

Caloric engine, 238.

Cambrian strata, 281.

Canadian naturalist and geologist, 388.

Capacity of animals for domestication,
393.

Capillary attraction, application of, 476.

Caravan of Hadjis, 251.

Cellular physiology, 199.

Cementation, new method of, 318.

Cetochilus septentrionalis, 24.

Chalk districts of England, 315.

Chemical and physical constitution of
the stars and nebule, 396.

Chemical Society, 234.

CHEMISTRY.—Retarded ebullition, 28 ;
uric acid and its derivatives, 108 ;
mode of determining atomic weights,
157 ; physiological effects of carbonic
acid, 157; action of silicate of soda
on cotton, 234; dissociation of sul-
phurous acid, 240; diffusion of ery-
stallized substances through the body,
241; modified sulphur, 241; action
of sea-water on metals, 313; com-

Index.

position of nitrogen, 320; solution of
aniline colours, 321; chemical con-
stitution of stars and nebule, 396;
waterproofing by paraffine, 399 ; pre-
servation of iron by phosphorus, 400 ;
liquefied hydrochloric acid gas, 478 ;
new constant battery, 475; purifica-
tion by electricity, 476 ; reproduction
of drawings by action of mercury on
a silvered plate, 476; erasine, 477 ;
properties of nitric acid, 480.

Chester, its antiquities, 152.

Chestnut tree, age of, 357, 358.

Chilian pines, 417.

Chilukweyuk river, North American
scenery of, 111.

Chloride of silver applied to photo-
graphy, 400.

Chloride of aluminium, 80.

Chromatium found near Highgate Arch-
way, 99.

Cladocera, 19.

Climate, how influenced by forests, 448.

Climate on the Nile, 10.

Clock, simple, 236.

Clovelly, scenes and characteristics of,
437.

Coffee, use of, in cretinism, 402.

Colours of Cor Caroli, 398.

Colour of the stars, 274, 467.

Colours seen clearly at a distance, Bae.

Comet, Biela’s, 81.

Commercial habits of Hadjis, 250.

Conscription in Egypt, 326.

Constant battery, 475.

Construction of a reflecting telescope,
368.

Convent dwelling Dervishes, 247.

Copepoda, 19.

Copying crystals, new method, 144.

Cor Caroli, colours of, 398.

Cornea of the insect eye, objects viewed
through the, 356.

Coryezeus anglicus, 24.

Cosmogony, or principles of terrestrial

_ physics, 227.

Cost of living in Sweden, 306.

Cottages in Egypt, 327.

Cotton seed oil, 80.

Crannoges, or lake habitations, 311.

Crisian sea, light streaks in the, 322.

Cristatella mucedo, 83.

Crocodiles in the Nile, 7.

Crystals, microscopic, 108.

Crystal patterns on glass and porcelain,

Crystals, resemblance of, to lower —
forms of vegetable life, 109.

DactYiopts tisboides, stromii, etc., 22.
Dancing Dervishes, 245.

Index.

Danish antiquities at Newhaven, 233.

Dark part of Venus’ disc, 401.

Daws at the Tower, 172.

Deaf mutes, language of, 452.

Dervishes and Hadjis, 243.

Development of the Pycnogons, 191.

Development of the wings of butterflies
and moths, 235.

Devonshire superstitions, 443.

Diabetes, production of, by cold, 161.

Dialyte telescope, 180.

Dias longiremis, 25.

Dictionary of science, literature, and
art, 385.

Different sects of Dervishes, 244.

Diffraction experiments, 122, 242.

Diffraction kaleidoscope, 127.

Diffusion of crystallized substances
through the body, 241.

Direct vision spectroscopes, 444.

Discoveries of Henry Hudson, 331.

Dissociation of sulphurous acid, 240.

Diving apparatus, respiratory, 79.

Dog as a culprit, 105.

Dogs, antipathies of, 82.

Dogs of Egypt, 328.

Double-spurred partridge, 226.

Double stars, in Orion, 84 P.V., 67
P.V., = 700, = 758, 3757, n, 138;
in Gemini, 5, 38, 189.

Double stars, dividing, 480.

Draper’s telescope, 368.

Duke of Northumberland’s antiquarian
researches, 153.

Durobrive, ancient potteries at, 456.

HaRTHQUAKE at Florence, 82.

Ecclesiastical arrangements of Sweden,
306.

Economic value of food for soldiers,
314,

Egyptian village life, 323.

Electricity employed in purifying fat,
475. ‘

Electric light adapted to use in mines,
14 :

Electric light, invisible radiation, 161.

