NOTES. 



383 



But the facts appear to show that, in the 

 uniformly warm climate of the tropics, rings 

 are formed as regularly as in our own lati- 

 tudes. True, in the tropics there are semi- 

 annual changes from wet to dry, and from 

 dry to wet, dependent on the earth's axial 

 inclination; but, as the author remarks, 

 even when there is absolutely no variation, 

 the rings are formed. For instance, man- 

 groves, growing on the muddy margins of 

 tropical rivers, having from year's end to 

 year's end uniform temperature and moist- 

 ure, present clearly-defined rings of growth. 

 Then the Cycads require several years to 

 form one ring. The author's conclusion is, 

 that " these circles have their origin in 

 cycles of activity and repose, implanted in 

 the constitution of the plant, which would j 

 continue to manifest themselves although 

 there were no climatic variations. It is 

 true," he adds, " that where seasonal varia- 

 tions exist, the successive stages of activity 

 and rest are for obvious reasons synchro- 

 nous with them, but they are not absolute- 

 ly dependent on them. . . . The existence, 

 therefore, of these markings in the ancient 

 flora gives no information as to the exist- 

 ence at that time of seasons, and, so far as 

 they are concerned, we are left free to adopt 

 any conclusion as to the inclination of the 

 earth's axis which may appear to us most 

 reasonable." 



Preservation of Wood under Water. 



The effects of long-continued submergence 

 in water on oak-wood are remarkable, and 

 several instances are cited in the "Annales 

 des Ponts et Chaussees," by M. Charrie-Mar- 

 saines, of oak being transformed so as very 

 closely to resemble ebony. Thus, some 

 pieces of oak taken in 1830 from an old 

 bridge at Rouen, which had stood about 700 

 years, were found to resemble ebony, the 

 modification being clue to the presence of 

 peroxide of iron. M. Charrie-Marsaines him- 

 self having occasion, in constructing a dis- 

 charge-sluice on the Rhine, to demolish an 

 old military dam constructed in 1681 by Vau- 

 ban, and based on a platform of oak, found 

 this wood to have a dark color quite like that 

 of ebony, and very great hardness, as was 

 found on trying to cut it for use in the new 

 works. The wood had then been 146 years 

 in a soil constantly soaked by water, owing 



to the permeability of the layer of gravel 

 here forming the bed of the Rhine. 



NOTES. 



In the gas-works at Rahway, New Jer- 

 sey, a simple and ingenious method of up- 

 ward filtration through coke and "breeze" 

 is in use for removing from the waste re- 

 siduum the injurious products which other- 

 wise would pollute the streams into which 

 the waste might flow. This method is fully 

 described, with accompanying sketch, by 

 Mr. J. R. Shotwell in a letter to Prof. Spen- 

 cer F. Baird, Fish Commissioner. Mr. Shot- 

 well's communication is published in full in 

 the Gas-Light Journal. 



General F. 0. Cotton remarked, at the 

 " Domestic Economy Congress," upon the 

 mental inactivity of the army and navy, 

 officers and men, in foreign parts. It was 

 remarkable, he said, how little additional 

 knowledge was brought home by these 

 bodies from their visits to foreign coun- 

 tries. The speaker pictured "men sitting 

 with their bands before them, or, what was 

 worse, drinking brandy-and-water, who, if 

 they had a slight knowledge of science 

 given them at school, would have taken 

 up some branch, and brought back valua- 

 ble knowledge, instead of dyspepsia and 

 discomfort." 



Died, on Lake Titicaca, Peru, toward 

 the end of September, James Orton, late 

 Professor of Natural History in Vassar Col- 

 lege. The deceased was born in 1830, 

 graduated from Williams College in 1855, 

 and a few years later became a Congrega- 

 tional minister. He was an instructor in 

 natural sciences in Rochester University in 

 1866, and in 1869 went to Vassar College. 

 He thrice visited South America for the 

 purpose of studying its natural history. 

 First, in 1867, he led an expedition from 

 Williams College across the continent by 

 Quito, the Napo, and the Amazon. Again, 

 in 1873, he made a journey across South 

 America from Para up the Amazon to Lima 

 and Lake Titicaca. He once more returned 

 to the same fields of exploration last year. 

 He was the author of several works, the 

 best known being " The Andes and the 

 Amazon" (1870), and "Comparative Zo- 

 ology" (1875). 



Mr. Thomas Barrett, mate of the Ameri- 

 can whaling-bark A. Houghton, has arrived 

 in New York, bearing with him a silver 

 spoon with the arms of Sir John Franklin, 

 which he obtained from an Esquimau at 

 Whale Point, Hudson's Bay. From apartyof 

 Esquimaux, who camped during the winter 

 of IS 76-7 7 near the winter quarters of the A. 



