NOTES. 



: 55 



except perhaps as it might be supplemented 

 by the shock of an excessive terror ; but 

 that it would be dangerous I think highly 

 probable. As an experiment, I confined 

 two of thern in a small box with a large 

 bat. The next morning the bat was dead, 

 having been killed by them during the night, 

 when it is supposed to be most agile and 

 wary. I placed another unsavory specimen 

 in a large bottle, in company with a large 

 wasp and a tarantula. The vinagrone killed 

 and devoured them both in short order." 



In a later number of the same journal 

 Dr. H. C. Yarrow writes that the vinagrone 

 is quite well known to entomologists under 

 the name of Thelyphonus giganteus, and 

 that it is common in New Mexico and Ari- 

 zona. 



The Scandal of the Seal-Fishery. Unless 

 the governments of the countries which 

 send out ships to the seal-fishery grounds 

 speedily put some restrictions on the meth- 

 od now pursued, there will before long 

 be no seals. In 1868 Dr. Robert Brown 

 expressed his belief that, " supposing the 

 sealing prosecuted with the same vigor as 

 at present, before thirty years shall have 

 passed away the seal-fishery, as a source of 

 commerical revenue, will have come to a 

 close." The Greenland seal-fishery is al- 

 ready "practically used up " and the sealers 

 are now turning their attention to the coast 

 of Newfoundland. A writer in Nature cites 

 the London Daily News, to show what 

 slaughter is made of the Newfoundland 

 seals, and we learn that in one season four 

 vessels secured 89,000 seals. To this add 

 a like number of young ones left to die of 

 starvation, and twenty per cent, as many 

 mortally wounded and lost, and the ag- 

 gregate amounts to over 200,000 seals ! The 

 writer in Nature suggests this subject of 

 the destruction of the seal as a fitting one 

 to occupy the minds of the advocates of 

 the anti-vivisection laws, and the Society 

 for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 



The Building-Stones of St. Lawrence 



Connty, New York. From a statement by 

 Mr. D. Minthorn, published in the Engineer- 

 ing and Mining Journal, it appears that in 

 the northern portion of the State of New 

 York may be found in abundance all the 

 choicest varieties of marbles, granites, and 



other building-stones. Besides the com- 

 mon gray gneiss, he enumerates among the 

 building-stones of St. Lawrence County 

 several varieties, such as syenitic granite, 

 many New England granites, a deep-green 

 granite "mottled like the pedestals of 

 Cheops." Then there are various pink, 

 green, and dark-red porphyritic granites ; 

 and finally there are large masses of very 

 compact gray and green granite, studded 

 with garnets about half an inch apart. The 

 varieties of marbles are very numerous, 

 ranging from white limestone and dolomite 

 and statuary marble to straw-colored, blue, 

 drab, brown, black, yellow, and red vari- 

 egated marbles ; verd-antique also is rep- 

 resented ; indeed, Mr. Minthorn is prepared 

 to match any of the antique marbles with 

 the products of the St. Lawrence County 

 quarries. Adjoining the statuary-marble 

 quarry is a deposit consisting partly of pa- 

 godite or Chinese figure-stone, and possess- 

 ing sufficient hardness to take a polish, 

 while at the same time it does not " chip 

 out " when chiseled in sharp lines. 



NOTES. 



We have received from Conrad Meyer 

 & Sons, of Philadelphia, a correction of the 

 statement made by Mr. S. Austen Pierce, 

 in our October number, that Jonas Chicker- 

 ing in 183Y "conceived the bold idea of 

 constructing a [pianoforte] frame entirely 

 of iron." The Messrs. Meyer now cite the 

 official " report " of the jury of the Franklin 

 Institute Exhibition of 1883, which mentions 

 " an iron-framed square piano " exhibited 

 by Conrad Meyer. Other testimony to the 

 same effect is quoted by the Messrs. Meyer, 

 who appear to make out a clear case of 

 priority of invention. Having admitted this 

 correction, we can afford no more space in 

 the columns of the Monthly for the piano- 

 frame controversy. 



We have received from Mr. E. Berliner, 

 Washington, a circular, with drawings, giv- 

 ing an account of certain of the author's 

 discoveries and inventions in electricity. 

 These are a contact telephone, an electric- 

 spark telephone, and a method of telephonic 

 transfer. 



At New Cumberland, West Virginia, a 

 fountain of natural gas is utilized for manu- 

 facturing fire-brick. This, says the Ameri- 

 can Manufacturer, is the first fire-brick ever 

 burned without wood or coal. Fifty-five 

 thousand bricks are made daily in nine 