Electrifying machine, new kind, 144.

Electro magnet, 82.

Electro-magnetic locomotive, 77.

Electro magnetism, use of non-insulated
wire, 143.

Electro magnetism, 148.

Electrotypes, new mode of preparing,
476.

Enemies of the pink monads, 161.

English Channel, geology of, 473.

EntomoLogy. — Lepidoptera feeding
on ferns, 178 ; development of insect
wings, 235 ; insect metallurgists, 241 ;

occurrence of insects in snow, 314; | —

485:

construction of insect eye, 356; voices
of insects, 413.

Entozootie malady, 229. .

Eozoon Canadense the earliest form of
animal life, 286.

Erasine, 477.

Errors of geology, 151.

Esculent agarics, 45.

Erunontogy.— Hairy men of Yesso,
73; Dervishes and Hadjis, 243;
hystero-demonopathy in Savoy, 374;
African or Occidental negro, 393;
gesture language and word language,
451.

Ethnological Society, 393.

Eudyptes papua, 406.

Evadne poly phemoides and Nordmanni,
21.

Evening in Egypt, 323.

Excavations at Bradwell, 152.

Excavations at Silchester, 71.

Exhibition of pictures at the Royal
Academy, 359.

Experiments of Professor Dufour, 28.

Experimental proof of the identity of
heat and light, 321.

Fatsz feet, or egg carriers of the Pyeno-
gons, 192.

Fat purified by electricity, 476.

Fern spores, germination, 32.

Ferns of Clovelly, 439.

Fertility of Egypt, 326.

Field Clubs, naturalists’, 204.

Fire ball seen at Athens, 214.

Fire balls in England, 214.

Fire, preservation of life from, 147.

-Fissiparous reproduction observed in

Anthea cereus, 151.
Fluid lenses, 183.
Flounder, obliquity of, 479.

‘Flowing of ice and other solids under

great pressure, 240.
Forms of uric acid crystals, 108.
Fossils of Wiudmill Hill, Gibraltar, 234,
Food for gold fish, 42.
Forests, influence of, on climate, 448.
Fossil remains of bears, 435.
Fossil Equisetum in gneiss, 242.
Fossils, number of species, 280.
Functional diseases of the stomach, 229.
Fungi, notes on, 45, 163, 349.
Fungi that may be eaten, 164.

Gas engines, 146.

Gaseous ammonia to propel omnibuses,
etc., 148. ;

Geological character
Region, 339.

Geological discoveries of Sir William
Logan, 283. .

of the Polar

486

Geological position of Eozoon, 278.
Geology and history, 388.
Grotoey.—Fossils of Gibraltar, 234;
fossil Hquisetum in gneiss, 242; his-
tory of Hozoon Canadense, 278; chalk
districts of England, 315 ; formation
of English Channel, 473 ; Weald and
Medway deposits, 474.
Germination of fern spores, 32.
_ Gesture language, 451.
Gesture language used by savages, 455.
Glanis, a nest-making fish, 261.
Glaucidium gnoma, 409.
Gneiss, fossil Mquisetum in, 242.
Gold currency in India, 252.
Gold fish in tanks, 42.
Grey partridge, 223.

Hapsirs of infusoria, 119.

Habits of the Ou-ka-la, 116.

Hadji pilgrims, 248.

Hail storm, great, 481.

Harmonious maxims of science and
religien, 149.

Harpacticus chelifer, 23.

Harpactidee, 19.

Hassars, nest-making fish, 262.

Heat and light, experimental proof of
the identity of, 321.

Heat, application of, in mining, 477.

Heut considered as a mode of motion,
229.

Hersilia apodiformis, 23.

Himalaya Mountain, bears of, 429.

Homes without Hands, 227, 389.

How to use the barometer, 389.

Huggins on the Orion Nebula, 161.

Human voice, compass of, 415.

Huronian strata, 281.

Hybrids, vegetablé, and their progeny,
11

Hydrochloric acid gas, 478.
Hygrometer, 402. .
Hystero-demonopathy in Savoy, 374.

IcHTHYOPHORBA denticornis, hamata,
etc., 91, 26.

Infusoria, natural history of, 118.

Insect metallurgists, 241.

Instinct of birds, 221.

Intere:ting discovery made at North-
wich, 72.

Inventive drawing, 149. :

Invisible radiation of electric light, 161.

Iron, new mode of preserving, 399.

JACKASS penguin, 405.
Jaquard loom, improvement of, 239.

