POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



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contents. Comparative experiments showed 

 that, when bellite was confined, the energy 

 developed on detonation was equal to that 

 of dynamite ; but that when unconfined, 

 bellite apparently did less work. In mine- 

 blasting bellite was proved capable of doing 

 the work of three or four times its weight of 

 gunpowder, without the fumes that rise when 

 dynamite or gunpowder is used. 



Distribation of Rotifera. Of the little 

 animals classified as Rotifera, the most spe- 

 cies have been found in Great Britain not 

 certainly because they are more abundant or 

 varied in England than elsewhere, but be- 

 cause they have been more industriously 

 looked for, and more found there. In late 

 years, two and a half times as many species 

 have been added to the British lists as to 

 those of all other countries put together. 

 There are curiosities in the distribution of 

 these animals. Twenty-four out of the re- 

 corded species in Australia are also British ; 

 and of the remaining species, one has a 

 habitat in the United States. The same 

 phenomena occur, though on a reduced scale, 

 in the United States, Jamaica, and Ceylon. 

 The question arises, How could these minute 

 creatures, which are inhabitants of lakes, 

 ponds, ditches, and sea-shore pools, contrive 

 to spread themselves over the whole earth ? 

 A species which is known only in a small 

 duck-pond in England has also been found 

 at Sydney. Another species has been found 

 almost simultaneously at Sydney and in On- 

 tario. These creatures, " to whom a yard of 

 sea-water is as impassable a barrier as a 

 thousand miles of ocean," could only have 

 reached distant countries in the egg; this 

 they do by the hardy ephippial egg. These 

 eggs fall to the bottom of the water in shal- 

 low pools, or are attached to the confervoid 

 growth on the stones. The pool dries up, is 

 swept by the winds, and the eggs are lifted 

 up and carried away. There is hardly any 

 limit to the distances to which they may be 

 thus taken and yet keep vital. Then, as Dr. 

 C. T. Hudson shows in his paper on this sub- 

 ject, " the eggs, of course, must often fall 

 on unsuitable places, and be carried past 

 suitable ones, and this accounts for the 

 capricious appearance of Rotifera in some 

 well-watched ponds, and for the frequent 

 disappointment of the naturalists who visit 



such spots. To this aerial carriage of the 

 eggs is also due the perplexing fact that 

 when any rare Rotifera is found in one spot, 

 it is frequently found at the same time in 

 closely neighboring ponds and ditches, even 

 in such an unlikely hole as the print of a 

 cow's foot filled with rain, but not at all in 

 more promising place, at some distance off." 

 They may also be distributed by water-birds 

 and dogs. The animals themselves are very 

 hardy against heat and dryness. The Phila- 

 dinadce, when time is given them to don 

 their protective coats, oan bear a heat gradu- 

 ally advancing to 200 Fahr., or a fifty days' 

 exposure to a dryness produced over sul- 

 phuric acid in the receiver of an air-pump. 



The City of the Cat-Goddess. M. Edou- 

 ard Naville recently gave before the Victoria 

 Institute an account of his important dis- 

 coveries at Bubastis, one of the ancient great 

 cities of the Delta of Egypt, and the princi- 

 pal seat of the worship of the cat-goddess, 

 Pasht. The speaker said, at the beginning 

 of his lecture, that it was remarkable that 

 while one of the latest writers on the East 

 had referred to the failure of the prophecies 

 of Ezekiel regarding the cities of Egypt, he 

 had himself found in the same prophecies 

 the light by which he was guided in his 

 search. Bubastis was found to have been a 

 city of much more historical importance than 

 had generally been supposed, the recovered 

 monuments bearing dates all the way down 

 from the fourth (or Pyramid - builders') to 

 the thirtieth, or last Egyptian, dynasty. The 

 most conspicuous relics were of the fourth, 

 sixth, twelfth, shepherds', nineteenth, and 

 twenty-second dynasties. Some very inter- 

 esting relics of the shepherd-kings, hitherto 

 rare except at Tanis, were found ; and from 

 the beauty of their statues, and other evi- 

 dences, the author concludes that they must 

 have been a highly cultivated people, and 

 have come probably from Mesopotamia. 

 Dr. Virchow considered that their monuments 

 represented Turanians, and Prof. Flower 

 that they represented people of a Turanian 

 or Mongolian type. But that did not mean 

 that the population itself was Turanian. 

 Their worship and language were of a She- 

 mitic type, but the statues of their kings 

 showed that they were not Shemites. M. 

 Naville remarked : " It was then what it still 



