HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



117 



less manifestly evident in the mud columns. 

 According to Lyell ("Manual of Elementary 

 Geology ") the number of the angles of columnar 

 basalt, though generally five to seven, may be as 

 many as twelve. He also speaks (p. 487 of the 

 Manual) of the transverse division as being generally, 

 but not universally present.— I. G. Halliday. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Frost Phenomena. — While the article in the 

 January number of Science- Gossip in regard to 

 frost phenomena is interesting, it fails to give a 

 correct idea in regard to it. It may be known to 

 some of your readers that there have been two 

 mountain stations in New Hampshire, where me- 

 teorological observations have been taken. One of 

 the stations, Mount Washington, the height of 

 which is 6,291 feet, is still occupied; the other, 

 Mount Moosilauk, 4,811 feet in height, was occu- 

 pied by me in the winter of 1869-70. It was here 

 that this frost phenomenon was first studied in this 

 country. During almost the entire winter of 

 1870-71, 1 had an opportunity of seeing it on Mount 

 Washington. This form of precipitation has been 

 called "frost-work," " frost-feathers," and " snow- 

 ice." It is difficult to convey in words any idea of 

 its wonderful form and beauty. It is very rarely 

 formed on our mountains except when the wind is 

 at some point between north and west, and only 

 when there are clouds on the mountain. If it was 

 of the nature of hoar frost, it would form when it is 

 clear. It begins with mere points on everything 

 the wind reaches,— on the rocks, on the railway, 

 and on every part of the building, even on the glass. 

 On the south side of buildings and high rocks it is 

 very slight, as the wind reaches here only in eddying 

 gusts. When the surface is rough, the points, as 

 they begin, are an inch or more apart ; when smooth, 

 it almost entirely covers the surface at the very 

 beginning, but soon only a few points elongate, so 

 that on whatever surface it begins to form, it has 

 soon the same general appearance, presenting every- 

 where the same beautiful feathery-like forms. In 

 going up Mount Washington, we do not see the 

 frost-work until we get above the present limit of 

 the trees. It is nearly a mile above before it is seen 

 in its characteristic forms, and it is only about the 

 summit that it presents its most attractive features. 

 On all our mountains north of latitude 43° 50' that 

 are more than 3,500 feet in height, it can be seen 

 extending down to a certain line, and this line ex- 

 tends along the whole mountain-range at the same 

 elevation. The rapidity with which it forms, and 

 the great length of the horizontal masses, are truly 

 wonderful. On the telegraph-poles, near the very 

 summit of the mountain, the horizontal masses are 

 often five or six feet in length, and from near the 

 top of a tall chimney they are sometimes ten feet. 

 On the southern exposures, instead of the frost- 

 work, especially on the telegraph-poles, there are 

 only masses of pure ice, which have always a peculiar 

 line of greenish blue : there is a striking contrast 

 between this and the pure white of the frost- work 

 on the side opposite. When the thermometer 

 rauges from 25° to 30° and the wind is southward, 

 ice forms to the thickness of a foot or more on the 

 telegraph-poles near the summit. These icy masses 

 are formed evidently by the condensation of the 

 vapour of the atmosphere. The frost-work or 



snow-ice is also formed by the condensation of 

 vapour ; butbesides the vapour, the air must be filled 

 with very minute spiculse of ice. As the vapour 

 condenses, these are caught, and thus the horizontal 

 feathery masses are formed. If it was of the nature 

 of hoar frost, it would form when the sky is clear ; 

 but it forms only when there are clouds on the 

 mountains. — J. H. Huntington, Hanover, N. H. 



The Claw in the Lion's Tail. — In Bonomi's 

 "Nineveh andiits Palaces" may be found the fol- 

 lowing curious illustration of the accuracy of the 

 observation of the Ninevite Landseers nearly 3,000 

 years ago. In the British Museum, one of the 

 Nineveh sculptures represents a lion-hunt, and, 

 curiously enough, in the tail of one of the lions 

 crushed under the horses' feet, occurs the claw in 

 the tail. Bonomi says : " The existence of a claw 

 in the tuft at the end of a lion's tail was disputed 

 for ages, but here, in these ancient sculptures, is an 

 exaggerated representation of it in support of this 

 curious fact in natural history. The peculiarity 

 was first recorded by Didymus of Alexandria (an 

 early commentator of the Iliad), who flourished 

 forty years before the Christian era. Whatever 

 may have been the supposed use or intention of this 

 claw, its existence has been placed beyond dispute 

 by Mr. Bennett, who, at one of the meetings of the 

 Zoological Society of London, in 1832, showed a 

 specimen of it, which was taken from a living 

 animal in the society's menagerie." Ancient 

 writers think that the lion lashes his sides with his 

 tail to stimulate himself to rage, and Didymus, who 

 mentions the claw, thinks it was provided for the 

 better purpose of doing so; or is it, as possibly 

 Mr. G. St. Clair, in his " Darwinism and Design," 

 would have added, another illustration of "imper- 

 fect adaptation," in which the claw has been 

 inherited from an ancestor to whom it was of 

 greater use, and in whom_ it was more fully de- 

 veloped, but the reason for its continuance when no 

 longer useful is, " that laws of inheritance are not 

 easily altered." If I might venture to suggest a 

 reason for its existence, it would be that nature has 

 kindly provided the lion with an appendage to its 

 tail more effectually to scratch " the little fleas 

 upon their backs that bite 'em," or perhaps to 

 tickle a fly which was rather too persistently and 

 impertinently sucking the blood of the king of 

 beasts. — Wm. Budden, Ipswich. 



Sudden Disappearance or Plants.— In 1S72 

 a bank in a lane near Rugby contained hundreds of 

 plants of the Little Crucifer (Teeulalia nudicaulis). 

 In 1873 there was not one plant to be seen. In 1874 

 again they began to reappear, and six or seven roots 

 and flowers were observed. Is it likely it was 

 choked by the grass ? Another, though a less 

 marked instance of disappearance I have observed 

 in Cardials Mariamis. This thistle was observed in 

 1870, but after that did not make its appearance at 

 all till September, 1874, when the leaves began to 

 show themselves, and in October a bud appeared. 

 What is the probable cause of this ? It cannot be 

 due in either case to the plants having been over- 

 looked, for the habitats were searched thoroughly 

 by more than one observer. — N. H. S. 



A Carnivorous Hedgehog. — It may interest 

 "E. C. S." and others to know that my experience of 

 hedgehogs has convinced me that they. are carnivo- 

 rous, if not, iudeed, omnivorous animals. Amongst 

 the many hedgehogs 1 kept between the years 

 1866 and 1872, I remember trying on one an expen- 