Kaxeroscorz, the diffraction, 127.
Kane’s, Dr., expedition, 336.

Index.

Kew Observatory meteorological obser- |
vations, 58.

Kilns of the Roman potteries, 458.

King parrot, 108.

King penguin, history of, 408.

Lacus Somniorum, 52.

Langton Wold, tumulus at, 472.

Language expressed by gestures and
words, 451.

Latitudes attained by Dutch whalers,
359.

Lead mine at Shelve Hill, 471.

Leg of the ostrich, 320.

Le Monnier, 53.

Lepidoptera feeding on ferns, 178.

Lepiota, fungi with universal veil, 165.

Lieberkuhn, new, 482.

Life conditions in other worlds, 87, 197.

Light streaks in the Crisian sea, 322.

Lime light, 147.

Lines of dislocation in the sun, 273.

Liquefied gases, 473.

Literary notices, 227.

Lithic acid, process of obtaining uri¢
or, 108.

London birds, 167.

Lucifer matches, 145.

Lunar Arctic Region, 49.

Lunar Taurus and Argseus, occultations,
255.

Lyre bird, Australian, 14.

Maenustum light applied to medicine,
239.

Magnesium wire, 148.

Magnet, electro, 82.

Magnetism, new source of, 477.

Man considered socially and morally,
388.

Manchester Philosophical Society, 285.

Mare Frigoris, 49.

Marine tanks, 45.

Mars, its atmosphere, 88.

Mars, Professor Phillips on, 162.

Mendicant Dervishes, 246.

Metallic coating, so as to produce a
white surface, 145.

Meteoric astronomy, 208.

Meteorites, 217.

Meteorological observations made at
Kew Observatory, 58.

Meteor observed at sea, 159.

Meteors, 209.

Microscopy. — Popular microscope,
65; cells for mounting objects, 825
Cristatella mucedo, 83; transmitted
illumination and structure of diatom ©
valve, 93; pink monads, 95; micro-
scopic erystals, 108; animaleules in
winter, 118; development of pyeno-

Index.

gons, 191; aids to microscopic in-
quiry, 198; microscope lamp, 242;
KozoonCanadense, 278; objects viewed
through cornea of insect eye, 356.

Microscope and spectroscope combined,
322.

Microscope cabinets, 480.

Microscope, choice of, 388.

Microscope lamp, 242.

Microscope, popular, 65.

Microscopie crystals, uric acid, and its
derivatives, 108.

Microscopie inquiry, aids to, 198.

Mimicking powers of the lyre bird, 15.

Miners’ candles, 471.

Mode of rendering wood plastic, 318.

Modified sulphur, 241.

Monad group, 95.

Monochromatic light, 404.

Monstrilla anglica, 24.

Moon, age at which it can be seen, 240.

Mount Etna, visit to, 357.

Mounting microscopic objects, 82.

Mount Taurus, 49.

Murexide crystals, 109.

Musical clock of St. Germain Auxer-
rois, at Paris, 76.

Musical frogs, 479.

Mushrooms, 46, 163.

Musk ox in iow latitudes, 474.

NaturaL History (InctupIne Zoo-
to@y).—Australian lyre bird, 14;
British oceanic entomostraca, 18 ;
history of a river tank, 38; wander-
ing polyzoon, 83; pink monads, 95 ;

, Australian satin bird, 102; dog asa
culprit, 105: rodents of North-west
America, 111 ; animalcules in winter,
118; fissiparous reproduction of
Anthea cereus, 154; London birds,
167 ; instinct of birds, 221; partridges
of Bengal, 223; sticklebacks and
other nest-making fish,-259 ; Eozoon
Canadense, 278 ; introduction of pen-
guin, 313, 321, 403; leg of ostrich,
320; on the capacity of animals for
domestication, 393; axolotls, 402;
pigmy owl, 409; brown and black
bears of Himalaya, 429; former oc-
eurrence of musk ox in low latitudes,

474; musical frogs, 479; obliquity
of the flounder, 479.
Naturatists’ field clubs: their work

and ways of doing it, 204,
Nature of sun spots, 161.
Nature of yeast, 321.
Naval enterprise of Great Britain, 330.
Navicule, winter animalcules, 119.
Nebula, 186. .

Nest of the lyre bird, 16.

487

New moon, when first seen, 480.

New passage across the Isthmus of
Panama, 394.

Nightingales, 174,

Nile as a sanatorium, 4.

Nile boats. 5.

Nitric acid, properties of, 481.

Nitrogen, supposed composition of, 320.

Non-insulated wire for electro magnet-
ism, 143.

