144- 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



aimed for. Besides geographical work, ex- 

 tensive meteorological observations should 

 be carried on, all possible data collected, and 

 the topographical outfit should not be for- 

 gotten. 



M. Charles Dufour has found, from ob- 

 servations of the variations of refraction on 

 the Lake of Geneva, that when the air is 

 colder than the water the refracted ray is 

 turned from the perpendicular, and that fine 

 mirages like those of the desert are present- 

 ed ; while, when the water is colder than the 

 air, the refraction is toward the perpendicu- 

 lar, and objects may be seen which are usu- 

 ally concealed by the roundness of the earth. 

 Hence the horizon is usually depressed be- 

 low the average in winter, and less so in 

 summer. The author suggests that such 

 variations may sometimes lead to errors in 

 observations made at sea. 



NOTES. 



At a ferry across the Yarkand River, 

 which was crossed by Captain H. Bower dur- 

 ing a trip to Turkestan, no rafts are kept ready, 

 bat when wanted they are made by the 

 villagers from inflated skins and poplar poles. 

 This raft is tied by a rope to a horse's tail ; 

 the horse is then driven into the water and 

 guided by a man strapped to an inflated 

 skin who swims alongside. " How our things 

 got safely over," says Captain Bower, " has 

 been a puzzle to me ever since. The raft 

 was of the craziest description, and swayed 

 about in the current, threatening to capsize 

 every minute. All our things got wet, but 

 no disaster happened, and nothing was miss- 

 ing when an inspection of our baggage was 

 made in the evening.'' 



A SATISFACTORY pavcmcnt has been made 

 at Chino, Cal., with the refuse molasses of a 

 sugar factory there. The molasses is mixed 

 with sand to about the consistence of asphalt, 

 and is laid on like an asphalt pavement. 

 The composition dries quickly and becomes 

 permanently hard, the heat of the sun only 

 making it harder. 



Having added to its collections during 

 the past year specimens of the ev, yagu- 

 anmdi, the fishing cat of India, and the Ben- 

 galesecat, the Zoological Society of Philadel- 

 phia has now thirteen species of the cat 

 family iu its gardens, 



Mr. James Constantine Pilling, bibli- 

 ographer of the Bureau of American Ethnol- 

 ogy, who died July 26th, made the study of 

 the languages and literature of the North 

 American Indians his life-work. Soon after 

 becoming connected with the Geological and 

 Geographical Surveys, under Major Powell, 



in 1875, he made himself very useful in 

 collecting the vocabularies, myths, and le- 

 gends of the tribes, and in the study and de- 

 scriptions of their ceiemonials. He retired 

 from the survey in 1891, on account of fail- 

 ing health, and devoted himself to the study 

 of the bibliography of American languages. 

 He had published, at the time of his death, 

 nine parts of his work on this subject, relating 

 to as many languages or families of languages 

 a work which can not fail to be of gi-eat 

 value to future students. 



Prop. Charles V. Riley, late chief of 

 the Bureau of Entomology, died in Washing- 

 ton, September 14th, from injuries received 

 while riding a bicycle. He was born in Lon- 

 don in 1843, studied in France and Germany, 

 came to the United States in 1860, and set- 

 tled on a farm. He was afterward engaged 

 in editorial work ; served in the army during 

 the last year of the civil war ; and was ap- 

 pointed State Entomologist of Missouri in 

 1868. In 1877 he was made chief of the 

 United States Entomological Expedition sent 

 to investigate the Rocky Mountain locust. 

 Later he was placed in charge of the en- 

 tomological division of the Bureau of Agri- 

 culture. He was a prolific writer, chiefly of 

 entomological monographs. He received a 

 gold medal from the French Government for 

 his investigation of the phylloxera, and a 

 medal from the International Forestry Ex- 

 hibition at Edinburgh. 



M. H. Baillon, the French botanist, who 

 died July 19th, was the author of a Botanical 

 Dictionary, and a History of Plants, which 

 have become standard works in their own 

 country. While he was not a member of 

 the Academy of Sciences, he had been elected 

 to the Royal Society. 



One hundred and thirty-eight dollars 

 have been contributed at Princeton Uni- 

 versity, through Prof. J. Mark Baldwin, to- 

 ward the memorial to Prof. Helmholtz. 



The death is announced of Dr. Hoppe 

 Seyler, for many years a professor in the 

 University of Tiibingen, and, since 1852, 

 Professor of Physiological and Pathological 

 Chemistry in the University of Strasburg. 

 He was born in 1825. 



Prof. Louis Pasteur, the world-famous 

 investigator of germ diseases and on those 

 of the extended application of the system of 

 inoculation as a remedy and preventive, died 

 at his home near St. Cloud, France, Septem- 

 ber 2Sth. He had been in a low condition 

 for some time as a result of the increasing 

 paralysis with which he had been afflicted, 

 but became suddenly worse on Friday even- 

 ing, the 27th, and suffered much from fre- 

 quent spasms until a few hours before his 

 death, when he became unconscious. A bio- 

 graphical sketch of M. Pasteur was given, 

 with a portrait, in The Popular Science 

 Monthly for March, 1882 (vol. xx, p. 883). 



