126 



HARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



He states that it is well known to settlers on the 

 virgin soil of the United States that no earth-worms 

 are found on the first tillage of the ground, not even 

 in natural meadows ; that they are first found in the 

 vicinity of the stable yard, then in soil enriched by 

 stable manure, from which they spread out to all the 

 soils around whether cultivated or native. It appears 

 that Dr. Walker pays little regard to the red men, 

 or other earlier aboriginal specimens of humanity 

 when he says that until a place has been inhabited 

 for five years by man it is useless to look for the 

 earth-worm. 



More evidence is demanded to render this broad 

 generalisation worthy of acceptance. If the facts are 

 confirmed as regards America, they rather indicate 

 that the earth-worm is an importation from the Old 

 World, than the companion of man as described by 

 Dr. Walker. Many generations of man have lived 

 and died on most of those parts of the American 

 continent that are now covered with so-called " virgin 

 soil," and some of these people have kept horses. 



Possibly some of our readers may be able to supply 

 facts of their own observation in support or refutation 

 of the generality of Dr. Walker's observations : — Are 

 these earth-worms in the virgin soils of Australia ? 



Mr. Griffin W. Vyse, in his paper on "Routes 

 through Afghanistan," read before the Indian section 

 of the Society of Arts on 28th March, supplies a 

 curious illustration of newspaper geography. As 

 he says, "it seems hardly credible that one of our 

 leading journals should have stated, only a few 

 weeks ago, that there are only two passes from 

 Afghanistan into India," the fact being that we now 

 know of 289 routes. Between the Khyber and 

 Bolan passes, "lie all those celebrated routes dis- 

 tinguished as being about the oldest highways in the 

 •world, traversed for thousands of years by the count- 

 less generations of early traders," especially when 

 Babylon was at the height of its glory, and the riches 

 of India were transmitted to the great Emporium of 

 the west. Mr. Vyse describes these routes in detail, 

 showing what they have been, and may be again, and 

 refuting the] newspaper descriptions of Afghanistan 

 as a land of rocks and stones. Instead of this, he 

 describes it as a land that "still remains full of 

 hidden riches, and of mineral wealth imtold." He 

 affirms that "the natural elements of its ancient 

 beauty and life still exist in the marvellous fertility of 

 its soil, and in the manliness of character of some of 

 the people, and expresses his opinion that ' ' the day 

 cannot be far distant when this province will again 

 become one of the most prosperous in the East." 

 Kandahar was once the capital of Central Asia, is 

 3000 years old, was named after Alexander the Great 

 who visited it, Ishkandahar, Alickjalandar, Kandahar. 

 Our little earthquake of April 22nd is evidently 

 doing something towards the extension of popular 

 scientific education, as well as demonstrating the 

 demand for its extension. The favourite popular 



the;ory seems to be that the earth was visited by an 

 electric shock ; this is quite in accordance with the 

 general practice of ascribing everything that is mys- 

 terious to " electrical influence." We heard a learned 

 shopkeeper in Holborn describe the exact path of the 

 shock from the corner of Fetter Lane, across the 

 road, striking some houses and omitting others, 

 affecting only the second floor in one case without at 

 all shaking the upper and lower parts of the house. 

 He had investigated the subject by careful inquiry, 

 and his conclusions were based on the fact that it 

 was felt in some places and not in others. That the 

 possibility of feeling such a tremor depended upon 

 the quiescence at the moment of the person^questioned 

 did not occur to this investigator. Mr. C. E. de 

 Ranee's observations on the effect of the earthquake 

 on the supply of underground waters in the regions 

 affected are of a very different character, and, like all 

 that he has to tell us on this subject of underground 

 waters, are very interesting. They are communicated 

 in a letter to " Nature " of May 8th, from which we 

 may conclude that he is making further investigations 

 in this direction. So far, the general effect has been 

 to increase the supplies, by opening or widening of 

 fissures in the rocks that obstruct the rising or free 

 movement of the water in question. 



The .red glows are not so brilliant as they were, 

 but they persist to a degree that must be very puzzling 

 to those who were satisfied with the Krakatoa theory. 

 The subsidence of the dust must be slow indeed if 

 they are to continue not only through all the winter, 

 with its snows and rain, but all the spring, and into 

 the coming summer. The English sunset display on 

 Easter Sunday was nearly equal to the most brilliant 

 of its predecessors of the previous autumn. 



A CHAPTER ON MARINE DENUDATION. 

 By C. H. Octavius Curtis. 



MY object in writing this paper is not to 

 propound any new theory of denudation, 

 nor is it my intention to enter into a discussion on 

 the relative extent of subaerial or marine denudation, 

 but simply to call attention to a large field of research 

 in Dynamical Geology, open to all geological 

 students, and which does not require any expensive 

 apparatus for its solution. 



All readers of Lyell's great work must have felt 

 a little astonishment when, for the first time, they 

 perused his chapters on the Denuding Action of the 

 Sea (ch. xx. and xxi.), for although, having no doubt 

 noticed in their seaside excursions, the effect produced 

 by the tremendous force with which the waves break 

 on the shore, still the fact that our little island is 

 year by year being encroached upon to the extent 

 of hundreds of acres, is at first rather amazing ; but 

 thai such must be the case is evident, when we 