North Polar exploration, 329.

Notes on fungi, 45, 163, 349.

' Notice to readers, 1

Novel use of water pressure, 143.
Nymphons, 194.

OBJECTS of modern make among anti-
quities, 232.

Object trap for microscope, 482.

Objects viewed throngh the cornea of
the insect eye, 356.

Occultations, 49, 142, 190, 258.

Occurrence of insects in snow, 314.

Old City, its highways and byeways,
229.

Opthalmoscope simplified, 242.

Optical deception, 138.

Orionis, double star, 140.

Orion nebula, Bond’s discovery in the,
241.

Orion nebula, Mr. Huggins on, 161.

Ostrich, the leg of the, 320.

Outlines of meteoric astronomy, 208.

Ou-ka-la, North American rodent, 114,

Owls, species of, 409.

Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin Mes-
senger of Mathematics, 388.

PANAMA, new passage of, 394.

Parry’s, Sir Edward, expedition, 335.

Partridges of Bengal, 223.

Pauper, Thief, and Convict, 227.

Peltidium purpureum, 23.

Penguin at Zoological Gardens, 321.

Penguins, history of, 403.

Penguin, introduction of a living, 313.

Periodical meteors, 212.

Phenomenon of ebullition, 31.

Philosophy of religion, 149.

Phosphorescence of the sea, 321.

Photographic enamelling, 236.

Photographic engraving, 476.

Photographs, mode of softening, 239.

Photography adapted to wood engrav-

- ing, 235.

Photography, new spplication of chlo-
ride of silver, 400.

Photography, new lens for, 478.

Phycis, a nest-making fish, 261 .

| Physiological effects “of carbonic acid,

157.

A88 Index.

Pigeons in the City, 168.

Pigeons of Egypt, 328.

Pigmy owl, 409.

Pink monads and their enemies, 95.

Planetary nebula, 141.

Plants, respiration of, 480.

Plastic wood, 318.

Pointing of needles and pins by elec-
tricity, 78.

Polar pack, length and width of, 342.

Pontella brevicornis, 27.

Pontella Wollastoni, 27.

Pontellidz, 19.

Popular microscope, 65.

Posidonius, 49, 54.

Potteries of the Romans in Britain, 456.

Practical chemistry, 388.

Preserving iron, 399.

Preserving specimens of fungi, 48.

Principle of heat, or “ Phlogiston,” 208.

Probable inhabitants of the Polar
Regions, 338.

Progress of invention, 75, 142, 235,
318, 399.

Properties of muscular tissue, 242.

Public Schools, calendar for 1865, 228.

Pump, simplification of, 78.

Pycnogons, development of, 191.

Rattway over Mont Cenis, 142.

Rain, distribution of, over the British
Isles during 1864, 387.

Respiratory diving apparatus, 79

Results of meteorological observations
made at Kew Observatory, 264.

Resuscitation of snails, 321.

Retarded ebullition, boiler explosions,
28.”

River life on the Nile, 5.

River tank, brief history of, 38.

Rivers, how influenced by forests, 449.

Rhizopods, winter animalcules, 120.

Rock cut sepulchres, 6.

Rodents found in North-West America,
111.

Roman buildings in the Isle of Wight,
230.

Roman potteries, 456.

Roman remains at Andoversford, 392.

Roman remains at Winchester and
Bishopstoke, 392.

Roman remains at Wetton, 391.

Roman settlement at Southfleet, 71.

Roman tiles at Berkeley, 312...

Roman villa in the Isle of Wight, 233.

Roman walled station at Larcay, 152.

Romer, a lunar ring mountain, 52.

Rooks in the City, 171.

Russian explorations, 334.

Satin or shining bower bird, 102.

Sea, phosphorescence of, 481.

Sea and river-side rambles in Victoria,

387.
Secchi and Herschel on the “ willow
leaves” in the sun, 402.
Secchi and Faye on the sun, observa-
tions by Chacornac, 272.
Self-acting apparatus for steering, 236.
Self-registering thermometer, 319.
Serpentine marble of Tyree, 297.
Shelve Hill, lead mine at, 471.
Shooting stars, 211.
Sidereal chromatics, 276, 468.
Signs used by deaf and dumb persons,
453.
Silicate of soda, action of, on cotton, 234.
Siliceous valve of the Diatomaces, 93.
Silurian system, 279.
Siluride, nest-making fish, 261.
Silvering mirrors, 239.

Simple clock, 236.

Simple forms of life, 198.

