HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



1 1 



tTie Llyn Cwm Orthin has cut a narrow channel in the 

 rock, some fifteen feet deep, I should judge. It then 

 falls about twenty feet down a nearly vertical joint 

 plane. The peculiarity that attracts attention is 

 the extraordinarily small influence the water has had 

 in eating away the surface down which it falls, and the 

 great effect it has had upon its more horizontal bed. 

 This is a characteristic that may be observed else- 

 where, at the Rhiadr Ddu, or Maentwrog falls, for 

 instance. It seems to point to the grinding action 

 of stones, sand, and gravel, as the effective cause in 

 the sawing down of a stream-bed, in hard rock, in a 

 mountain district. These materials propelled along 

 the bed of the stream would be always in contact 

 with the rock, whereas at the fall they would be shot 

 over, often without touching the vertical face. This 

 subject of waterfall denudation, is one that requires 

 exploration. I am not aware of any geologist having 

 specially investigated the subject. 



We have now returned to the point we commenced 

 to ascend, having made a circular tour on Moelwyn. 

 We may return to Ffestiniog by another route, by 

 following the road towards Blaenau. I would 

 recommend two excursions to be made of this, which 

 I have described as one. A drive to Tan-y-Grisiau 

 to commence with, will leave quite enough work to 

 be done on Moelwyn. The geologist will then 

 commence his work fresh, and will experience no 

 difficulty on the return journey in walking back to 

 Ffestiniog. 



(To be continued.) 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The first balloon ascent ever made in our army in 

 presence of the enemy, took place near Suakin on the 

 25th of March. The balloon used was made of gold- 

 beaters' skin, contained 7000 cubic feet of gas, 

 measured 23 feet in diameter, and weighed 90 lbs. 

 It was inflated from compressed reservoirs with gas 

 made at Chatham, and was guided by means of a rope 

 attached to a wagon below. Communication was kept 

 up by means of pieces of paper attached by a loop 

 to a rope. The balloon remained up nine hours, and 

 the results were apparently considered successful. 



We have received a pamphlet by Mr. G. A. 

 Rowell, entitled, " Electric Meteorology. What is 

 Gas ? How the Theory was worked up. An Appendix, 

 1884." 



In " Science " for February, is an account by 

 Lieut. Greeley of the geographical work of the late 

 Arctic expedition, illustrated by a large map. The 

 discoveries made to the westward of his winter 

 quarters into Grinnell Land and Arthur Land led 

 Lieut. Greeley to the opinion that the western shores 

 of these regions will be found at no great distance. 



The " Annales Industrielles " give an account, 

 says " Science," of the making of cork bricks, now 

 being employed for coating steam-boilers, ice-cellars, 

 &c. The cork is winnowed from impurities, ground 

 in a mill, kneaded up with a suitable cement, and 

 pressed into bricks ; then dried, first in the air, and 

 afterwards by artificial heat. They are not hard, and 

 not liable to decomposition ; they keep out moisture, 

 heat, cold, and sound. 



In its bearing on the question of hereditary trans- 

 mission of peculiarities, the following case, recently 

 reported to the "Lancet" from Bridgewater, is 

 interesting. The abnormal number of six digits 

 occurred in the case of a man, his son, his grandchild, 

 and two grandchildren (not all in linear descent), and 

 in all cases it was the left foot which possessed the 

 extra feature. 



In a paper lately read at a meeting of the Chemical 

 Society, Mr. H. Brereton Baker, F.C.S., described 

 some experiments he had made with reference to 

 the effect of moisture upon combustion. He heated 

 both amorphous phosphorus and carbon in dried 

 oxygen and in oxygen saturated with moisture. In 

 both tubes containing moist gas, combustion took 

 place, but in the dry gas, the phosphorus slowly 

 distilled, forming a red and yellow deposit on the 

 cooler part of the tube, while in the case of the carbon 

 in dry gas, no apparent combustion took place. Dr. 

 Armstrong said he had some time ago come to the 

 conclusion that probably chemical action did not take 

 place between two substances, and that he had even 

 ventured to affirm that some day it would be found 

 that a mixture of pure oxygen with pure hydrogen was 

 not explosive. 



In the Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist, for last month 

 is a description by Mr. C. V. Riley, of a new insect 

 injurious to wheat, to which the name of Isosoma 

 grandis has been given. 



The strict political economists will have in future 

 to make allowance for new motives and new courses 

 of action. It deserves to be placed on record that 

 the workmen in the employ of Messrs. William 

 Cooke & Co., of the Tinsley Iron, Steel and Wire 

 Works recently offered a week's work without wages, 

 which was accepted by their employers. The men, 

 being desirous of assisting their employers in some 

 way during the present depression in trade, and 

 being unable to accept reduced wages, inconsequence 

 of their being controlled by a board in this matter, 

 decided to make this generous offer, one probably 

 without precedent in English trade, and which has 

 naturally attracted considerable notice. 



Sir William Dawson, principal of M'Gill 

 College, Montreal, has been nominated president at 

 the meeting of the British Association at Birmingham 

 next year, 1886. 