Simple vegetable forms, 202.
Simplified opthalmoscope, 242.
Simplified pump, 237.

Sirius, apparent diameter of, $1.
Spectroscope and microscope, 482.

Skull of the ou-ka-la, an American Ro- —

dent, 114.

Smith Sound route to the Pole, 344. -

Snails, resuscitation of, 321.

Softening photographs, 239.

Solar observations, 138.

Solar disc, dark bodies on, 482.

Soldiers, economic value of food for,
314.

Sounds we canot hear, 413.

Source of theine, 402.

Sparrows in the City, 169.

Spectroscopes for direct vision, 444.

Species of fungi, 47.

Spheniscus demersus, 405.

Spectroscopes, new, 401.

Spectroscope burner, 82.

Spectroscope and microscope combined,
322.

Spontaneous generation, 482.

Spontaneous generation, report on, 241

Spots on the sun, 270, 272.

Spotted bower bird, 103.

Star colours, 274.

Stars and nebule, constitution of, 396.

Star-fishes, to preserve, 480.

Starlings, 174.

Statoblasts, winter eggs of polyzoon, 84.

Steam and air engine, 80.

Steel railway plates, 478.

Stereoscopic maps of mountainous
countries, .235.

Sticklebacks aud other nest-making
fish, 259.

t
ml it |! di ee ae

Index.

Stocking a river tank, 44.

Stoke Newington birds, 172.

Stomachless animals, 96.

Stony corals, 288.

Stool for astronomers and artists, 160.

Strabo and Thales, 49.

Structure, affinities, and geological posi-
tion of Eozoon Canadeuse, 278.

Structure of the siliceous diatom valve,
93.

Suez canal, 162.

Sulphur modified, 241.

Sun, action of Venus on the, 240.

Sun observations by Chacornae, 272.

Sun observations by Secchi and Faye,270.

Sunset on the Nile, 8.

Sun-spots, nature of, 161.

Supposed composition of nitrogen, 320.

Swallows, 175.

Swan animalcules, 121.

Sweden, Ten Yearsin, 302.

Swedish labourers and servants, 305.

Swedish paupers, 305,

Swedish peasants, 305.

Syphon, new applications of, 399.

TacHIDIvs brevicornis, an Entomostra-
can of the Wear, 21.

Telescope, Dr. Draper’s, 368.

Telescope, Mr. Lassell’s, 131.

Telegraph wires, 80.

Tellurium, 80.

Temora Finmarchica, 26.

Temora velox, 26.

Temperature and currents of the seas
between England and India, 395.

Temperature and development, 160.

Temperature indicated by reflection of
light, 479.

Temperature of the Pole, 341.

Temperature, regulation of, by means of
a self-acting thermometer, 238.

Temporary star of 1572, 133.

Ten Years in Sweden, 302.

Thalestris longimana, 23.

Thebes and its antiquities, 8.

Thermometer, self-acting, regulation of
temperature by means of, 238.

Thermo electric pile, improved, 145.

Thermo-electrics, 320.

Thunder-bolts, 210.

489

Tisbe furcata, 22.

Towing net, 18.

Transactions of field clubs, 206.

Transit boats on the Nile, 5.

Transmitted illumination in connection
with the structure of the siliceous
diatom vaive, 93.

Treasure trove, 307.

Trees of Sweden, 303.

Twilight, 135.

Two Months in a London Hospital, 150.

Uric acid and its derivative, 108.

Ursus arctus, Tibetants, ete., 429.

Utilization of South American beef,
319.

Vacuum produced by ammonia, 237.
Vegetable hybrids and their progeny, 11.
Venus’ disc, dark part of, 401.
Vibrations of sound, 414.

Vitruvius, 255.

Voices of insects, 413.

Vorticellians, winter animalcules, 120.

WANDERING polyzoon, 83.

Water power, 80.

Water pressure, novel use of, 143.

Waterproofing by means of paraffine,
399.

Weald, geology of, 474.

Westwoodia nobilis, 22.

White-spored agarics, 349.

White-spored mushrooms—the Ring-
bearers, 163.

“Willow leaves” in the sun, 402.

Wind, mean velocity of, in the different
months of 1864, 64.

Wines, preservation of, 481.

Winter in Sweden, 303.

Wood partridge, or Bengal chickoor,
224,

Wool, new mode of whitening, 476.

Woolly-bears, 178.

Word language, 451.

Wrens, 173.

YEAST, nature of, 321.
Year on the Sea-shore, 386.

ZAUS ovalis, spinosus, etc., 24,
Zoophytes, 193.

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